Chapter 27 Erik #2
“I have been around enough animals in my life to know the gentle shift of their heads when searching for sound,” he replied. “Is it Ariana?”
Animals. I nodded. “I can hear her shivering and mumbling incoherently.”
Willis turned, looking out at nothing in particular. “She will be fine,” he said with certainty.
In the new silence, I couldn’t help but continue to monitor what was going on within the temple.
None of it brought me any peace. Ariana was going through something uncomfortable, and in turn, it made me uncomfortable.
I needed to focus on something else. Anything else.
For this was perhaps even more tortuous than when I sat waiting in one of their prison cells.
“What do you make of the Lysians and me?” I asked Willis with genuine curiosity. His eyes were cold when they looked upon us, however he did not lash out like Landin, nor did he smell of fear.
Willis chortled. “It does not matter what I think.”
“Still. I would like to know.” I shrugged.
He sighed, turning his golden gaze towards me. “You and your kind are very lost and confused. You assume you have power, and in some sense, you do, but you have less than you think.” Again, certainty was very much present in his words. He truly believed what he said.
“And what power do you think you have that I do not?”
“We have Ariana. You may have her physically for the time being, but you do not have her, not really, and you never will,” he answered, turning from me and looking into the darkness before him. There was a stoic silence around him.
“You wish to kill me?” I asked simply. Whatever his answer, it would not upset me, for I could understand why he would want my death.
“No.” He kept his focus on the darkness before him.
“No?” I asked in surprise. I would have bet otherwise. Despite his calm and lack of outward hostility, it was obvious he did not have any favor towards us.
“You spared Landin’s life, and you have not brought harm to Ariana.
If I was to kill you, then who would take your place?
Would they be worse? That is not a decision I am equipped to make, nor do I have the power to make it.
” He alluded that Ariana would be the one to make such a decision.
What would she choose if she were given the option?
“Landin is a curious one,” I stated.
Willis ran his tongue over his teeth and nodded in the darkness.
I nearly thought my attempt at continuing a conversation with him over, but then he spoke.
“Landin is afraid. When fear takes hold of him, he loses all sense of empathy. He lashes out and tries to force things to go his way. But, of course, it never works out that way for him, yet he is stuck following that same pattern.”
“He should have been afraid when he allowed Ariana into my prison cell.” I pointed out the first mistake he ever made in my presence.
Willis viewed me. “We underestimated you and your kind. That will not happen again.”
“You were always silent, never tried to talk to me while I was down there,” I pointed out.
“I had nothing to say to you,” he answered with a shrug.
“And now?”
“Now, Ariana has decided to see good in you and your kind, and so I will try to understand her decision.”
I nodded, and again we fell silent. The darkness around us grew still, allowing for my mind to wander under the backdrop of Ariana’s distant murmurs.
Remaining outside that temple was for no one other than myself.
If Bavadrins tried to revolt, then we would easily regain control.
If anyone harmed Ariana, then we would just take whoever was chosen as the next Leader Superior.
It was not for my Lysians that I sat on the steps of the entrance to a Bavadrin temple.
It was for her. I was protecting her, only to be tortured by the discomfort she felt while under the spell of that poison she drank.
Why did I find myself wishing to protect her?
Was it because in her own way, she tried to protect me when I was a prisoner?
Was it because I believed her to be a compassionate Bavadrin and not the witch I first thought she may be?
Did the reason matter? Eventually, my brothers would lose their patience and demand either her compliance or her life. My stomach clenched at the thought.
Since I’ve known her, Ariana always held her head high.
She never hid or ran from the horrors biting at her heels.
Every obstacle she faced head-on, and with a grace I never could have imagined a Bavadrin to have.
I was fairly certain she would not agree to stand with us while under Lysian control, which left her ultimately forfeiting her life.
Would she also face her death with her head held high, or would she finally break and beg for mercy?
Could I order her death? Could I do it with my own hands?
I refused to force Lysians to do something I could not do myself.
“I want you to know that I do not intend for any harm to come to her,” I found myself saying to Willis.
He nodded without looking at me. “We shall see how good your word is.”