Minul stepped out of her bath chamber, just as the servant placed the last of her breakfast dishes on the table. Minul thanked her with a nod, then settled herself in her chair while the servant made her way out.

As the servant left, someone else slipped inside. Dressed like a peasant, he was just a smidge too tan for the winter season they’d just had. Minul had no idea how he’d slipped past her guards, though, she had a good idea. She drew a line of warp from the bread knife, just in case she was wrong.

The man pulled off his cap and unwrapped the scarf, revealing dark hair and beard that seemed familiar to Minul. They abruptly became recognizable to her, his orange eyes standing out, his skin obviously too dark to be anything but ankirian. Saif made a face as he shook off his coat and left it on the ground.

“That’s horribly itchy,” he muttered walking over to the seat opposite hers and taking the chair. He started lifting the lids on the dishes, examining their contents. She knew what he was looking for. “Ah,” he exclaimed with a smile and took the entire plate of eggs. It didn’t matter how many the cook made, that just happened to be the exact perfect size of Saif’s breakfast.

Today, however, she’d ordered the cook to make twelve eggs, a full dozen, just to see if Saif would eat them all. Happily, he dug out a fork from a different platter and started going to work on the scrambled heap before him.

“So…” Minul said browsing through her options before preparing some of the bread. “You went out last night.”

Saif shrugged, “As your Master of Spies I thought it appropriate.”

Minul sighed, she’d been trying to get him to take a proper role within her government for nearly as long as she’d known him. He’d always refused, circumvented the conversation, or simply disappeared for a couple days or weeks. And now he’d basically taken on the command of spies just because he didn’t like Leif.

Minul topped her roll with some cheese and a bit of jam and the two ate in silence. About halfway through the scrambled menace before him, Saif clearly starting rethinking the idea of eating everything.

“So we’re in agreement that Leif already has or is going to help whatever plan Inaaya has for us?” Minul asked.

Saif nodded, “Obviously, the only question is: ‘What is her plans?’”

“To out me or, quite possibly, kill me,” Minul said trying not to let the words sink in. She couldn’t work properly if she was afraid assassins were waiting around every corner. “At least, she’ll want to make me look incompetent enough that she has a good reason for taking over Elusria. If the other nations see Ankiria making a blatant land grab it is going to inspire some quite frightful rebellions. Not the least of which will be the elusrian people themselves.”

Saif nodded with a mouthful of egg, he took the time to swallow and wipe his mouth with the table cloth. Minul didn’t outwardly react to the move, knowing him well enough to realize he was just trying to crack her calm. “Her first target is likely going to be the academy in some way. Now that Leif is definitely on her side, they might use the factions as an excuse to step in.”

Minul gnawed her at her lower lip before sucking air in, “Have Pashar bring in Master Ayvir and anyone she deems loyal.”

“Anyone?”

“Keep it to teachers.”

Saif smile at that, “She was totally gonna bring in students.”

Minul leaned back in her seat, “Are there any students worth bringing in?”

“I’d say, Sansir is worth it, maybe the Sworden and Star-stone boys as well, they are influential members of their families. They could well sway the next generation of nobles in your favor.”

“You don’t recommend the boy?”

“You haven’t raised a child, they take a lot of energy and a lot of time. He’s going to be tired, prone to mistakes, not something you want in a spy. Also to my understanding, he’s not the most social of people.”

Fair enough, she took another bite of her breakfast as she considered, “Bring them in, but have Pashar use extreme caution. It would be a damn shame if any of this blew back on the students.”

Saif nodded, letting out an odd sound. Examining his plate, she found it down to it’s last tiny bit and the triplet master was looking a little ill. Still, he speared another portion with his fork.

“Hildrid officially retired from her position as Head Master of the Royal School of Ankiria. Supposedly, she’s ready to dedicate all her time to being a councilor.”

“There’s not a lot of sand in that storm,” Saif muttered shaking his head. Minul didn’t believe it for a second either.

“What I’ve also heard is that she’s already offering lessons to select students from the school outside of regular hours.”

