It was an awkward ride home. My thoughts drifted.

  Why had I thought this world was any different than the one I’d left? I’d known this world, like any other, had its share of horrors. I had read about some of them. It was something I’d tried not to think about, and now I’d seen one face-to-face.

  I tried to look out the window, my gaze occasionally fixing on Sere. The little girl was covered up in especially baggy clothes, making her look at least twice as wide as she was. I tried to be subtle. She seemed to get uncomfortable any time she noticed me watching.

  Despite my best efforts, it seemed like I didn’t know how to make her comfortable around me. That’s why she sat on the opposite side and hadn’t so much as tried to look at me. Apparently, this hesitation did not extend nearly as much to Damian.

  “Want me to make it float?” Damian asked, eyeing the jade turtle in his hand.

  Sere stared at him bnkly. Not even a second ter, the turtle began to float in the air, hovering in front of Sere, before moving forward to lightly boop the girl on the nose.

  Sere stared at it, her eyes slowly going wide. She reached out for it, only for the turtle to move away from her hand. She tried again, failed again. There was the barest hint of a smile on her face.

  “Turtles don’t even float,” I muttered to myself.

  It was also apparent that Damian was rather charismatic with anyone who wasn’t me.

  We had taken our sweet time exploring the city. Now, I had ordered that we get back to the manor as quickly as possible. Anias had been rather conservative travelling to the city, because now the carriage practically roared through the streets. The few people who didn’t move out of the way were jostled aside with Anias’ telekinesis.

  We hadn’t spoken since then. All I could do was assume Anias had done as I’d asked. She hadn’t even spoken when she’d tended to my self-inflicted injury and bandaged it over with a piece of her cloak. I had successfully managed to keep the injury from being too deep. Between Anias' Gifts and the drug she'd given me, I could even move mostly fine.

  I had bled, and the pain had been sharp for a few moments before…slowly fading. That was my Gift, somehow. I was sure of it. How it actually worked, though, was still a mystery.

  It didn’t take long at all before the manor’s gate loomed back into view.

  I’d had some time to think by now. I’d lost control. I had bolted out of the carriage before my mind had caught up, had demanded Anias follow behind me at a distance. It was impulsive. It was stupid. It had gotten someone killed.

  Anias might have carried out the sentence, but I’d been the one to deliver it. I didn’t feel what you were supposed to feel. There should have been trembling. A horror at a life being extinguished, no matter how vile.

  There was nothing. Maybe it was because I didn’t do it with my own two hands? I hoped it was just that.

  Was that woman working alone? She’d looked like she was in a hurry to get somewhere. Were there more children just like Sere out there that might have been helped if only I’d used my head a little more?

  These questions haunted me.

  I didn’t notice that we were at the manor until the cart itself stopped moving. My door opened.

  “My Lady.” Anias bowed her head lightly.

  I looked over at Sere, who was trying very hard to get as far away as she could in the small carriage. Our eyes met. She let out a little ‘eek!’.

  It was hard not to sigh as I stepped out. I did have her mother killed, after all. I’d tried to be subtle about it, but children were smarter than most people gave them credit for.

  “Anias, do you know where my father would be right now?”

  The rge woman didn’t hesitate. “He should be in his office. Do you want me to take you there?”

  “No. Instead….” I paused and turned back towards Sere. “Please see that she has a room. Maybe a bath would do her some good, as well as some proper food. Have Lana and two other maids be the ones who tend to her.” I held my chin in thought. “Instruct the chefs to treat her food as if they would treat mine.” I was pretty sure that covered everything.

  Anias nodded. I made to leave.

  “Esra? You’re going?”

  “Stay with her, Damian. She seems more comfortable around you.” He gave me an unreadable look, his gaze softening as he looked to Sere.

  That was another conversation I’d doubtless need to have.

  “Come in.”

  I paused at the door, inches away from knocking on the door. I shrugged and opened it, before stepping inside.

  To say that my father’s office was messy would be a gross understatement. Bookshelves lined every single wall, as high as the ceiling. Yet those bookshelves were still not enough to contain all the books and papers here, and so most of them were half-heartedly thrown around on either the couches or my father’s table. A few of them were on the floor.

  I often wonder what the point of having a family library was if half the books were here.

  “Esra. You’re back early.” My father looked up at me from the book he was reading. He paused. Frowned. “What happened?”

  “How did you know?”

  He hesitated. “You’re leaking mana, Esra. And a person’s mana reflects their inner self. You’re….” He shook his head. “Tell me what happened.”

  So that’s how it worked, huh?

  I took a deep breath. Forced my clenched fists to unclench. Feeling returned to my hands.

  “That’s what I want to talk about,” I said smoothly, stepping closer.

  He nodded, clearing some of the books from his desk. I approached and sat on one of the two chairs id out in front.

  “The city is different from what I had imagined.” I began. “There are a lot of people.”

  “There are.” He said slowly. Warily. “Aelheim is proud. I should take you to see the capital sometime. It makes Aelheim look like a fishing vilge.”

  Noble etiquette was to be more subtle about tense matters. One did not just broach uncomfortable things in this Kingdom. That was one of the first table manners Anias had taught me, though the Gods alone knew what she thought she was preparing me for.

