Light in Dark Places

Chapter Thirty-One

The other Kings were still in their house for breakfast. Joan suspects they spent the night, although you wouldn't be able to tell from how impeccable they all look.

"Is something special happening today?" Joan says as she sits next to Seung-ri.

"What makes you ask?" Seung-ri returns.

Joan points at Jisu. "He's in his uniform."

"Guilty as charged. And very observant, yeodongsaeng. Maybe you could join me in the Intelligence division," Jisu says, taking a sip from his heavily creamed coffee.

"Joan isn't joining the military," Seung-ri says automatically.

Joan chooses to ignore this casual determination of her future. "Well?"

Seung-ri's jaw tightens. "We have a special guest coming to the city. Carl Mathiessen."

"That guy you were fighting about?" Joan says.

"We weren't fighting," Seung-ri says in that same way their parents used to protest when they were younger. "And yes, that guy. We're going to be working late today. Probably for the next couple of days, as we negotiate. I'll have one of the Privates escort you to and from school, OK?"

"I know how to take the streetcar," Joan says.

"Don't be ridiculous, this is what Privates are for," Seung-ri says cheerfully.

Joan takes a bite out of a muffin and paces the next question. Casually, she throws out, "So why do you want this Mathiessen guy anyway? He's not a Prodigy-class is he?"

"No, of course not," Seung-ri says contemptuously. But then she doesn't say anything else.

"Carl Mathiessen is the governor of Numeh," Jisu explains.

"And he's leaving his Place?" Joan yelps. Because it was rare enough for anyone to willingly leave their Place, but for a ruler, that was unheard of.

"He has wanted a treaty with Arissana for quite some time," Hernandez says in a clipped voice, startling Joan so badly she drops her muffin. She wasn't expecting him to talk at all. "And he has a certain advantage when it comes to travel."

"Buy why do you want him then?" Joan persists, although she directs her question at Seung-ri.

"It's not something you need to worry about, nabi," Seung-ri says, in a way that makes it clear she's not going to answer any more questions.

It's that barrier again, Joan thinks. That wall between her and the Kings. It hurts more than she can even articulate, as she falls silent and thinks about all the things she doesn't know how to ask her sister.

Joan wants to persist but she's slowly learning that trying to get information out of Seung-ri is never going to happen.

And anyway, she has other people she can ask now.

*

"Do you know anything about Carl Mathiessen?"

Joan's question echoes in his ears but the presence in his mind was right, he does slowly get used to it. He grimaces but doesn't collapse or faint or even hold his hands to his ears, like he might have before.

"The governor of Numeh?" Benedict asks, even though he doesn't really need the clarification.

Joan nods. "He's...bad news, right?"

Benedict hesitates. "I've only heard rumors."

"Rumors are more than what I have," Joan says, "Please, tell me everything you know."