Chapter 18
The Enemy of My Enemy
My throat was parched, my heart stuttering in an uneven rhythm beneath my ribs, and to top it all off, I was still holding a bottle of water in one hand like this was just a totally normal way to spend my evening.
"Hm." The seated figure – Nizanin, some helpful voice deep in my brain supplied – studied me, head tilting slowly.
Behind them, their unbound crest rippled, and the expression that settled on their features was one I could only describe as amused.
Nizanin cast a sideways look to the abaya who'd shoved me into the room, and who was currently boring holes into my skull with their glare, and then said in abayan, "I think if we set him loose in the Assembly, he might do much of our work for us. How delightfully indecent."
My mouth was dry as bone, and I swallowed once, hard.
Then, because I couldn't think of anything else to say and I really, really didn't want to look at the body on the floor, I found myself mumbling, "My gratitude for your attention.
My jacket was taken from me. I intended to be only slightly indecent. "
Nizanin trilled, sharp and surprised, their hand flying to their throat, as the guard holding the blaster scoffed, clearly unimpressed.
"Ah, your abayan is much improved! This will make our meeting much easier," said Nizanin, their nose crinkled in amusement.
Which seemed rich, considering our current environs.
But the panic and sharp grief I felt couldn't help me, not now, so I carefully and deliberately braided them tight and tucked them away in that dark place where I put all of the awful things I couldn't otherwise hold.
I didn't let myself look at Elethenn, seated against the wall and staring at me, his hands bound in front of him, silver blood dripping slowly down his cheek from a slice near his temple.
I also didn't let myself look at Tam's body or the spray of gleaming blood spattering the wall or the way his skull was crumpled in from a concussive shot.
I didn't let myself look at the glint of the blaster rifle that was trained on me and that would, if fired, do the exact same thing to my squishy human brain.
Instead, I forced myself to look at Nizanin, making sure I squared my shoulders and kept my chin up as I would when meeting any other abayan representative on behalf of Creche Thiel, and I did my best to smile at them in return.
"You know already that I am Sashen of Creche Thiel," I tried, frantically scrambling for the right verbs to position myself in a subordinate position, but not directly subordinate.
Fuck, why hadn't I done more practice this week?
"You now know Elethenn of Creche Thiel, but he is mine to introduce as well.
I know we have met in passing. Forgive me, I am a novice: is this a formal introduction?
How might I best refer to everyone here? "
Next to Nizanin, the abaya with the blaster – which was still trained on me, although honestly, what the fuck was I going to do?
– scowled, their black crest bristling behind them.
"You," they said in accented Standard, "have the honour of addressing Nizanin of the Unbound.
They are attended by Ankalas –" Gold Nose Ring dipped her chin, "and myself. I am Sentelli."
"You will have to forgive our Ankalas for being overzealous," murmured Nizanin. Their stare had fixed on my wrist, which I was cradling against my chest as it throbbed, although a fucked up wrist was really the least of my problems. "She does not care for this kind of work."
I licked my lower lip, trying to keep my features neutral even as my heartbeat was hammering against my eardrums. "Oh. And what work is that?" I asked in abayan that sounded clumsy even to my own ears.
Did they mean murder? Or taking hostages?
Nizanin blinked once, slow. Their crest whispered behind them. They said a word that I didn't know, and next to them, Sentelli fluted out a sound at my confused look. "Enforcement," he said in Standard.
I nodded carefully, still white-knuckling my bottled water. Then, with a quick glance at the blaster, I turned back to Nizanin. "I'm happy to talk," I said. "But it is hard for me to think in abayan when a weapon is looking at me. Looking? Facing?"
Another trill left Nizanin's throat. "Aimed," they supplied. Then, "Sentelli, this is a reasonable request. We are all friends here, now that we have dealt with the dangerous element in our midst."
I didn't know if they meant Tam or Elethenn, and I wasn't interested in finding out.
Slowly, Sentelli lowered his blaster, holstering it at his waist and then crossing his arms hard across his chest. I was pretty sure he'd able to crack my skull just by curling one bicep – how the fuck were the Unbound training their bodyguards?
