“Who veiled your core?” Claude asked without preamble. “No one’s been able to penetrate it.”
“I don’t know,” I responded. “It’s been like this my whole life.”
Half that statement was true. Zephyr had strongly suggested that Tycho Reyes had veiled my core, though I had no proof that was true. Even dragons could be wrong, and I wasn’t sure why the elder of the Disciples of Jade Flame would have gone to such extravagant lengths to protect my secret from everyone.
Elder Ariana skewered a nugget of filet with her fork. She fixed me with a cold stare, pulled the meat off the silver tines with perfectly white, even teeth, then chewed slowly as if considering my answer.
“He is telling the truth,” she said at last. “I think. The veil is insidious, and it is difficult to read the boy.”
Elder Sanrin idly stroked the waxed length of his beard as he considered this.
“The veil is a work of considerable skill and immense power,” he said. “It is hard to believe someone would do such a thing without a very good reason. And yet, no one will admit to being the mastermind behind it. Perhaps that will work in our favor.”
The other Elders watched me patiently, as if expecting some sort of reaction. When I kept right on eating, they turned their attention back to their own plates.
The silence stretched over the table for an uncomfortably long time. The only sound was the quiet clink and scrape of cutlery against plates and teeth, and by the time I’d cleared my plate I was afraid if someone didn’t say something soon, I’d burst.
“That was amazing,” Brandon said. He dabbed at the corners of his mouth with his napkin, pushed his plate toward the center of the table, and sat back further in his chair. “As always, my most sincere compliments to the chef. I see our guest has finished, as well. Perhaps it’s time to get down to business.”
He said that last in a tone that was either ominous or joking, and I couldn’t tell which. The other elders glanced at one another, then at me, and also pushed their plates away.
“You gave us quite a scare last year, Jace,” Elder Hirani said in a voice as smooth and soft as silk. “We do hope you forgive us for sending Hagar to... deal with the issue. But we really had no choice. You seemed rather intent on disrupting our plans.”
“Because he wouldn’t bend the knee?” I was surprised that Claude jumped to my defense so quickly. The man hadn’t seemed to like me at all. “You can’t fault the boy for doing his best.”
“It’s water under the bridge,” Ariana said sharply. “We did what we had to to protect ourselves and our long-term plans, Jace. Unfortunately, your discovery at the end of the last school year has done more to unravel those plans than winning challenges ever could have.”
I carefully placed my knife and fork on my empty plate. I really wanted to ask for more picanha but decided that would have been rude. Instead, I settled for the thing I wanted next most in the world.
Answers.
“I’m very sorry, honored Elders,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “I don’t understand any of this. I know I attracted a lot of attention to the Shadow Phoenixes last year, and that was the reason why you sent Hagar and Deacon to kill me. Honestly, I was more than a little worried that you planned to finish the job today. What’s changed?”
Sanrin chuckled at my question and leaned forward to eye me down the length of the table.
“Jace, I want to be very clear about two things. First, Deacon was not acting on our orders. He’s been relocated to another educational facility this year to learn the error of his ways. Second, everything has changed since our botched assassination attempt. You discovered a member of the Locust Court hidden within the School of Swords and Serpents,” he explained. “You revealed one of the most important members of Empyreal society was a traitor and a heretic.”
“Which embarrassed the hell out of Claude,” Brandon said with a smirk. “He’s been hunting heretics for decades without as much success as you had without even trying.”
“I am not taking the bait, Brand,” Claude said. His hand tightened around his knife, knuckles popping loudly. “Jace was lucky, and Bishop was lazy and careless.”
“I still don’t understand.” The combination of so many powerful cores and a belly filled with delicious, rich food had me feeling dazed and slow. “I don’t understand anything about heretics or the rest of what you’re talking about.”
“Ah, we don’t have much time. I’ll give you the short version,” Elder Hirani said with a warm smile. “Our forebears committed a horrible crime, Jace. We’ve been trying to undo that wrong ever since. We have agents scattered throughout Empyreal society. They are tasked with finding and eliminating threats to the Empyrean Flame. Since the discovery of the Locust Court’s emissary last year, those threats have become more active.”
She had to mean the anti-Flame activists. Protestors had vandalized government buildings and temples. The news I’d seen about the attacks never offered much information on what the protestors hoped to gain or even meant. There’d been some rumors of protest marches in the undercities, but I’d never seen one.
“It’s a difficult and demanding job,” Elder Ariana continued. “Primarily because our agents risk discovery with every mission. If an operative is revealed, they become useless to us as a covert asset.”
That made sense. Once a secret agent’s identity was no longer secret, they weren’t much good.
“Our adversary has also gotten much cleverer these past months.” Sanrin scratched his beard and entwined his fingers in front of him.
