Page 67 of Acedia

Better yet, I’d keep the source.

We successfully toured much of the palace before my brother rudely summoned me to report back on how the meeting had gone. Iris assured me that she wanted to visit Meera after their awkward conversation yesterday, and we parted ways for—at most—an hour before dinner.

It really seemed like a wholly unreasonable amount of time to be apart, though, perhaps the worst part was that I doubted Iris had really noticed my absence.

In any other romantic endeavor, it would have been an absolute deal breaker that I liked them more than they liked me. My ego wouldn’t be able to take the blow.

I found I didn’t mind following Iris around like a lovesick fool, though. She never made me feel bad about it.

“Damen,” Ruvyn called, slipping through the crowd to catch up with me in the entry hall as I filed in for dinner with the rest of the court. “You’re not going to dine at the high table tonight?”

No, my future wife isn’t sitting up there yet.

“Not tonight. We have a special guest from the human realm joining us. Usually, she’d sit up at the top table, but I suspect Harlow would find that to be a miserable experience. Why don’t you come and sit with me and the ex-Hunters?” I asked. “I wasn’t expecting to see you back at the palace so soon.”

“We did say the next time we saw each other would be when you visited me,” Ruvyn remarked dryly. “But we both know that will never happen.”

A feeling I wasn’t accustomed to settled into my gut. It might have been guilt.

“I’ll visit,” I promised, wondering if Iris would like to join me. If it was anywhere else, I assume she’d want to just for the experience, but I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about the silence at The Itrodaris. Sound meant even more to her than it meant to others.

“It’s okay,” he replied easily. “There’s no rush. In all honesty, I came back here purely for my own curiosity. I want to spend more time with the ex-Hunters. My recent findings about them have been… intriguing, to say the least.”

“Have they? Perhaps you should present them at court. We’ve got the bones of a plan in place now for relations between the shadow realm and the human realm going forward. It might be a good time to understand a little better what that relationship was in the past.”

“Present my findings?” Ruvyn asked, surprised. “No one has ever asked me to do that before. Not at court, at least. Usually we all just present our findings to each other at The Itrodaris.”

“Is it something you’re interested in?”

“Well, yes. Of course—it would be an honor.”

“I’ll see what I can arrange then,” I replied absently, mulling over some options.

“You will?” Ruvyn asked.

I glanced at him. “The doubt in your voice is incredibly bad for my ego.”

“It’s just not really your thing, you know. Arranging stuff. Especially unprompted.”

I opened my mouth to object but closed it again, realizing I couldn’t.

“It’s nice,” Ruvyn commented. “You’re really coming into your own, Damen.”

Why, yes. Yes, I was.

Iris was already seated with Meera, and I gestured for Ruvyn to follow me over to their table. Harlow was sitting on Meera’s other side, and Ruvyn and I took the bench opposite next to Tallulah and Evrin while Meera whispered in Iris’s ear.

“Hi, Damen,” Iris said immediately, smiling in my direction.

“Hi, Iris,” I replied softly, pressing my leg against hers under the table. She immediately moved her other leg in close, intertwining them. “My friend, Ruvyn, is here. He’s visiting from The Itrodaris—that education institute I was telling you about. Ruvyn, this is Iris, Meera, Tallulah, and Harlow. You’ve probably encountered Evrin in the in-between, no? Harlow here is our human-realm guest.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said gruffly. I’d forgotten how uncomfortable he was when talking to others. Ruvyn was great company, but he took a while to warm up.

“Where’s Verner?” I asked Meera, glancing around the room.

“He’s gone to Lindow to try and convince Theon and Verity to join us for dinner. Judging by how long he’s been gone, I’m guessing Theon is hesitant to come along.”

I frowned. “That was an entirely unreasonable mission to send Verner on. I should have gone—I’m excellent at cajoling Theon into pretending he doesn’t actively despise everyone.”

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