Chapter 9

Otaryl will judge you by your facility with forms. Remember to practice the unique spoken greetings from their historical native dialect before switching to Court Methilari. A huge percentage of the population is part of the civil service, though reports vary on how effective it is. Serenthuar's position is that the day-to-day management offers no opportunities, but the bureaucracy is exploitable.

There's also a lantern festival around harvest time I'd love to see someday. The accompanying dumpling recipe competition might be dangerous for me, but I'm willing to risk it.

Otaryl wasn't too many Gates away. This was Liris' first experience passing from one realm to another without feeling... illicit, somehow. Like she was here on her own merits and not on someone else's sufferance.

Silly, since she was the same person with a piece of paper and without. Nevertheless, it made a difference, and Vhannor had gotten it for her when he could have kept on as they had before arriving at Embhullor. He might not see her as a little sister—thankfully—but he was still doing everything he could to make sure she didn't have to be dependent on him and could stand on her own.

That would probably require her to stop exerting effort to not gawk at everything from the popular wide straw hats to the forested mountains in the distance, but the way to the government building took them through an alley full of dumplings. Liris was surrounded on both sides of the street, each storefront offering variations on the same fare, steamed in different shapes with dipping sauces.

"What's the difference?" Liris asked. "Those two have identical menus and prices, and the smells blend together. How do people choose?"

Vhannor's expression was amused. "You'd have to try them to compare. Maybe you'd like one better than the other."

Liris paused. "Did you lead me this way on purpose? Is this the only way to the government building?"

"Yes and no."

"Oh." She took a breath, but her nose just filled with the scent of food she'd never tried before. "This counts as a distraction, doesn't it?"

Vhannor's face tightened. "Yes."

A test. Of course. Liris glanced once more at the closest dumpling shop with longing and sighed, focusing. "All right. You never mentioned why Princess Nysia was sure Otaryl would welcome you even without a demon portal."

After a moment he answered, "I saved one of their highest-producing mines from a demon portal some years ago. Representative Hyorem at the time was the overseer and credits me for his good fortune. He'll be more amenable to me than anyone else we might meet with, and Otaryl couldn't turn down my overture without tipping their hand."

That would do it. Despite this realm's small size, Otaryl was wealthy because of their gemstone mines: they could export small items easily without taking away from import capacity, and those items were so valuable they could afford to buy imports. Losing a mine would be a disaster.

But that very precariousness meant they ought to be in favor of the Coalition of Tethered Realms.

Just then, Vhannor took a turn that revealed a massive courtyard with an enormous building inside. Unlike the twisty turns they'd been taking, the castle was entirely square, only a couple of stories tall.

"Converted abandoned temple, now a government building," Vhannor said.

"Abandoned?" Liris queried sharply.

"Lots of places were abandoned after the Sundering," Vhannor reminded her quietly. "New religions rose, but many faiths were shaken. If any government pressure was brought to bear in this case, it was long enough ago that no one is complaining about it."

Liris didn't need the reminder. Serenthuar had organized its populace in the aftermath of the Sundering more effectively than any other realm. She knew better than most that no one complaining didn't mean there wasn't a problem, and the one thing they knew already about Otaryl was that it had a problem.

Her impression didn't improve inside, as a functionary led them through halls decorated with pre-Sundering artwork: calligraphic scrolls, paintings of monks at work in backgrounds that no longer existed, shattered once-sacred urns. It wasn't stifling in exactly the same way as Serenthuar's oppressive marketing, but Liris couldn't shake the feeling that the message here wasn't necessarily better. It's not erasure if we acknowledge what once existed, even if we destroyed it. The end justifies the means.

Representative Hyorem's office was much the same, with new furniture at odds with the old walls. The representative himself was younger than she'd expected, probably of an age with Vhannor—long hair tied in a tail, delicate glasses. A slight, serious man who worked with knowledge only, not muscles.

