Page 135 of Elven Shadow

The katari laughed and bumped him with her shoulder. “Oryoujust need to stay on your toes.”

Diego and Titus cracked up laughing, which made Nyx’s already pale-purple cheeks blush a deep violet.

Acting like it didn’t affect her, though, the katari settled her gaze on Rebecca with a pained smile.

Or maybe Rebecca was just in so much pain right now, that was simply the only thing she could see in anyone else.

“What did I tell you, huh?” Nyx said. “It was pretty much unanimous.”

“Yeah,prettymuch.” Diego snorted and folded his arms before raising an eyebrow at Rebecca. “I’ll give you three guesses whodidn’twant you taking this spot. You probably only need one.”

Rebecca didn’t have any doubts about who that one guess would be—the one Shade member who hadn’t been super gung-ho onboard with voting her in as commander.

He was the only one who’d been glowering at her this whole time, but she couldn’t see their Head of Security anymore, blocked from view as he was by the bodies of her overly excited team crowding around her.

“It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks anymore,” Nyx said cheerfully. “What matters is that you’re in.”

“And would you believe it if we told you everyone’s just fucking giddy about it?” Diego asked.

Again, Rebecca racked her mind for something to say. This was all too much.

Before she could settle on the right words—and how did one actually find the right words for something like this?—another cry rose from the celebrating magicals in a voice she couldn’t place off the bat.

“A kibrál! The new Roth-Da’al needs a kibrál!”

Rebecca couldn’t help the groan escaping her as she tried to gaze across the common room again, but with Titus standing right in front of her, it was hard to see anyone. “Awhat?”

“Oh,yeah.” Nyx’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s another Xaharí tradition. Old-world, obviously. Basically like holding court and giving everyone a chance to express their—”

“I know what it is, Nyx,” Rebecca said a little more tersely than she’d intended. “And that’s not really thekinda thing I—”

“Kibrál!”

Whoever had taken up the cry in response was only the first of many. Soon enough, the entire common room echoed with the call for this stupid kibrál bouncing around within the crowded space.

Like the word was mocking her.

Like this entire building was mocking her.

No, she did not want to “hold court”, as Nyx had put it. The katari couldn’t possibly have known how many times Rebecca had already held her own version of a kibrál in her long life. No one could have known.

And Rebecca wasn’t strong enough to argue against this new addition to her task list, either.

“That’s an excellent idea, yes. Excellent.” The healer stepped out from behind Rebecca to make her presence known.

As soon as she appeared, Leonard and Diego both stepped back to put more distance between themselves and the old daraku.

Leonard shuddered.

When Zida raised both crooked hands in the air, her bid for silence was instantly obeyed. The entire common room settled down into another expectant silence.

Impressive, really.

Maybe they should have made the healer their new commander instead.

Not fucking likely.

“All right, listen up!” Zida shouted. “I get it. Everybody’s ready to do something here to really get things moving, right?”

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