Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
“Aela, there you are,” Tarek said as she was escorted into his study.
Smooth paneled walls encased her, and a heavy timber desk dominated the room.
The scents of dust and parchment rested over those of rum and vanilla.
A particle screen hovered over the desk surface, its misty blue crystalline display claiming her gaze.
Her fingers twitched at the proximity of accessing the archive records.
There was bound to be a record of her House. If only she could access it.
The rest of Tarek’s office was cluttered with tattered scrolls and ancient tomes on side tables, a clash of old world and new.
A cart with his preferred beverage was set to the side.
Other than meeting the Asterism and receiving a tour of Avarice with Tarek, this was the first time Aela had been escorted anywhere from her rooms after being seized at The Games.
Fixated on the particle screen, Aela tore her gaze away lest Tarek see how desperate she was for information.
“What is this about?” Aela asked before she could remember herself.
The attendant who escorted her widened their eyes before hastily bowing themselves away, leaving her alone with Tarek.
“Things are going to change, Aela,” he said.
“And what does that have to do with me?”
“You don’t have many choices. You’re unknown and stranded. You should see this as a good thing.”
“See what, Tarek?” Dread pooled in her stomach. “Being part of your Line? I never asked for that. Give it to someone else. All I want is to go home.” Aela sucked in a sharp breath.
Damn him.
Tarek stood before Aela and cupped her cheek. “Precious, you are home.”
Aela jerked her face out of his palm, but Tarek grasped her wrist before she could pull away. His russet eyes traveled down to the crystal band clamped on her, drawing Aela’s eyes with them.
“It could be worse, you know.” He brushed his thumb along the sensitive skin below the band.
A green-tinged haze of earthen magic produced a small crystal rod in his hand.
“I have other varieties that would make your time here far less comfortable. But we both know you won’t let it come to that, will you? ”
Aela couldn’t breathe—her eyes fixated on the crystal rod he held. Tarek noted her stare and twirled the black crystalline rod between his forefinger and thumb.
“By accepting my bond proposal, you will secure yourself as next in the Line after me. You will be protected and provided for. In turn, you will help me Ascend and guarantee my House’s survival.”
What he demanded of her was the gravest betrayal to her constellation. Accepting Tarek’s bond would place Taurus above her duty to her own House.
Aela vehemently shook her head. “No.”
The crystal rod cracked against her cheek. Her body twisted away from the force of the blow, wrenching her shoulder.
“You will do this, Aela.”
Tarek released her, and she stumbled away, pressing her back into the closest wall.
“This is for your own protection as well as mine.”
Nothing but clear misconception shone in his eyes as he looked at her.
He actually believes this.
“And my choice? You can’t force a bond, Tarek—” Aela started, his strike momentarily forgotten as she attempted to reason with him.
“Celestials of our position bond for political reasons all the time, and with your need to keep your secret,” he scoffed at that, “your only option is to bond with me. You need my protection; I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to.
” Aela went still. “But I think in time, you’ll warm to me. ”
He was delusional—insane—if he thought that would ever happen. Aela pressed her palm to her throbbing cheek, biting off the rejection threatening to form on her tongue. She knew better than to disagree with him.
In the prolonged silence, Tarek turned from her, whisking the crystal rod away with small magic, holding his selenite shard in one hand and sorting through scrolls on a table with the other. Her eyes drifted over his shoulder to the particle screen.
“May I leave?” Aela asked, her throat constricting.
“Yes. An attendant is waiting to escort you back to your chambers.”
She turned to leave.
“Oh, and Aela?”
She peered over her shoulder at the Prime Apparent.
“Moving forward, you will act accordingly for your position. Defy me…” He let the threat linger as their eyes met, then dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
The bag slung over Arche’s shoulder was a burning weight as he passed by sentinels on patrol in the halls of the palace.
The tired heartbeat of Avarice pulsed weakly in the rosy walls.
He was almost through the earth elemental quarters where members of the Asterism would find their private reserves of unrefined crystals suddenly less potent.
He thought of it less as stealing and more as liberating them of responsibility. Since they were apparently incapable of doing the honorable thing, Arche would help them along.
His contacts in Avarice were ready for the next batch of crystals to be evenly distributed to those who truly needed them. While Asters were bound like common class celestials, they had nearly full access to their magic, forcing the lower-class to power Avarice and serve Tarek’s whims.
