I hated to admit it, but

  Mistra had a knack for scrying and other divination methods which

  made her not a bad fit as my apprentice. I had half hoped at the

  start of working with her that I would find her painfully lacking in

  the right kind of magical talent so I could use it as a reason to

  find anyone else that I might trust more, but she took to it like a

  fish to water. Demon bastard or not, she would be able to

  satisfactorily take over some of my duties and perhaps I could keep

  up with some of the most sensitive ones myself until it became

  imperative that I hand them over. At least I could try to minimize

  letting information into the wrong hands for as long as possible.

  It wasn’t that I hated

  Mistra. I just would never be able to fully believe that her

  intentions would ever fully align with the best interests of the

  House Yser. Demons are undeniably different from humans in a plethora

  of ways, especially when it came to their ideas on power and

  alliances. Humans tended to value and honor alliances even when only

  sworn on word alone, while demons were prone to stabbing each other

  in the back whenever they found an opportunity that might suit them

  slightly better.

  Evonia had always implicitly

  trusted the Draks and thought that I was paranoid for wanting to keep

  secrets, she wouldn’t listen to me and staunchly upheld the belief

  that they would always keep to their word. It always worried me how

  blindly she allowed herself to trust them and I was afraid that Toria

  might be following down the same path. I certainly would never even

  entertain the idea of keeping a demon in my bed.

  “I cannot see Matilda,”

  Mistra said as she motioned towards the basin of water in front of

  her. “I can sense she exists, but I can’t get a clear image.”

  Frowning, I set aside a fresh

  batch of letters that I was preparing to send out to my informants to

  warn them not to try to contact me until I contacted them again and

  made my way over to the table where Mistra had been tasked with

  checking on some various informants I hadn’t heard from in a while.

  She moved from the chair in front of the basin and I took her place,

  letting the water settle from the vibrations of us moving before

  extending a tendril of my will over the surface and letting it hum at

  the natural magical frequency of water. The surface of the water

  responded by rising up and melding with my will, smoothing out into a

  perfect mirror through which I only had to express my desired image.

  I focused on who Matilda was and where she should be and felt the

  water tense as it began to search. After waiting for longer than I

  would usually expect, the basin quivered and showed a very cloudy

  image that could have been anything or anyone.

  “That’s exactly what I was

  getting,” Mistra said. “I’ve tried several times and I can’t

  get the image to clear.”

  Forcing more of my will into

  the tendril caressing the water I tried to brute force the image to

  clear. The whole basin began to shake as I poured more and more power

  into the connection, but even though I scaled up until the basin

  threatened to splash everywhere I could not gain any additional

  clarity. Something was not right, someone or something was creating a

  barrier around Matilda to prevent her from being being watched. It

  was not something I had ever run into before, generally it seemed

  that people, even the few who were magically aware were not cognizant

  about the possibility of magical spying. Furthermore, Matilda was not

  even aware how exactly I watched her and I had never given her cause

  to suspect, so I would doubt she would come to the conclusion or be

  skilled enough herself to stop it even if she did.

  “Could it be she’s around

  some sort of material that causes magical interference?”

  “It’s in the realm of

  possibilities,” I replied, “though that would have to be

  something intentionally set up to do so, unless she’s underground

  in some sort of cave filled with the right kind of crystals.”

  “Not likely then, she must

  know she’s being watched,” Mistra incorrectly deduced.

  “That shouldn’t bother

  her, she knew I kept close tabs on her always, even if she didn’t

  know the method. In fact, that’s exactly what she agreed on when

  she pledged herself as an informant. If she’s suddenly blocked from

  me it’s not of her own doing.”

  “Would the people around her

  be able to figure it out and have the means to do this? What about

  her makes her an important informant?”

  I glanced at the demon

  sideways and considered just how much I was willing to tell her.

  Matilda was not at the top of my list as far as someone I needed to

  keep under wraps at all costs, but she did have access to very

  valuable information that would be sorely missed if her communication

  was to be interfered with or corrupted. On the other hand, it seemed

  that perhaps that was already happening.

  “Figure it out?” I

  considered aloud. “It would depend on the wrong person getting

  involved with her which has never been a problem before, though it’s

  technically possible and maybe even plausible. As for if they would

  have the means, that’s certainly true, they could easily both

  determine the materials needed and be able to find someone with the

  knowledge to set it up, cost would be of no consequence for them

  either.”

  “Ah, so the Great Church is

  involved,” she said, recognition flashing across her face. “They

  would want to seal that avenue off for certain if they expected

  anyone like the Ysers listening in.”

  Of course the girl was going

  to easily figure it out, she was clever. It was likely a fool’s

  errand trying to keep anything from her to start with, though that

  wouldn’t stop me from at least trying.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Matilda is a relatively low

  ranking priestess who has intentionally never let herself shine in

  any particular area and keeps to herself, I see no reason why she

  would end up being noticed for anything. We have been working

  together for well over two decades with no one the wiser, it seems

  strange they would figure it out now after all this time.”

  “People slip up as they

  age,” she suggested, “perhaps she wrote something down she

  shouldn’t have or spoke something aloud she meant to only think.

  Sometimes older people find it hard to keep their thoughts quiet and

  motives stealthy.”

  “She’s still decently

  young,” I said with a glare, “somewhere around forty if I

  remember correctly. Though if I listen to you perhaps I’m not to be

  trusted for my memory or judgment.”

