Daughter of Nox

Chapter Seventeen

Freya felt a pit yawn open inside of her. Her hands clenched to the arms of her chair as the room seemed to tip. As the world seemed to tip.

"No." She almost shouted the single word, as though the force of it could stem her father's confession. "That can't be true." She shook her head once, hard. "It cannot be true."

"It is."

His voice was flat. Calm. How could he be so calm? How could he sit there and say these things without any shred of emotion? Of shame?

"But why?" she asked. "Why would you do that?"

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly through pursed lips. "I can't tell you that."

The familiar heat of resentment rekindled in Freya's chest. "So we're back to that now, huh?"

Freya expected her father's expression to harden at this, but it didn't. Instead, she saw something like regret glimmer in his pale blue eyes.

"There are certain things I can't tell you, but not because I don't want to," he explained. "It's for your safety."

The urge to argue, to snap back at this perceived condescension churned within that heat she felt inside of her, but she fought it down.

"Then what can you tell me?" she asked. "Aside from the fact that you're guilty of treason."

Her father almost seemed to wince. "I can tell you that while I'm not officially authorized to treat with the Separatists, there are many high-ranking officials within the Ministry who know and approve of what I'm doing."

"So then what," Freya said with a frown, "you're telling me that not everyone in the Ministry wants to stay at war with the Separatists?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," he told her. "You have to understand, Freya. This rebellion has strained resources to the breaking point, and many within the Ministry are calling for an end to the war."

"But not everyone," Freya said.

"No, not everyone." His tone took on a dark, resentful edge. "Some Founders would rather the entire Ministry fall than see it fractured. They'll do anything they can to derail the peace process."

Freya thought about this for a moment before the realization of what he was saying hit her.

"That Inquisitor from the detention center knows what you're doing, doesn't she?" Her eyes went wide. "That's why she wanted me to sign the confession saying you'd planned the attack."

"The Inquisition knows, but they're only a very small part of this. The people who sent her–the people who were actually responsible for last night's attack–are the one's we need to be wary of."

Freya showed him a confused look. "But it was the Separatists who were responsible for the attack."

Her father waved her comment from the air. "Don't think of the Separatists as a cohesive force the way the Ministry is. Think of them more like a dozen different groups that all have the same goal, but with different ideas about how to get to that goal."

"Alright," she said, "but that doesn't change the fact that they're the people who did it."

"Are they?" he said. "Think about it, Freya. The attack on the Sphere happened less than a month ago, and since then I've tripled our security for that entire part of the colony. The reception last night had that security, plus whatever more the Avernis brought along. What are the chances that a group of Separatist commandos could pull off an attack on the reception for the Noxian First Emissary without help?"