Page 18 of Seer Prophet

A little too good.

I found myself reacting to him again, and quickly hid it from my light.

Lowering my head in acknowledgement of Revik’s supposed anger at me for speaking out of turn, I leaned back on the white leather sofa, conceding the floor to the men.

Sometimes these old-school weirdos made it too easy.

The thing is, from a seer perspective, Revik was still really young.

It took me a long time to understand this fully, but older seers had a tendency to underestimate him for that reason alone. They saw him as powerful, sure, but because of his age, they also saw him as lacking judgment, potentially hot-headed, oversexed, inexperienced.

But wewantedthis jackass to see Revik that way.

Young. Easy to manipulate. Maybe a little whipped by his high-status mate.

I found the idea funny, but Balidor, Wreg, Tarsi, and Chinja discussed it pretty seriously around the strategy table before we left.

“Very good, brother.” Dulgar bowed to him subtly. “I surely did not mean to cause offense, by implying otherwise. Or to cause any tension between you and your obviously sharp-witted mate. We are unaccustomed to dealing with intermediaries here.”

That oily smile slid back onto his round face.

“…I merely wish things to be clear, so there are no misunderstandings in terms of any agreements discussed.”

I gave Revik a faintly worried look, as if I feared I’d angered him.

Revik returned my look with a faint scowl.

A flicker of embarrassment remained barely visible in his light as Revik’s gaze slid back to Dulgar, but nothing at all showed on his face. I watched his fingers as he made a dismissive gesture with one hand. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I wouldn’t have seen his glance towards the bar, a subtle tell that he was looking for any witnesses to the exchange.

I knew he’d done that on purpose, too.

He was feigning embarrassment even as he feigned trying to hide that embarrassment even as he feigned pretending to look for witnesses to that embarrassment in eavesdropping strangers around the bar.

All of this was meant to imply his supposed humiliation by wife.

Did I mention he’s really good at this?

Revik made a more accommodating gesture with one hand.

It contained the tiniest bit of bluster?again, barely noticeable, but I caught the faint flicker in his light and fought another smile. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was giving a subtle impression of a younger person trying to assert his equality in a negotiation where he feared he was out of his depth.

From the faint impressions I pulled from Dulgar’s light, this idiot fell for it.

Well, unless he was a lot smarter than he seemed.

I couldn’t rule that out entirely.

“I would like to hear from you what you think this alliance can do for the Legion of Fire, brother Dulgar.” Revik’s voice turned gruff, a faint irritation still visible in his light. “Beyond simply the opportunity to spend time with my mate.”

Dulgar smiled. He made an equally polite gesture in return.

“Of course, brother,” he said, bowing.

For the first time, a serious expression touched his round-cheeked face.

“I have no reason to be anything but transparent with you in this regard, so I will be blunt.” Dulgar leaned back in the white leather seat. “We have concerns about this being, Shadow. I know you know who I mean, so I will not beleaguer the point, but to be certain there are no more misunderstandings between us, Iwillbe unambiguous. I refer to the aged seer who appears to be running many of the human refugee cities set up prior to the dispersal of C2-77. That same being has built quite elaborate alliances with the remaining humans in power. He also claims some religious status of his own… in addition to claiming to be the teacher of the famedSyrimne d’ Gaos, our leader during the first holy war.”

Revik made a graceful gesture with one hand. “Go on. There is no ambiguity here.”

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