Page 37 (1/2)

"Greed and stupidity are our friends," Nic said "It’s a how creative and inventive crireed, sheer stupidity or both will bring them down"

The nextto the side of a building in the ht, I wondered what the hell I had been thinking to agree to this training

One positive thing Valek had been right about orking with the glass It helped h toof low Such potential locked inside just waiting forme Come on, Opal Mold hout your entire life I’ve never betrayed or harlass in seasons,able to thumb a bubble for the first time in my life, I crafted a few slass flowers to set inside it A tiny spark of joy returned to my soul as I experimented with my rediscovered talent

I also adht My refusal to ith the glass had been lass pieces filled ht for Tama’s messy desk I shaped a fist-sized ball, then filled the inside with a bunch of s water that had been frozen Satisfied with the paperweight, I cut in a jack line and cracked it off into the annealing oven to cool

"Solved all your problems yet?" Valek asked as I cleaned up

"No But I decided what I want for dinner," I said

"It’s a start"

As we continued training, fatigue settled into y froth to acco out loo was one day lost And another day for so bad to happen tountil Mara’s wedding, my impatience boiled over "Look, all I need are the basics," I said to Valek that evening "Once I findall this sneak stuff"

He sat at my kitchen table The prison’s blueprints had been spread out in front of hi I had learned to correlate his annoyance level to his lack of sentireater his ire, the flatter his tone

"And ill you be doing instead?" he asked

I hesitated "Probably helping the Council"

"In what capacity?"