Rinniz gently stroked Nova's back, lost in her thoughts, as if the images from the story would not let her go.
Ayaz exhaled audibly and muttered:
"That asshole."
A word Nova herself had used not long ago, and yet her face twisted involuntarily.
For a heartbeat, everyone stared into the air.
"Wait!" Ayaz suddenly called out, "You mean that Jarek?"
Rinniz, who had been resting her head on Nova's shoulder, looked up and exchanged a brief, irritated glance with her.
Ayaz braced his hands on his knees as he sat cross-legged and leaned forward.
"Don't tell me you don't know the history books."
Nova glanced to the side, her lower lip slightly pushed out and her eyebrows raised. At the word 'history books' alone, she had to suppress a snort. She had not avoided them for centuries for nothing.
"What?" He ran a hand through his hair and turned to Rinniz. "Darling, please don't disappoint me. You do know what history says, don't you?"
She blinked several times in quick succession and shrugged.
"I picked up one thing or another, but I never really looked into it properly," she said with an apologetic smile.
He briefly touched his forehead with his fist, as if trying to shake off his disbelief, jumped to his feet, and left the room. The door was left wide open.
Nova leaned toward Rinniz and asked:
"Do you know what's wrong with him?"
"No, I'm just as much in the dark as you are," she sighed.
The two of them sat close beneath the window. A gentle draft brushed in from outside and made the curtains billow up and down. A narrow strip of orange light fell across the floor.
Nova stretched out her legs, which had begun to tingle. The pleasantly warm light touched one of them.
Rinniz sat up straight, squeezed Nova's hand, and began:
"Nova, I—"
She broke off as Ayaz returned with a thick book in his hand and hastily slammed the door shut behind him.
Then he dropped back down onto the floorboards in front of the two women and opened the book before starting to flip through it.
Nova patted Rinniz on the arm to get her attention and whispered:
"What were you going to say earlier?"
But she only waved it off.
"Not important," she replied, without taking her eyes off Ayaz.
In the meantime, Ayaz had found what he was looking for and pointed at a specific spot in the book with his finger.
"Aha!" he exclaimed.
"You really dragged a history book along on the journey?" Rinniz asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.
Although Nova listened to the pair, part of her thoughts still lingered on Rinniz's unfinished sentence. Hopefully, she had not caused her any concern.
As Nova spoke about the events surrounding her first capture, Rinniz clung to her arm. Her fingers tightened more and more around Nova's upper arm until she paused after the scene with the fainting spell.
Ayaz straightened his back until he sat bolt upright, lifted his chin, and said:
"Of course. If we already have someone here who was there back then…"
He raised the book, causing several note slips to flutter onto his lap.
"Our history books are somewhat patchy. I think not everything they say is true, but it's still exciting to compare Nova's version with that of history," he added.
Ayaz gathered the slips, stacked them neatly, and wedged them between the spine and the last page.
"And why exactly did you go get the book now?" Rinniz pressed, scratching the tip of her nose.
Ayaz shifted a little closer and turned the book one hundred and eighty degrees.
He handed it to Nova and Rinniz and said:
"For this reason."
The book wobbled in Ayaz's hands, as he held it only by the corners with his thumbs.
Nova raised an eyebrow and carefully took it from him before it could fall. As soon as she placed the book on her lap, Rinniz scooted closer to be able to read along.
It weighed less than its thickness suggested. The edges were dog-eared, and part of the paper had swollen from water. And were those … coffee stains?!
The poor book!, Nova scolded in her thoughts.
How could Ayaz treat it like that? Even though books were no longer the rarity she remembered from her childhood, Nova did not like seeing them handled carelessly.
She skimmed the page and frowned.
"Second page, bottom left," he instructed them with an expectant expression.
Rinniz examined the pages closely and paused.
"Uh, Ayaz," she began.
"Read what it says," Ayaz urged them on and waved his index finger toward the book.
Nova brushed her fingertips over the paper, followed the lines, and came to a halt at the bottom edge of the page.
The script looked elegant, with few curves and many straight lines. Yet her gaze lingered on it without the written words making sense.
"It's written in Voltari," she remarked dryly.
Ayaz opened his mouth with his brows drawn down and closed it again right away.
Rinniz's lips were touched by a gentle smile, while Nova lingered on the printed image longer than necessary.
The ruby red hair, the dark, tired eyes, and the angular yet slender face felt immediately familiar to her.
They had captured Jarek well. In the illustration, he wore the black uniform of the Crown Guard, with its distinctive insignia over the heart. One hand gripped the sword hilt, his posture upright and proud.
No wonder, it had been the highest and most esteemed position he had held over the course of his career.
Ayaz shook his head and reached out his hands toward the book:
"Sorry, I didn't think of that at all."
Nova handed the open book back to him.
He placed it on the floor in front of him and looked at Nova awkwardly for a moment.
"You speak so many languages that it completely slipped my mind that Voltari isn't one of them," he explained.
"I speak a few words, but unfortunately I can't decipher the script," Nova clarified.
Ayaz turned the book so that Nova and Rinniz had Jarek's section in front of them.
He tapped the text next to the image with his finger and said:
"In this book, Jarek is portrayed in a consistently positive light. It says: Although he lost rank and title as Leonis, he made a name for himself as one of the most outstanding swordsmen and strategists of his time, whose reputation extended far beyond Grania, even past the closed borders."
It took an instant for the words to sink in with Nova. The corners of her mouth twitched slightly upward.
"It goes on to say: Under his command, the Crown Guard was reorganized and deployed wherever the direct intervention of the Crown itself became necessary. In a time of ongoing conflicts, he made a significant contribution to stabilizing the realm. After the end of his service, his trail goes cold. His whereabouts remain unresolved to this day."
Ayaz snapped the book shut, took it in his hands, and snorted softly. His fingers pressed so tightly that the cover bowed slightly.
"He's a damn hero in this book," he forced out.
"He's lucky he's dead," Rinniz said and clenched her fists until her knuckles cracked.
Nova raised a hand.
"It's not that simple," she replied calmly.
Ayaz set the book aside, leaned back, and folded his arms across his chest:
"What's not simple about it? He left no doubt that he could dispose of your life as he pleased, threatened Lucian, and in the end even knocked you unconscious on purpose…"
His voice, which had grown softer and higher toward the end, failed him.
Nova nodded.
"Yes, that's true, but the world isn't just black and white," she explained.
Once again, silence returned for a while. Only the rush of the wind and a distant murmur of voices from the street could be heard.
Finally, Rinniz broke the silence after taking a deep breath:
"I see that differently. You always have a choice, regardless of the circumstances."
Nova's eyebrows flicked upward briefly. Her gaze was directed at the wall behind Ayaz, without truly fixing on it.
She tugged at the sleeve of her sweater. The strip of light that had warmed her leg had grown narrower by now and had almost faded.
Her head tilted back and forth, as if she were weighing things in her thoughts.
"Sometimes, yes. But sometimes you are at the mercy of your fate, like a small piece of wood drifting in a river. Sometimes all you can do is wait until you are washed ashore somewhere," Nova replied.
Ayaz let his finger glide along the lines in the wood.
"And where were you washed ashore? And how did you get out of there again?" Rinniz asked Nova, shifting her weight and pulling her leg in close.
A stronger wind pushed through the window, setting Nova's copper-colored hair dancing.
She continued hoarsely:
"To be honest, I believed I would go under. And on my own, I would have. Instead…"
A pause followed. Nova slowly stroked her thumb over the other several times.
Then her expression hardened as she added in a firm voice:
"…I realized that the real problem was still ahead of me."