Chapter 171: An Offer

Elara:

Whatever shock had appeared on Magnus’s face when I admitted that I had looked into his file disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.

He settled back into that calm, almost unreadable persona of his, his deep brown eyes becoming impossible to decipher as he considered my question.

"I have never really felt like I was meant to be a warrior," he finally answered, his voice quiet but steady. "Not the kind who stands on the front line, anyway. Fighting isn’t what interests me. I prefer being behind the scenes, where I can use my brain instead of relying on physical strength or overwhelming magic. There are always things happening beneath the surface that people miss because they are too busy watching the obvious."

Something about that answer made me smile faintly. He paused before addressing my second question, and I could tell he was choosing his words carefully.

"I did consider working for one of the noble families once. The Regents were included in that list. I investigated most of the people I was considering before making a decision, but after looking into their backgrounds, their internal politics, and the people surrounding them, I realized I didn’t want to commit my skills to any of them." His shoulders lifted slightly. "So I stayed independent."

By the time he finished, I was smiling properly.

I didn’t consider myself some extraordinary judge of character. If anything, the past few months had proven that I could misjudge people just as easily as anyone else. But I wasn’t stupid either. I knew what a prodigy looked like when I saw one, and Magnus’s file had immediately caught my attention.

His abilities weren’t simply impressive; they were exactly the sort of abilities I needed. Earth magic combined with dreamweaving didn’t make him the most obvious threat in a room, but that was precisely what made him valuable. He observed. He analyzed. He stayed in the shadows. He noticed what other people didn’t.

And unlike warriors who were trained to react to a threat after it appeared, someone like Magnus could potentially recognize the threat before it ever became visible. Then he had a secondary unrecorded magic efficiency - Insight.

More importantly, he had deliberately remained independent despite having opportunities to work for powerful families. That told me something about him. He valued his freedom more than prestige.

I was silent for a moment before asking, "Do you have any plans for your future?"

Once again, Magnus looked genuinely caught off guard. His eyebrows lifted slightly, and for the first time since I’d started questioning him, he seemed to need a second to formulate an answer.

"Not really," he admitted. "I don’t have a long-term plan right now. That’s partly why I came here with Hazel. She was assigned to Moonveil, and I had nothing else keeping me occupied, so I decided to help my sister."

I tilted my head slightly, studying him. "Did you run a background check on me too?"

The question dropped into the room like a stone into still water. Absolute silence followed. Hazel’s head snapped toward her brother, and Magnus looked at me for several seconds before answering with the same calmness he’d maintained throughout the conversation. "Yes."

Hazel immediately closed her eyes. "Magnus." Her voice carried the exact warning tone of an older sister who had just discovered her younger brother had said something he absolutely should not have said. But before she could reprimand him, I raised a hand.

"Don’t." I couldn’t stop the smile spreading across my face. "Honestly, I would have been disappointed if he had said no."

Both siblings looked at me in surprise. I glanced between them before turning my attention back to Magnus. "So?" I asked. "Did I meet your standards?"

His expression became slightly confused. "What do you mean?"

I tapped my tablet lightly against my palm before making my meaning clear. "Would you like to work for me?"

The silence that followed was so complete that I could almost hear the thoughts moving through everyone’s heads. Magnus stared at me. Hazel stared at Magnus. Lorien looked like someone had just handed him a problem he hadn’t anticipated. All three of them seemed momentarily incapable of reacting.

I let them process it for a second before continuing because I wanted to make some things absolutely clear.

"I’m not offering you a position as the Princess of Starfall," I said. "I’m offering you a position as Elara."

Magnus’s eyes narrowed slightly with interest.

"If you accept, you won’t be working for the royal family. You won’t answer to the Regents. You won’t become another servant of some noble House. You will work for me and me alone." I leaned back against my chair. "You may never have an official title. If I eventually find or create one that actually fits what you do, I’ll give you one, but I don’t care about titles right now. What I need is someone who can work behind the scenes, someone I can trust to investigate, analyze, gather information, identify threats, and tell me the truth even when I don’t want to hear it."

I paused. "Jasper already holds the position of my right hand, so that place is taken. But if you accept, you would become my left hand."

Magnus didn’t move. Neither did anyone else.

I continued, "As for your salary, you can name your price. I’ll do my best to meet it, provided it’s remotely reasonable. You’ll live close to me, and I’ll be responsible for providing you with a comfortable living place. Your daily necessities will be covered, and you’ll receive the same benefits and protections Jasper receives as part of his position." I took another breath before moving to the part that mattered most. "But those things aren’t the real terms."

My gaze remained locked with his.

"If you accept, your loyalty belongs to me."

Magnus’s expression didn’t change, but Hazel went completely still.

"You will not be affiliated with the Regents. You will not belong to any noble House. You won’t accept orders from another royal, another heir, another official, or anyone whose name carries political weight simply because they outrank you. If someone wants something from you, they come through me. If someone tries to recruit you, bribe you, threaten you, or use your position to reach me, you answer to me first."

My voice remained calm, but I made sure there was no ambiguity in my words.

"I will never put you in a position where you have to choose between me and Hazel. She is your sister, and I won’t demand that kind of impossible loyalty from you. If she needs your help, you help her. But beyond that, I expect your allegiance to be mine and mine alone."

I paused, allowing the weight of the offer to settle.

"In return, I won’t treat you like a disposable subordinate. If you disagree with me, you tell me. If you think I’m making a bad decision, you tell me. If you discover something that could put me in danger, you don’t wait for permission to act. And if one day you decide you no longer want to work for me, you tell me directly rather than quietly betraying me."

I looked at him steadily. "I don’t want blind loyalty. I want chosen loyalty. The kind you give because you believe in the person you are serving, not because someone forced you into a position."

I lowered my tablet onto the desk.

"So, Magnus Brooks," I asked quietly, "would you like to work for me?"