Lexon nibbled at their ear. 'You are paranoid.'

'I just showed you -'

'Hear me out', he said. 'This was a hundred and more years ago. All these laws changed in your home. The current Silent Queen has a secretary that is of dwarven decent, too. And you heard Hilde as well as I, didn't you? Human nature is changing. All we are going to do is because of that change. Why can't you acknowledge what that means?'

'I don't… do you really mean, humans will evolve past their prejudices just because their nature's changing? That is naive, Lexon.'

'I am not naive, Telassi. I have thought about that for a long time, you know? I am not the one who turned his back to the world. I told you, to do that would be careless. But you didn't listen. Your grief made me watch the world more carefully. And I believe that humans will get past all that.'

They sighed. There was nothing they could say against that. He was right. 'I'm trying to put it back together', they said.

'I know', Lexon said. 'And that's good. But how about trust, hm? We need to trust people. I am not saying, trust the world. I am not even saying trust those councilors who come here every other day. Trust your people. Because they trust you, too.'

They shifted in their seat. 'I think… In a way that's what scares me the most', they confessed. 'I know many of us still fear dwarves. These prejudices… they didn't just go away. Human children still hear tales about dwarves eating babies, you know? Of their worship allowing the Usurper to return or letting the Shadow face. It… the ideas, they are still there. I don't know how to handle them in my own home.'

He made a humming noise from deep within his chest. Almost agreement but not quite. 'It won't change a thing', he said. 'You still need to tell them. Even more so, maybe.'

'Hmm', they agreed.

'Do you believe it?', he asked.

'What?'

'Oh…nothing. Let's save that for another time', he said. His attention had jumped to the door.

A knock on the door made every other question obsolete.

Tegilbor's relief was flooding through the door, and Telassi wondered just what he had been up to. "Yes", they said. Their voice was steady and calm, no hint of the turmoil in their head.

The heavy door creaked open, as the dwarf pushed against it. It was such a familiar sound. For almost all of their life, every door to their rooms had creaked. It hadn't started when they were a child, of course. They had servants to announce visitors and they hardly ever got visited, cut off from the world, and hardly ever talked about as they had been. A stain on the family.

In the Stable, that had changed. An eleven years old child, one among almost seventy others, not even their hair had singled them out. Their blindness had, though. Unlike all other human Vandrainor, Lexon and they had been tested. Their bond had been judged by others who wanted to get rid of them. They had passed, but it had taken two years, three masters, and a very desperate mason to finally get a door that creaked when someone opened it.

They could have enchanted it to make a sound, or conjured something up, or lock it every time they were in their rooms but all these solutions were impractical. The door to their office was designed a bit more cleverly than that to her living quarters: It creaked until it was just wide enough open for one person to comfortable get inside, and it would start dragging on the floor when the door was opened wider — indicating more than one person or someone of greater importance was entering the room. That had been Tegilbor's idea. While having a secretary and someone who made sure people knocked before entering, was nice, Telassi hadn't taken well to the idea of someone shouting the arrival of people in their office whenever someone entered. But at the same time, they did not want to rely on their senses of self and identity to be sure how many people would enter their rooms.

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It was a custom that the one who entered their office spoke first, giving them a chance to recognize the voice. And it had worked for the last hundred years rather well.

Tegilbor stepped in - of course before the door was opened wide enough for two or more people. He would never do that. The dwarf knew exactly how important he was for their success and daily life but vanity was none of his weaknesses.

His long robes shuffled on the floor; his footsteps halted in front of their desk. "I complied the information you asked for, my liege."

Telassi nodded in thanks. 'What is he talking about, Lexon?', they asked at the same time and searched their own memory, too.

'You requested a list of people who got murdered by other people', Lexon said.

"Oh, yes, thank you!", they said to both Tegilbor and Lexon. If Tegilbor noticed the underlying confusion and surprise, he did not comment on it.

"I had to call in a few favors to find out all I needed. I don't think that list is in any way complete. If you want a more comprehensive record I would urge you to reconsider your standing on … scouts", he said.

Telassi curled their lips. "I see."

A loud clonking sound indicated, that Tegilbor had put the list down on the desk in front of them. "Is there anything else you need, my liege?", he asked.

Telassi hesitated, then nodded. "Please summon my advisers for a meeting in two hours", they said. "I need to discuss some things with them."

"Of course", he said. "I'll take my leave, then."

"Thank you, Tegilbor", Telassi said.

After the dwarf had left and closed the door, they just sat there for a moment. Their fingers seemed to shy away from the scroll, afraid of its contents. A list of people who got killed by other people, Lexon had said. That was not wrong but also not entirely true. This was a list of all the things that happened right now, every suspicious act, every missing person. Everything Tegilbor and his contacts were aware of.

If they opened this, they could not go back to their ignorance. They took a deep, calming breath and reached for the scroll. It was heavier than they had anticipated, and for a second, they almost dropped it, until they gripped it properly and opened it. While their finger wandered over the scroll, their mind darkened. The list of murders, attempts, blackmail, missing people, people missing body parts, didn't seem to have an end. Such a long list. It had taken Tegilbor almost a fortnight to put all these things together. A list of misdeeds they could do nothing about. Nothing but shudder at the cruelty some people carried in their hearts. They felt tired when they were finished. Tired and exhausted and old. Why did it never end? Would it ever end? For the first time in half a millennium, they felt the years on their shoulders. In their head. It seemed impossible for them to move, for a second.

'Do we need scouts?', they asked Lexon. Speaking to him was the only thing that did not feel heavy, the only thing they could do.

'I don't know', he said. 'What do you think?'

Telassi's mind lingered on the last few lines of the scroll. On the implications, and the things they knew for sure.

'I think, there's a storm coming', they said. 'And we are not at all braced for that.'