Respite & Resolve

[Natalie Grey]

Nythadri

The servant led her back to the small library before promptly disappearing. Nythadri did not pause at the threshold, though it was with a forced step of confidence and not haste that she entered. Pale eyes swept. Her skin prickled with a discomfort she knew to be fear. Arikan was seated, but she did not go close; in fact she barely entered at all but to place a wall behind her back. Saidar whispered, but she did not indulge; it felt like a concession, and it would only give him satisfaction. None of this sat well with her. But when she had no choices but bad ones, the world could burn before she would fail to grasp at such thin salvation if it might save Jai.

“While you’ve been chasing dreams the pieces on the board have changed,” she said. Nythadri had never agreed to bring Elsae with her, just to return; a nuance she imagined he would not care for one bit once he realised how she bent his commands. But if what Talin claimed to be true really was, then this would test his dedication to his own word. For the plots that moved in darkness tonight could only be at the hand of the Shadow.

“Elsae is with Eleanore in the city; I have not broken my word. I've returned alone because tonight I believe shadows will push the Hall to depose Kaydrienne Lindelle from the Amyrlin Seat, and while we speak there is an Asha’man working his way through the wards of the Black Tower vaults, seeking a weapon that will aid him in the M’hael’s assassination. His mind is not his own.”

She was blunt. Her voice was level, but not entirely free of emotion. “Will you help me, Arikan?”

His name burned the tongue, but she forced herself to say it. Her gaze was intense, expression cold and inscrutable. Men like this did not capitulate upon being asked nicely. Beneath serenity she was tense with expectation. Light send he did not force her hand to something regrettable. Because for this, and for Jai, she would fight by all means necessary.