She forced her head up, meeting his gaze. “I won’t disappoint you, Kyriliarch.”

The red eyes glittered unsettlingly. “I know you won’t.”

“I should … prepare.” Maya blinked away tears, determined not to show weakness. She couldn’t look at Jaedia. “If you’ll excuse me?”

Basel nodded, already looking down at the papers on his desk. Maya turned away and swallowed hard.

“Maya—” Jaedia said.

Maya hurried out before she could finish. She managed to keep her composure until she turned the first corner, wiping furiously at her eyes.

*

Jaedia found her on a balcony, chin in her hands, looking out across the lake at the distant spires of Skyreach. Mist rising from the water made the city look unreal, shimmering like a mirage. Maya sat on a stone bench between great round planters, listening to the leaves of the potted trees swaying overhead and trying not to think.

“There you are,” Jaedia said. Maya didn’t look up.

Her mentor came and sat beside her in silence. The midday sun caught the angled glass of Skyreach’s towers, making them gleam like liquid gold. Kilometers-long swathes of reflected light shimmered on the waters of the lake.

“I thought you would be happy,” Jaedia said after a while.

Maya gritted her teeth and said nothing.

“You’ll be on a mission with a group of other trainees, under a senior agathios but with no other supervision. It’s an important step forward.” Jaedia touched her shoulder tentatively. “You said you wanted to get your cognomen—”

“You don’t have to pretend.” Maya shifted away. “The Council is sending you to do something important, and you don’t think I’m strong enough to help, so you’re leaving me behind.”

“Oh,” Jaedia said, and there was a moment of silence. “You heard.”

“I heard,” Maya said bitterly. “I wish you could just be honest with me.”

“It isn’t like that,” Jaedia said gently. “Truly. If I was concerned with keeping you out of danger, would I bring Marn with me?”

“You’re bringing Marn?” Maya looked at her mentor incredulously.

“Marn is going to spend a lot of time stuck in his room reading the Inheritance,” Jaedia said. “And if I could have you with me, Maya, I would. I swear to you.”

Maya blinked away tears and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I. Not completely.” Jaedia took a deep breath. “It’s the Council. They have … strongly suggested that you get this assignment while I’m away.”

“What? Why?”

“Politics,” Jaedia said, as though it were something scatological. “I’ve tried to keep us out of it. But Basel is a Pragmatic, and you and I are associated with him. He says this came from the Dogmatics on the Council.”