8: Kenet

I followed Seroi into a tower I had not been in before, in a section of the castle I had only passed through briefly a few times in all the years I’d lived there. For some reason I decided this time would not be when I would gawk at the tapestries on the corridor walls, and instead I focused on the spot in the center of Seroi’s back, trying to act like I had walked these stones a thousand times. Why, I do not know, since surely he knew full well I did not frequent this area.

Was this where he lived? I had no idea. My father had always said very little about the Lord High Mage. I assumed he lived somewhere in the sprawl of walls and towers that was the castle, but had never thought about exactly where. I’d truly never given Seroi too much thought at all.

Now the man was leading me up a set of spiral stairs, barely lit by the slits of windows, and it seemed almost as if we were descending into darkness instead of ascending into a tower, and he seemed the most solid thing in my reality.

No, it wasn’t just the dimness, the air was heavy with a cloying mist and the scent of something heady and exotic. I blinked, but a moment later, a door opened above us, and he led me through. It closed behind us with a heavy thump, the air suddenly clear and...