Page 53 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)

He laughs a little as his eyes lose focus and he grows still in the seat.

“When we were growing up, she’d pace back and forth around me while talking.

It was distracting. I tried to avoid her, but she always found me.

So I started keeping snacks in my pocket for her.

If she continued to talk, I’d pass her something to eat. But then she’d pace and eat.

“When she started doing that, I’d grab my book and lower myself to the ground wordlessly.

She’d follow me. I did that wherever we were if I was doing something.

After a while and many times of her complaining she wasn’t hungry and to stop giving her food, I exchanged the snacks for books.

I always picked one I knew would hold her attention.

It became habitual. She’d find me in the library, sit down on a chair or the ground with her legs crossed and I’d pass her a book. ”

Fascinating.

That conditioning approach could be very beneficial for me. If I could get her comfortable enough to focus, make Kyzen stand in here and slow down time, I could have her caught up in no time.

“Can you define the time it took for this to become habitual for her? Were there other factors you tested? Did you use any sort of rewards system for her?”

He snorts and shakes his head with a small smirk on his face. “Thayla’s far too observant to be conditioned. She knew the entire time what I was doing. She just never called me out about it.”

“That simply can’t be true. ”

“It is. It took me a really long time to realize she was trying to bond with me over my interest. She recognized I wasn’t going to verbally tell her to go away, but I didn’t want her interrupting me. She picked up on my…quirks as my mother calls them, immediately.

“So she altered the way she spent time with me by adjusting her approach to a method I responded to. I like to read in peace. She likes to talk. Once I realized that’s what she was doing the whole time, I tried to reciprocate by dedicating time to just having conversations with her.

One thing led to another and now she’s my best friend. ”

That leads me to believe she’s adaptable to both her environment and the people surrounding her if she’s seeking to relate to them.

“So you’re saying your relationship was built on her putting your interest above her own and she found comfort in doing so. Then you replicated what she did?”

“Yep. Now she likes to read, and I know how to talk to people. We both benefit greatly from our relationship.” He stands from the chair and looks back down at it.

“This one. It’s plenty wide, but it also has more length than that one, so her knees won’t hang off the front. There’s also better lumbar support.”

Those are the exact variables I concluded as well.

I nod my agreement as I grab the other chair. “Thank you for your help, Lambrit. That’ll be all.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Shut the door behind you… please ,” I instruct him as he makes his way through. He continues back to his area while I take this chair back to where I found it. He’s given me a lot to think about when it comes to Thayla.

I know everything that’s available to us to know about Binders. The most obvious fact about them is they’re going to have the same Designation as their Valtrue and a similar domain.

Despite believing we’d never get one, I prepared myself for the fact that if we ever did, she’d be nothing like me.

Due to my brothers and I having differing domains and Designations, the likelihood of us getting a Binder that was a Guider was one in five. Only five female Chosen come in each year, then you add them into the entire pool of people waiting to complete their Valtrues. The odds become even lower.

From the short time I’ve spent observing everything Thayla does and her Equalized Designations, it seems that she relates to each of us in some way. That’s something I never considered to be a possibility .

If she had been dominant in one of the Designations, I’d know how to approach her based on how I approach my brothers or how I want someone to approach me.

As I pointed out to her last night, the way her interest piques at things relates to me. She does enjoy discovery and knowledge, but she can be careless with her words and actions like Riven.

She has a humorous side but also calculating, observant as Lambrit called it, that relates to Kyzen and his method to most things. Her ability to strategically plan in the face of danger but also her reservations and mistrust are very much like Creed.

The woman is an anomaly. It annoys me to no end to admit, she’s out of my scope of knowledge.

“Amick, why in the realm are you carrying a chair?”

My body tenses in annoyance, and I pivot around to the High Chancellor. “High Chancellor. I’m returning it to where I took it from.”

“Get that from the Rising Chancellor at once,” he barks at his Attendant. It’s not his primary Attendant, the one I put to sleep, but just a random one he’s decided to use today.

The Attendant, whose name I don’t know, quickly removes the chair from my arms with a grunt. If he’d stopped me on his own to get it, I wouldn’t have allowed it. There’s no point in disobeying the High Chancellor’s direct order, though. It’d only result in punishment for this Attendant.