In Court Methilari Vhannor introduced her as his partner, which she should have expected but sent a small thrill through her chest nevertheless. For her part, Liris followed the appropriate etiquette forms of bows and arranging set greetings in a logical order, easing the business of small talk until they were all kneeling on pillows across a low table in the center of the room.

"If I may, Vhannor, you look bemused by your partner's competence," Representative Hyorem observed.

"Appreciative, more like," Vhannor said. "This is our first diplomatic mission together, and even knowing what her training consisted of, I had not yet seen it in action."

Liris kept her satisfaction off her face. So her focus had drifted in the market, but here, where it counted, she'd impressed him right off the bat. That was a passable start for her first actual opportunity to put her life's training into action.

She could do better yet.

"Oh?" Representative Hyorem raised his eyebrows. "With a new partner and a foreign dignitary watching, that was especially well done, then. Noble training?"

Unless—did he suspect her? He didn't even know she was of Serenthuar.

Or did he?

Liris smiled and bowed her thanks. "Something of the opposite. I was not raised to believe any individual is more important than me, so I am not unduly concerned with differences in rank."

"How interesting," Representative Hyorem said. "I admit, Vhannor, I am nevertheless surprised you would bring someone new with you. I had assumed you wished to speak of subjects requiring a higher clearance."

He called Vhannor by name? No wonder Princess Nysia had tapped them for this mission.

"Liris is read in and trustworthy," Vhannor said.

"You seem quite certain," Hyorem said. "And I can't help feeling a bit betrayed by that, since every missive from Princess Nysia lately has implicitly accused me of the opposite."

"How did you think she would take Otaryl backing out of the coalition without explanation?" Vhannor asked.

"We're not," Representative Hyorem said with frustration. "I don't know how many times I need to commit that to writing for her to believe it. I don't know where she's getting the idea that we don't support it any longer to begin with!"

Vhannor frowned, leaning forward. "I'm glad I came in person, then, because that's not at all what the messages that reached Princess Nysia say."

"Then you're not reading them correctly," Representative Hyorem said flatly.

Vhannor and Liris exchanged a look. This wasn't how she'd expected this conversation to go.

"Do you have any of his messages with you?" Liris asked Vhannor.

"That's going too far," the representative said. "You may be Lord Vhannor's demon hunting partner, but that gives you no rights to read my mail."

Back to ‘lord'. Not good.

"I rather thought you might want to read it and confirm it's what you actually wrote," Liris said.

Hyorem went still.

"I don't," Vhannor admitted. "I didn't expect that to be the point of misunderstanding. I can recall them from memory, however, if you'll accept my recitation?"

"That is hardly evidence, under the circumstances. But Lord Vhannor, you know me," the representative said. "Or I thought you did."

"So did I," Vhannor said. "Which means if someone is forging your mail—"

"Here? Impossible. Any message I send goes through a team I personally vetted, after what happened to the mine. I trust them implicitly. If a message is reaching you that claims anything other than Otaryl's full support for the CTR, the problem is not on our end. Though that does then call the integrity of the future CTR into account, doesn't it? If it can be compromised so easily in this way."

"You think it's more possible in Princess Nysia's office?" Vhannor shook his head. "If you're not looking for a reason to not support the coalition, you're doing a remarkable impression of someone who is."

Representative Hyorem stood. "Can you blame me? After years of acquaintance, you assume the worst of me—"

"I don't," Vhannor said, his jaw clenching. "I'm here to figure out what's going on."

"—all the while you share privileged information with a new partner who has the look of Serenthuar about her? Really, Vhannor, if you're looking for a spy—"

"Yes, I'm sure Liris has been trying to discover my favorite snack to use against me as either poison or bribery," Vhannor snapped.

Representative Hyorem was taken aback at that but recovered quickly. "You don't deny she's a Serenthuar ambassador, then?"

"I do," Liris said.

