“Follow me,” is all she says in a quiet and gentle voice before turning back toward the manor. I look at Silene and Fionn, then shrug. We follow her into the decrepit building and up two flights of stairs. She stops in front of a door. “Krantz told me to bring you here when you arrived. He’s away, but you’re to wait in his office until he’s back. It will probably be half an hour.” With that, she opens the door and gestures us into a room painted bright white. It’s clearly used frequently, filled with furniture and stacks of papers, and Krantz has tried to make it look less crumbling than the other parts of the manor. As we walk in, she gestures to a couch and two chairs, before leaving and shutting the door behind us. As soon as it’s closed, I use my light magic to search for any light coming into the room from unexpected places. When I determine we’re not being watched, I jump up to examine the massive oak desk that fills half the room.

“What are you doing?” Silene hisses.

“She said it would be half an hour before he’s here. I’m going to snoop through his desk for information,” I tell her, lifting a stack of papers from one corner and flipping through them.

“What if this is another test of loyalty?” she whispers. I shrug.

“I’ll put everything back exactly as I left it. Plus, I scanned the room. There are no peep holes. And if it’s a trap, I’ll just own up to it and tell him I wanted to know what he was up to so I can report back to my father. I’m persuasive.” I give her a confident wink. Silene sighs but resigns herself to my antics as she usually does. Everything on the desk is just correspondence with other rebels, or ledgers of food supplies, so I move on to the drawers. I find a book with what appears to be the name of every rebel who has joined, and while that could be useful, it would surely be missed, so I put it back. At the bottom of the desk is a locked drawer, and I smile. “Fionn, come unlock this drawer for me.” He frowns but does as I ask. Kneeling down on the ground next to me, he closes his eyes and concentrates. I hear a click, and the metal locking mechanism has popped open. “Thanks,” I tell him with a cocky grin before sliding open the drawer.

It’s more organized than any other drawer, with folders containing documents, each one labeled with the subject of its contents. Mostly letters, though these are more sensitive in nature. There’s a missive from a potential secondary leader in Echosa, detailing their recruiting efforts. There are also ledgers of thayar supplies. I hand that to Silene.