Ash moved to rise the moment the Elf finished speaking. The motion was half-complete before the woman stopped her. "The Archon wants only the half-demon."
Ash tried to rise anyway. She was halfway to her feet when my hand found her shoulder. The gesture came before I had thought to make it. It was the same gesture she had placed on me so many times. I had never been the one to make it first. "It will be fine," I said.
"But-"
"Whatever this is about," I said, "your presence will not change it. I will be fine."
“And you are sure about this?” She asked.
I opened my mouth to answer. I closed it, because I was not sure. And I would not lie to Ash. “No. I am reasonably certain, that is all.”
Ash looked at my hand on her shoulder, then up at me. Her jaw worked. Slowly, she nodded and sat back down. “Guess that’ll have to be good enough.”
Ren and Corin stayed where they were, flanking Edda's bed.
I left with the Elf. The door closed behind us, and the infirmary's quiet was replaced by the sound of our footsteps on stone.
We walked in silence. The corridors were dim with late light, and the Academy had started to rest. Students passed us, as they always did. The Elf drew more attention than I had expected. Her pale hair and fine robes made heads turn, and I noticed she did not acknowledge a single one of them, though plenty tried to earn it.
For the first time since I had come to this Academy, I saw demonbloods who did not shy from me. A boy with faint horn nubs, no older than Corin, met my gaze as we passed. He did not press himself to the wall. He did not drop his eyes. A girl with the same ashen skin as Malachor held my gaze for two full seconds before looking away. I did not have a name for the look they gave me but it was not fear. Most of the demonbloods still reacted as they had, but not all of them. Were these the ones who had been in the Arena, or the ones who had heard?
The Elf spoke near the end of one of the corridors."There is a saying among my people," she said. "The branch that grows wrong gets cut first."
I said nothing. Perhaps Edda had refused to grow at all, so that she would never be the first to be cut. Perhaps many of the demonbloods felt the same way. I did not say this either.
We stopped outside the Archon's office. The door was closed. The Elf gestured me forward with a motion that managed to be both polite and dismissive at once. I stepped inside. The door closed behind me.
I read the room before anyone spoke. The Archon sat behind his desk in the same position I had first seen him in, his hands were folded, his pen set aside. He looked tired, though I got the impression much of this tiredness had come very recently.
Lena stood to the right of the desk. Her hair was pulled back and her posture was rigid. Her Sigil pulsed faintly on her forearm.
Behind her, at the far wall, stood a man I did not recognise. He was tall and wore robes of deep blue. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, such that I could not see his mark. When he looked at me, his eyes burned. When he looked at Lena, his posture was deferential. Some manner of servant then. A retainer?
"Archon," I said. "You wished to see me."
The old man inclined his head. "Lysanthia. Thank you for coming so promptly." He gestured to the chair across from his desk. "Please, sit. It seems we have a matter to discuss."
I did not sit. The Archon did not press the point. "One of our students has raised some… concerns," he said. His tone was neutral. "About a recent event at the Academy. I thought it best to address it directly, rather than let it fester."
Lena spoke then. Whatever patience the Archon was exercising, the girl had none of it. "You hurt my friend," Lena said. Her voice was sharp, almost painfully so.
I looked at her. I waited for the rest. It did not come, so I spoke instead. "Which friend?"
"Tobias Redford." The girl put weight on the name, pressing its importance. It pressed nothing on me.
"I did not hurt him," I said. "That was Edda, and it was a duel. Your friend accepted the terms. I may not know every custom of this Academy, but surely even a fool understands that there is some risk of injury in a duel. He will heal, in time."
Lena's composure cracked wide open at that. She took a step forward. The man in blue shifted against the far wall -a motion so slight I might have missed it if I had not been watching.
"That girl would never have dared to do what she did without someone putting her up to it," Lena said, her voice rising. "Don't deny it. Not after that thing you did at the end. And I’ve heard from the others. You caused this, half-demon."
"And so what if I did?"
Lena's lips twisted. "Your special status has gone to your head. Now you are starting fights between the Lines."
"That is a strange version of events," I said. I folded my arms. "The one I saw had your Tobias wanting a fight he was not prepared for."
The Archon spoke then, cutting through whatever Lena had been about to say. "Your friend accepted a duel of his own volition," he said. "The outcome was unexpected, yes. It was still a lawful duel."
Lena nodded. It did not feel like a nod that came from agreement. Then she pointed at me. "It was." She paused. "Lysanthia." She said my name the way one says something foul. "I challenge you to a duel in three days from now."
I stared at the girl. Then I turned to the Archon. "You cannot be serious." Was this why I had been brought here?