"And your word is—"

"—at least as good as yours," Liris cut him off. "The people who've deceived me the worst in my life are those I knew the longest. Length of acquaintance is no surety."

"So I see," Representative Hyorem said softly.

Vhannor rose slowly, and Liris didn't like the look on his face.

"I'm going to step out now," Vhannor said, "before I say something I regret. But my regard of you was never in question, Hyorem, until this conversation. Liris, we're leaving."

Vhannor didn't bother with any of the exiting forms, but Liris did so hastily, to Hyorem's stony lack of reciprocation.

Great, solid showing for her first diplomatic endeavor. That had definitely gone well. By which she meant completely sideways.

Liris hurried after Vhannor. "Hey, wait." He paused stiffly until she caught up with him, and then he resumed charging out. Liris kept pace until there was no line of sight from the temple and yanked on his wrist. "Vhannor, no one's watching us still. You can stop storming away."

He scowled. "I'm not performing, Liris, I'm angry."

"So that's... not a normal course your meetings take, then?"

He glared at her.

"I'm just trying to establish a baseline," Liris said. "In the interest of learning how each of us works diplomatically. Remember?"

Vhannor faced her fully. "You're not bothered a foreign official just accused you of being a spy to your face?"

"Is that worse than doing so behind my back?" Liris pursed her lips. "Indicates a lack of respect, I suppose. But no? He's right that my presence with you is odd, and he's clearly upset and doesn't want to contemplate any of the possible alternatives, which, frankly, doesn't reflect well on him. It's not worth abandoning your strategy for."

"Letting people disrespect you is not sound strategy," Vhannor practically growled.

"I don't care about his opinion of me unless it affects the mission, and in this case, I think he'd have found any cause. An accusation of being a Serenthuar spy?" Liris rolled her eyes. "Please. I've been prepared for that cliché my whole life, and if he's as smart as you thought he was, my failing to dignify it with any attention will give him pause. I'm more interested in whether you've ever actually thought I have ulterior motives for inquiring about your snack preferences." He didn't answer immediately, and she exclaimed, "You did!"

"Not exactly," Vhannor said uncomfortably, "but that's how I think. Hyorem isn't entirely wrong to be surprised at how much I'm already sharing with you. In my position, I have to be suspicious by default. He knows that."

Not so different from how she was always ready for another test. "That makes sense."

He scowled again.

What had she said wrong this time? She'd agreed with him!

"So, now what?" Liris asked. "Are we just going to stomp around until you cool down, or do you have another plan?"

Vhannor stared at her, his gaze burning with intensity again, and he abruptly turned. "I do," he said firmly. "We're going to go sample those dumplings you were ogling earlier."

Liris blinked.

Then broke into a smile and raced after him.

"Ishould have specified," Vhannor said dryly, "that we're going to sample some of the dumplings."

"Well, I clearly have to try one of each from different stores to determine the difference. That's just sound methodology."

Vhannor snorted but didn't argue. After all, the variety of dumplings included a share for him, too.

Few shops had stools at their counters, but in Otaryl it was rude to eat food in public. Vhannor, of course, knew a shop with three tiny tables crammed in. They were outside the normal lunch rush, so they had the room to themselves.

"This vinegar dip is better, but I prefer the percentage of green onion in the other," Liris announced. "Next. So, does this mean we're effectively having dinner together after all?"

He twitched. "Colleagues share meals together on the job."

Liris nodded. "Okay. Sure."

Vhannor made a face that broke into a reluctant smile.

That wasn't disagreement. She'd take it.

"You know about the secret back room with tables already. Does that mean you already have a favorite dumpling?"

"I haven't sampled this many all at once before," he said dryly, and Liris tried not to watch his always-controlled, powerful hands too closely as he deftly picked up a delicate dumpling. "I think you'll be surprised how full you feel in a few minutes."

"I'd better eat faster then."

That got an actual laugh out of him, and oh gods, she would never get tired of that rare sound. Of being the one who caused it.

