Chapter 1142: The Invitation

"Would you grant me the Second Measure?"

Elara looked at the hand extended before her, then raised her eyes to Lucavion.

He had crossed the distance between them before the other Initiative holder could reach her. Now he stood with enough formal polish to make his earlier refusal to even open his Role Seal seem particularly shameless.

Her own seal remained unfinished in her hand.

MASTER CORVIN AERATH.

She knew too little about Aerath’s connection to Elise Maraven to judge the invitation cleanly. Accepting Lucavion would also add another public association to whatever conclusions the Salon had already drawn after the Entrance Banquet.

A refusal would be sensible.

Elara drew breath, but another voice reached her first.

"Lady Elowyn."

The other man had closed the remaining distance between them.

Lucavion’s hand remained extended as Elara turned.

Seen from several paces away, the newcomer had appeared merely well dressed. Up close, the care behind that impression became more obvious. His charcoal-grey coat sat close across the shoulders, held by a muted silver clasp beneath the collar, while pale ash-brown hair had been swept neatly back from his forehead. Gray-green eyes rested on Lucavion with considerably less courtesy than the rest of his presentation suggested.

He inclined his head toward Elara. "My apologies, Lady Elowyn. It appears I arrived a moment late."

Lucavion glanced at him. "Oh?"

The newcomer ignored him entirely.

Elara could already see irritation beneath the man’s composure, though she had no idea what Lucavion had done to earn it beyond arriving first.

"I don’t believe we’ve been introduced," she said.

His attention returned to her, and some of the stiffness around his mouth eased. "Of course."

One hand came lightly across his chest. "Gervase de Warenne."

Warenne.

That name required no searching.

The High March of Warenne controlled one of the mountain corridors linking the outer territories to the Arcanian interior. Trade crossed their roads, ore descended through their passes, and imperial forces had relied upon the same routes often enough that generations of Warenne lords had turned geography into wealth and political leverage.

Elara remembered their heraldry as well: a pale ash-serpent beneath dark crenellations, accompanied by the words The Boundary Holds, The Toll is Paid.

"Son of Marquis Aldous de Warenne," Gervase added.

That placed him close enough to the center of the House that the distinction mattered. Elara acknowledged him with the courtesy due his standing. "Gervase de Warenne."

His expression warmed briefly at the recognition before his attention shifted back to Lucavion.

The warmth vanished.

Gervase’s gaze traveled from the hand still offered toward Elara to the identity floating beside Lucavion.

MASTER CORVIN AERATH

His jaw tightened. "May I ask something?"

Lucavion’s eyebrows lifted. "You already are."

A small tension appeared near Gervase’s temple, but his voice remained controlled when he continued. "What reason does Master Aerath have to invite Lady Maraven?"

Elara looked between them.

The question had come out more directly than Gervase appeared to intend. He adjusted almost immediately, adding, "You did not even consult your seal. And your assigned House has no obvious connection to hers."

Lucavion finally lowered his hand.

Elara’s gaze followed the motion before she could stop herself. Once Lucavion slipped his hand into his pocket, Gervase’s shoulders loosened by a fraction.

Lucavion’s attention rested on that change for a moment. "Does it not?"

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

Elara, unfortunately, did not.

That had been the difficulty from the beginning. Her dossier remained unfinished, and she could not confidently say whether Aerath benefited Maraven at all. Gervase’s objection therefore had merit, even if the irritation beneath it suggested that examination strategy was not the only thing bothering him.

Lucavion glanced at his closed seal. "True. I didn’t read it."

"Then how are you supposed to know whether inviting her serves your objective?"

"My objective is information." Lucavion tapped the seal once with his thumb. "A suggestion regarding what would benefit my role."

His gaze wandered toward the Floor, where other Initiative holders were already completing their invitations. "It isn’t a chain."

Gervase stared at him. "The identities still exist for a reason."

"Certainly."

"The purpose of the Floor is to act according to them."

Lucavion turned back toward him. "Is it?"

Gervase’s brows drew together.

"I seem to recall being told that the objectives were ours to interpret."

"That does not mean ignoring them."

"I haven’t ignored anything."

"You haven’t even read yours."

Lucavion answered with an uncomplicated, "Yes."

Elara pressed her lips together.

The answer was so plainly unreasonable that she could almost sympathize with Gervase’s expression. Almost.

"Then why invite someone who has nothing to do with your assigned House?"

Lucavion appeared to consider the question with a seriousness it did not deserve. His attention eventually shifted to Elara. "To have some fun?"

Elara closed her eyes for half a heartbeat.

Gervase did not bother hiding his disbelief. "Fun."

"It has certainly been quite fun so far."

"This is an examination."

"So I’ve been told."

