It should have made her look plain and poor, since the whole room was dressed to show off how wealthy they were, but instead everyone else just seemed overdressed. Being Rennyn, she walked into the room like she owned it, didn’t even glance around, and crossed right to the centre where there was a pad of gold cloth on the floor a bit before the throne. There she stopped and curtsied, not even for a moment looking like bending down made black spots appear in front of her eyes.
The ceremony was simple and to the point. Rennyn knelt on the cloth and recited an oath to obey and protect the Queen. In return, Queen Astranelle produced a long strip of black cloth embroidered with red and gold phoenixes, which she laid around Rennyn’s shoulders like a scarf, then sounded off a whole bunch more titles than just Duchess of Surclere.
That was over quick enough, but then they decided to introduce her to everyone in the room, one by one, which was about the most boring thing imaginable. It got worse when Princess Sera, who was a horrible brat, had another go at dear cousin-ing Sebastian, trying to get one over on him. The only good part was that Rennyn had latched on to Captain Faille’s arm to help stay upright, and was making sure everyone was introduced to him as well. Even this wasn’t as entertaining as it could be, since the group of people who’d been with the snotty boy had snuck off rather than say hello to a Kellian.
"Shall we get out of here?" Sebastian asked Kendall and Sukata, as Rennyn was introduced to Noble Number Ten Thousand. "Ren won’t last much longer, and I think I’ve spoken to everyone I know."
"Finally!" Kendall wasted no time heading for the door. "Do you think Rennyn will still want to do this thing after lunch? She’s likely to fall asleep in the middle."
"That doesn’t really matter," Sebastian said, shrugging. "All she has to do is sit in a circle while I make sure Lieutenant Meniar can cast the divination."
Kendall glanced back as they reached the big doors at the back of the room, and saw that the receiving line had broken up exactly as Sebastian had predicted. But—
"Sukata, do you know who that is talking to Rennyn?"
Sukata looked, said: "Fallon DeVries," and paused to watch, which told Kendall a good deal more than the name.
"Him again?" Sebastian said, sounding surprised, probably because Rennyn was talking to the scut like she knew him. "Can you tell me anything more about him?"
"He is a solid theorist," Sukata replied, in the extra-neutral tone Kendall was coming to recognise as Sukata saying far less than she could. "Though considered a tentative caster. His father is a sculptor with a reputation for eccentricity. His uncle is Earl Harkness."
"Ah." Sebastian turned on his heel and strode off, forcing Kendall to double-step to keep up with him. Earl Harkness seemed to be the main person who wanted Kellian to not exist at all, and his money was the reason most of the newssheets had nothing but bad to say about them. Sebastian was even-tempered about most things, but the fact that Earl Harkness could do this drove him wild.
"Do you really not mind having to stay in Tyrland?" Kendall asked, to distract him before he really started brooding. "You’re going to just let her go without you?"
Sebastian gave her a suitably startled look. "Were you expecting me to have a tantrum and insist Ren took me along? I hate the idea of her chasing after our uncle without me—not only because I might never see her again, but because I know damn well I could help. But the risk to the Kellian is too great for me to argue against. It does annoy me rather a lot that she thinks it’s fine for you and Sukata to go."
"Just until they get a hint of where he is, from the sounds of it. I doubt they’re planning to let Rennyn anywhere near him either, and think Sukata and I make good babysitters."
"You could have taken the option of staying here and having me play tutor."
"I know why Rennyn finds that idea so funny, now."
"Pft."
"When you study you have no sense of time, Sebastian," Sukata said, sounding all grave, but with her eyes bright with the Kellian version of laughter. "We would spend our day making sure you are eating, and finding you the books you want."
"Well, at least you’d get to hear me rant about my latest theory," Sebastian said, with a quick look at Kendall, who had made a few pointed comments about said ranting. "Or you could help me look for this house I’m supposed to buy while everyone’s gone. Not to mention liaise with the people she’s sending up to Surclere to survey its condition. Do you know what room Rennyn wanted the divination set in?"
As usual, Sukata had paid far more attention to their instructions than anyone else, and at her direction they returned to their rooms to change to more everyday clothes, and then met in the rarely-used Sentene dining hall. Kendall had spent some time carefully putting away her fancy Court clothes, but still found only Sebastian when she arrived.
"Sukata’s gone to find out about the meal," he said, hefting one end of a bench. Kendall pulled a face, but helped him move some of the furniture aside so there was room enough to chalk a circle on the floor. Thinking it would have been more sensible to have the Kellian-strong Sukata move the furniture while Kendall annoyed people in the kitchen, she sat down to watch Sebastian marking out sigils.
"Has Rennyn had an argument with Captain Faille?"
The glance he gave her wasn’t pleased. Sebastian acted very easy-going, but as soon as you touched something he didn’t want to talk about you’d hit a wall bigger than a mountain. This time, though, he went on to sigh and shake his head.
"Not Illidian. The Kellian as a group have asked her to visit the place they used to live before they returned to Tyrland. Aurai’s Rest. She’s not happy about something they’ve asked her to do there."
The set of his jaw told Kendall that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she altered course. "You’ve gotten used to calling him Illidian."
"More or less. He is my brother by law, after all. It was a real adjustment at first, since it’s been just Ren and me for so long, and we actively discouraged people from getting near us. It was like, as soon as we stopped hiding, Ren, ah—"
"Started collecting people?"
"Well, that too. But I was thinking in terms of her priorities changing. All of a sudden there was someone more important to her than me." He shrugged, and glanced over the last sigil he’d drawn. "I suppose you picked up on how subdued she’s been the last couple of days?"
Kendall hid a smirk. The best way to get Sebastian to come across was to change the subject. That gave him the chance to think things over, and maybe decide to spill some more.
"She stopped noticing stuff," Kendall said. "When your sister’s upset, the first thing she does is try to hide it. She sometimes manages that, but she broods, and pays less attention to what everyone else is doing. She stopped reading the newssheets. And though she still acts the same whenever Captain Faille comes into the room, sometimes she doesn’t notice when he leaves."
"Hard to believe you’ve only been with us a couple of months." Sebastian tapped the chalk he was using on the floor. "Did you know she has nightmares about killing them? Not from the spell we cast, but accidentally. She has to watch everything she says, because a few careless words—she could tell Sukata wait here and Sukata would. Forever. And they’ve asked her to give them an order, to—" He paused. "Well, she’ll tell you soon enough. Will you do something for me?"
"What?" Kendall asked, warily. Sebastian didn’t ask for anything, as a rule.