"Is there a type you like better?" she asked.

Vhannor pursed his lips. "Yes. I like the buns a bit better than the dumplings. But in principle this is still very similar to my favorite snack."

Liris perked up. "Oh? In what way?"

He pointed Liris at the appropriate ball, and they each picked one to take a bite of. "Dough filled with stuff, basically. Pork buns aren't my very favorite manifestation, but they're up there."

Liris blinked. "How different can ways to fill dough with stuff be?"

Vhannor grinned. "You'd be surprised."

Maybe it hadn't been a test after all. Maybe Vhannor had taken her this way because he wanted to introduce her to his favorite snack.

Maybe he had a point about seeing patterns where none existed.

Abruptly Vhannor said, "It'll wear off, you know." He waved a hand at what remained of their dumpling experiment. "You won't always be this excited about every new thing, once new things become normal. Wait—hold that one over a spoon when you bite into it."

Liris did and almost dropped the spoon when liquid spurted out the side after her first bite. "Soup? How did they get soup in a dumpling?!"

Vhannor covered his face in his hands and shook helplessly with laughter.

Liris' whole being warmed, and not just from the soup.

"I don't think it will, though," she said, maneuvering her dumpling more stably into the spoon so it could collect the escaping soup. "As much as I know, there's always more to learn. It's not the studying I grew to hate, it was the... lack of change? Or the lack of choice. Now, if I ever find myself uninterested in what's around me, I can just... go find somewhere new to work and learn. I never have to stay again if I don't want to."

Vhannor watched her intently, the gold growing in his gaze, a thing it only did when he was having feelings he wasn't prepared to share explicitly.

Oh. "Once Special Operations is set up to deal with Thyrasel, I mean," Liris said.

"Of course," he said easily, which told Liris that hadn't been what he was worried about. Hmm.

She narrowed her eyes. "Are you going to tell me?"

Vhannor opened his mouth, thought better of it, and tried again. "No. I'm sorry."

Well, choosing not to lie to her was something. Since he was apparently done opening up and had calmed down, Liris changed the subject. "What now, then? Do we try to talk to Hyorem again?"

"Not yet," he said slowly. "I can't tell if Hyorem knows more than he's letting on, but I don't think he's lying. Your read?"

Liris was a little surprised he was asking her, given how that had gone—but then again, his performance hadn't been notably better than hers. "I think he may have more pieces of the puzzle that he hasn't put together yet, because he's not willing to consider the implications of what he does know."

Vhannor nodded. "He'll resist giving us those pieces then, because some part of him realizes that I will put them together and he won't like the answers."

"We won't be able to talk to his people without his permission or awareness."

"No. But we can investigate the nearest message anchor."

"The what? Oh—a communication hub, you mean?"

Vhannor stood, wincing slightly. Liris frowned, following him up and immediately understood why as she bit back a groan, falling back into her seat.

"Okay," she said grudgingly, "maybe I should have saved some dumplings for a future visit."

Vhannor offered her one of his hands as he flashed a grin she was definitely not staring at, transfixed by his delight in her as he pulled her to her feet.

So. He did still want to be with her then.

Liris' heart beat faster at the smirk on his face.

And he was even more excited about whatever he was about to show her than he had been about the dumplings.

"A message anchor is an advanced, enormously complicated spell," Vhannor said. "You'll love it."

Liris did love it.

Almost as much as she loved how clearly happy he was to get to introduce her to this kind of magic.

She could live for his expression when he was trying to maintain a cool fa?ade, but that fire danced in his icy eyes anyway.

What he called a message anchor was the core spell that powered a communications hub. Here it stood in a spell-protected and guarded chamber, but flashing their licenses—well, Vhannor's clearance mainly; hers just allowed her to accompany him—got them in. Liris was still a little giddy about being able to do that, though that at least might wear off eventually.

Imagine, being able to go wherever she chose feeling normal.

