Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Seventy Three: News

Grace's breath was warm against her neck. Her sleep was one of deep exhaustion; she had spent the past three days helping with the crisis at the Kelian temple, out from before dawn and returning with Nika as night fell. Nova envied her oblivion as she stared at the ceiling for the fourth night in a row, sleep evading her despite her best efforts. She would have given a lot to go with her during the day, to be of some use and perhaps get tired enough to fall asleep for once. But Grace could blend with a crowd; Nova couldn't.

And so here she was.

When she had first been brought to the inn, she had felt her first sparks of excitement in a very long time. She soon found out that one place was much like another, one room as tiring as any, when one was stuck in it all the time. Her enslavement followed her even when she was out from under Harkenn's eye; she was doomed to be trapped in whatever enclosed space she found herself in.

Grace shifted and mumbled in her sleep, letting up a waft of warm air that smelled of her. Nova calmed a little. No, it wasn't charitable to say it was exactly the same.

She looked down at Grace's sleeping face, then sighed and reluctantly extracted herself. The boards were cold under her bare feet, the gaps beneath the floor exuding cold air from outside. She shivered, wishing she was still under the warmth of the blanket, but her bladder didn't care about how cold it was. She padded to the door and out into the hall, passing other occupied rooms in silence. Her presence here meant that the innkeeper had not allowed overnight guests for the past few nights, but the man didn't seem to mind. He offered her welcome food and less-welcome conversation in the hours she was stuck in the inn alone, and his daughter was always bright and helpful. Nova could see why Haverford liked her, but could also see that the arrangement was not as serious as it could have been. She'd even gathered enough curiosity to ask Laurel about it, on one particularly boring afternoon.

"He's Unspoken," the woman had replied, shrugging as she folded laundry. "I haven't expected anything more from him for a long time. Yes, I took a shine to him when he first arrived." She had smiled softly. "He was so sweet, and actually very good-looking, though he didn't seem the slightest bit aware of it. But I don't think he has space in his life for a relationship. I've made my peace with it."

"You don't just want to look for someone more committed?" Nova had asked in return. It had felt somewhat uncharitable to Jordan, considering what he was dealing with, but her curiosity ran ahead of her.

"Not currently," Laurel had said. "But I don't think I have a future with Thorne, if that's what you mean. Not in that sense, anyway. He's...changed. He's harder now than he was, and...haunted, I think, by something. Some Unspoken turn out like that, struggle to adjust and change in the process of doing so out of necessity. Nika said that to me not too long ago, when I asked him about it. He also said it was incredibly rare for Unspoken to settle with anyone, and when they do it's normally with another of the Gifted. It makes sense, I suppose." She'd sighed and smiled. "But we'll always be friends. And I'm still fond of him. So while this arrangement gives him comfort and I still enjoy myself, I see no reason to end it on principle."

Nova wasn't certain she'd have felt the same way in the same situation, but her experience of romance had been very different. One had ended in betrayal and failure, the other... Her cheeks warmed even now to think of it. She had never thought she'd find anyone like Grace. Her royal status had kept most others her age at an unbreachable distance, and a political marriage was the best she could have hoped for anyway. She hadn't expected to find love at all, and though her people did not worry about the sex of any person one mated with, it wasn't very typical for nobility to settle within a same-sex relationship – if only to have children that carried the bloodline. Nova had seen all sorts of ways used to get around that issue, from consorts to polyamorous marriages, but she'd never engaged with it. Full commitment to another woman had not featured in her childhood imaginings of her future. Now she could not picture a future she wanted that didn't have Grace in it, could not imagine ever being prepared to share that with anyone else.