She and I just stare at each other again. I’m interested in this conversation. I want to keep it going. But at the same time, I want to think about what happened last night. It’s not all clear in my head—probably because I was drunk. But I think I liked it. I think she liked it too.
Finally, she says. “I don’t know which side that is.”
“Don’t you think you should figure that out before you make any big moves?”
“I want to see your Looking Glass.”
I nod my head towards her aunt. “So you can report back to her?”
“Well…” Jasina falters. “That was the original plan. But it doesn’t have to be the only plan. I mean.” She sighs. “What I really want is to make a difference. And I want people to remember that I made this difference. I want to be in the history books.” She shrugs. Like that’s all there is to it. She wants to be famous.
“Why would I tell you anything? Especially about that. I mean, I don’t know what this silly Rebellion is all about, but even I can see the obvious. You don’t like the status quo? Let me guess. You’re one of the down-city girls.”
“Yes and yes.” She leans in. “But you can’t tell me you’re satisfied, either. You killed the woman you loved. For what? For a god who doesn’t exist?”
“How do you know she’s dead?”
“How do you know she’s not?”
“What makes you think the tower god doesn’t exist?”
“What makes you think he does?”
“Because he’s dying. And if he wasn’t real, he wouldn’t be dying.”
“So it’s true.”
“I don’t know. Is it true?”
She sighs and leans back in her chair, nearly slouching. Which is very unbecoming of a Little Sister. “I don’t know either.”
“You want to see the room?”
“Yes.”
“Why should I show it to you? You’ll just feed all my hard-earned information to your spinster aunt over there.”
“What if I didn’t?”
“Come on, Jasina. Why wouldn’t you? This whole conversation is just a ploy, isn’t it?”
“A ploy?”
“Yeah. So I’ll give you information. You came to my quarters, in the night, of course. And wearing that see-through nightgown, of course, of course. So I would…” I smirk and shrug up one shoulder.
She fills in the blank with a straight face. “So you would… what? Finger me and get me off?”
“Wow.”
“What? I thought you liked the dirty talk? You were certainly candid last night.”
“I thought you were Clara.”
“You did not. Youwished, maybe.” Jasina tips her chin up. “But you knew I wasn’t Clara and you didn’t care.”
“So?”
“So I told you something real. I told you pretty much everything I know, actually.”
