Amid the Ruin, Ch. 35
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22833406/chapters/71662485
“I expected better…” Cora Taskon murmured to herself, drawing a thin ink line across the page in front of her. She tapped the tip of her pen against the paper, frowning at the web she had spent the night solving out. “Your secretive nature has abandoned you, Kell.”
Her older brother rolled over in his sleep, his snores carrying across the room to her ears.
Cora was beginning to wish her mother had chosen a different sibling to accompany her. Col was a decent enough companion, she supposed, but a blunt instrument at best. He didn’t have her ability to see the thin threads between things. Didn’t have her ability to see the subtleties in the Arnesians’ hospitality, in the Faroans’ gestures.
Hok had been the best at it and had thankfully taken an interest in showing a younger Cora how to do the same. He would have been the best suited of all the Taskon heirs for these proceedings. He would have happily waltzed the Mareshes into a corner without breaking a sweat.
But Hok was dead.
If he wasn’t, none of them would be here.
So Cora was left to negotiate almost five years of grievances alone. Was left to negotiate Vesk’s newfound military prowess being stripped away from them. All because Rhy Maresh was suddenly squeamish at the idea of Osaron. As if his father and advisors had not purchased and utilized the very same weapons he was now trying to outlaw. Cora had been given express orders to prevent that very outcome. If Osaron’s ban had not been a point in the agreement, Vesk would have signed the new peace treaty in absentia. But no, Rhy Maresh had to have his way. And Cora was saddled with dead weight.
Snoring dead weight.
Cora cast a glance over her shoulder at her brother’s bed, her snarl of annoyance unseen in the midnight dark. She gripped her pen harder and turned back to her page. She had a plan to work out, snarls to tease out, weaknesses to find.
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