“Ensure your Council asks the right line of questioning and you will find me to be most compliant.”
He nodded at her slowly and took a deep breath before speaking. “I don’t know if you were just lucky today or if you’re one of the best damn fighters I have ever seen. Maybe it’s both. I don’t know you, I don’t trust you and I am too old to pretend I like you being in my home. But I know enough about the scum we hunt to know what they do to women like you—so I’m going to offer this just once.”
The old Hunter lowered his voice, leaning close to Jessop. “Because you risked your life for ours you can leave Falco Bane’s blade with me and leave this place, I’ll explain away your disappearance, and you can start your life over elsewhere. But if you stay… well, I have only ever seen one person wield that blade with such proficiency, he nearly brought ruin to us all… and you’re about to meet the man who mentored him. The man who has hunted him for over a decade.”
She nodded slowly. “Hydo Jesuin.” Everyone who knew anything about the Hunters knew the name of Falco Bane’s mentor. She had heard it cursed a thousand times. Hydo Jesuin, in many ways, was the man responsible for so much of what had happened to her.
“Lord Jesuin, Leader of the Assembly Council of the Hunters of Infinity, Lord and Protector of the Blade of Light and the Daharian Galaxy,” Hanson corrected.
“I don’t fear your Lord seeing what my life with Bane has made me. I’m not leaving,” she answered firmly.
He shook his head at her, hissing his disappointment. “This may surprise you but I am one of the more pleasant Councilmen. I fear what some of the others will do when they see a woman who has learnt a role no woman is fit for. The Council does not train females.”
Jessop slowly crossed her arms over her chest. She could see Bane in her mind clearly. “The Council didn’t train me.”
Hanson shook his head at her. “No, we didn’t. You were trained by the only man to ever nearly bring the Council to its knees.”
Jessop stared up into his determined eyes. “That’s not my fault.”
Hanson arched his brow at her, his lips tight around his teeth as he spoke. “No, but it will be your problem.”
She glared at him, refusing to voice what she had immediately thought—no, it won’t be.
“I choose to stay.”
Hanson Knell scoffed at her. “I am trying to help you. You’re an idiot—and I will not be indebted to an idiot.”
“And I won’t be intimidated by a fool,” she hissed back.
“What do you want, girl? The Glass Blade does not house women; this is a sanctuary for a brotherhood of men.”
“The Glass Blade is the one place I am safe from those who would seek to drag me back to Aranthol,” she answered.
“You seem capable of protecting yourself.”
“I need to be here. Only Infinity Hunters can gain access to the Blade. I am safest here. And you will need me.”
“There is not a woman alive who is needed by the Hunters of Infinity.”
“Oh, I think not long ago in a local tavern two such Hunters might have felt greatly in need of me,” Jessop snapped at the old Hunter.
“Under your wounded eyes I can see your true self. Perhaps from too many years with him and too many years in the Shadow City, there is a darkness in you, girl,” Hanson Knell growled down at her, his hot breath sticking against her pale cheek as one of his strong hands wrapped tightly around her arm.
Jessop slowly inclined her head, so that her own words barely needed to travel before falling over his ears, as she slowly, forcefully, pulled his hand off of her. “Indeed there is. And don’t you ever forget it.”
* * * *
The room was entirely dark barring a single sphere of white light, emitting from a glass circle in the floor. Heavy curtains were drawn across all of the walls, though Jessop suspected she wasn’t supposed to be able to see that they were just curtains. In the blackness the glass circle in the floor cast a globe of light shooting upwards, forming a matching circle on the high ceiling. Jessop understood the purpose of the room. It was designed so that the one could be seen by the many, without ever seeing the many in return. A room shrouded in darkness with one fixed light, so that she felt isolated, vulnerable, and exposed, so that she fixated on who sat in the darkness as they sifted through her mind. She had known the purpose of the room as soon as Hanson had disappeared into the shadows. He seemed pleased to be leaving her in the dark, hoping she would feel alone. But Jessop knew that they were not alone.
Hidden in the shadows were the members of the Assembly Council. She glanced around the dark space, forcing herself to conceal a smile. She knew that until she stepped into the white beam of light, they could not see her. But she, unbeknownst to any of the Councilmen, could see them perfectly well. She was of the Shadows—this tactical room had no effect on one who saw better in darkness than any nocturnal beast could.
She could see them all, cloaked, sitting at a silver panel desk, staring at her with tense apprehension. They did not reveal much, restricting their movement and using Sentio instead of spoken words. She knew better than to attempt to pick up on any of their communications—she didn’t know the full extent of their abilities and she did not wish to start this meeting by alerting them to her own ability to pry.
She took a reluctant step forward, her boot illuminating, and her shadow disappearing into darkness. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust under the ray of light. The Councilmen did not know she could see and hear them, or that she could sense them entirely—they were not prepared for one of the Shadow City. Jessop found it odd that their room was designed to interrogate an Azguli—whom the Hunters rarely hunted—and not for an Arantholi, whom they always hunted.
She pushed the thought away, knowing their unpreparedness worked in her favor today. The most famous of Hunters sat on the Assembly Council, led by none other than Hydo Jesuin. Hydo. She had to fight to keep her gaze off of him, to keep her heart steady. The mere thought of his name filled her with too many memories. She could still close her eyes and hear Falco cursing his former mentor. But Jessop couldn’t be thinking of Falco Bane, not with the Assembly Council looking her over for signs of him.
Finally, a voice filled the room. “Hunter Knell tells us you fought to save his and his mentee’s lives in an encounter with Aren insurgents. That you bear our mark and that you wield our one true enemy’s sword and fighting style—or, as it were, my fighting style.”
Jessop looked around the dark space, intentionally allowing her gaze to trail despite being able to follow the voice to its source easily—Hydo. She didn’t need him to know she could see him perfectly through the darkness. “These things are true.”
“Why?”
She glanced to the floor, forcing her stare away from the Council Lord. “Why what?”
“Why did you help them?” His voice was tight and pressing. The perfect voice for quick and grueling interrogations.
“They were under attack,” she began, but she had barely finished answering before being pressed with another question.
“How did you help them?”
Jessop glanced over the Council, knowing that averting her gaze too much would be just as telling as if she watched them intently. “With my blade.”
“You’re mocking me,” he scoffed.
She glanced about the room. “Is that a question?”
The Hunter Lord carried on, ignoring the digression. “Tell me, do you fight with Falco Bane’s blade?”
Jessop flicked her cloak back to reveal the blade’s hilt. They could see her, from their position of power, where they sat