“How to realize what I know and don’t know.” Ravenna poured herself a glass and turned, leaning back against the wall, rim of the glass pressed to her rouged lower lip. “How to identify my assumptions.”
“And understanding your ignorance leads you to think you know me?” asked Naomi.
“A test?” Ravenna arched a thick brow. “Fine. Everyone knows your past. How your father plied you with pills till you ignited your Heart. How you were driven out of the Academy, the infamy you courted in the ruins.”
Naomi narrowed her eyes. “I courted nothing.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, do you think you could do everything you’ve done and not raise questions? People have looked into your past. The Nightmare Lady. You took in Scorio, you helped him ignite, you were part of the training that allowed him to help Imperator Sol. Which means,” and here Ravenna began to tick off her fingers, “you learned far more than people thought at the Academy, which indicates a high intelligence, and you were an excellent teacher, which indicates a specific kind of patience matched with discipline and wisdom -”
“Ha,” said Scorio. “Is that what we call beating someone into having an epiphany?”
“Intelligent, disciplined, patient, but no doubt married to bitterness and anger.” Ravenna’s gaze was searingly intense. “Then you helped Scorio reach first place in the end of year Gauntlet run, so we can add inordinately dangerous and talented to that list.”
“I think we’re done here,” said Naomi.
“Then you survived Manticore’s betrayal, and, according to Moira, tempered Silver, which required more work and tolerance for pain than I can imagine -”
Naomi set her glass of water upon the ground with a distinct and ominous clink.
“You questioned my ability to know you,” said Ravenna, tone assured. “I trust I’ve proven that even basic deductions can come close to the mark?”
“It’s great to see you again, Ravenna,” said Scorio with mock heartiness. “It’s just like old times.”
“Hardly.” Ravenna sipped her water. “Though you both seem intent on continuing your pattern of upsetting everyone as you pretend to know nothing about what’s going on.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” demanded Naomi.
“Not only did you arrive at the Fury Spires unannounced, but you came from the south -”
“We were following a World Worm’s tunnel,” said Scorio.
“Precisely. Who does that? And then you supposedly killed a Ferric Drake in self-defense and happened upon a Gurlock team returning home. Scorio. Even if you had no reputation at all, that’s enough to raise eyebrows.”
“What can I say?” Scorio grinned mirthlessly. “I don’t do things in half-measures.”
“The situation here is incredibly tense.” Ravenna wasn’t amused. “I don’t think you have any idea. And then you both come dancing in, pretending to have no agenda -”
“We don’t have an agenda,” snapped Naomi.
“I know that, but do you think anyone else believes it? You’ve accomplished more impossibilities in three years than most Great Souls do in a lifetime. And now you arrive just days before the meeting that will decide the course of the Blood Ox war -”
“A coincidence,” said Scorio.
“- with no announced loyalties, driving everyone to think you’re a spy or operative for someone intent on either sabotaging the upcoming meeting or swaying it in their favor. Seriously. Guys.” Ravenna shook head helplessly. “You’re driving Moira mad.”
“Moira?” Scorio frowned. “What have we done to her?”
“I told you she’s been playing chess on four or five levels. She thrives where she can predict and understand what’s going to happen. You two? You’re like toddlers kicking their way through her carefully built sandcastles. I keep assuring her that you’re simply idiots -”
Naomi affected an expression of feigned surprised. “I’m sorry. Say that last part again?”
“- who have no sense of what they’re doing, but she keeps trying to convince herself you actually did sign an agreement with Plassus or Vermina at that council in Bastion where you were forgiven of all charges.”
“Pyre Lady Druanna offered to escort us to Nightsong,” said Scorio firmly. “She owed us her life, so we agreed. We took an obscure path through the Rascor Plains, and then descended by means of a path known only to Kraken operatives into the Iron Weald. That took us five weeks - we weren’t rushing - and halfway through the Iron Weald we came across the World Worm’s tunnel.”
Ravenna crossed her arms. “Which you decided to explore, and thereby abandon Druanna, out of sheer curiosity?”
“We had our reasons,” said Scorio, then caught Naomi’s outraged stare. “What? She knows we did, and I won’t insult her by pretending otherwise.”
“And I’m not your enemy,” said Ravenna.
“You work for Moira.”
“I’m learning from her, yes. And she has her own interests, true, but she’s far from an enemy of yours. If anything -”
A new voice cut into their conversation. “If anything, she appreciates being included in conversations about her.”
Moira entered the common room, untying her broad cloth belt without embarrassment and turning at the last so that Ravenna could help her out of her ornamental robes.
Pyre Lady Moira. Her oval face was as pale as ever, her ebon hair drawn back into a tight bun. She studied Scorio back frankly in return, her eyes the same mesmerizing, malachite green ringed with hazel. Her face was a starfield of freckles, some of them bleeding over onto her lips, and her self-possession, dignity, and poise were that of a far older woman than her late-twenties would indicate.
“Pyre Lady,” said Scorio, inclining his head.
Ravenna folded the heavy robes over one arm and hurried into a side room, leaving Moira in the simplicity of her black and golden silken underrobe. Her unwavering confidence made the delicate garment seem nothing less than fitting for the occasion. “Flame Vaults. Alain tells me you’ve already dined.”
Scorio quirked his head to one side. “You ran into him?”
A gleam of amusement entered Moira’s eyes. “Hardly. He allowed me to touch him during my last visit to the Fury Spires. He asked that I reveal this to you; he meant to do so himself, but was so flummoxed by his forgetting to tell you of my invitation that he forgot. He doesn’t wish our connection to be a secret.”
“Doesn’t he realize that makes us less likely to trust him?” demanded Naomi.
“He understands that earning your trust will be an uphill battle, yes.” Moira smiled gratefully as Ravenna returned with a set of informal robes, and allowed her to slip them on. “He’s worth your time. Alain is at best a flawed tool, but I think he has the makings of a good friend.” She cinched her belt tight and stepped down to sit opposite Naomi in the rotunda. “Regardless, you’ve secured his attention. He’s so desperate in his loneliness that he’ll do almost anything to become your friend.”
“Fantastic,” muttered Naomi.
Ravenna moved to the far side of the room and busied herself with rebuilding a small fire set within a sunken cauldron in the floor.
“You’ve chosen a significant time to arrive at the Fury Spires,” said Moira lightly. “Was the timing deliberate?”
“Hardly,” said Scorio, stepping down to sit next to Naomi. “Though apparently that’s hard to believe. We were injured killing a Ferric Drake and came in search of healing and rest.”
“So I heard. But weren’t you making for the Nightsong Outpost with Druanna?”
“We were.” Scorio fought to keep his manner calm. “We were separated from her by a razor wind and took refuge in a World Worm tunnel. That’s where the Ferric Drake found us.”
“Is that so?” Her tone remained light. “You expect me to believe that you and Druanna couldn’t handle a razor wind?”
“It was a very powerful one,” said Scorio with a smile.
Moira dipped her head in acknowledgment of the rebuff. “Fair enough. So Druanna proceeds apace to Nightsong, and you stumbled here. May I ask what you intend?”