“Ambassador, I come before you today to request sanctuary within the walls of the embassy.” Ellie had planned out and memorized her speech, but as she spoke to the ambassador now, she had the strangest sensation that she was not alone in the room with the noblewoman. A voice—a male voice, one that was almost familiar but not wholly so—came in under her own voice, speaking the words with her. It was as though—but no, that was not possible. He was dead. “I am formerly of a noble House of Ikedria, but was taken prisoner, and my house destroyed several seasons ago.”
“You told my guard that you have no surname or house.” The ambassador looked down her hawkish nose at Ellie, who shrank back a bit from the stare. But there was that voice again, that feeling that she was not alone—and she stood a little straighter before continuing.
“Ambassador, I am certain that you are familiar with House Turlach?” The woman staring back at Ellie paled a bit but regained her composure.
“Of course I am. Everyone in noble society in Ikedria was devastated when that House was lost to the great fire a few years back. What of it?”
“I am of House Turlach.” Ellie lifted her chin as she had seen her mother do when she was but a child, and as she and Maelfie had done when imitating their mother at night in their room. The ambassador studied her for a moment, her carefully and expensively manicured nails pressed to her lips—and then she laughed. “I fail to see why that is funny, ambassador.”
“It is not funny, child. It is downright ridiculous!” Ambassador Q’Indyrk wiped a tear away from her eye. “No one survived the fire that wiped out that House. Both Kamendar and his younger sister, Elspethe-”
“I am Elspethe Turlach.”
“Outrageous.” The ambassador waved her hand dismissively at Ellie. “Now, off with you, I have more important things requiring my attention.” Not only did Ellie not leave, but she also moved between the ambassador and the only doorway in the room.
“I can prove it.” This was the moment that she would first test the spell work that she had been painstakingly researching and restoring from Taeben’s notes and spellbooks. She thought of him—his alabaster skin and silver eyes—and pushed her way into the ambassador’s mind. Memories—all falsehoods that Ellie had worked hard to create and memorize—flooded into the woman’s mind. House Turlach was not destroyed. Elspethe was kidnapped by wood elves. Kamendar was killed. Elspethe escaped and now sought sanctuary. “And you see, Ambassador, I cannot return to Ikedria under my real name. They will come for me again. Would you not see such a noble house restored here, in your embassy? Just think of the wealth that would be afforded to a servant of our cursed Father, who works with such a highborn house to restore it to glory?” She paused a moment, concerned that she had pushed too far. Taeben had warned her of that possibility, and the dire consequences to the mind being controlled. The ambassador smiled at her, and Ellie released a breath that she had not realized she had been holding.
“You will make sure that the other Houses know of my sacrifice? You will make sure that they hear how I saved House Turlach?” Ellie fought back a grin and nodded serenely.
“You will be sure to go down in the history of our people as a hero, Ambassador.” She pushed back into the ambassador’s mind for a moment, looking for a specific memory. Perfect. “You will be more revered than your mother by far.” She felt the other female’s agreement fall into place like a bolt into a lock on a door.
“What do you need from me?”
“I need space to live and work here within the embassy, and I do not mean servants’ quarters.”
“Oh, of course not—only the best for the last surviving member of House Turlach.”
Ellie smiled as she took the ambassador’s hand in hers. The woman flinched—it was not like their kind to offer or receive such intimate gestures. Ellie ramped up her control once again, and the ambassador visibly relaxed, not flinching as Ellie conjured a bit of electrical magic that fizzled as it carved a small sigil into the ambassador’s wrist. It branded her a servant of House Turlach—Ellie had seen her parents do the same to her house servants when she was a child, and she and her siblings bore the same sigil on the backs of their necks. “I cannot thank you enough, Ambassador.”
“I live to serve, Lady Turlach.”
By the end of the day, Ellie was settled into a suite on the top floor of the embassy. She had a bedchamber with an attached bathroom, a meager kitchen that was more than she had been used to at home, and three rooms for her work. One of the rooms had a desk that covered the entire corner, with shelves built into the walls above it. Ellie walked through all of the rooms over and over, running her fingers along the cold marble walls and doors that contained no magical strips of light to burn her fingers or spots where water dripped down from the ceiling. There were windows in the room, presumably because the embassy was built by the Guardians for other purposes before the Ikedrians took it over. Still, they had heavy shutters that could completely block out the light in the rooms. Ellie found that she didn’t mind being above ground as much as she had when she lived in Ikedria—she rather enjoyed watching sunrises and sunsets, as she had seen many of them with Taeben and it made her feel
