45. Mirrored Envy #2
This was a sculpture. A forgery. A mask painted with gauze and silk.
The door creaked.
Auryn turned, expecting Kailorien.
Instead, a figure slipped inside, small and quick. A girl in ornate veils. Her oiled black braid was bound with simple copper. Her eyes darted to the corners of the room.
Auryn knew her instantly.
“Liora,” she said.
The girl froze. Her lips parted. For a heartbeat she looked like she might drop to her knees. The choker on her neck was glowing.
"You remember my name?"
Her voice was soft, hesitant, trembling.
Auryn did not smile. “Should I not?”
Liora had been more than a name for months now. She had been a voice in the margins of Auryn’s journals. Folded scraps slipped between pages. A hurried whisper when no eyes lingered. A warning scratched in the dust of a stairwell before being wiped clean. Always veiled. Always dangerous.
Auryn had memorized her hand long ago. Kailorien had made good on his promise to show her favor after the Pouring of Grace. His kindness had helped her survive. But now, she was here in the flesh, breaking every boundary of safety.
“You should not be here,” Auryn said.
“I know.” Liora's hands twisted in the folds of her veils. “But I had to. I had to warn you.”
Auryn stepped away from the mirror. Lu'ma tensed beside her, but Auryn signed to reassure her all was well. She looked to Liora, stepping into the light.
“Warn me of what?”
The Companion’s throat bobbed. For the first time, she saw Auryn in the full blaze of her ceremonial regalia. Her eyes widened in awe and dread.
“Void bless me,” she whispered. “You are…” Her breath caught. “Your Radiance.”
Auryn’s expression did not change. Her voice was low, even. “Speak.”
Liora pressed her arms tight against her chest, trembling. Then the words burst out in a rush.
“Zeera is planning something. During the procession.”
Auryn stilled.
“What kind of something?”
“I—I don’t know all of it. But I know she’s spoken with the Attendants. She demanded the stones of the Path be tested. She said she wanted them to ‘hold.’ She told the others she wanted you to shine as a fallen star. She said it with that smile she always wears when she means the opposite.”
Auryn sighed. Long. Weary. "That is her dream. To see me fall. But will it satisfy her, to see my failure? She was not so different from you once."
Liora's lovely face warped. "Do not compare me to her."
"It is no comparison," Auryn assured her.
"Merely an observation. She began with hexes.
Poisoning my gowns. Small things. But as her malcontent for the Sokar grew, so did her ambition to see my image sullied.
" She exhaled, rubbing her chin. "So…she will try to thwart the Path of Fire so that I cannot proceed to the Rite of Judgment. This is no surprise."
Her eyes narrowed on the young Companion.
"You are familiar enough with intrigue now to understand that I would have prepared for such interference."
Liora’s mouth twisted. “If you have, then it is no business of mine. I merely wish to—return the favor you granted me once. Without His Quintessence interfering—sending gifts—I could not have found a foothold here.” The Companion folded her arms across her chest. "This is no mere hex.
No poison. This is a true threat. She does not seek to see you falter.
The things she has said are…treason. This city needs the Sokar. "
Auryn’s jaw clenched.
“You have risked your life to tell me this,” she said.
Liora shook her head. “Do not thank me. I don’t do this because I care for you.” Her voice cracked. “The truth is—I don’t favor you at all.”
Auryn tilted her head, but did not interrupt. The Companion's eyes shimmered with some mixture of anger and grief.
“I hate that you walk freely. That the Resh’Agar looks at you like…like you are his guiding star. He does not look at the Companions that way. He never has.”
The room was very still. Liora hugged herself tighter.
“The Void should be impartial. His Quintessence…we all know he favors you, though Zeera likes to say the opposite. I am too young to know, but in my training I was…forced to observe the Estar. So I could be prepared when my turn came. I saw what His Quintessence was like. Never once did he sleep beside his Eight. Never once did he touch us except for what duty demanded. But with you…”
Her words faltered.
“With you, he sleeps. That is what the whispers say.”
Silence. Heavy. Raw.
Liora’s breath shook. “You have something the Eight will never have. Choice. And his regard. And that is why Zeera hates you. Why we all hate you. Because you remind us of what we were never allowed to be.”
The confession settled like ash over raw soil. Not cruel. Only true.
At last, Auryn spoke. “Liora…do not ever come to this chamber again. For your sake.”
The girl's lip trembled. She turned to the door. Her hand hovered on the handle, then stopped.
Without looking back, she whispered, “Be careful, Your Radiance. Zeera doesn’t just want you to fail. She wants you to bleed.”
The door closed.
Auryn stood unmoving. Then she looked to her ceremonial purse. With Lu’ma’s assistance, she began to pack. A small pouch of mana-sand. A focus stone. A coil of veil-thread. Not offerings, but defense.
If it was a magic trap, she would be ready.
If it was assassins, the Reskala would be there.
And Kailorien.
He had promised.
Her reflection glared back at her from the mirror.
I won’t fall for her games. Not today. Not if the Fire itself devours me.