Malin – Mother
Malin
Mother
Malin burst through the heavy oak doors of her mother’s suite, nearly knocking the stationed guards off balance. She didn’t stop to explain herself. She looked wild, her frost-dusted hood twisted half off her shoulders, her tunic smeared with soot and the dark blood of the undead.
Jacien slipped through the doors right behind her, his silver eyes sweeping the room.
“Can you find Zee and Ellie?” Malin asked him, her voice ragged as she shrugged off her heavy pack. “Bring them here. Please.”
Jacien gave a crisp nod, all traces of his typical cockiness gone in the face of her panic. He turned on his heel and vanished back into the corridor.
Malin didn’t wait to watch him go. She sprinted into the bedroom.
Three Minsters looked up as she charged in, as they were clustered around the high canopy bed. Malin’s mom lay still on the silk sheets, her silver hair fanned across the pillow like a halo. Her skin was translucent, carrying the terrifying, waxy pallor of death.
“How is she?” Malin demanded, her hands shaking as she quickly opened the leather satchel and dug for the EMP.
Eyes widening, the head Minster’s jaw went slack. “It is not going well, Duchess. She had a severe episode just a few hours ago. We aren’t sure what happened, but it seemed her body was losing the fight. We have done what we can, but...” He swallowed hard. “We do not have any other options.”
“I do,” Malin said, stepping up to the mattress. Her voice brooked no argument. “Stand back. All of you.”
She placed the narrow cylinder, cased in heavy matte silver, with a single red toggle at one end, on the side table next to the bed. Her blood-stained fingers hovered over the switch as she kissed her mother’s forehead.
The Minster hesitated. “Is there anything else we should do?”
“Pray,” Malin whispered. This had to work.
She threw the switch.
The toggle ignited with a violent red glow. The device released a low, vibrating hum that immediately amplified, climbing rapidly into a high-pitched, agonizing whine like a swarm of angry wasps. The sound made Malin’s teeth ache, and the hairs on her arms stood on end.
For a terrifying, suspended second, nothing happened. The whine peaked.
Then, with a concussive CRACK that shattered the air in the room, the device discharged.
On the bed, her mother’s entire body violently arched off the mattress as the pulse ripped through her system. Malin hoped this meant it was short-circuiting the nanotech in her blood, but she had no way to know what it would do… or if it would even work.
Then, she collapsed back onto the sheets.
The device wound down with a dying hum, the red light fading to black. The only sound left in the room was Malin’s own ragged, frantic breathing. Mom’s hands were limp. Her chest was perfectly still.
Did she kill her?
She threw herself onto her knees beside the bed, pressing her trembling fingers against the base of her mother’s throat. Thump-thump. A faint heartbeat pushed against her fingertips.
Panic, cold and absolute, seized Malin’s throat. Malin took her amulet off and pocketed it, focusing on ensuring the siphon magic was completely under control.
Closing her eyes, she let her golden glow of healing magic flow into the shell of a woman in front of her.
“Her eyes,” the lead Minster gasped, rushing forward. “I saw movement.”
Malin dared to look at her mother. The frail eyelids fluttered. Her right hand twitched, the fingers curling weakly against the coverlet, and a fractured, painful groan escaped her lips.
Malin froze.
Grabbing her mother’s hand, she pressed her knuckles against her own lips. She wasn’t sure if she was praying or cursing, but the words spilled out in a desperate flood. “Mom. Please. I’m here. Please don’t leave me.”
A soft voice, barely above a whisper, rustled through the quiet room. “Malin?”
Her mother’s eyes fluttered open. They were unfocused at first, the pupils blown wide in the dim light, but she slowly tracked across the canopy before locking onto her daughter’s tear-streaked face.
“I’m here,” Malin choked out, gripping her mother’s hand like a lifeline, pouring more of her magic into the woman lying in front of her. “I’m right here. I got the device, just like you wanted. I got you back.”
Hot, silent tears burned trails through the soot and blood on Malin’s cheeks. Her mother raised her free hand, her fingers trembled violently, and she brushed a thumb against her daughter’s jaw.
“My brave girl,” she rasped, her voice rough as gravel. “I knew you’d find a way.”
Malin nodded, a sob ripping through her chest. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
The dim bedroom was illuminated with more of her healing warmth.
Breathless, she kept her hands steady as the magic did its heavy work.
