Chapter 348

ARIA

Doing it not for me. For the principle. For the Luna position, which was Shadowmere’s position, which was – apparently worth protecting regardless of who was currently standing in it.

–

“She could have just treated her,” I said. “The medical situation is real. That’s genuine.”

“The silver poisoning is significant,” Nina confirmed. “Ivory will treat it eventually. After the correct channels have been followed.” A pause that felt considered. “Which will include your authorization.”

“Which she expects me to give.”

“The open door policy,” Nina said, “exists for real reasons. People come here who need help and can’t get it elsewhere, and Ivory doesn’t make that conditional on her personal feelings about them. That has always been true and will remain true.” She looked at me directly. “What changed today is that you now have standing in that process. Formal, documented, coalition- legible standing.”

I sat with this.

The morning had been the training ground and Ivory’s help and the small increments of progress and Amber’s workshop. The afternoon had been Sera in the corridor and the bucket and whatever Amber had decided to do and why. And now this a rule in a protocol document, newly legible, handed to me by someone who had every reason not to hand me anything.

“I need to talk to her,” I said.

—

Nina was quiet for a moment in the way she was quiet when she was deciding whether to say something. “Give it some time,” she said finally. “She just finished a very difficult consultation. She’s going to need the rest of the day to process. And document. The documentation requirements for today are significant.”

—

“I know,” I said, “Not today. But eventually,”

“Eventually,” Nina agreed.

She stood, because Nina didn’t sit for long- there was always something that needed doing,

1/3

and sitting was borrowed time for her. “The authorization process,” she said, returning to the professional register, “is straightforward. You’ll be consulted when Sera requests continuation of care. You’ll review what Ivory recommends and indicate approval or referral. The decision is yours.”

“What are my options?” I asked.

“You can approve full treatment,” Nina said. “You can approve partial treatment with conditions. You can approve referral to another healer.” A pause. “You can decline

authorization pending further consideration, which effectively delays treatment for up to seventy-two hours while you review the situation.”

Seventy-two hours. Pending further consideration.

I thought about Sera in the corridor. About what she’d said. About the deliberate precision of each thing she’d aimed and how well she’d aimed it.

And then I thought about the silver poisoning. About Ivory’s clinical voice saying it was at a level that affected quality of life and eventually became fatal. About the fact that Sera was a person, underneath all the hostility and the calculation, and people with medical conditions deserved treatment not because they’d been pleasant about it but because that was what the policy meant.

“I’ll approve the treatment,” I said.

Nina looked at me.

“Not immediately,” I said. “Not as a gift. She went to Ivory and said whatever she said, and she came to me in that corridor and said what she said, and those things have consequences that aren’t resolved by me simply waving through the authorization.” I met Nina’s gaze steadily. “But I’ll approve it. With conditions.”

“What conditions?” Nina asked, and the question was professional rather than challenging – the tone of someone wanting specifics to document.

“She stays in the designated accommodation,” I said, working through it as I said it. “She doesn’t have open access to the grounds. Every contact she has with pack members is monitored. She does not speak to Kael privately without a third party present.” I paused. “And she comes to me. Directly. To request authorization. She says

the

request to my face.”

Nina was quiet for a moment.

“Not to humiliate her,” I said, because I wanted that clear, “Because she came here and said specific things about my position and my worth and my right to stand where I’m standing, and the authorization process is how I demonstrate that she was wrong. Not by being cruel about

2/3

By being the Luna. By conducting myself with the authority that comes with the position and making her deal with that authority directly.”
Nina looked at me for a long moment with an expression I couldn’t read quickly.

“Ivory told me,” I said, “to throw a backbone. I’m working on it.”

――

Nina didn’t do quick smiles,

Something moved through Nina’s expression. Not quite a smile they took time with her and arrived fully formed when they arrived at all. But something adjacent to one. Something that acknowledged what I’d just said and found it worth acknowledging.

“I’ll inform Sera of the authorization requirements,” she said. “And I’ll update the documentation to reflect your conditions.”

“With a clear font,” I said.

“Full page,” Nina confirmed. “Border included.”

She left with her characteristic efficiency, and I sat on the low wall for a moment longer with the afternoon moving around me and the weight of everything the day had accumulated settling into something that was, improbably, not heavier than I could carry.

I found Kael near the main hall an hour later. He was coming out of his office with the expression of a man who’d been in meetings for too long and was currently between two more things that needed his attention. He registered me and adjusted his direction slightly, which was how he indicated he had a moment without saying he had a moment.

We fell into step beside each other in the way that had become – not exactly natural, but more practiced than it had been. Less deliberate in its effort.

“Nina told me about the rule,” I said.

“Old rule,” he said. “Twelve years.”

“Very old rule,” I agreed. “With recently improved legibility.”

He glanced at me sideways with the specific quality of checking whether I understood, and finding in my expression that I did.

“She didn’t have to do that,” I said,