Every year, hundreds die within the walls of Basgiath War College. It's no surprise that many are those who choose the Riders Quadrant. Dragons do not tolerate much, but neither do the ruthless gryphons on the outside of the wards.
At least...
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Jesinia doesn't know about a sublevel vault, either. We read while she hunts for any information about it, sitting in my pleasantly warded room. Like Tairn had said, with five people reading through tomes, I have a lot more time to work on sewing, so that's exactly what I do. Violet immediately recognizes Mira's techniques of keeping the scales on a vest.
There is one thing I hadn't account for, though: they know what questions to ask now. Grandpa used to always say questions were the death of secrets. And, like Violet had said in Luceras, I still have plenty of those.
Friday evening, our squad is bagged and kidnapped for yet another Land Nav course. Despite being fully aware of how they try to confuse us, we end up out in the forest for the entire weekend, suspiciously dodging the landmark we were looking for multiple times. Or maybe it wasn't—I was too focused on keeping us fed and staying the hell away from Barlowe to bother with directions.
On Wednesday of the next week, Sawyer finds a passage directly confirming the existence of multiple wardstones. In particular, it mentions four, but says two are "more than lost". None of us know it means. The next day, I finish my armor plates, somehow still managing to dodge Violet's question of who the brown scales belong to. Then Jesinia finds it. To avoid suspicion of me walking down there late at night all the time, we'd been rotating shifts. I'd seen her just two days prior, so Ridoc and Sawyer went together to get all of the information.
The next weekend, I'm forced to pick between flying for Samara and participating in an evasion operation with Third Wing. The only reason it was even a choice I considered was the consequences of leaving, which was subjecting not just myself but my entire squad to failure for the entirety of the exercise. Tairn makes the decision before I implode over it. He's even more miserable the entire next week. I hate seeing him get so mellow. He used to get angry and irritable, which he still does to a degree, but mostly, he just depresses. It breaks my heart.
Of course, by the time Sgaeyl flies to us the week after, I'm out of the picture. We're dropped into the woods yet again, and I don't even need that signet-blocking potion to lose all contact with him. I find myself ducking away from my squad more than usual. It's a bit of being around them too much, a bit of homesickness eased by being independent in the woods, and a bit of the anxiety chewing away at my throat from everything I'm still holding back.
I haven't been able to talk to Xaden and tell him everything we learned in a month. The nervousness of his impending upset strikes lines of coldness up my skin as I walk the flight field. I completely ignore Bodhi trying to talk to me on the walk over and hardly manage to convince myself that it's worth the discomfort to stare Varrish in the eyes. I'd be surprised if there was another mind-reader out here, knowing Varrish would probably murder himself for being inntinnsic, but with the plans we have, I can't risk it.