  I took a deep breath. “We ran into someone in the Indri District. A little girl. She must be a year or two younger than me.” My tone was empty. It was the only way to keep the trembling rage away. “Her name is Sere.”

  He nodded patiently, sitting up straighter in his chair.

  “She was with her mother. A mother who was forcing her to be a thief. We caught them.” There was no need to mention that I’d used myself as bait. He could find that out from someone else.

  “You caught them?”

  “Yes. We returned the jewelry they stole, and I’ve decided to bring the girl here. She looks like a sweet little thing, though she’s terrified of me. Likes Damian for some reason. I don’t really get it.” Damn it. I was rambling.

  My father nodded before finally asking the obvious question. “And what about the mother?”

  This was the entire reason I was afraid of this conversation. “I told Anias to deal with her.”

  My father stared back at me for a stunned moment. “You mean…?”

  “Yes.”

  He sagged back in his chair, just staring at me. For the first time, he looked at me as if he didn’t quite recognize who he was looking at. If only he knew.

  “Why?” He finally asked.

  My fists clenched. The anger came again. My mana roiled just beneath my skin. My voice trembled. “The girl, father…doesn’t have a tongue,” I said, meeting my father’s gaze. “And her clothing is purposefully baggy.”

  There was a long moment of silence.

  He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands. “When I permitted you to leave the manor, I did not expect this. Did you even consider that there could be other solutions before you had the girl’s mother dealt with, as you put it?” His voice somehow sounded even more exasperated than before.

  “I did not.” The honest truth, that.

  He stared at me. “I’ve been trying to ignore this, but you’ve been acting strangely for weeks now. I have some bme in your self-confinement, and so I’d wanted to give you room to come out on your own. I did not expect you to be capable of this.”

  “Capable of what? Of defending a helpless girl?” My anger was rising again.

  “Of making such a decision without consulting me or anyone else.” His sharp voice cut through the air as surely as any sword. “This could have waited. We could have found a different solution. We don’t-” He shook his head. “The Veynes do not handle things this way. We follow the rules. The ws.”

  “I understand that.”

  “Do you?” My father was looking at me again. “What a mother does with her own daughter is her own affair. If any of the other noble families find out you had a girl killed in cold blood with no justif-”

  “There was a justification.” It was my turn to cut him off. I rose, gestured at the pce Anias had bandaged. He hadn’t noticed himself, had he? “She spilled my blood. I believe that’s justification enough, is it not?”

  His eyes slowly widened. He seemed to age a year in the span of a second. Finally, wearily, he spoke again. “Expin.”

  It was probably best to be truthful here, right?

  “I gave her a bde. Used that to injure myself. Of course, she ended up attacking me herself when she realized what was happening. I believe that would follow the letter of any w.”

  “But not the spirit.” He sighed. “I do suppose I should commend you for handling this in a way it won’t come back to bite us, but….” He didn’t need to say it, and so he didn’t.

  Meeting his gaze was harder this time. “She was a mother who either did that to her daughter or allowed it to happen. I won’t apologize for what happened to her.”

  There was another long silence. “And what if she wasn’t working alone, hmm? What if that mother was just one of many like her? You could have brought her in and questioned her. You could have saved other people, if that’s what you really wanted.”

  I flinched back as if I’d just been struck, so thoroughly did his statement mirror my own doubts. “That was careless of me.”

  “At least you’ll admit that much.”

  It was the first time my father had spoken to me this way, not as a father would speak to his precious daughter, but as an angry Lord would talk to a subject that had gone against his will. He wasn’t really my father, and yet my chest clenched anyway. This wasn’t how I’d wanted this conversation to go.

  The silence stretched, growing more uncomfortable. I didn’t want to break it, and my father didn’t seem so inclined either. I was just about to get up and leave when a thought occurred to me.

  “Do you know if there are more? More children like Sere out there? You speak as if you know something.”

  I almost didn’t think he would answer me.

  “There are.”

  My anger rose again. “And so why haven’t you rooted them out yet? Is the w so flimsy a thing it can’t even save children?” The anger was infecting my voice.

  “I’ve tried. In our part of the city, we’ve been quite successful.” He didn’t sound upset. Or annoyed. He sounded tired. “But some of the other families don’t care nearly as much. It’s not something often talked about, but more and more children have been going missing in the city over the st few months.”

  It likely went beyond them not caring. I wouldn’t be shocked if some of the other nobles actively profited from it in some way. It really was a tale as old as time.

  So, in rescuing one little girl from another District, I had-

  “I see you’re finally starting to understand.”

  “Will it be a big problem?”

  “Not because of how you handled it.” He said reluctantly.

  “I apologize,” I said finally. “I should have dragged her to our district first.”

  My father reacted in the most unexpected way: he smiled. Then he sighed. “I don’t know what to do with you child. Just- just be careful, Esra.”

  I was starting to suspect that was what this was really about. He was…concerned about me, more than he was worried about the status of our House.

  “I will, Father.” I rose, expecting that to be the end of it. I turned and took a few steps.

  “Esra?”

  I didn’t turn, only stopped in pce.

  “I think you did the right thing. Even if I don’t agree with how you did it.”

  I didn’t answer, only opened the door and left. It was a little hard to keep the smile off my face.