Arche strolled with confidence, having every right that came with his prominent position.
Twirling his selenite shard between his fingers, he fired off discrete messages to various vendors in the city to prepare their establishments for inspection.
All who read his reports would see the truth: the Third of Taurus was making his rounds and ensuring everything in their fair city was running smoothly.
Even though he had been quietly rebelling against Tarek’s reign as long as he had been in his House, he still held out hope that he could save his friend from his own greed.
He wished he could do more.
Like many celestials, Tarek had succumbed to the plague of craving more control when so much had been stripped from him. It was an unfortunate inheritance from their makers; an insatiable hunger for power.
Tarek was a point of contention within his rebel cohort.
There were a fair number of stars working to escape their Prime Apparent.
Arche was the odd one out who thought Tarek could be swayed to ease up on his control of his House.
But he owed him. Tarek had saved his life, so in turn, the least he could do was to repay the favor.
The Asters from whom Arche pilfered crystals to replace with refined replicas suspected nothing beyond inner schemes of the court.
If they noticed the energy of their crystals lessening, they would never divulge the damning weakness.
They were too distracted by their own positions, contentious politics, and dealings that they rarely paid attention to the greater constellation and its growing unrest.
Arche nodded to more sentinels as he came to a central junction where four halls merged.
He saw Electra making her way toward him.
The fiery-haired Aster had set her sights on becoming Tarek’s bonded.
Now that Aela was to assume the position, she was particularly malefic.
Not having the energy or time to deal with her, Arche hastened his steps to the traveling rings.
Setting his intention for a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, blue light flared and transported him to the far reaches of Avarice.
It had been months since the last batch of replicas had been made, so it was no surprise to see the ground covered in a thick layer of dust. This area of the city was abandoned. Or so he thought.
Upon closer inspection, a faint set of footprints that weren’t his own trailed from the traveling rings to the half wall on the platform, then back through one of the decrepit arches.
“This must have been where she came through,” Arche murmured, studying Aela’s footprints. Following her trail, he saw an abandoned pack, a dusty brown robe, and a pickaxe.
“What have we here, Starling?” Before anyone else discovered evidence of Aela’s past life, Arche scooped up her contraband and brought it with him.
Aela was another variable he and his fellow stars in the rebellion couldn’t agree on.
When he had debriefed Zosma in private, the Leo had regrettably told him what she did in The Games.
It was then the rebels knew something was about to change, that Fate had intervened at last. Arche had kept his distance, letting her find a role she could live with as a captive.
He didn’t want to spook their one shot at freedom.
Swirling his simple magic at his fingertips, Aela’s tracks vanished. He’d clear away his own on his way back to the palace. It was better to use that than his water element and cleanse the ground, which could draw unwanted attention.
“Time to find another location,” he muttered.
Relocating their crystal hoard might be an unnecessary move.
Even though he made sure sentinels didn’t patrol this far, he would be a fool to think he was the only star pursuing aims within Tarek’s court.
Repositioning the pack on his shoulder, Arche made his way to the warehouse where his contact would collect the drop.
As primitive as it was to physically carry the crystals in a pack, he couldn’t risk transferring his energy to the stones he smuggled by whisking them away with simple magic.
This section of the city, though uninhabited, held the same architectural facets with its rosy stone buildings and cobblestone streets. There were no gardens here; the effort to maintain life was not worth the demand on their lack of resources.
Checking to ensure he wasn’t followed, Arche scanned the empty street behind him.
The warehouse door hummed beneath his palm, and he stepped inside, the wards granting him entry.
Closing the door behind him, he used another twist of small magic, and starlight sconces flared to life.
Stacked crates ran along the perimeter of the walls with rough canvas blankets draped over them.
“You’re late.”
Arche dropped Aela’s pickaxe with a clang. “By the Gods.” He turned to see Zosma hovering beside a crate.
“Better that I’m late than not make the drop at all,” he countered.
Zosma hadn’t been a rebel long, though, like Arche, and grafted into House Taurus, he never stopped fighting for his freedom. Arche made quick work of storing Aela’s belongings and organizing the unrefined crystals.
Tarek believed he had absolute control over his city—a grave oversight on his friend’s part and one Arche would use to his advantage to help as many Taureons as possible.
Now, if only Aela would help.