Nina was already halfway out of her seat before she saw that Svanda had raised her hand. Closed eyes shaded in purple hid half of her expression, but the thin frown on her face did little to mask the other. Saela hadn’t even moved despite what Celine had said, instead stretching lazily over the sofa while stifling a yawn. How she managed to seem so relaxed in what Nina felt was a tense atmosphere would always be a mystery to her, but right now she only had eyes for Svanda.

“It’ll have to wait then,” she said before nonchalantly glancing at the clock, a large round circle of dark wood with a silver inlay that hung above the desk. “There isn’t much time before the strike, and I still have a lot to cover with these two before then.”

Nina fought the urge to smile as Celine’s expression turned from an arrogant smile to that of someone who had just sucked on a lemon. Bitter was a surprisingly apt way to describe it, she thought to her own amusement, but Nina also knew that now was hardly the time to gloat. Svanda may have done them a favour in the short term, but the snub had also quickly driven a wedge between the two groups of women that would be difficult to remove. Not that Svanda would see it that way. Celine couldn’t take her quietly simmering anger out on someone above her in the hierarchy anyway, so in all likelihood Svanda would remain oblivious to the implications. Saela and Nina, however, would quickly prove to be a different story as soon as they were outside of Svanda’s sphere of protection. Nina didn’t even want to think about how much easier it would be for Celine to pull the necessary strings in comparison to their earlier guide either, and as a result she was sternly resolute to mind her own business and make amends if possible.

“But-”

“After,” Svanda cut her off. “I’ll also sort out my own shoes. See you in the hall, Celine.”

If the temperature in the room hadn’t seemed to drop enough already, it certainly did now. Celine’s eyes smouldered as her gaze flicked over Nina, but the majority of her thinly veiled spite was clearly reserved for Saela. Not that the girl in question seemed to notice, her expression carefree as she reached for yet another cake, but that very attitude was also undoubtedly the reason why she was singled out. At least Nina had tried to show a shred of respect by opting to stand at Celine’s earlier request, but Saela hadn’t even flinched. Not only was she disregarding Celine herself, she was also disregarding the entire hierarchy that surrounded the clan which Celine stood for.

Not good.

After watching Celine and her two attendants leave without another word, Svanda sighed before standing up and walking over to the dresser. Sitting in front of the mirror once more, she examined the reflection that stared back at her with mild distaste before glancing down at her feet.

“Can you find something for me?” she asked Nina, pointing to her feet. “You know I’m no good at this. There should be shoes in the robe.”

Nina walked over to the small robe which was placed against a wall by the bed, opening the two timber doors to see what was inside. There was surprisingly little considering Svanda’s status within the clan, although Nina was sure that she could have had more at the click of her fingers if she wished it. Only three dresses hung from the rail, two of them simple dark grey cuts while the third was a short black dress that shimmered like oil on water. There were no combat fatigues or even any regular pants for her to wear while she was comfortable in her room, so Nina instead turned her attention to the shoes below. Four pairs sat there, and even with Nina’s poor eye for fashion she could see that each pair was tailored for one of the outfits above. Swirls of both silver and gold on the two pairs in grey matched what hung above them, while the casual pair in black matched the other. Selecting the final pair without a second thought, she closed the wardrobe and walked back to where Svanda sat. Even Saela would have seen that the thin lines of purple stones which ran down the centre of the simple black design were the appropriate match, and Nina was inwardly happy that the decision had been so easy. Their start to life in the Daerx Clan castle had been poor enough without messing up Svanda’s choice of dress for all to see.

“Celine always picks these ones too,” Svanda mused as she dropped them at her feet, sliding them on with a sigh. “Reina did too, now that I think about it. Maybe you all have the same taste?”

Nina shrugged while wondering if Svanda had ever looked inside her own robe, pushing the thought to the back of her head as Saela joined them at the dresser. At least she’d managed to wipe the crumbs for the corners of her mouth by now, although Nina wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d just scraped them on the floor. Not that it mattered considering that there was probably an army of cleaners around, but Nina didn’t want to rock the boat any more than they already had. She’d eventually have to talk to Saela about her attitude if this continued. Confronting the scowl under the hood wasn’t something that she enjoyed doing, but it was certainly something that she enjoyed more than falling on the wrong side of the Daerx Clan if they hadn’t already.