The guards could watch them remotely to make sure they didn't deface the spell, but her conversation with Vhannor would be private, unless they employed lip readers.

Aside from the surrounding infrastructure to coordinate dispatches, the anchor itself amounted to a stone wall, surrounded by separate, smaller tablets containing spells that routed messages where they needed to go in the hub for processing.

A very tall stone wall, mind. Vhannor had requisitioned a ladder from one of the surrounding buildings so Liris could get close enough to the top to make out all the symbols.

"The message anchor spell at the core of a communications hub is what allows us to physically transport messages between realms faster," Vhannor explained. "Very much like the spell you were coming up with before—"

"The demon portal," Liris said flatly.

He frowned at her. "Are you still upset about that? Liris, you couldn't have known."

"That didn't keep Jiechit from watching me suspiciously even once I was under your supervision."

Vhannor rolled his eyes. "Jiechit was stunned to see me taking you seriously and was keeping an eye on you to try to figure out what had caught my attention. I am fairly notorious in our circle for not having a partner."

...Oh.

Liris said, "So the message anchor spell works because you know how to locate other places within a realm relative to it, but not between realms, right? Since we can't pinpoint how realms are oriented to each other between dimensions?"

"Exactly," Vhannor said. "The anchors forward messages onward to other anchors, or if that's their last anchor destination, a messenger picks them up to deliver locally or through a Gate. But, since we don't yet have a coalition of all the realms—"

"All the realms maintain their own spells, and the message systems that support them. So we're dependent on the maintenance of individual governments for the speed of messages."

"And their integrity."

Liris glanced at him.

"Walk me through the patterns you can identify, and I'll supplement your knowledge as needed," Vhannor said.

"I'm still new at spell layout," Liris cautioned. "And this isn't exactly a beginner's exercise."

Vhannor rolled his eyes again. "I am endeavoring not to be astounded by how much you do know every time you present evidence. Figuring out a curriculum you'll actually get anything out of was a challenge on its own. You'll be fine."

Liris blinked slowly. She'd thought the new curriculum was about how much she didn't know.

It belatedly occurred to Liris that while she'd judged Vhannor for considering her a failure as a partner after only one mistake, she had in fact considered him a failure as a partner after one mistake.

What she lacked most was context, and that was what he had in spades.

And here he was, not biasing her, but still offering help.

Liris got back on the ladder and started identifying patterns and what she thought each was for.

After a minute Vhannor stopped her and said, "If we were going to dispel this, you're out of order. Do you see which one you skipped?"

Liris frowned. "No, those—oh. Oh."

It wasn't her seeing patterns that was the problem: she just didn't know enough yet to see the right patterns.

She'd better learn fast.

Vhannor frowned in return. "Oh?"

He had to be wondering how she'd missed it, but that's because this time it was him.

Liris pointed at slashes in the stone. "I'm sorry, I was focusing on making sense of the patterns in order and my brain sorted this out. This isn't natural wear. These are a framing device in Thyrasel."

Vhannor hopped up on the ladder and climbed up closer to her for a better look. Liris shifted, aware of how both their bodies had to balance precariously together, of the warmth of him at her side. Taking his arm, ignoring how her fingers tingled with the contact, she placed his hand on the wall.

"Here," she said, "and here. See how it goes?"

"The spell has been edited," Vhannor murmured, running his hand along the stone. "He hasn't twisted the whole meaning, but he added another layer of his own." He jumped all the way down, backing away so he could see the whole of the spell. "Read the Thyrasel strand out to me."

Liris translated the whole thing out loud, while Vhannor followed along with how it intersected other pieces of the spell, commenting on aspects of how the spell worked so she could adapt.

By the time she was done, Liris understood before Vhannor explained that messages were being intercepted.

"It's not all of them, just ones with the official seal," Vhannor said. "Look there. Those get filtered out, rerouted to another location—there must be an enclave of demon servants. They change the messages Hyorem and his colleagues are writing, forge their seals, and then they're sent on, still with the record of a magical path coming from the correct Gate, so no one suspects."

