02-01-2018, 04:44 AM
So Jai definitely hadn’t been back, which might not bode well for whatever punishment he had served for sullying the Black Tower’s name. It had been a scant hope, but a fair chance to chase when she was already here to secure the money. He’d have no reason to come home. Back to Arad Doman, else disgracefully deployed to another assignment altogether. Only she’d wondered if he might be the sort to sneak a goodbye to those he loved first. Perhaps Zakar just wasn’t the best candidate for that. She'd registered the taut nature of his expression; each minute furrow etching disapproval. What if he’s dead? The thought had haunted since she'd discovered just how ruthless a place the Black Tower could be. He hadn’t earned a spot on the Traitor’s Tree, but she knew better than most how beatings could take tragic turns. Especially if he’d retaliated. The past blurred into those uncertainties, fogging an image of worst case scenario. Therein lie a guilt painfully twisted with old ghosts.
Her gaze once again found the view beyond Zakar’s desk. Explaining Jai's situation wasn't an option; at least, not one that made any sense or offered any gain. Despite apparently popular opinion, she had not asked for this. Faint rage sparked against an already wearied irritation. Not only had Jai created such a mess, but he'd left her to pick up the pieces. No explanation. He'd even robbed her the full justification of anger by getting himself punished in the process, but the idea that she should be grateful jarred. Coin meant nothing. Cold dead trinkets meant nothing. Neither should she have to feel guilt for his foolish rashness; for his meddling. Only she couldn't quite let go of the fear she'd unwittingly led another man to his death. Two options remained; forget, or find out.
“Truth is built on facts. Are you sure you have all the facts?”
The words came almost right on the heel of his, but were strangely toneless. She had no interest in arguing the point, but his obstinate clinging to unfounded opinion bordered on irrational. It was galling. Her gaze blinked back to him in the same moment some of his façade began to crumble. A question leapt from his lips with the genuine ring of surprise, and Nythadri acknowledged it with a tight smile. If Jai had made the links between Vanditera and Winther, then Zakar could do the same. A dead brother. A tangled mess of finances. But the histories would not share her own guilt, as she had described it to Jai. She drew strength from the secret; or maybe from the fact Zakar seemed rattled. The thrill she usually felt at crawling beneath the most stoic of skins was absent, but her sense of calm fortified a commitment to civility that had been lacking since he had accused her of whoring herself.
It was probably fortunate.
On the heels of that outburst came another, more toxic tirade. Jealously and loathing punctuated the core of every word, and with his gaze drawn away from her she was free to study the minutiae of his expression; what she could see of it, at least. Perhaps she had been wrong to think there was nothing boyish in Zakar; the attention he gave his cufflinks, jaw tight around every terse word, was nothing if not morosely childish and brooding. Perhaps she had flirted with an inappropriate line of rudeness, but it hardly justified the presentation of such a raw nerve. Did Jai cast such a long shadow even the merest hint of association sparked such deep raging fires? She was glad she’d not asked after Jai directly, then. Would Zakar even care to know the wrath his brother has brought over his own head?
The insight might have been interesting, if she had cared. Ironic. She had come here assuming familial bonds might offer an opportunity to discover what had happened to Jai without relying on Lythia’s discretion. If he didn’t know, she’d hoped he would have wanted to find out. But she’d discovered only the opposite: base sibling jealousy. Natural Zakar should feel insignificant, but poor character that it should embitter him so. The One Power wasn’t a gift a person chose, and it certainly was not without price. By that diatribe alone it was clearly not a price Zakar understood. A defensive retort tingled hot beneath her skin, but it never surfaced beyond a faintly contemplative expression. With Zakar’s fall from frozen calm, Nythadri was the very model of serenity; like a predator seizing power from the slightest indication of weakness without choosing to pounce upon it, only peer down at it. The higher ground was never sweeter than when your competitor fell first.
Silence reigned a while after, and Nythadri was happy to let it. And then: Benefactor. An odd word choice, but it was vengeance that caught her attention. For a moment her head spun around it, and everything she thought she'd understood shuddered. Zakar couldn’t speak for Matias Winther, but he might be able to speak for a former apprentice. Her picture of events rearranged, accommodating this new theory. Ellis; a faceless unknown. Why would a man give up such a fortune? No through freewill, if vengeance were ever a desire. Her father’s letter had whispered fraud. Winther had been arrested, but he had also been released by Elayne. He’d cried of Black Tower conspiracy, but not of theft. The coin was not his.
The network of deceit swelled, and made a glimmering sort of sense. Too fragile to vocalise, and it was wiser to withhold those arrows of accusation anyway. Had he meant to infer so much? Ellis and Kojima. Apprentice and Master. What had Ellis been doing that Jai found it distasteful enough to relieve him of his wealth? She pulled back from thought before the clarity burned. “I have no interest in your affairs.”