The Archon looked strained. More strained than I had ever seen him. It was a subtle thing. A tightening at the corners of his mouth, the briefest lowering of his gaze. He looked to Lena, and then, reluctantly, he nodded.
The realization settled over me slowly. The girl's name carried more weight in this room than the Archon's own. The girl had thrown me a challenge. I turned back to the girl. I did not want to accept. There was no point to it, no matter the outcome, and in this case there could only be one outcome. And yet.
I recognized the look in Lena's eyes. The vindictiveness in them was not spent. It would not spend itself on a refusal. If I walked away, the girl could not touch me, but there were others who could be touched. If her name could make the Archon bend, what could it do to someone like Corin? What could it do to a demonblood whose name I did not even know? Once, it would not have been a consideration at all. Now it was.
This was a false choice. The kind I had given to many, when I had been Queen. I knew the shape of it. I had forced Edda to stand in almost the same way. Now, the same false choice had turned, and found me standing in the same place.
“I am at Line,” I said. “She is at the Sigil. You would have duels between people at different stages? A strange thing to call a duel.”
The Archon winced at this. I had guessed right. “The difference between your marks would normally make such a thing frowned upon. There have been duels between students of different advancements, but never here. Never at this Academy. So perhaps-”
“You said you did not care for the difference between marks, half-demon.” The girl cut him off. “Do you remember? Or are you choosing to forget it now?”
When had I said that? I did believe it, but I did not recall saying- Ah. That night when Sol had hatched, and that Inker had come to take her away. In my fury, Ash and I had been willing to step against an Inker, our Lines against his Sigil. I had said such a thing then. It seemed the man had talked, and talked to this girl.
I looked at the Archon. He met my gaze, and shook his head, just slightly. He would not, or perhaps could not help me here. I met the girl’s gaze again. If this Lena had gone so far out of her way, then so be it. "Very well," I said. “I will accept this duel.”
Lena smirked. It was the first expression she had worn that reached her eyes. "We'll need to set stakes," she said. "As you are so special, you don't have a ranking. That's fine." She stepped forward. "If I win, I demand you leave this Academy. Never to return. You can take that little human demon-lover with you."
Stakes. Edda and Tobias had set stakes too. It seemed it extended well beyond their ranking system. Which meant I could ask for something in turn. "Then," I said. "In exchange, if I win this contest, you will never enter my sight again. You will never harm or attempt to harm anyone with my blood again."
Lena blinked, as if the phrase my blood confused her. Then, the girl's smile widened. "Deal."
She turned to the Archon. "There you have it. It's been agreed to." The words were light. The Archon sighed. "So it has."
Lena turned back to me. She raised three fingers, holding them up the way one might hold a trophy. "Three days." Then she left. The man in blue followed behind her, silent as he had been the entire time. The door closed.
The room was quieter without them. The Archon and I were alone.
"You should not have agreed," the Archon said. I looked at him. His hands were folded on the desk. The tiredness had not left his face. "A formal duel in the Covenant requires the consent of both parties," he continued. "Had you simply not agreed, there is no authority save the Divine’s that could have forced it. I could have done something."
I looked at the man. I thought of the demonbloods who pressed to the edges of hallways. Of the boy in the Beast Taming class who had mocked Sol because he thought himself protected. Of Corin, who had apologized for his own pain. Of Edda, who had chosen not to grow. Yes, this was something that had needed doing since I’d first stepped into these halls.
"It seems," I said, and my voice was exactly as cold as I had intended, "that you can do very little, regardless."
I expected a rebuke. Whatever friendly veneer this man wore, he would not tolerate being questioned. He was still the strongest person I had met in this world, save perhaps for Morrigan.
The Archon frowned, and tipped his head instead. "Perhaps there's some truth to that." I blinked. I said nothing. The Archon looked at me. "Do you know who Lena's father is?"
"Some lord or other." The man had a proper title, and I was sure I had heard it. I could not remember it now.
The Archon sighed. "Would that he were just another lord." He leaned back in his chair. "Lena's father is Marquis Eckhart. He is the ruler of Koralis. This entire city, on which this Academy is built."
I stared at him. I had thought this Archon the greatest power in this city. The old man who could unmake a village without lifting his hand.
"I am the most important person in this city only on paper, perhaps," the Archon said, as if reading my thoughts. "And paper is worth little. This Academy's funding is provided entirely by the Marquis. As such, he holds influence over it that he should not. The Divine's decree gives us autonomy." He paused. "But all decrees need coin, and all coin does not need decrees."