Saif snorted, then held his stomach in pain, “What are the odds that she just happens to pick the most influential and strongest tethered for the tutelage?”

“Bad enough that I’m not taking that bet,” Minul replied. “She’s trying to maintain her grip on the future of the tethered in this country, it wouldn’t surprise me if Ulf soon comes up with a similar offer.”

Saif burped into a fist as he leaned to the side and pulled out a folder tucked into his pants, under his shirt, “Came in this morning.”

Minul sighed, and took the documents. Sure enough, there it was, Ulf’s official offer. Though he’d had the decency to keep it to third-years and above.

“What do we do about them?” Saif asked.

“For now, I don’t know that there’s anything we can do,” Minul sighed. “They aren’t doing anything explicitly illegal. If we could’ve gotten one of Pashar’s spies into a group it might’ve been worth looking into, but for now we’re going to have to wait for a different opportunity to deal with them.”

“Speaking of problematic councilors, Inga’s supposedly meeting with Inaaya tomorrow. At least, that’s what one of Tonna’s little bird’s are saying.

“That’s not surprising,” Minul sighed, “Inaaya did say that my enemies were flooding to her.”

Saif sighed, “I still can’t believe she said something like that, she sounds like one of those villains from your novels.”

“You’ve read my novels?”

Saif shrugged, “Sometimes when you sleep, it’s a little boring being an immortal demi-god that only sleeps once a century,” Said immortal demi-god then winced and grabbed his stomach, looking decidedly green around the gills as he forced himself to stand up. “I’mma throw up.”

“If you’re really going to become Master of Spies, then you need to start spying and sending spies,” Minul got up as well, though she wasn’t finished eating yet. “This is too complicated, too big, to manage on my own. I need to know if you’re going to step up, Saif. Or will I have to look elsewhere?”

Saif waved her off with dismissive wave, “I’ll take care of it, you can knight me, or whatever, later.”

“Knights are only in Vargish and Ankiria, we don’t do that here.”

“You fucking should, it’s an excellent reward to commoners that show themselves to excel in battle. Give them like a signet and a title. If it’s really big maybe a bit of land under one of your existing nobles.”

Minul frowned considering his words, “I’ll think about it, but for now, we need to know which people are in Inaaya’s pocket and which aren’t. If we’re to take any action against her, it will have to be swift, decisive, and encompassing.”

“My tummy,” Saif whined as pushed open the door to Minul’s sleeping chamber, “I’ll get right on it. I’m just gonna take a nap first.”

Minul sighed, “You’re not taking a nap in my bed.”

“Fucking try and stop me, I will smite you into an insignificant stain in history and then I’ll puke on you. Why did you order so many goddamn eggs?” He let out an odd sound between a burp and whine.

“To see if you would eat them all,” Minul replied, “I had the chef put extra milk and cheese in as well.”

Saif stopped his walk towards her bed. He stood very still for a long moment before looking over his shoulder, a look of genuine respect on his face, “That’s pretty good.”

Minul rolled her eyes and shut the door. She went to the table and prepared herself another roll, before heading over to a small jewelry display. Usually, she went pretty light on the jewelry. Partially, because she spent very little time around actual nobles and merchants rich enough to afford enough ostentatious adornment for it to compare, she didn’t want to alienate the commoners in her court by overdressing after all.

She paused seeing the small bowl sitting next to her stand of rings. Munching on her roll, she lifted the lid on the bowl. Twenty-eight small pins made out too look like the Eye of Kurri stared up at her, they’d found closer to fifty in total. Out of a suspected three-thousand participants in the riots, nearly half-a-hundred pins had been found tying them to the Masters’ movement.

When the pins had first started showing up, Minul had thought the Masters’ had a hand in the riots, but it was becoming increasingly clear that someone had planted those pins. More interestingly, however, was that out of fifty pins, more than half of them had been found by one of the students, or found near one of their clinics, though that had only come out weeks after the investigation had begun.

Another thing she’d found was the circulation of the pins had begun before the night of riots, however, it had been quite small. Only a few people had been involved. Even then, the Masters’ Council had been moving to gather students loyalty, before they left for the front lines.

I will get them all in time…