Gervase’s fingers tightened once at his side. He still kept his voice level, but the effort had become easier to see. "Then perhaps you should treat it like one."

Lucavion’s mouth curved.

Elara knew that expression well enough now to pay attention.

His amusement had remained, but his interest had moved away from the argument itself. He was watching Gervase in the same manner he had watched Lianne during certain parts of their exchange, allowing the other person to keep speaking while quietly testing what pressure made them reveal.

That forced Elara to reconsider the last several minutes.

Gervase had been approaching her before Lucavion intercepted him. He knew enough about Aerath to challenge Lucavion’s choice immediately, and his irritation seemed much stronger than one lost invitation should have warranted.

Lucavion tilted his head. "And are you sure?"

Gervase frowned. "About what?"

"That your seal actually contains her."

Gervase did not answer immediately.

Elara’s attention sharpened at the pause.

Lucavion’s smile lightened as he continued. "You seemed rather confident that Master Aerath and Lady Maraven possessed no reason to dance."

Gervase’s mouth thinned. "That information is hardly difficult to infer."

"Apparently."

Lucavion glanced toward the Role Seal beneath Gervase’s hand. "So I became curious."

"Curious about what?"

"Whether your own role possesses one."

"I would hardly have approached otherwise."

Lucavion gave him another mild, "Oh?"

Gervase’s eyes hardened. "What are you implying?"

"Nothing particularly complicated."

Lucavion shifted his stance just enough to change the arrangement between them. Until then, his position had left Elara partly behind his shoulder. Now the three of them formed a loose angle, returning her to the conversation rather than placing her at the center of an argument conducted around her.

"Considering how the roles have been structured so far, I doubt your character has much relation to hers either."

"And how exactly would you know that?"

"A hunch."

Gervase repeated, "A hunch."

"Yes."

A short laugh left Gervase without carrying any amusement. "You interfere with my approach, question my role, and your justification is a hunch?"

"That summarizes things rather nicely."

Elara’s temple threatened to ache. "Lucavion—"

He glanced at her.

Elara stopped.

The look lasted only a moment, but she knew enough of him by now to recognize when his attention had caught on something.

Whatever he had noticed, he wanted Gervase to keep speaking.

She could ask him later.

Gervase stepped half a pace closer. "If my role had no reason to approach Lady Maraven, why would I waste my Second Measure doing so?"

Lucavion’s gaze dropped to the seal beneath his hand.

Elara followed it.

For all the irritation that had passed between them, Gervase had finally attached his argument to something that could actually be tested.

Lucavion looked up again. "Would you like to prove it?"

Gervase paused. "What?"

"Your seal."

Lucavion nodded toward the hand covering it. "If you came here because your objective points toward Lady Maraven, show us."

Gervase’s expression tightened.

The Role Seals were private by design. Students could disclose their contents if they wished, but doing so meant exposing an assigned objective, useful relationships, and perhaps the motives behind choices they had already made. Anyone competent enough to understand the Salon would surrender that advantage only when the return justified it.

Gervase understood that perfectly.

"You expect me to reveal my seal because you asked?"

"No." Lucavion smiled. "I expect you to refuse."

Gervase’s mouth drew into a thin line.

Lucavion gave him little opportunity to answer. "So let’s make it worthwhile."

Elara looked toward him again.

That particular tone rarely improved anything.

Gervase seemed to recognize the warning as well. "What do you propose?"

Lucavion removed his hand from his pocket. "Show it."

"Master Aerath—"

"Show that your role actually directed you here."

The surrounding Salon continued around them. Another pair passed behind Gervase on their way toward the Floor, skirts and formal coats disappearing into the growing arrangement of dancers, while the musicians above adjusted their positions for the coming Measure.

Lucavion scarcely acknowledged any of it.

His attention remained fixed on Gervase. "And prove that your sudden concern for Lady Maraven is purely a matter of faithfully performing your assigned objective."

Gervase’s eyes sharpened. "And if I do?"

Elara watched Lucavion more carefully.

He had been drawing Gervase toward this point since the moment the man challenged his invitation. The loose answers, the refusal to defend his own role, even the deliberately absurd claim that he had approached her for fun had kept Gervase pressing until the argument narrowed into something measurable.

Lucavion’s smile remained easy. "If you can do that..."

He allowed the pause to remain between them.

Then he finished, "I’ll leave the examination avenue this instant."

Elara’s fingers tightened around her Role Seal. "What?"

Gervase had gone still as well.

Lucavion did not turn toward her.

His black eyes remained fixed upon Gervase de Warenne, his posture as relaxed as it had been when the argument began.

He simply waited for Gervase to decide how much his reason for approaching Elara was actually worth.