Page 16 of The Art of Exiley

“We’re sorry for the repetition,” Dr. Ambrose says to me. He’s a kind physician with salt-and-pepper hair and gold-rimmed glasses. When my mother had grudgingly allowed the Inner Chamber to assess my abilities, he’d been patient and transparent through the whole process. “We know you have been through an ordeal, but we must make sure we have all the proper facts for the sake of our research and for your safety. If we decide to send you to study at this institute, we need the whole picture.”

The Inner Chamber is split on whether I should be sent to infiltrate Genesis. Most of them are in favor of it, but there are a few who don’t trust me to pull it off.

“Not to mention that your story doesn’t add up,” the loudest in the Ada-can’t-be-trusted contingent interjects.

Alfie Avellino: son of Counselor Avellino and the most annoying person in my acquaintance.

“You still haven’t answered why you didn’t follow the protocol when you first encountered the exile.” He glares at me accusingly as he pats down a strand of his perfectly parted hair—a shade of brown just light enough that he’ll try to tell you it’s blond.

Alfie liked me fine when we first met a few years ago. In fact, he worked hard to ingratiate himself with me to get closer to Kor, but the moment he realized I wasn’t going to be initiated into the Families, I slid below his notice like runoff into the sewer.

“She couldn’t follow the protocol because she waskidnapped.” Kor comes to my defense. It’s clear that Alfie has more to say on the matter, but he won’ttalk back to Kor. He will, however, straighten his ugly paisley tie and scowl down his nose at me, trying his best to make me feel like I don’t deserve to be here.

He doesn’t have to work very hard. I’m already pretty sure I don’t belong.

Nothing can make me feel quite as hazy with inferiority as being surrounded by these people who have shaped their lives around the values of the exiles by actively improving the world through innovation and art. The abilities that earned me my initiation might mean I need fewer Band-Aids than the average person, and sure, I’m good with plants, but no one’s looking for a ficus at the Met. Everyone else at this table gained their seats by pushing themselves to be masters of a modern Renaissance.

Okay, maybe not Alfie. I’m pretty sure he just earned his seat through generations of nepotism and his family’s deep pockets. But even he went through years of training after being initiated. Whereas I was never even good enough to be considered until the Families needed to use my abilities as bait. Whatever, at least I have abilities. It’s not like Alfie’s bringing anything new to the table, besides his seemingly endless collection of hideous ties.

If he deserves to be here, so do you,I remind myself as I try to muster up the confidence of a mediocre trust fund white boy.

“Not only did Ada succeed beyond our wildest expectations in Italy,” Kor says, “she did so despite having incorrect information about the mark.” Whenever Kor speaks, everyone listens with rapt attention. The French minister of culture is making doe eyes at him and twirling her hair around her finger. Even my mother—whose eyes always seem to shift away from me when I speak up—is listening intently to Kor.

Kor has transformed the Families in recent years.

The order’s influence had been steadily growing over the centuries as they reintroduced some of the exiles’ lost innovations––derived from the order’s extensive archives and from centuries of hunting down relics––back intosociety. They’ve funded a lot of research based on their knowledge, which has contributed to everything from health care to agriculture to clean energy. But most of that was based on ancient knowledge. Now, because of Kor, the Families have a path to the exiles’ actual living descendants and whatever far-more-advanced innovations they may have since developed. And it’s all because Kor made contact with Prometheus, the anonymous informant from among the exiles who provided the information about how and where they would be recruiting. Between Kor’s success with Prometheus and the influence that’s come with his recent fame and public advocacy, the entire Inner Chamber is basically as obsessed with Kor as the teens who run his online fan clubs.

“Ada has the perfect cover, a direct invitation, and has already proven herself to us,” Kor continues. “Having her infiltrate the institute is the best course of action.” He sounds so sure of this plan. So sure of me. I, on the other hand, am the farthest thing from sure.

“She has no training,” Alfie argues. And he’s not wrong.

“What of our training would have better prepared her for this?” Kor challenges. “The tutoring in Aramaic and Latin? The art restoration and document preservation techniques?”

“She’s an immature and undisciplined teenager, and she could put us all in danger if she blows her cover.”

I do so love being discussed as if I’m not in the room. If Izzy were here, she’d tell me to assert my femininity and not let myself be talked over.

Speaking of which, where is Izzy? I’ve been expecting her to show up. Her older brother, Roman, is already here, sitting quietly at the other end of the table.

Izzy King is my other best friend. She’s half Korean, an avid gamer, and one of the cleverest people I know. Growing up, she was the only girl around my age from the New York branch of the Families, so we were alwaystogether. I was really hoping to see her before she goes back to Massachusetts at the end of winter break.

“Ada won’t have trouble with her cover,” Kor assures the room. “She’ll need to blend into a school where they already expect her to be an outsider. If anything, her being an average teenager will make her cover stronger.”Average teenager. Ouch, Kor. “Regardless of everything else, she was abducted because of her abilities. For that reason alone, we should send her to Genesis, where they can keep her safe.”

“I agree,” Dr. Ambrose says.

“So do I,” my mother says, speaking for the first time this whole meeting. She has otherwise been perfectly content to let all the other people in the room plan my life out for me. And how does her makeup and blond bun look so fresh? It seems impossible that she’s been stuck in this room for as many hours as my sweaty, frizzy, haggard self. Everyone here has probably forgotten we’re even related.

Sometimes I wonder if that’s what she wants, for them to forget. Maybe I’m an embarrassment for only getting initiated into the order on a technicality, for not having any of the accolades her friends get to brag about their talented kids having.

As I mope, the argument that I should go to Genesis as a matter of safety seems to be winning over most of the table.

“We will have to consult the Grand Master,” Councilor Avellino says, with the snobbery of knowing he’s one of the only people in the room with the security clearance to speak directly with the head of the Families.

As I let the Chamber continue their decision making about my future without bothering to ask my opinion on the matter, I lean over to Kor and whisper, “Where’s Izzy?”

“She’s not coming,” he whispers back. “I’ll explain later.” His eyes hold a sadness that makes my rib cage tighten with alarm.

Right before I left for Italy, Izzy had texted me that she didn’t think I should go, though she didn’t tell me why. When she didn’t respond to any of my messages while I was gone, I figured it was just because of the time difference, or that she was being pissy that I was missing our annual winter break snowboarding trip. Now I worry her silence was due to something more significant.

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