Page 21 of A Fae in Finance
“How do you come up with these nicknames?” I stared at my plate. There was a bowl of porridge with golden berries on top, two pieces of toast spread with blue jam, and a glass of almost-orange juice.
“What is a Nick-name?” The Gray Knight rolled her shoulders back, like she was preparing for a fight. “Is it like a true name?”
“What you call me.” I put a hand on Doctor Kitten to stop him from squirming. “Lady of the True Dreams or whatever.”
“A title?” The Gray Knight finished her last bite of toast and pushed her plate toward the center of the table. Doctor Kitten stretched out to lick her plate clean. I snatched him back before he could make contact; I had no idea if cats could get stuck in Faerie, but I wasn’t planning on finding out.
“This is unhygienic,” she added, eyeing him dolefully. He’d borne my intervention with bad grace and now stretched out on his side across the table.
“We’re in a giant dirt building,” I muttered. “And Doctor Kitten is clean.”
“The cat is not a doctor, I do not think,” Sahir said. “A name that is a lie.”
“Well, he’s got his PhD,” I started, “only I’m his supervisor and I’ll never put him up for tenure. You could call him Adjunct Professor Kitten if that’s better.”
Both of them stared at me, eyes silver and brown.
“Is this a—” the Gray Knight started, and stopped. She put her chin on her hand and stared at me, like I was some sort of specimen. “Is this a riddle?”
“It’s a commentary on the state of academia,” I said, twirling my ring around my finger.
Sahir dropped his spoon onto his tray with a clatter and turned his entire torso to glare at me. “You have given your cat a name that is a commentary?”
“Well, aren’t all of your names commentary?” I stuck my spoon into the porridge-type thing.
“Our names aretruth,” he growled. “Names are truth. Your cat’s name is a lie.”
He was, I felt, unjustified in his irritation.
“What’s the endgame with keeping me here?” I spooned porridge into my mouth. My eyes rolled back in my head. The berries were sweet and juicy, with enough of a bite to balance the smooth creaminess of the oats. I took another bite—blissful. It was so hard to stay annoyed when this was probably the best breakfast I’d ever eaten in my life.
“What is a game at the end?” The Gray Knight looked nonplussed.
“You know, what will my being here accomplish?”
“Do not ask questions we will not answer,” the Gray Knight said, already sounding tired.
I looked to Sahir, who had scarfed down his entire breakfast. He still wouldn’t make eye contact with me. “I am going to work,” he announced. “The Gray Knight will take you to your room before your morning meeting.” He’d clearly decided to foist me off as soon as possible.
“It’s at nine a.m.,” I said automatically.
Sahir stalked out of the dining hall, shoulders tense as he slammed the door open. It swung quietly shut behind him.
“Oh, so it’s on double-sided hinges,” I said.
The Gray Knight frowned at me. “You are quite calm,” she said. “I anticipated more… shrieking.”
“My dad says I’m good in a crisis,” I said. “But I’m shrieking on the inside, I promise.” I sounded cheerful to my own ears. “Anyway, why can I call himSahirbut I have to call you the Gray Knight?”
“I am in the Princeling’s retinue,” she said. “And as Sahir said, names are truths. I am the Princeling’s Gray Knight.”
She stood up and nodded at me, indicating that breakfast was over. I hooked Doctor Kitten around the middle and followed her into the hallway.
“So do you change colors? Could you be his Blue Knight if he wanted?”
Unwilling to divulge the great secrets of her Court, the Gray Knight remained silent. I trailed behind her, shifting Doctor Kitten in my arms so that his slowly extending claws caught on my shirt and not the tender flesh of my upper arm.
Though so far, all of the hallways I’d been down looked the same, I felt fairly sure that the Gray Knight was leading me along a different path than the one I’d walked to get to the cafeteria. I cleverly deduced this when she said, “We have time before your meeting; the Princeling will speak with you now.”