"Jadrhun?" Liris asked.

Vhannor hesitated. "Stone carving isn't the same as writing by hand, so it's not identical. I wouldn't swear it's not either, but—"

"It's probably at least connected, since I can't imagine he's teaching anyone Thyrasel." Part of the advantage for him was its rarity: with the huge head-start Jadrhun had, given all her years of notes and Serenthuar's original texts, Liris was still the only one who knew enough to counter his spells using it. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

The timing of Otaryl's sudden apparent withdrawal of support wasn't coincidental after all.

"If you're thinking we now have proof for Nysia and Hyorem that Jadrhun is involved with sabotaging the Coalition of Tethered Realms, and that plot is connected to demons, then yes."

"This also means Jadrhun has learned more Thyrasel than I taught him, and is actively testing his knowledge," Liris said.

"And ours," Vhannor said grimly. "Because since we have a duty to not keep this to ourselves, just as we can measure his progress, he can measure ours by our response."

"The difference is we don't know what he's working toward yet."

Vhannor's expression closed down. "Yeah. I'd better get Hyorem out here."

Once Representative Hyorem had sharply assured Vhannor he'd brought a caster he vouched for with him, the Lord of Embhullor explained what they'd found. The representative's expression grew increasingly cold.

"There is good news here," Vhannor said softly.

"Let me guess. Your new partner can teach us how to rewrite our realm's foundational spells?"

Vhannor looked at him.

Hyorem reflexively took a step back and then scowled.

Liris reflected that not everyone seemed to be as drawn to Vhannor's icy gaze as she was.

"I apologize," Hyorem said. "That was uncalled for."

"You brought a caster with you that you trust," Vhannor reminded him. "If you have confidence in them, then so do I."

The representative took a breath. "This does put a different perspective on our previous conversation, doesn't it?"

Not the part where he wanted to accuse Liris as a spy, but since she'd told Vhannor not to worry about that he was apparently taking her at her word.

That, Liris wasn't sure if she'd get used to.

She hoped so.

"We now also know," Vhannor said, "neither of us was acting in bad faith: someone is, provably, trying to prevent either the coalition or Otaryl's entry into it. Before you dispel the sabotage, you have an opportunity to track where your messages are being redirected. If your own vetted casters' efforts aren't successful, send a messenger to me on foot."

Representative Hyorem rubbed his temples. "You know it's not that simple, Vhannor. This anchor is monitored by guards who are also vetted—admittedly not by me personally, but the guards for my official seal are. That Otaryl could be infiltrated this easily with all our precautions doesn't bode well. What if we welcome in outside agents from Special Operations, and they take us over? How could we know they are who they say they are, and how would anyone else?"

Vhannor regarded him steadily. "Will you let criminals decide for you, then, whether you support the Coalition?"

Representative Hyorem glared again, though his heart didn't seem to be in it. "That's not what I said."

"I imagine," Liris said quietly, "you may be considering that tightening restrictions, and your walls, is the only way to be safe. I promise that won't work the way you want it to."

Hyorem looked at her, the person he suspected hailed from doomed Serenthuar.

And looked away.

As they left, Liris asked Vhannor quietly, "Do you think we mattered? I feel like even though we helped by solving a mystery, we turned Hyorem's insistence on joining the Coalition into doubt."

"Nysia will take it from here," Vhannor said. "Now that she knows the problem, she'll be able to handle it. That was our mission, and we succeeded."

They had. And it had taken both of them.

But Liris was quiet the rest of the way, because he hadn't directly answered her first question. And despite the previous miscommunication between them, she wasn't sure she wanted to know for sure if that had been on purpose.

Something was afoot. All she was really sure of was that she was several steps behind. Now that Jadrhun knew they could catch him at this...

He was either going to get subtler, or he was going to do something really, really big.