Elsie’s POV

I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop…I swear. I just wanted to grab my dagger from the training room. But as I walked past the slightly cracked door of the study, I heard Madriod’s voice. At first, I thought he was talking to himself, but then I heard another voice, low and raspy, responding.

“I told you I’ll handle it,” Madriod said, his tone sharp but quiet. “They don’t need to know everything.”

I froze. Who’s ‘they’?

“You’re running out of time, Madriod,” the other voice said. “If you fail, you know what will happen. To all of us.”

There was a pause. I peeked through the crack in the...