Page 149 of Librarian

“Kyrie,” Leo whispers, his hand brushing against my spine. “What do you want me to do?”

He’s been watching me all morning, but I’ve chosen not to acknowledge it. If it wasn’t him, it would’ve been one of the others. I understand where their protectiveness is coming from.

It would be imprudent to send them away when I’m not as strong as I should be.

“Stay invisible,” I order, not daring to move my lips. “And do nothing rash.”

His hand drops, but he doesn’t move away. The heat of him stays close to my back as the soldiers crowd the room. I’m glad for it.

If this is Mathias’s next attack, I’m not alone.

My heart hurts a little when I realise the ranking officer approaching my desk this time is a longstanding patron. Blanche Winthrop. A regular with a habit of arriving early on the weekends to secure her favourite table in Kinetic Hall.

It’s odd to see her in a uniform. I never knew what she did for work. Why would I? She was one of the good ones. Never causing trouble.

Not so much as one strike in all her time here.

If the epaulettes she's wearing are any indication, she’s a sergeant, too.

“That’s the woman who got us out after what happened to Benny,” Leo whispers from behind me.

I look her up and down with new eyes, noting the lines of stress around her mouth and the stubborn set of her spine.

“Librarian,” she begins. “We’ve come to join you.”

The silence that follows is too long. For some reason, my mind cannot seem to process those five simple words.

“Join us?”

I know she was an ally of Benny’s, but that surely can’t mean what I think it does. Notallof these people.

“This morning, Mathias Ackland alerted enforcement to the murder of Isidora Carlton,” Blanche explains. “He then claimed it was part of a plot by the parriarchs of the other houses, with absolutely no evidence, and declared them enemies of arcandom, along with all of the current heirs. After that, he quickly claimed the position of rector and made himself vicegerent of both Carlton and Winthrop.”

My mouth falls open at the ludicrously blatant overreach, but she’s not done.

“And the aegis have gone off the deep end. They’ve made Isidora a martyr, and now they’re arresting anyone who’s spent too much time in the Arcanaeum or spoken out against her in the past. They’re even questioning people who shared the video of her executing our officers.”

“And all of you decided to come here?”

Blanche shrugs. “The way I see it, my job is to defend arcanists. Right now, that means protecting them from my own corrupt leadership and a vicegerent on a power trip.” She pauses, shifting her weight to one side. “Also, Benny Carlton was a friend. I believe what he said about the real necromancers being Isidora and Mathias. Truth be told, a lot of us tried to demand an investigation the moment the video came out, but that pinned targets on our backs. A lot of the higher ups on our side are currently in cells or being forced to resign.”

My gut goes numb, and I look back at Leo, who drops his invisibility spell. “Go find Dakari and Jasper. They should know about this.”

It’s an escalation we can’t ignore.

Such loud moves are unlike him. Mathias has always worked from the shadows. Even when he killed me, he was neverinterested in taking the position of rector. Now he’s stepping into the spotlight fully?

Why? Is this just a distraction?

“What else has happened?” I ask Blanche. “Leave nothing out, no matter how small.”

One of her men walks forward, hefting a heavy pile of paper in his arms. “It’s dry reading,” he apologises, dropping it onto my desk with a loud thud. “I’ve barely gotten past the first page, but it was published this morning. There’s a bunch of reforms to the arcane public services. Job cuts. New positions. Removal of funding from several media organisations…”

I raise a brow, flicking through. There must be several hundred pages here.

I’m willing to bet that whatever is in this document will cause more headaches, but that’s a project for after I’ve figured out what to do with these soldiers.

The obvious answer would be to enlist their help fighting the aegis, but that’s not necessarily the wisest course of action.