Matthias was shaking his head slowly. “I never thought she would go so far as to actually physically attack the Triumvirate. Whatever scheme she has been stewing on for years, it seems the time is finally ripe to act. I fear for what that means for my country. It is bad enough, this threat from Kaolin. It is worse if we tear ourselves apart from the inside.” He placed a hand on Agnes’s shoulder. “I am grateful I got the chance to meet you.”

“Me too,” Agnes said, her throat tight.

“She’ll be taking your brother and your friend to Culinnon,” Matthias said. “That is where you must go. Leave at dawn; that’s usually when the docks are quietest. Misarros are patrolling the waters heavily.”

“What are you going to advise the Lekke to do?” Agnes asked.

“That is a very good question. But one you need not concern yourself with. I wish I could offer you better advice—in truth, I would tell you to avoid my mother altogether. But I know you cannot do that. I see Alethea’s stubbornness in you. She would not abandon a friend she had promised to help.”

Her mother would have done what she was doing. Her mother would have approved. Agnes looked around at the shelves and balconies towering above her. There was no way she could sit her interview now. She would have to give up this dream, to help Sera and get back to her brother.

Matthias seemed to read her thoughts. “You are thinking about your acceptance to this university,” he said.

Agnes shrugged and hoped she looked nonchalant. “It’s all right. Maybe I can apply again next year.”

“There is no interview, Agnes. It was all a formality. My mother used it in hopes of getting you to Pelago. You have already been accepted to the Academy of Sciences—she decreed it since the day you sent in your application. But she hopes that once she gets you to Culinnon, you won’t want to leave.”

Agnes’s head spun and the ground seemed to tilt beneath her. “Are you saying . . . I didn’t . . . qualify?”

Matthias gave her a sympathetic smile. “I read your essay—I promise you, Agnes, you are eminently qualified. My mother just doesn’t think Byrnes need to follow the rules like everyone else.”

Hot tears filled her eyes but she didn’t want to cry, not yet, not here. They had a job to do, a purpose, a mission. Her grandmother buying her way into the university shouldn’t matter right now. And yet somehow it did.

“We have to go,” she said. “We have to get to Leo and Sera.”

Vada put a gentle hand on her shoulder but Agnes shrugged it off. She didn’t want comfort right now. She didn’t know what she wanted.