Her hand then came off and she turned around. She looked back over her shoulder at him, and the quiet cracked open into wickedness. "Get ready, Quin. And please bring out a few of my clanswomen first."
"Sure," Quinlan smiled. "[Awaken]."
Pale flame stood up out of the floorboards in five places and cooled into women.
They wore the elite muster's armor they had died in, and the seniormost of them, a scarred veteran with an old white line through one brow, took in the hall, the brazier, and the heir standing in the middle of it, and understood the assignment before anyone explained a thing.
Whatever the five of them had died believing about the clan's disgraced daughter, none of it survived the sight of her. They bowed to Ayame as one.
"Lady Ayame."
"Come with me, I need your help." She was already walking toward the preparation room off the hall's east side. "I have to look like a most treasured heirloom."
The door slid shut on the six of them.