I folded my arms. I could understand something of this. No matter who I had assigned to run a conquered province, if any of my Generals had walked in, the weight of authority would be clear. Perhaps it was not entirely similar, but it was similar enough. "That is why you allowed this to happen."
“Allowed,” he said, as if the word tasted bitter. Perhaps it did. Then he fixed me with a look that was sharper than the tired face around it deserved. "More than that…the terms you agreed to are foolish."
"They are simple terms."
"They are foolish terms." His gaze never left. "You may bind Lena herself from acting. She would honor such a binding, for the vow would make her. But people in power rarely act by their own hand. She has followers and sympathetic ears, even among the Inkers. They are not a part of this duel. They cannot be bound by its outcome.”
I held his gaze. "That may be true," I said. "But even a minion might reconsider the master they serve, if they see that master beaten on the floor. With the weight her name has, I could not have asked for more. Not without making this entire academy shake."
The Archon blinked. "You considered that?"
His surprise was almost insulting. "For the demonbloods I have seen here, yes. Only for them. I have seen Koralis outside these walls, briefly. They are treated better here." Only a fool might not have seen that much.
The Archon studied me. He said nothing for a time.
I pressed on. "You wanted me here for my potential. It seems that potential will be wasted if this Lena has her way."
"I suspect you will reach your potential no matter the outcome," the Archon said. "The terms would allow her to expel you from this Academy. There are others. I expect you would be in a new one before the month is out."
That annoyed me more than the duel itself. I had not been here long. By any reasonable measure, it had been only days. I had been forced to come here at all, and yet the thought of leaving settled in me like something unwelcome.
Would Ash come with me? She would. That much I knew. And the others? Ren, whose volume was insufferable but whose fire was genuine. Alisa, who had declared herself my rival and for a brief moment, had made me believe it. Malachor, a strange half-demon who seemed, against all probability, reasonable. Edda, who carried only fire behind her coldness. Even Corin, who bowed too deeply for someone that did not deserve it.
I did not know them for very long at all. Some I had hardly spoken to. I wanted the chance to speak to them more anyway. Just to sate my own curiosity.
"Of course," the Archon said, and something shifted in his voice, "that is if you lose." He steepled his fingers. "The outcome is… unclear. It should be impossible for a Line to do anything against a Sigil. But perhaps that will not be the case here."
"And why is that?"
The Archon looked at me. "You advanced from Spark to Line quickly. Almost faster than anyone I have ever read about. And there is the boy, Corin. He had a mark that would not work. A tragedy, but it happens. It happens more often than it should." He paused. "He has a working Spark now." The Archon's gaze did not waver. "A Sovereign mark that has to do with healing could do such a thing," he said, "if one understood its nature." The words were measured, and then, almost to himself, barely above a murmur, he said, "Almost understand it too well, for just a Line."
I said nothing. The man was asking. I would not answer him. Whatever he suspected, he did not know.
The Archon watched me for a moment longer, then let the silence go. "You may use the Sigil resonance chamber," he said. "Three days is a short time. But perhaps…perhaps you might advance in the meantime. Perhaps you might discover something else. Have Ren show it to you. Three days is too short of a time for classes, but the Athenaeum might provide instruction. I would instruct you myself but…."
“You cannot, given who she is,” I said for him. He nodded almost regretfully.
When I first stepped into this Academy, I thought this Archon possessed absolute power. What else would the man who had made Lysanthia kneel possess? I was wrong. It seemed he had only enough power to be bound by it.
"There was another chamber," I said. "The one for Crests. The one you mentioned before. It must be better than the one for mere Sigils. I will use that."
"That is not possible."
"Why?"
"Ilyasviel is using it." The Archon said. He sighed, and this time he sounded more tired than before. "And that chamber cannot be opened from the outside."
I had nothing to say to that. This chamber for Sigils would have to be good enough then. I turned to leave. I was halfway to the door when the Archon's voice caught me. "Do not lose." I stopped. The words were barely above a whisper. "I called you an investment when you first came to me. I am not saying this because I wish not to lose an investment."
"What then?" I asked, without turning.
"Have you noticed?" The Archon's voice was quieter still. "The demonbloods at this Academy. Some of them are beginning to walk with their heads held high. More will, after they hear of that ranking match. I would not like to see that change so soon."
I turned back. The old man sat behind his desk, his hands folded, his pen untouched. He looked tired, and old. I have buried too many students that looked like you. Those words came to me now.
I would answer him then, since his wishing was sincere. "I have never once lost in my life," I said.
The Archon held my gaze. Whatever he found in it, he did not share. He nodded once, and I left.