IX
Miri waited on a cold marble floor, her arms wrapped around her knees.
She was shaking.
Two elven investigators had interrogated her for the last two hours.
She cracked.
She told them everything. That was in the plan. But she did it in tears.
They broke her.
They asked about her past. They printed off a copy of her thesis on Old Dark, and they ridiculed her for all the errors she had made, down to missing periods and quotation marks.
They explored her relationship with Laner Tonsenberry. They characterized him as a tragic lover entangled in her claws.
They questioned her bills, her mail, things she had said in the past.
They asked her about Old Dark, what he was like, what he said, whether he indicated where he was going.
But what broke her was Jasmine.
“Her career is over,”
