"The Emperor is occupied with his own campaign. Our arrangement remains intact." Viremont's voice dropped half a register. "But things are accelerating. I'll have more for you next time."
"When?"
"I'll send word."
He looked at her for a long moment. The kind of look that should have been paternal and instead felt like an inspection. Checking for the daughter he built and making sure she was still standing where he put her.
"You've done well, Agnes."
The words landed on her chest, and she hated that they still mattered. Hated that somewhere beneath the manipulation and the lies and the girl she was becoming in spite of him, there was still a version of her that craved exactly this: his approval. A currency she had been collecting her whole life and could never spend.
"Thank you, Father."
He kissed her forehead. Mechanical. A stamp on a document.
"Go back before you're missed."
Agnes turned and walked into the trees without looking back.
✦✦✦
