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They sat in King Alric’s office, situated in the chairs and couch Baldewin kept close to him, and Tori was ridiculously reassured by that He sat at the edge of his seat, not able to relax into it with King Alric directly across from him

He truly was a handsome man, even more so in person than the picture Tori had seen of him Tori could see why Ca And Lisette looked ageless and graceful, like a lad now that Baldewin had bought hi these two in the ratty jeans and pull-over shirt he normally ould have been, just, no

“Thank you forwith us like this,” Alric said to him sincerely “I know there’s much about our clan that you want to experience and take in I don’t mean to distract you froi, as you’re the first trained e to have interacted with them one-on-one I feel that your experience is invaluable”

“I’m happy to help however I can,” he answered with a faint s that the Jaeggi were friends and allies I’m not sure how the tables were turned so neatly that I now fear them as enemies”

“Yes, it’s likely a very strange thing for you Much as it was for us, before the Dragon War started”

Oh Oh, coon clans and the Jaeggi had been friends and allies then, too, before Kaiser Jaeggi betrayed them That perspective flipped his mind even further, and he couldn’t help but ponder it for a ons could empathize with him far better than he first assumed

“Let us start froested, her voice sh burr “The first tii in Helsinki”

“Yeah, that was a shi—uh”—Do not swear in front of royalty Bad mouth—“crazy situation from start to finish I didn’t know to be wary of them”

“Sorry,” Baldewin sighed

Tori knocked a shoulder against his, flashing hiether so he could do that “I’ve forgiven you already But yeah, I just walked right up to them on the metro, as I didn’t know any better I could see froical supplies but wasn’t sure where in the city to go It’s not like you can just Google those stores”

“This is true” Lisette had a sad expression on her face “Not in these modern times do such stores so openly exist So, you approached them”

“Yeah” Tori cast hiswas off Their , thinking that I’d only ever seen es from my own clan Maybe it was normal for the other clans to look different from mine Now, of course, I realize it was just theht look”

Lisette leaned forward, expression intent “We’ve never had an opportunity to truly study their auras, as we are forever fighting e do meet Can you describe this more precisely?”

Tori frowned, trying to pull what he’d seen and instinctively understood into words “Fraght word Maybe distorted? As if theirborrowed and forced to fit around thee’s aura should be es This looked the opposite, like a ghost of what it should be”

“Interesting,” shea quick note on the notebook in her lap “I’ve had that ied with a Jaeggi ht or weren’t trained enough to recognize what they saw”

He was apparentlysense Thank fuck Tori had no idea how else to put it into words “Anyway, they were acting cagey and weird, and I was steadily regretting talking to theot out of the station with them that it went to hell They were adamant that because they didn’t know me, they’d have to blindfold ic shop they knew And that’s when I dug into be nice at that point They tried to physically wrestle ht I’d lost Baldewin and Warin, that they weren’t following et myself out of there I didn’t know I had backup”