“Oh, it was the least I could do after all you’ve done to help me. And please, call me Sunaya,” I added with a smile. “Anyway, I was hoping you had some news for me?”

“Of course. Please come back to my office, ah, Sunaya.” She cleared her throat. “You may also use my first name, if you like.”

She led us between the shelves and to the back, to her administrative office. It was a comfortable space, with powder-blue curtains, cityscape paintings hanging from the walls, and, of course, book-laden shelves. The shelves were made of birch wood, as were her desk and chairs. She gestured for me to have a seat.

“Are you certain you wish to have your guard present?” Janta said as she pulled a file from one of her desk drawers. “This is a private matter, after all.”

“I can wait outside,” Rylan said, bowing to us both. “So long as I can trust you with Miss Baine’s life.”

“You can,” Janta said, smiling. “We will only be a half hour or so.”

Rylan disappeared back into the library, shutting the door behind him. I wondered if he would tune out our conversation, or if he would listen in beyond the wall—his shifter hearing would be able to pick up our conversation easily. If I knew him, he would listen in. It didn’t matter either way—we were family, and I trusted him not to use this information to hurt me.

“So,” I said, settling back into my chair, “what have you found out?”

Janta opened the file in front of her, revealing a photograph of Coman ar’Daghir, the dark-haired Legal Secretary from Rhodea who shared my hair and eye coloring, and who I’d suspected was related to me in some way.

“I started by tracing back the lineage of your friend here,” she said, tapping the facsimile of Coman’s slightly hooked nose. “His dark hair and green eyes, which you share, come from his mother’s side of the family, which is far more distinguished than the ar’Darghirs. Something of a misalliance, in fact. His mother is a scion of the noble ar’Rhea family in Castalis.”

“I see.” Excitement shot through me at the mention of an actual name—we were getting somewhere! Castalis, I dimly remembered from school, was a peninsula at the southwestern edge of the Central Continent. “So this family is well known?” If they were, it might explain why Iannis had suspected my lineage from the get-go.

“Very,” Janta confirmed. “They are particularly notable for their green eyes, strong magic, and the fact that their lineage boasts a direct descent from the First Mage, Resinah.”

“Wow.” My eyes widened. “Does that make them more noble than other families? I have to admit I don’t really understand how classes amongst the mages work.”