❛power isn't everything. it's the only thing.❜
[complete]
wattys 2018 winner ❧
Lin is a hunter, one of the magically enhanced witch slayers that roam a flooded world. Under the laws of four Kings and Greymark, who rules them all, Lin is unto...
"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing."
― Oscar Wilde
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The sun had dipped low beneath the toxic sea by the time Lin felt it appropriate to lean her head against the arm of her chair and mimic dozing off. Her every bone was exhausted and her mind pounded against her skull. Shabina was a fine conversationalist. Perhaps too fine. Lin couldn't remember the last time she'd been trailed in a non-stop conversation like that.
Shabina seemed to fall for it. The clink of her cup against the plate was muffled as she carefully arranged their used dishes onto a platter and handed it off to one of the guards.
Lin tracked everyone on the roof in her mind, their footsteps making it atrociously easy to do so. Four guards. They had changed them out twice in the evening, but never all at once. And it didn't escape Lin that Shabina always sat facing her.
This was why Lin didn't change her breathing when the rapid stomp of boots up the stairs rang out.
The guards were between Shabina and the intruder in an instant, one of them even trailing between Lin's 'sleeping' body and their leader. How sweet. It wouldn't have done much, but it was a good impulse.
Lin pretended to sleep through it.
The guards immediately relaxed, recognizing the newcomer.
"Kiara!" Shabina got up from her couch, hurrying to the person. One of her wives, probably. The rustle of fabric told Lin they were hugging.
"What happened – why are you – "
"We got word of a slaver, raided one of the lesser islands. The ship was unprotected near one of our mirror boats."
Shabina was silent, and Lin sort of wanted to see what face she was making. She'd been able to parse the unhappy faces from the happy ones during their conversation. But that was about it.
Kiara continued, "We didn't lose anyone. We even did a heat run around the southern major islands and some of the lessers afterwards."
"Why do you look so unhappy? Did the prisoners –"
Kiara interrupted again. Lin's brow twitched at that. "Most of them dead. Twenty survivors."
Shabina let out a sigh that sounded like her soul was being crushed. Lin tensed, her muscles quivering with the force of it.
"How many were there?"
"I don't know. The hunter boy said seventy one, but – "
She didn't get the chance to finish.
Lin vaulted over the couch and was in her face by the time Kiara's words registered.
Kiara was the hulking woman that had sat at Shabina's side the first time Lin had arrived at the Citadel. Her hair was slicked back in a long plait, showing off a high forehead and wide face. A glint of surprise passed through the much, much taller woman's eyes, but it was gone with a blink.