The horrific, waxy gray of impending death was immediately chased away by a vibrant, healthy flush.
Her mother inhaled deeply, her lungs expanding with entirely new strength.
The Minsters finally snapped out of their shock and began their work in earnest, bustling around the bed with vials and damp cloths.
Her mother squeezed Malin’s hand. The sheer vitality and strength in that single, grounding grip proved just how deeply the golden magic had restored her. “You brought me back,” she said, her voice carrying the steady cadence of her old self.
“I thought...” Malin hiccupped, wiping her wet face with her shoulder, as she replaced her amulet around her neck. “I thought I’d never...”
“Stop,” her mother cut her off. The gentle brush of her thumb softened the sudden steel in her tone.
“There is no room for melodrama, not even now. You’re stronger than you believe, Malin.
You always have been.” She drew in a slow, steady breath, her sharp gaze dropping to the inert silver cylinder on the bedside table. “What did you do to save me?”
“Went to Four Winds, then from there met Darik to get the device from Fellspire,” Malin sniffed, forcing a shaky laugh. “It knocked out the nanotech.”
Mom studied the device, processing the sheer impossibility of the artifact, before her eyes drifted back to the blood and dirt on Malin’s clothes.
“You took an enormous risk for me by believing in the dream I sent you. Thank you for listening. I knew you would get exactly where I needed you to go. I am sure Darik was surprised to see you. I told him you would come one day, and that giving you a device would ensure he reached his ultimate goal.”
“Darik knew I was coming?” Malin asked, her jaw tightening with fresh anger. “That man is such a manipulative ass. He told me that I couldn’t have it unless I pushed for a negotiation between the delegations, then he told everyone there that we were almost contracted for marriage by our fathers.”
The blood drained completely from her mother’s face, as her mouth fell open and her upper lip curled.
“A marriage contract?” she whispered, her voice trembling with sudden revulsion.
“Malin, no. I never knew. I met with that man in secret countless times, and he never once mentioned that. It was obviously something of Victor’s planning.
Just another reason I want to kill that man. ”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Malin interrupted softly, eager to ease her mother's sudden guilt. “Darik is a snake, and he’s probably going to take over as Archon, but I want to put thoughts of that man far from me.” She shook her head, her tone dropping into absolute seriousness.
“Getting this device was nothing compared to the alternative of losing you. I would burn the world for you.”
Mom’s lips curved upward in a faint, knowing smile. “You do take after your father at times.”
Her heart warmed at those words.
Malin tried to steady her breathing. The cloying, sharp scent of the Minsters’ herbs was suddenly overwhelming, but it was not the only thing making her chest tight.
Staring at her newly restored mother, a glaring, unresolved question shoved its way to the forefront of her mind.
Her mother had kept a massive, living secret from her for her entire life, and Malin desperately needed answers.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Aunt Bratha?” Malin asked, her tone shifting from relieved to deeply serious.
Her mother let out a long, heavy sigh. The joy of her miraculous healing was momentarily eclipsed by the harsh, suffocating realities of their world.
“It was a matter of survival, Malin. The exact same survival that forced me to hide my chip, and to hide Ellie’s powers from you,” she explained, her blue eyes pleading for understanding.
“I helped Bratha fake her death to get her safely out of Victor’s reach.
If anyone in Media caught even a whisper that she was alive, he would have known I lied to him.
Worse, it would have instantly shattered my cover in the Resistance.
I could not risk you or Ellie accidentally letting it slip. ”
“I hate it,” Malin admitted softly, rubbing her throbbing temples. “I hate how many lies you had to keep from me. But I’m starting to understand why you did it. Can I confirm this is finally the last? I don’t have some long-lost sister hiding out there somewhere?”
Her mother reached out, gently grasping Malin’s hand.
“You have the whole truth now. I told you I wouldn’t keep anything else from you.
I should have told you about Bratha on the ship.
At the time, I hadn’t even thought of her.
If you remember, at the time… I was worried about your father.
” Her sharp blue eyes narrowed as they picked apart Malin’s exhausted facade.
Malin let out a hollow, bitter laugh. Once she started talking, she simply could not stop.
She poured out the impossible string of nightmares and miracles that had consumed her life.
She recounted the sheer terror of the children getting lost in the treacherous Draco Mountains, the political upheaval of Anariel becoming queen, and the chilling shock of Victor appearing at the coronation.