“Who is she anyway?” Saela asked as she took a glance at the door. “I don’t like her.”

Svanda chuckled as she readjusted her fringe, pinching the hairs between her thumb and forefinger before angling them across her forehead. “Celine is my attendant while I’m in the castle, which as you know, isn’t very often,” she said before judging that her hair was satisfactory. “We’re both the same age, while her family has been attached to mine for generations. Her mother is also my mother’s attendant, you see, so I guess you could say that Celine was destined for her role whether she wanted it or not. Sometimes I think she hates me for it; that our positions aren’t the other way around, but at the same time she’s probably the only person within these walls that I could call a friend.”

“She must have it easy if you’re not around all the time,” Nina said.

“She does,” Svanda admitted. “She has too much time, and she uses it well to entrench herself with a lot of important players in the clan. I can’t even begin to count the number of people that have wanted to take her away from me, but she’s intelligent enough to use me as a shield to ward them off. She doesn’t want to leave either, of course, not yet. The freedom that I offer her is too valuable, and while I don’t admit it, we both know that I don’t want to let her go.”

“So, what’s she waiting for?” Saela asked.

“Marriage, of course,” Svanda said with a wry smile as she stood up, pacing back to the sofa where she poured herself another drink before sitting down. “The right one, that is. She’s had her fair share of offers already, but she’s more ambitious than most would think.”

“She wants an offer from the Daerx family,” Nina mused as she joined Svanda once more, deciding to pour herself some of whatever Svanda was drinking. Her first sip told her that it was juice, although it wasn’t like anything she’d tasted before. Tart yet refreshing, she thought over the flavour before finding that she’d taken a second sip before she even realised. The subsequent smile on Svanda’s face grew steadily as watched Nina’s reaction, and Nina in turn smiled when she realised that it was the most relaxed Svanda seemed to be since they had stepped out of the car.

“Leurang juice,” she said. “Not very popular around here, but I like it.”

“It’s alright,” Nina replied as she sat down. “Maybe I’d like it more if it was mixed with some water.”

“I’ll arrange for some next time,” Svanda replied before leaning back. “But anyway, Celine goes further than that. She’s already knocked back a couple of offers from members of the Daerx family because they were only one peak. She wants to go even higher than that, if you can believe it.”

“Can she?” Saela asked.

“Probably,” Svanda admitted. “But it all depends. Despite how stubborn she is, she can’t wait around for the right one forever.”

Nina resisted the urge to ask Svanda about suitors of her own, instead watching as Saela walked over to one of the curtains before brushing it aside. Nina couldn’t see much besides an angry sky from where she sat, but Saela was clearly looking down at the town which stretched out below them. If they were that high up, that was. Nina had lost count of how far they had actually ascended due to the countless flights of stairs they had gone both up and down, but she guessed that Svanda must have had a pretty nice view. She was top brass after all, even if she rarely seemed to live up to that. The badge that she wore, however, was all that anyone needed to see.

“By the way,” Svanda added. “You’ll need this.”

Nina stretched her hand out to take the scrap of paper that Svanda was waving in front of her, a confused expression appearing on her face as she tried to make sense of the contents that were scribbled on the scrap of paper. Four letters were written there, although they were each written many more times than just once in what seemed to be a nonsensical order.

“Left, Right, Up, and Down,” Svanda explained. “Directions from here to the hall. You’ll need them, because once you hear the strike, you won’t have long to get there.”

“What’s the strike?” Nina asked.

Svanda was about to reply when a light shudder rocked the floor, the accompanying crack of lightning reaching Nina’s ears as she jumped in surprise.

“That is the strike,” Svanda replied with a bemused expression before her face turned serious. “Listen now. What I’m about to say is important. Don’t forget it.”