Noxia Shade's Arc

Chapter 10 of 15

The sixth gate clicked shut and the spymaster did not rise. He set a small bound notebook on the tray, its red ribbon hanging like a cut vein. Her teacher's hand was on every page. "Say it," he said. "Out loud. Commit, or walk back through that door empty." Noxia looked at the notebook, then at the rusted anchor fused into the stone floor beside his chair. Chains ran into rock. Nothing said here would lift again. She opened her mouth and found only rehearsed lines waiting. She closed it. Instead, she slid her boot off. She set it on the rim of the gemstone sand pit at her side. The shimmering surface dimmed. A small winged creature near the pit dropped and twitched once. The spymaster's eyes narrowed, then steadied. He had his answer without a word. "I don't owe you a speech," Noxia said. "You've seen the work. You'll see it again, on whoever you point me at." She pulled the notebook across the tray and tucked it under her arm. He inclined his head, slow, and the seventh gate's lock turned somewhere in the wall. She had not sworn. She had shown. And he had accepted it.