“You are a Rising Chancellor, Amick, not some foolish errand boy. You cannot be seen carrying furniture around the Athenaeum.”

“It was a waste of my time seeking out an Attendant to remove the chair for me when I was heading this way, High Chancellor. Your concern is noted, though.”

“Very well.”

“If that’ll be all, sir,” I say as I bow my head slightly. He holds his hand up to stop me.

“It will not be. What level of power release did you and your brothers receive this Veiling? And the girl? What has she said about her Veiling?”

My unblinking eyes bore into his. He’s not only a god but the God of Records.

It’s built into his blood to memorize and share the history, whichever version he prefers.

That ability gives him an unsustainable need to know any and everything he can.

It’s supposed to be for the benefit of the realm, but truly, he thirsts for his knowledge to be power .

“We received our usual sir. I believe our Binder was bound in the Gods Veil. She tried and failed to express to us what happened. Her abilities have yet to surface, but it’s a safe assumption based on my observations that she’ll be marginally weaker than us.”

He rubs his chin and nods. “The gods realized she cannot control her tongue so a binding would have been necessary. I find your observation on her strength hard to believe. Gladian informed me of her first training session yesterday.”

Of course he did.

“It’s been brought to our attention that her training wasn’t an occasional thing to work off her punishment but daily. She’s a highly capable Defender, but that doesn’t lead me to believe her powers will match that of ours.”

“You are sure of that? Unlike your brother, I will not tolerate her running amok in the Godsdawn.”

“Understood.”

“Very well. I expect to be informed of her progress when you see signs of her abilities coming forth. Carry on.”

I dip my head and turn on my heels without another word.

He knows more about my brothers and me than anyone, and he’s been bound to that knowledge.

He can’t speak about it unless he’s speaking to one of us.

It’s always been crucial to us that we keep him as uninformed about any new developments as possible.

That now extends to Thayla.

“I like the new addition,” Kyzen says as soon as I pass through my office door. He’s lazing away in Thayla’s new chair, rubbing the armrest.

“I’m going to revoke the permission I’ve granted you to enter in here. Get out of the chair and go,” I say as I make my way around my desk.

The task of finding a perfect seat has put me back for the day and my chest is growing tighter as I grow close to being behind schedule. That’s unacceptable. I’ve had far too many run-ins with unanticipated people this morning.

“Why add a chair if you’re not going to let anyone sit in it?”

“I am going to allow someone to sit in it.”

“Ohhhhh.” He exaggerates with a chuckle. “You’ve procured a chair for our Binder, I see.” I stare at him and he holds his hands up. “I’ll get out of your office. I was just informing you I’ve come to get Yemi.”

“Yemi’s in the middle of her lesson on her newly added responsibilities.”

“I know, but there’s a situation at the Veilatara meadows that requires Riven’s and my immediate attention. Thayla said that she needs Yemi to accompany her.”

“She’ll have to wait for her to finish what she’s doing. ”

“Actually, according to Thayla, Yemi’s already ahead of her lesson since you allowed her to gather her material yesterday. Also, Attendant rules state that the Attending God’s need for their Attendant supersedes the Attendant’s studies.”

I lay the parchment I had just picked up back down and slowly look at his smiling face. “Did she put you up to coming in here to talk to me rather than herself because she knew you’d know what to say?”

“That she did. And she told Riven he wasn’t allowed inside and that she’d, I quote, ‘Fuck him up if he ever rearranged the books ever again.’ So she’s babysitting him outside.”

That little anomaly.

I see what she’s doing.

“Fine. You’ll find her four rows down at a table. Tell her I expect her to be able to answer any question I ask.”

“I’ll let Yemi know.”

“That goes for Thayla as well.”

He snorts as he opens the door. “Yeah, okay.”

I’m not sure if he’s agreeing with me or mocking me.

Regardless, he leaves and shuts the door behind him. I reorganize my desk into priority piles to get me back on track. Things that must get done today, this week, and then my pleasure reads. That pile will be accompanying me home and Kyzen will be assisting me as repayment for his interruption.

I make my way over my sectioned bookshelf dedicated to the Healer Designation. It only takes me a moment to scour the spines to find what I’m looking for.

The Anatomy and Physiology of the Female Brain.

I add that to the top of my pleasure pile.