Ashe Knightley

I just watched a rat fly off the side of the ship before we docked. At least rats could swim, right?

Avaloryn, Whila, and I made our way into a small hut. Apparently, Torth was known to be the hottest island on the world. Funny how that worked.

Kicking off my boots, I shoved my face into a pillow for a quick second. My neck was sore from all the pushing and pulling of the sails to get here. If only we had something else to pull the ship along.

I could hear Avaloryn lecturing Whila outside my door. Folding the pillow around my head, I muted the scolds and focused on my thoughts, trying to get in touch with the girl on the other end.

"Princess," I said through my thoughts.

"What? I'm a little busy," her voice replied in my head. Honing my acquired abilities, I managed to look through her eyes and see what she was doing.

In front of her was a rack full of gowns of all shades. She was going to pick the purple one today, wasn't she?

She reached and plucked a deep plum gown from the rack. It was unfortunate that it was night here and morning there. "Are you going to tell me more about you, or are you going to just annoy me?"

"I like annoying you at times," I told her. Little did she know that she had plenty of moments where she'd be peskier than me. "Beautiful gown. You think Ilias will like it?"

"I'm not wearing it for him."

I resisted a smile, daring to ask her. "Why not? You wrote to Ashe saying you loved him."

"I'm currently mad at him."

"You very well should be after he touched you like that."

She didn't reply to me. I focused through her eyes, seeing Ilias walk into her room. And immediately, I withdrew myself from her head. What was wrong with me? Who cared if he was good or not? It was her choice.

Avaloryn knocked my door, not waiting to be invited in. Typical of her to barrage my privacy. "You brought your book, right?" she asked.

I flipped myself over on the bed, sighing. "Of course I did."

"Let's see what it's about."

We walked to the small living room and began searching through the damn book. Why would anyone spend time reading? So many different words, and they were all supposed to make sense. A ridiculous waste of time.

As I glanced through the pages, I caught several emblems of the Houses, but none from the Cadice House. Strange. I saw it when I was in Thaeleck when Valarya was reading through this. Was it triggered because she was the one reading it?

That couldn't be it. This was Torth—if anything, the book should be more triggered here. So why wasn't it?

"You look like your head's going to pop off your neck," Avaloryn pointed out.

Scrunching my brows, I flipped through more pages. "This doesn't make sense. There are marks missing."

"Maybe Odaya knows—"

"We are not going to her for help." I shot a glare at her. "Understand?"

"We don't have anything else to do. The book is useless."

"It's not." After minutes of searching, I slammed the book shut and tossed it to the corner of the table. "Let's try searching the old libraries here. Torth cannot be completely useless."

"And if it is?"

"It's not." I rose from my chair, pacing around the room. "House Cadice's symbol is the swan, correct? Then we should look out for that. Let's start at the Great Lake and look at libraries surrounding it."

"Look, perhaps we aren't thinking through this." Avaloryn joined me in pacing around the room. "If you're saying the book had symbols while you read it in that specific library, then maybe there was magic in that library that triggered the symbols to appear?"

But what kind of magic? I needed to figure out this book, and it wasn't like I had the most time in the world. Especially since Kandose would be moving in soon. I could only hope Zian received my letter and knew to start finding answers.

My fingers instinctively twisted around my bracelet. "Let's get a letter to Rysdan and have him start examining the library again. We most likely missed something."

"Kace is with him. Are you sure you want him to take—"

"If anyone can be trusted to handle my brother, it's Rysdan."

I glanced at Avaloryn, who looked at me suspiciously. "You told Valarya that you weren't really Nicholyn?"

"She can't know." And neither could anyone. If my father found out I was alive... Entorre would be demolished by King Lorcan. Every alliance would break. "I trust her, and I'll tell her one day."

She gave a small smile, gesturing at the empty place beside her on the couch. I sat down and attempted to relax. What a hopeless attempt it was.

"You should never feel like you have to tell her what happened," she finally said. "Manea's death was not your fault."

"I know that."

"I promise, we're going to find who did it. You're not alone, Nicholyn." Avaloryn rubbed her palms across my back.

My chest stung. I was most likely catching a cold. "Thank you," I said quickly as I got up, making my way back to my room. My fingers betrayed me as they clung onto my bracelet for their life. Even I couldn't force my hand off my wrist.

I looked through Valarya's eyes, watching her poke her breakfast. "You should eat something."

"You should stop talking to me unless you want to tell me who you are." I heard that little tone of hers shown through my thoughts.

"Wouldn't you love to know who I am?" I told her, laying back on my bed. "If I told, you wouldn't be able to resist me."

"So you're arrogant."

I held in a laugh, replying, "Quite the opposite. I'm humble."

She stabbed her fork through a small piece of bread. "Imagine that as your head," she bit through her thoughts to me.

"You have a hidden violent side. You know how terrifying you are, right?"

"I'll be a lot more terrifying when you see me."

"Ah, so you think you'd beat me in a duel?"

She severed the bread with a butter knife. "We'll see, you pesky voice."

"You love me."

"I'd love it if you please shut up."

"Are those manners I hear?"

Valarya didn't reply. Instead, she took the butter knife and slid it up her sleeves. So that was why she chose that dress.

"You've gotten better at communicating through the line. I'll teach you how to look through my eyes someday."

"If you're alive by the end of me."

"Such kind words. I can tell you admire me."

I watched her briskly come up from her dining chair and storm out the dining hall. Riling her up was always my favorite part of this, and the best part: she didn't know it was me.

Pulling away from her eyes, I pulled out a piece of parchment and began writing back to her previous letters.

Valarya,

There are groups of assassins in Kanbose that can help us. I also trained there for a few years. One of my frienps named Zian Austruc is the son of the best assassins' master. Currently, he's statiomed in Ahmet. We can trust him, so if any information is out, please inform em.

As for things going in Torth, the book seens to have led us to a dead end. I've asked Rysdan to examime the library back in Kampa again. Hopefully eh finds answers while I continue searching here.

Nylas wrote to me that a faerie attacked you on your way to the Palace. The same thinp most likely happened there. I do tno know why this is happening, but we should figure it out together.

I looked at her letter that she wrote. Her signature at the end. The muscles around my mouth twitched upward a bit, and I found that it wasn't unbearable to see what she had said.

'Yours'.

I shouldn't think too much about it. She was just signing the letter, after all. I had other things to worry about while writing the letter, and it had nothing to do with her.

At the end, I wrote:

Ashe Knightley

What if my handwriting wasn't well? Was she judging me? Why did I care? It was just a letter. I folded it and placed it into an envelope, making my way to the messenger station so they could deliver it to Valarya.