Chapter 10 #2
“You’ll learn soon enough that the Line requires a certain level of decorum for its members.
Especially if you are to be seen with the Prime Apparent.
” Tala placed her selenite shard on the table beside her, tapping the rectangular white crystal with her finger, collecting her thoughts.
“Tarek likes things a certain way, and the sooner you accept his preferences, the better off you’ll be. ”
While Aela digested the Adjacent’s words, a group of attendants arrived in her quarters.
Tala delivered instructions with a gentle appreciation for the staff, which had Aela begrudgingly warming to the female even though she was her captive.
The attendants, though in the same white robes, differed as much as the other stars Aela had seen when she first came to Avarice.
They took stock of her apartment and served refreshments before departing.
One individual stayed behind—male by the set of his shoulders, though he hunched down as if he were trying to hide his height.
“You know, celestials often think my brother is the Taureon Twin to fear,” Tala said, setting her glass tumbler down on the table and bringing Aela’s attention back to her and away from the attendant busying himself in the kitchenette.
“Let me guess, they’d be wrong?” Aela’s drink in front of her remained untouched.
Tala chuckled something dark. “Indeed.”
Aela steeled herself. Don’t show weakness. “So, am I to be tortured then? Seems a pity to ruin such nice furnishings.”
Tala pursed her lips. “I don’t think that will be necessary. Besides, I don’t conduct my more thorough examinations in chambers like this. Seeing as you denied my brother in front of our court about your heritage, we’ll start somewhere else.”
Tala peppered Aela with questions.
“Before Avarice, where were you?”
“A Leonta planet. Prente.”
“Prente? How interesting.” A pregnant pause. Aela willed the cold sweat that wanted to pour out from her skin to stay buried.
“You must have been there for quite a while as there hasn’t been a reigning House in that sector for… well, a very long time.”
Aela remained quiet.
Please, Fates, let one truth be enough for now.
“Lucky for you, you arrived in our fair city at just the right time. Lucky indeed,” Tala murmured as she stroked her selenite shard.
During their conversation—or interrogation, depending on how Aela answered or skirted Tala’s questions—attendants had bustled back in, filling Aela’s bathroom closet with cosmetics and the suitable clothing Tala mentioned.
“Your elemental gift is air. Which logically means you can be one of three Houses,” Tala said as she walked around the table, leaning against the surface at Aela’s side. She toyed with a short rod in her hands made from the same crystal that bound Aela’s wrists.
Aela stared straight ahead and refused to give an inkling of how close Tala was to the truth, and the Adjacent continued.
“Yet we all know the gifts of the Gods can manifest in celestials in different ways. I’ll ask again. Which House do you belong to?”
Aela clenched her teeth, bracing herself for the pain. Searing heat branded her skin beneath the crystal bands.
“What House, Aela?” Tala asked in a tone at odds with the pain she inflicted.
The heat intensified.
Aela panted.
“What. House?”
Tala released her tight grip on the rod with an exasperated sigh, and Aela sank back into her chair.
She knew what was coming next. The Adjacent placed the rod on the table back where she normally sat and retrieved a spare selenite shard.
Coming around to Aela again, Tala placed the selenite in Aela’s hands.
Upon touching the stone, the healing energy from the crystal went to work repairing the welts on her wrists. Erasing any evidence of mistreatment.
“Do you always stock members of your Line with finery?” Aela asked after Tala seemed to understand that she wasn’t going to tell her any more about herself or how she had ended up on Prente.
“Not usually. Members of the Line are selected over time for their contributions to the House. You are an exception. And seeing as you won’t divulge if you have any belongings of your own to retrieve, it was required in your case.”
Tala rose from the table and paused by the door to Aela’s apartment.
“I can feel you, you know—your class, your power. I will find out who you are. I don’t say it as an idle threat.
I will discover who you are and if you prove to be a risk to Tarek or my House, or if you choose not to be truthful with me, I can’t guarantee your comfort, Line or not.
Until I’m satisfied, you’re confined to your quarters.
” With that foreboding farewell, Tala closed Aela within her chambers, where she was left alone.
It became her routine. Her once-daily runs to and from the desert on Prente were replaced with Tala, who would enter her apartment unannounced then subject Aela to a mostly cordial interrogation.
Though Aela could do without the bitter-tasting tonic Tala had her drink and the crystal binders that ensnared her wrists, Aela was grateful it never went beyond the brief moments of incendiary pain.