“And if you don’t? What’s the plan then?”
“You know the plan. You’ve met the plan—”
“Yes,” Gertie said dryly. “I have.”
She was clearly not impressed. And all of a sudden, I felt a surge of protectiveness for Rhea so strong it surprised me. Although maybe it shouldn’t have.
I was in her room, and in what looked to be her nightgown, too. She must have taken care of me after I passed out on the stairs and the war mages brought me back up here. And considering that the other pillow was indented, she’d probably slept by my side, too.
She took care of everybody she met, despite nobody ever taking care of her.
Maybe it was time that changed.
“Rhea is an excellent heir,” I told Gertie, in a voice that said I was done discussing it.
Unfortunately, Gertie tended to be tone deaf when it wasn’t information she wanted.
“She’s not even an excellent acolyte,” she retorted. “She couldn’t move you—in a spatial shift, I might add, the easiest kind—from the basement up to here!”
“She tried!”
“Yes, and she failed. Which is my point. The court has always required shifting as a prerequisite for training, as almost everything else we do is built on it or utilizes it. She cannot shift to the past if she cannot shift at all. She cannot track down rogue mages attempting time travel—”
“I get it.”
“—or protect herself whilst in battle. Even an acolyte can be overcome if she is trapped in one place for too long. All an enemy has to do—”
“I said, I get it!”
“—is to wait her out, until her stamina wanes and she can no longer channel the Pythian power. Not to mention that shifting is also a significant part of most of our offensive strategies as well—”
“Damn it, Gertie! I said—”
“That you ‘get it,’ which I assume means that you understand. But you don’t. Otherwise,
you would never have elevated her to a position she cannot handle in the first place.”
I got up, because shaky or not, I needed to move. And because my nice, hot cup of tea had disappeared. Probably why I felt a little warmer at my core, and why my limb
s were shaking a bit less. I went over to the vanity and poured myself a refill.
“Rhea has been a huge help to me,” I said. “She was the first one to give me a brief about the Pythian Court, how it’s supposed to run, its history—”
“Then make her your historian.”
“—not to mention helping with the initiates before Hilde and the other acolytes came on board, when I had no idea what I was doing—”
“Then make her the manager of your creche!”
I turned from the tea tray to meet angry eyes, and doubted that mine were any milder. “She saved my life in the conflict with Jo; she might have saved the whole damned timeline! If that’s not a good enough reason to be the heir, I don’t know what is!”
Jo, the last of the rogue acolytes, had been going toe to toe with me in a duel, and I honestly don’t know who would have prevailed. But Rhea, with exactly zero control over the Pythian power and thereby vulnerable as all hell, had nonetheless shown up to challenge her, a fully trained acolyte. Thus, distracting her and giving me a chance to end things.
Whatever Rhea lacked, it wasn’t courage.
“None of which makes her capable of doing the job,” Gertie said, undeterred. “I understand that you are fond of the girl, although she seems a bit erratic to me—”
“She’s been through a lot.”