A shame she did not have the testimony of Aes Sedai oaths to bring solidity to her statement, but she spoke considered truth. Whatever his ambitions, whether they dipped under the line of the law or were simply the ruthless aspirations of a businessman, so long as Zakar walked in the Light like he attested, she did not care. He must realise she was unable to speak for the Aes Sedai though; the snowy pristine of her dress and its rainbow stripes declared it without the condescension it would inevitably take to point it out. Jai had created a scandal in Caemlyn, and there would be Sisters there obliged to curtail the damage against the Black Tower; presuming Zakar even meant business in Caemlyn at all. She was not going to ask. Bottom line, if he brought attention down on himself it would be his own fault, but she would not be setting any sparks against his trail. Her gaze was clear, earnest. “I believe we have an understanding.”
Her gaze once again found the view beyond Zakar’s desk. Explaining Jai's situation wasn't an option; at least, not one that made any sense or offered any gain. Despite apparently popular opinion, she had not asked for this. Faint rage sparked against an already wearied irritation. Not only had Jai created such a mess, but he'd left her to pick up the pieces. No explanation. He'd even robbed her the full justification of anger by getting himself punished in the process, but the idea that she should be grateful jarred. Coin meant nothing. Cold dead trinkets meant nothing. Neither should she have to feel guilt for his foolish rashness; for his meddling. Only she couldn't quite let go of the fear she'd unwittingly led another man to his death. Two options remained; forget, or find out.
“Truth is built on facts. Are you sure you have all the facts?”
The words came almost right on the heel of his, but were strangely toneless. She had no interest in arguing the point, but his obstinate clinging to unfounded opinion bordered on irrational. It was galling. Her gaze blinked back to him in the same moment some of his façade began to crumble. A question leapt from his lips with the genuine ring of surprise, and Nythadri acknowledged it with a tight smile. If Jai had made the links between Vanditera and Winther, then Zakar could do the same. A dead brother. A tangled mess of finances. But the histories would not share her own guilt, as she had described it to Jai. She drew strength from the secret; or maybe from the fact Zakar seemed rattled. The thrill she usually felt at crawling beneath the most stoic of skins was absent, but her sense of calm fortified a commitment to civility that had been lacking since he had accused her of whoring herself.
It was probably fortunate.
On the heels of that outburst came another, more toxic tirade. Jealously and loathing punctuated the core of every word, and with his gaze drawn away from her she was free to study the minutiae of his expression; what she could see of it, at least. Perhaps she had been wrong to think there was nothing boyish in Zakar; the attention he gave his cufflinks, jaw tight around every terse word, was nothing if not morosely childish and brooding. Perhaps she had flirted with an inappropriate line of rudeness, but it hardly justified the presentation of such a raw nerve. Did Jai cast such a long shadow even the merest hint of association sparked such deep raging fires? She was glad she’d not asked after Jai directly, then. Would Zakar even care to know the wrath his brother has brought over his own head?
The insight might have been interesting, if she had cared. Ironic. She had come here assuming familial bonds might offer an opportunity to discover what had happened to Jai without relying on Lythia’s discretion. If he didn’t know, she’d hoped he would have wanted to find out. But she’d discovered only the opposite: base sibling jealousy. Natural Zakar should feel insignificant, but poor character that it should embitter him so. The One Power wasn’t a gift a person chose, and it certainly was not without price. By that diatribe alone it was clearly not a price Zakar understood. A defensive retort tingled hot beneath her skin, but it never surfaced beyond a faintly contemplative expression. With Zakar’s fall from frozen calm, Nythadri was the very model of serenity; like a predator seizing power from the slightest indication of weakness without choosing to pounce upon it, only peer down at it. The higher ground was never sweeter than when your competitor fell first.
Silence reigned a while after, and Nythadri was happy to let it. And then: Benefactor. An odd word choice, but it was vengeance that caught her attention. For a moment her head spun around it, and everything she thought she'd understood shuddered. Zakar couldn’t speak for Matias Winther, but he might be able to speak for a former apprentice. Her picture of events rearranged, accommodating this new theory. Ellis; a faceless unknown. Why would a man give up such a fortune? No through freewill, if vengeance were ever a desire. Her father’s letter had whispered fraud. Winther had been arrested, but he had also been released by Elayne. He’d cried of Black Tower conspiracy, but not of theft. The coin was not his.
The network of deceit swelled, and made a glimmering sort of sense. Too fragile to vocalise, and it was wiser to withhold those arrows of accusation anyway. Had he meant to infer so much? Ellis and Kojima. Apprentice and Master. What had Ellis been doing that Jai found it distasteful enough to relieve him of his wealth? She pulled back from thought before the clarity burned. “I have no interest in your affairs.”
A shame she did not have the testimony of Aes Sedai oaths to bring solidity to her statement, but she spoke considered truth. Whatever his ambitions, whether they dipped under the line of the law or were simply the ruthless aspirations of a businessman, so long as Zakar walked in the Light like he attested, she did not care. He must realise she was unable to speak for the Aes Sedai though; the snowy pristine of her dress and its rainbow stripes declared it without the condescension it would inevitably take to point it out. Jai had created a scandal in Caemlyn, and there would be Sisters there obliged to curtail the damage against the Black Tower; presuming Zakar even meant business in Caemlyn at all. She was not going to ask. Bottom line, if he brought attention down on himself it would be his own fault, but she would not be setting any sparks against his trail. Her gaze was clear, earnest. “I believe we have an understanding.”