Standing, I took the arrow and strode toward the door. “Get some rest.” Before I left, I looked over my shoulder. “There’s Mystique ink and parchment in the nightstand.”
The seeingchamber was a maze of construction and chunks of rubble that, truthfully, I’d been avoiding as much as possible. Only a select few of Harlen’s and Cyren’s crew were allowed access, so at least when I crossed into the space and the press of my readings shrouded my mind, I didn’t have to feign stability for too many people.
Harlen spotted me almost immediately. Jogging away from the forge and over to me, he pressed a hand to my back and led me to the shadows of one of the pillars. Its opalescent sheen glimmered in the flickering fire of the forge—a sure abundance of resins and minerals within—but we couldn’t knock down the pillars without sacrificing the structural integrity of the room. We were proceeding very cautiously as it was.
I pressed a hand to the column, blinking away the insistent readings.
“Feeling okay?” Harlen asked once I steadied myself.
I nodded. “They’re very loud in here.”
“All nine of them,” Harlen said, huffing a laugh. “I still can’t believe that.” I raised my brows at him, and he shook his head in a panic. Harlen was so afraid of my anger ever since he’d sold Cypherion and me out to Titus—which was a fear rightfully earned—but he’d also helped rescue me and kept me company during those nightmarish weeks. The slate was clean in my mind.
That didn’t mean I didn’t love teasing him as if we were still those little kids whose only solace in a horrifying reality was each other.
“I know you can’t fathom me being more powerful than you. You always did have to be the loudest.”
He snorted. “I was loud because I needed attention.” A deep want for approval and protection that led him to the temple in the first place.
“You could have had some of mine,” I offered. “I always wanted quiet.”
“I can imagine that’s hard to come by with the Fates.”
I sighed. “You’d be right.”
Harlen nodded grimly, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “I knew you were powerful. I thought two—maybe three.Nine?” He shook his head. “And I thought I knew you so well.”
He meant it jokingly, but an old sting raced through me. As a girl, I’d wanted to be known, but I was always trapped within these walls.
Before I could get too caught in my own web of emotion, Cyren joined us. “Is that from Jezebel?”
I followed their gaze down to the arrow in my hand. “Oh, yes. The healers confirmed they no longer need it. It’s yours for inspection.”
The general lifted the arrow just as a Starsearcher in dark leathers prepared for construction approached Harlen. “Interim Chancellor?”
Harlen grimaced but turned to the man with a smile. “Yes?”
“We’d like to run the demolition plan of the east wall by you when you have a moment.”
“I’ll be right there,” Harlen answered. When the man bowed and walked off to join the two others in charge of the project,Harlen muttered to Cyren and me, “I don’t think I’ll ever adjust to that title.”
“Not looking to make it long term?” I teased. “Chancellor Harlen not quite the ring you’re looking for?”
“Not me,” Harlen said, shaking his head as he backed away. “I think I’ll do something else with my life. I was only ever an apprentice for one reason after all.”
To find me. That thought sat heavily on my chest as his steps faded across the room into the commotion of pickaxes and the forge’s hammer.
I turned back to Cyren, nodding at the arrow. “Any ideas what it’s made of?”
“Upon first instinct, I’d say it’s lined with some kind of very thin onyx, but I can’t be certain just by looking at it. It may have been imbued with something rather than crafted from it.”
My gaze slipped to the hammer against steel, the blacksmith’s expert hand crafting blade after blade with minerals and resins. Fates pressed against my mind, stretching out to the precious materials and sanctified power running through the stone.
I shook them away, forcing a smile for Cyren. “Let me know what you discover.”
With a sharp nod, the general strode away, their movements crisp in their leathers. I held the hem of my skirt off the dusty floor. Next time I should dress more?—
Fatecatcher.