Super-soldier school? – so a blaster seemed a bit like overkill in an office this small and with a second extremely deadly-looking abaya standing behind Nizanin's other shoulder.
In the distance, I could hear the screech of faint music echoing in the hall.
Fight night must have officially started, which meant that screaming for help was out of the question, although it wouldn't have been my top pick anyway.
I studied Nizanin while they watched me back, their dark eyes bright with curiosity.
They were dressed in a basic jumpsuit that, while very clean and with the usual crisp abayan lines, was also utilitarian.
They looked to be young, older than Araxis but not as old as Evreni, maybe around Egnax's age.
What was most striking about them, though, wasn't how they were dressed or even what they looked like: it was their stillness.
Nizanin held their body like every movement was a deliberate choice they were making, a conscious effort, like perfect stillness was their default state.
Something about it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
And yet, despite bringing me in here, despite having Elethenn tied up on the floor, despite the fact that Tam was dead, Nizanin just kept watching me, blinking very slowly.
The silence grew, took on a weight and heft that made nausea wriggle in my gut, like I might actually choke on the nothingness in this room.
I opened my mouth to speak, and Nizanin flicked two talons together, a loud sound meant to silence children. I took the cue and shut the fuck up.
"Like many others," Nizanin said finally, "I witnessed the declaration you made for Araxis of Creche Thiel.
Unlike many others, I understand that you were forced into that position through the actions of Creche Thiel.
There are many things I find intolerable.
Exploitation is chief among them." They returned to silence and studied me, as if expecting a response or looking for one hidden in my expression.
"Did you understand our most honoured one?" asked Sentelli, tone flat.
"Uh, yeah," I started. What did they mean, they knew I'd been forced into that position?
How? No one knew that, just Araxis and Vivith, Alet Trident, and Justiciar Tra Fell.
I guess Val Prior did too, but she sure as fuck wasn't sharing that information.
I cleared my throat, searched for the words in abayan.
"That's kind of you, to think of me. I would declare for Araxis today, again.
He has… made space for me to forgive him.
" I looked to Sentelli, who seemed to be the primary translator, and added in Standard, "I love him and I forgive him.
He's a good person who made a bad choice, and we're figuring it out. "
Sentelli looked at Nizanin and translated rapidly. Nizanin studied me, as if I were a particularly fascinating puzzle.
I addressed them again, and thought to throw in a self-deprecating smile. "But you cannot be here to talk to me about my –" I didn't have a good word for our relationship, so I tried one from the abayan plays I'd been watching, "Romance?"
Nizanin trilled again, smiling happily. "He is sweet, is he not?" they asked Ankalas.
Ankalas for her part grunted. She glanced at her wristband, tapping something open. "Honoured one, a message," she murmured, stepping in closer to show the display to Nizanin who, I realized with a little shock, wasn't wearing a band. Who didn't wear a wristband?
"Hm." Nizanin scanned the message, which was too far away and too tiny for me to read (and also in the abayan alphabet which I couldn't decipher anyway), then nodded.
"Have the dalloid bring him." Their stare drifted back to me, head tilting deliberately; I could hear Elethenn shifting uncomfortably on the floor, a whine of distress sounding from his throat.
"I apologize for the subterfuge this evening, and for the rough handling.
We meant to meet and offer you a gift, but I see that you have also brought me a gift tonight with your presence, Sashen of Creche Thiel.
You are a beacon: you draw significance into your light, so that we might all see what great things await. "
A wave of horror crashed over me, and I felt what colour I had left in my face drain away.
Araxis.
I jerked forward in my chair, unthinking. "Please –" I started.
Before I could continue, Sentelli surged forward, crossing the cluttered office in one easy stride and striking me hard in the chest so that I slammed back. "Stay still," he hissed in Standard. He lifted his hand toward my throat, and I went perfectly, horribly still, not breathing, eyes wide.
Not again, I thought wildly. Now wasn't the time. I couldn't – I had to – I needed –