Page 115 of Cast in Conflict

“She needed help, though,” Serralyn said. Serralyn, who was in the Academia with Valliant.

“If she can’t pass the Tower’s test, that’s to our benefit.” To Kaylin’s surprise, it was Torrisant who spoke.

“It’s only to our benefit if any of us can pass the test.” Mandoran again. Kaylin wondered, then, why she’d come here at all, but the marks continued to glow, the blue depths of their heart giving way to gold.

“What did you do with Severn?”

“What you should have done in the first place,” Terrano replied, although he didn’t look away from Sedarias. “He’s safe with Helen. Probably eating too, given the way she was fussing. You can’t just drag him into everything—he’s not suited to it.”

“I didn’t realize we were about to enter someplace dangerous. It’s Helen.”

“Well, now you know.”

“I’m kind of hoping this never happens again.”

“And I was kind of hoping that Allasarre was dead, buried and forgotten. We don’t always get what we want.”

“We can get that,” Sedarias snapped. Her eyes, still opal-like, were flashing, her translucent hands becoming fists. She was shaking, and the shaking seemed to make her body far less solid, less well-defined.

Terrano cursed. “Hold on,” he told Kaylin. “It’s about to get bumpy again.”

“Hold on to what?”

“Yourself.”

She understood the moment Sedarias began to speak; she could hear the syllables of a language that was both unknown and viscerally familiar.

Gods, she thought, does Sedarias always do this?

“She is speaking the names, dear. She hasn’t tried to use them yet. Even if she did, I wouldn’t allow the attempt to go uncontested.”

“Meaning you don’t think you could stop her.”

“Not permanently, no. But she means to be heard; she is shouting their names to get their attention.”

“She’s shouting them where anyone can hear them?”

“No, dear. I have always heard them. The only difference is that she’s shouting them where you can hear them. I’d suggest you cover your ears, but that’s not the way you’re hearing them. And that’s not what I think you should be doing, regardless.”

“What should I be doing?”

“Speaking to Sedarias.”

Kaylin was dubious.

“Don’t be, dear. Does her interest in the Tower threaten you?”

“No.”

“Does it make her your enemy?”

“No.”

“Bellusdeo’s enemy?”

“Maybe—at the outside—her rival, but enemy? No. Bellusdeo wouldn’t kill for the Tower. Well, she might try to kill the Avatar of the Tower, but no one else.”

“Yes. Speak to Sedarias.”

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