ravaged hearts

CHAPTER NINETEEN,

  But if the Saians sent Io here, why would they send the Briar here as well?

  Unless Io had come of her own accord, and the Saians thought this mission was too important for an agent who'd gone rogue for the past nine months to take over, even if she was one of their best.

  A bit offensive to Io, maybe, but she's logical. She wouldn't be affected by this, and another wiccai, one of the strongest in the world, was a welcomed addition to their little entourage.

  They might almost be ready to take on an entire mansion of wiccai. If they'd find this apparent mansion first, of course.

  Shouldn't be too difficult. Saria was quite small. The most exciting thing was the military base, but that had been abandoned long ago. And he highly doubted the Falcons would hide in somewhere as obvious as that.

  If only Lillia Sorrya had just talked. Wouldn't that have given him a lot of sleep and rest?

  Blind loyalty, Louis decided, might be one of the most annoying things in the world. Right behind dealing with Falcons who ought to have given up by now. Though both things were correlated, so he supposed they could count as one and the same.

  If Io was with Rhysa Jiang, Louis didn't have to worry. So he relaxed, leaning back on his couch, turning towards the twins. The innkeeper was in on it, so there was no point sending him away while they discussed this. 'The plan?"

  Anita blinked, nonplussed. "Search the town."

  "Any specific areas?" he prodded. He already knew, of course—he'd scouted out beforehand with Io, but he might as well use this opportunity to test the twins' abilities. Give them a bit of training, because those two had the most potential out of all the agents Vayante had taken in in the last couple years. His duty. One of the few things he could do for his country. He wouldn't be here forever.

  Staying in Vayante doing paperwork and diplomatic work was already starting to get boring. An excursion to the Hatlen Isles might be just what he needed. And it might give him a better understanding of his wiccai ability and why he was born with it when none of his other family was.

  Research had been done outside of the Isles, of course, but theirs was probably the best, the most accurate. How he'd been born with it when there was no one in his family history to inherit it from... It had almost started a major argument between his father and mother until his uncle had stepped in to briefly explain. More breakthroughs must have been made in the decade in between.

  "Need a map," Celinos said. His sister's face said it all. They'd probably only very casually glanced over it. Anita hadn't done any further research, probably telling herself Saria was small enough and they had enough people to cover the entirety of it. She was wrong. Celinos was a bit more careful, but the fact he needed a map instead of reciting the information directly made Louis sigh.

  Both twins instantly understood, of course, because they were still relative masters at reading expressions and the like. Anita's face dropped, probably having realised that she'd fallen right into his trap.

  The innkeeper went right to work. A moment later, a detailed map of Saria was laid on the table. It must have been old, but it was still kept in relatively pristine condition. The man raised his head. "Miss Jiang left this here the first time we crossed paths. I've kept it like this ever since." Pride oozed through his words, and Louis couldn't help but smile, his lips lifting up.

  Celinos walked over, fingers gathering over a group of larger looking houses in the north of the town. "The richest of Saria live here. This is the most likely choice. If not, the prince might have chosen to settle here..." his fingers moved towards a neighbourhood slightly in the east of the first, "still a nice neighbourhood, but not precisely wealthy. Not that the other one is really rich compared to what we see in Valencia."