“Where do you want us to start?” Ariana asked.
“With the rules for trainees in the second chapter.” I watched as Lotus’ upper lip curled back in disgust at what she was reading.
“We have to live by these?” she asked.
“Every one.”
“If I followed these I would be as helpless as if I hadn’t learned anything at all. Talents aren’t supposed to enter another’s mind without permission. And what is stopping some monster like my husband from entering my mind again whenever he wants after he gets me back. And this one about never using mass moving ability in anger. Who is going to know if I am angry or not?” Lotus closed the book with a snap. “These are ludicrous.”
“All they will have to do is look at your face to know if you are angry or not,” Ariana observed.
Lotus glared at her before shoving the book back at me. I barely caught it before it toppled to the ground. “In that case you can keep your code. I am not interested.” She stomped out through the door. Parchment and leaves skittered across the stone floor and the wind yanked at my hair as she left the door wide open behind her. I used my mass-moving skills to close it firmly.
Ariana and I released identical sighs of relief into the suddenly silent room.
“Is she always like that?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Ariana looked sadly after Lotus. “Her husband messed her up badly, inside.”
“Her mind?”
Ariana shook her head. “Her heart.”
“Were you in the same…?” I stumbled over a term to use that wouldn’t strike a nerve.
“Compound?” She nodded. “My husband was a founding member and hers could never rise in the ranks. He blamed her for it.”
“A founding member? But I thought your husband was a…”
“He is Lorrium Parzifal.”
The name struck me hard. I stood next to the daughter by law of Thrasius Parzifal, the leader of the Elitist movement.
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The Defender Page 22