"No. I agreed to marry Connor Rogan, because I love him."
"Does House Rogan confirm the engagement?" the Keeper asked.
"Yes," Rogan said, his face again a neutral mask. "I love Nevada Baylor and want to marry her."
"So noted," the Keeper said. "Let us proceed."
A woman walked into the arena. She was tall and Asian. She looked to be about my mother's age. She stopped on the other side of the white line drawn on the floor.
"Face your tester," the Keeper stated.
I walked over and stopped on my side of the white line. The woman raised her hands. Her mind disappeared behind a dense curtain. A truthseeker, using the same trick as Shaffer. But her shield wasn't quite as dense.
"Nevada Baylor, you must determine truth from lie," the Keeper stated. "Your tester is a registered Elenchus. Voice your answers only once. If you change your mind, your second answer won't be counted. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Prepare your magic. Are you ready?" the Keeper asked.
The woman nodded.
I wrapped my magic around her defensive cocoon and began slipping tendrils of it inside. I only needed one to make it through. And there it was.
"Yes," I said.
"Begin," the Keeper said.
"Mein Bruder hat einen Hund," the woman said.
My magic buzzed. I had no idea what she said, but it didn't matter. "Lie."
The woman blinked, startled. She poured more magic into the cocoon. I fed a little more of mine into the tendrils.
"Ich besitze ein Boot."
"Truth."
"Rosen sind meine Lieblingsblume."
"Lie."
"Are the arbiters satisfied?" the Keeper asked.
"No," Lenora said. "Let her continue."
"Lie," I told her.
Linus Duncan laughed again, showing even, white teeth.
"I'm forty-two years old," an older arbiter said.
"Truth." Although he looked a decade older.
"We are satisfied with her diagnostics," Sylvester Green said. "We wish to see the demonstration of the voice before making the final decision."
The Keeper bowed his head to my tester. She turned and departed. A man in his thirties replaced her, his face carefully neutral. I reached out to test the waters. His mind was closed off, wrapped in a nutshell of protection. It was very subtle, but it was there.
I looked at the Keeper. "Compelling another person to answer my questions against their will is traumatic."
"The Office of Records understands your concern," the Keeper said.
"This man has a protective shield around his mind. I can break through it by brute force, but if the Office would allow me to use chalk, I can compel him to answer with minimal damage."
"No chalk," the forty-two-year-old arbiter said.
I turned toward the man. "I'm sorry."
"Stop stalling," the man said.
I concentrated and stabbed with my magic, turning it into a dagger. The shell cracked and split. Thank you, Grandmother Victoria.
My magic snapped out and gripped the man's mind into its fist.
"Tell me your name."
My will crushed his.
"Benjamin Cars."
"The shell on your mind isn't yours. Who put it in place?"
"Orlando Gonzales."
A commotion broke out behind me, but I couldn't turn around.
"Why?"
"He doesn't want you to become a House."
"Why?"
"He didn't tell me."
I turned around. Everyone was looking at one of the arbiters, the one who told me his age.
I released the other man and clamped the arbiter with my will. Behind me Benjamin collapsed, weeping.
The shell around Orlando's mind was thicker and stronger. I stabbed at it. It held. I stabbed again and again.
He got off his chair and staggered back.
Another stab. He fought me, his will bucking, but if I didn't do this now, there would be some doubt about the legitimacy of my trial. I couldn't afford doubt. Our family's survival depended on it.
Stab. The shell cracked. I poured my magic through the gap and wrenched it open.
I thought about Sturm and Vincent and dead Kurt. Anger surged through me. The arbiter's will snapped under my pressure.
"Why did you protect Benjamin's mind?"
His whole body shook from the strain. I squeezed. The world wavered. So much magic spent so quickly.
They wouldn't keep me from protecting my family. I didn't care how much they sneered, how many obstacles they put in my way, I would become a House today.
"Answer me."
The words came out one by one. "I . . . did it . . . because . . . Colleen Shaffer asked me."