  “I didn’t mean it like

  that.” She had the decency to look flustered and she let out a long

  sigh. “I often forget that you are old at all, your glamour is so

  young and convincing and you are still very sharp.” The girl was

  lying through her teeth, there was no way that someone with her

  magical prowess couldn’t see right through my glamour, but I had to

  at least give her credit for having the insight to feign inability to

  help save my pride. “Also, you know that demons live much longer,

  I’m used to a hundred being early middle age, my father has lived

  at least double your life time and is still just on the cusp of being

  considered a bit old, it’s sometimes hard to make my mind make the

  necessary transitions, especially now that we’re in the demon

  realm.”

  “How does that work with

  you?” I asked, hoping to steer the conversation focus off of me and

  my aging body.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I

  don’t know, demons seem to age much like humans for the first

  couple decades of their lives, then rapidly slow down and hover at

  what you would call young adulthood. I’ve just reached that stage,

  so it might be another twenty years or so before it can be judged if

  my aging is human or demonic. I’m torn on between which I would

  like it to be.”

  “Torn?” I laughed a bit

  bitterly. “I would think you’d want the extremely long lifespan,

  most anyone would.”

  “It has its downsides. A lot

  of my favorite people and friends throughout my life have been human,

  it would be very sad to watch them all fade away and leave me

  behind.”

  “You would find new ones,

  life goes on,” I commented. I could not see how that could be a

  such a downside when given the option to live longer than I could

  ever hope to dream.

  “It isn’t just that

  simple,” she said softly, “not everyone can be replaced so

  easily.”

  I figured she was alluding to

  Toria, though I wondered if like earlier she was just saying what she

  thought I wanted to hear. If that was what she intended, she was

  missing the mark anyway, it actually made me feel very uncomfortable

  to even consider the possibility of her outliving Toria. With no

  current plans for a proper heir, I didn’t want Toria letting

  whatever feelings she may have for her consort get in the way to of

  logic and have her end up declaring that the demon could sit on the

  throne. I would like to think Evonia and I had done enough work to

  ensure she would not do something so reckless, but I had seen loving

  affection get in the way of logic one too many times in my life.

  “We’re getting too far off

  topic,” I muttered and returned my gaze to the basin of water. “Let

  me try one more time, perhaps it was just some kind of error that I

  haven’t seen before or there was some unlikely event that she was

  just in a protected area.”

  Entangling my will back into

  the water, I again brought up my knowledge of Matilda and manifested

  the same hazy image from before. Frustrated, I was going to give it

  to the count of ten while infusing as much of my power as I could

  before giving up when I felt a dam breaking and the image began to

  sharpen. It did not have to clear very much for fear to grip my

  heart, the Yser facial structure was very easy to pick up, even when

  muddled.

  “It’s a Yser,” Mistra

  exclaimed with wonder.

  The image of Aela curled her

  lips into a cruel grin as if she could hear what was said.

  “I know what’s happened

  now I think,” I said weakly. “I should have known when there was

  any interference at all.”

  “Yes, you should have.”

  The voice was very clearly Aela herself.

  In a panic I snapped my will

  away from the water, the sudden severing of power causing the water

  in ripple violently and spill over the edges of the container.

  “Did she just…” Mistra’s

  eyes were wide. “I didn’t know that could happen.”

  I stood up from the table and

  tipped the basin off the table in anger, getting a bit of

  satisfaction from hearing the ceramic shatter on the hard stone

  floor. I couldn’t believe that she was again one step ahead of me

  and I was not picking up on it until it was already too late.

  “It shouldn’t,” I

  snapped, “but I guess now the mystery of what her specialty is has

  been solved for me. Aela has always kept her affinity close at hand

  and I don’t think anyone outside of her sister and maybe the very

  top of the hierarchy of the Church knew. No wonder she’s risen

  through the ranks so quickly, they must absolutely love having

  someone like her in their ranks.”

  “What does this mean for

  us?”

  I couldn’t stop shaking and

  it wasn’t just from rage, this had such far reaching implications

  that my mind was a chaotic buzz. Everything I could have been working

  on for the past several years might need to be thrown out, all my

  contacts in the Church at the very least were now no longer

  trustworthy. I looked to the stack of ledger books I kept with

  encoded information I received and fought the urge to immediately

  chuck them into the fire.

  “Nothing I have found out

  since… who knows when can be trusted anymore,” I whispered.

  “Every single informant who isn’t in the Church will need to be

  vetted and double – maybe even triple checked. I can say goodbye to

  anyone with any Church affiliation, if she’s got the scent she will

  hunt every single on of them down in no time. She probably already

  has, she is not the type to show her hand until she thinks she

  already has all the cards she wants and thinks she knows what you’re

  holding too.”

  Mistra didn’t say anything

  and instead bent over and began to pick up the pieces of the basin

  and set them on the table.

  “All of this work has been

  for nothing.”

  “I will help you piece

  everything back together,” she offered.

  “You just don’t

  understand,” I said with a low groan, “if she is this powerful,

  then she far surpasses what I can do with clairvoyance and therefore

  I will never be able to be sure if she’s listening in or not.”

  “So we find someone who can

  match her.”

  “Someone who matches that

  level of skill?” I asked rhetorically. “I think I would have done

  that long ago if I have ever caught wind of someone like that.”

  “Yes, but you mostly focused

  on the humans you knew,” Mistra said gently, “I know a whole

  other subset of people. It might still be a long shot, but there are

  plenty of powerful demons and other creatures who might be of use.”

  “And I will trust none of

  them.”