Chapter 165 Chapter 165
Chapter 165 Chapter 165
Amara's POV
It happens on a Tuesday, without arrangement.
Essa comes to the study to return the founding documents she has been working from. Alaric is at the table. I am in the chair by the window with Caian, who is being fourteen months old at full volume and requires active containment.
Essa stops in the doorway.
She looks at Alaric.
He looks at her.
I say: Essa, this is Alaric. Alaric, this is Essa.
He stands.
Essa says: sit down. You do not need to stand for me.
He sits.
She comes in and she sets the documents on the table and she looks at him with the full-attention assessment I recognise. He holds still for it in the way he holds still for things that require it, without performing composure.
She says: you are taller than I expected.
He says: I have been told that.
She says: the demon is gone.
He says: yes.
She says: I can tell. You sit differently than someone who is managing something constantly. There is no management in it.
He says: no.
She looks at him for another moment.
Then she says: I have questions.
He says: I assumed.
She says: about the covenant’s position in the kingdom’s governance going forward. How you understand the relationship between the throne and the coven. What your expectations are.
He says: sit down.
She sits.
He says: the relationship as I understand it is structural rather than hierarchical. The coven holds knowledge and covenant authority. The throne holds governance authority. The two operate within their own domains and consult on matters that touch both. Neither overrides the other in their respective domain.
Essa says: who decides when something touches both domains.
He says: we do. Amara and I. By conversation, case by case.
She says: and when you disagree.
He says: we work it out.
She says: have you disagreed.
He says: yes.
She says: about what.
He says: the letter to Maren, recently. She wrote it without consultation. I had thoughts about the timing.
Essa says: and.
He says: and she was right. The letter needed to come from her specifically. My thoughts about timing were about my preference for being informed rather than about anything substantive.
Essa says: you acknowledged that.
He says: she was right.
She looks at him.
She says: the covenant’s coven is a permanent institution in this kingdom. Not a guest arrangement. Not subject to the throne’s ongoing approval.
He says: yes.
She says: you understand that.
He says: I understand that. I asked Amara to rule beside me. What she rules includes what she is, which includes what the coven is. I did not ask her to set that aside.
Essa is quiet for a moment.
She looks at Caian, who is in my arms attempting to reach the lamp cord.
She says: and him.
He says: he is both. Whatever that means in practice, we will work out.
She says: it will mean things you have not yet anticipated.
He says: most things do.
She says: Miriam would have liked you.
She says it without preamble. A statement, not a compliment.
He says: tell me about Miriam.
She says: she was the best teacher I ever produced. Stubborn. Certain of herself in ways that were sometimes right and sometimes very wrong. She loved the coven with the specific love of someone who had given everything to a thing.
She says: she would have argued with you.
He says: about what.
She says: everything. That is how she established what she trusted.
He says: and when she trusted.
Essa says: she was the most reliable person I have ever known.
She looks at me.
She says: Amara carries this alone too much.
She says it as an observation, not a complaint.
He says: I know.
She says: it is the Oris way. We were trained to be self-sufficient. To not distribute the weight. Miriam did it. The founding elder did it. It is a tradition of carrying alone.
He says: it does not have to be.
She looks at him.
He says: I know she carries things alone. I have been watching it for over a year. I do not know how to make her stop and I am not sure I should try. But it does not have to be the tradition she passes forward.
Essa says: no.
She says: it does not.
She looks at Caian again.
She says: make sure it is not.
He says: yes.
Essa picks up the founding documents.
She says: this was useful. We should do it again.
He says: any time.
She goes.
I look at Alaric.
He looks at me.
I say: she assessed you.
He says: I noticed.
I say: you passed.
He says: I noticed that too.