Old Flame︱Brennan Sorrengail

mediator

I LET MYSELF DEBATE IT FOR THREE MINUTES. Go. Stay. Go. Stay.

I was surprised I lasted that long. Letting Brennan leave didn't work out so well last time.

And I didn't want to ever sit around waiting for him to come home ever again.

Once I passed door after door, I made it to the main hall of this fortress. Because it was. A fucking fort so gigantic I wasn't sure how anyone knew their way around. Honestly, if I stepped outside, I wouldn't be surprised to see the sun just a yard away.

Though, the best thing here—I'd since learned here was Aretia—had to be the dewy stones. They saved this place from that awful event three years ago. And, according to Violet's books, they saved Riorson House from three sieges, too.

Gods, Aretia just wouldn't give up. Even now, though it's reduced to a small town, it hasn't burned down. It hasn't fallen. It's still going.

Oh, to be like Aretia.

Morning light blinded my eyes as I passed two guards. They stared me down as I passed, surprised. I hadn't done anything wrong, but fuck, I felt like a prisoner. I felt stuck. Hopeless. Confused. Scared.

Essentially, every negative emotion you could conjure, I was experiencing right now.

Voices echoed through the air as I continued striding down the halls. I followed the sound, stepping up to Violet and Imogen. Bodhi, too.

The pink-haired woman with the now even pinker hair put a finger to her lips, gesturing to the place beside her and Violet. Hesitantly, I stepped beside them, frowning at Xaden's bored voice.

"And what is the obvious thing you need to state, Major Ferris?"

"It's an Assembly meeting," Bodhi whispers to me and Vi. "Only a quorum of five is required to call a vote, since all seven are almost never here at one time, and four votes carry a motion."

I store that information in my mind. Violet must've, too: her face wrinkled in concentration. "Are we allowed to listen?" she asked.

Like that'd stop her.

"Meetings are open to whoever wants to attend," Imogen replied, quietly.

"And we're attending...in the hallway?" I questioned.

"Yes," Imogen answered. No elaboration whatsoever.

Great. So not confusing.

"Returning is the only option," a man with an eyepatch and a hawkish nose said. "Not doing so risks everything we're building here. Search patrols will come, and we don't have enough riders—"

"It's a little hard to recruit while trying to stay undetectable," a tiny woman with shiny black hair pretty enough that I'm sure everyone fell at her feet called, glaring at the older man.

"Let's not get off topic, Trissa," Brennan said, and I stilled. I'm sure it'll take a while for me to process he's alive.

A very, very long while.

"No point increasing our numbers without a working forge to arm them with weapons." Hawk Nose's voice rose above the others. "We're still short a luminary, if you haven't noticed."

"And where are we in negotiations with Viscount Tecarus for his?" a large man asked in a low voice, tugging at his thick beard.

Viscount? I could've sworn there weren't any viscounts in Navarre. Not in our records. Much less one named Tecarus.