The Hathway Kingdom (Book 2)

Fifteen.

~Fifteen. ~

The following day, Larissa sat at her desk with Lizbeth beside her on her left, Professor Strickland standing on her right and both Elissa and Silvia standing behind them. Tristan and Tobias stood just outside the doors, keeping an eye on things as Larissa interviewed each of the people on her list. After Lizbeth had left the night before, Larissa had come up with a way to eliminate some of the people on the list who would not work on her council.

"If you had been in my position..., What would you have done when you found out what Isidore Wade had done?"

Each person she had asked had, for the most part, given a generic answer. By now, what Isidore had done to her as well as how it had been him who had killed her uncle, had spread throughout the kingdom as well as how she had handled the situation. She didn't know how it had spread, but she didn't care either. She just wanted to know what they would have done differently. So far, out of the twenty people she had interviewed, twelve of them had given her answers she hadn't expected.

"So far, Larissa, out of the ones who gave a different answer to the generic ones everyone else gave, was Lord Zhao. And from what you, General Grey, and the Professor have told me...He was one of the few who defended Captain Nomvera," Lizbeth said as she looked at what the Professor had written down in the file that had been put together about each of the lords and ladies that Larissa had interviewed.

"I agree. He had also been the only one to say that there was truly little he would have done different to Your Majesty," Professor Strickland said as he read the file over Lizbeth's shoulder, and she nodded her head.

"Mhm. Which is hard for someone in Lord Zhao's position to do. He is the head of the Zhao Lordship. He has to think carefully about what choices he makes..." Lizbeth said before she frowned and looked back at the Professor.

"Is this all the information that you could gather, Professor?" she asked him, and he nodded his head, leaning back to stand up straight once more as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"It is. Though it is a combination of my own information, General Grey's and what was already in his file," Professor Strickland replied as he gestured towards Tristan at the door. Both Lizbeth and Larissa looked up at him, Lizbeth from the file and Larissa from where she had been staring at the top of her desk in front of her and Tristan nodded his head. Larissa scoffed before she rested her head on her hand and her elbow on the arm of her chair, closing her eyes as she listened to the others speaking.

"It's the same with the other files as well, my lady. Everything that is in them is what we have gathered and what was there before," Tristan explained as he bowed to Lisbeth from the door, who grumbled under her breath and continued to read the files.

They continued to discuss the interviews well into the evening and Larissa had remained silent the entire time. When they others asked for her opinion on one person or the other, she didn't give any. She only remained silent and looked as if she had fallen asked. She hadn't. She was, in fact, forming her council in her mind as they spoke, having made her own decisions about the people she was choosing from what they had been saying.

"Larissa? Larissa?"

"Hmm?" she asked as she opened her eyes and looked up at Lizbeth as she waved her hand in front of Larissa's face.

"We've been calling you for ten minutes," Lizbeth said, and Larissa sat up again before she looked down at the list in front of her.

"We were asking what your thoughts were on this," Professor Strickland said before he blinked as Larissa picked up her quill and began writing on a piece of paper in front of her.