Chapter 30 #2
Quartz glowed from sconces now set along the walls, where once they had been barren and cold.
The subtle warmth was comforting as she entered.
Long, hand-spun rugs adorned the smooth floor in tones of cream, garnet, and jade, which added a softness to the overall gray atmosphere.
Aela trailed her hand along the asteroid interior wall as she made her way through the main chamber.
The asteroid trembled slightly, and Aela snatched her hand back.
Did I do that?
Warily treading around the final curving hall to the cavern she sought, Aela stopped in her tracks at what awaited her.
The rounded walls were lined with shelves and shelves of books.
More area rugs decorated the ground, layered with tasseled seat cushions and divans for lounging.
Aela entered slowly and looked up, her eyes hungrily noting each new detail of the space.
The bed remained the same, yet somehow looked even more inviting.
On one of the end tables that flanked the bed, a steaming cup of tea waited, and Aela graciously took it into her hands.
She stepped around the bed and gazed down at the sunken pool.
A dip in the stone ground encircled it, creating a wide step which led to the water with enough space to sit and dip her feet in.
She juggled her tea in one hand while she hastily removed her boots.
Aela sat on the rim of the pool and rolled her pants up to her knees, then lowered her feet and calves into the tepid water.
Her face softened at the proximity to her natural element.
Though baths in Avarice had been close, it wasn’t as if she could live in her dreams and be in Solara’s oceans at all times.
The cavernous pool was just what she needed.
Crystals at the bottom of the spring pulsed gently with energy, and Aela’s power swelled in response.
She did her best thinking near the water.
Mastering her abilities was a given and became more apparent as her powers grew.
The asteroid provided a convenient environment isolated from others so no one would be caught in her other magic as she learned to wield it.
The village in The Spine burned behind her eyes, and Aela exhaled heavily before she drained the rest of her tea, the piping hot liquid a welcome scorching down her throat.
She set her empty teacup on the wide ledge beside her.
Why hadn’t her other magic, that need within her, delivered her straight to her constellation?
To Solara outside of her dreams? She knew Linteum had likely been destroyed all those years ago—those memories were intact—but her time Set in the sky surely would have been enough time for her Line to make repairs.
Before the next thought even had time to form, she shook her head, dispelling it.
Boots scraped on the ground behind her, and she glanced down to the ledge, inviting Eros to sit with her. He took a moment to remove his boots, then pushed up his pant legs before mirroring her position and placing his feet in the water.
“Have you made a decision?” he asked with a note of hopefulness in his voice not quite masked by the indifference he worked hard to emanate.
“You haven’t given me much time to consider and still haven’t told me what helping you entails, not to mention you’re The Darkness.”
Eros chuckled. “I’m the same being as I’ve been in your dreams.”
“That’s comforting.”
“It should be. As for your other concerns, you haven’t given me the chance to explain.”
“Well, by all means…”
Eros leaned back on his hands. “You have a unique gift, Aela. One that I need to free me from my prison and exact revenge on the Gods.”
“Revenge. On the Gods?” Aela nearly laughed.
“Trust me, Timora, it is no laughing matter. They deserve far more than I have planned for them—more than the payment I intend to take for what they’ve stolen from me.”
Aela peered at him beside her. “What did they steal?”
“Time.”
“I don’t know. The realm is better off without the Gods if you ask me.”
“Indeed, yet it was their power that locked me away and only a power like yours can undo it.”
“I still don’t know how you expect me to free you, and why should I? You are a curse that plagues the realm; you admitted as much. Even if you do hold the answers I seek, I’d be trading the lives of my House for the lives of the realm.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Eros said. “I want to see Khemaida flourish. I do not wish to see it burn into nothingness.”
“Khemaida?”
“The realm.”
I’ve never heard that name.
“I don’t want to be wrong,” Aela confessed after a few moments of silence.
“You won’t be.”
Aela regarded him. “Easy for you to say. If I help you, you get me for an unholy war and in return, I have to trust your word that you will give me what I seek most in life.” Aela settled her gaze back to the water.
“I was torn from them so early. I just want to go home. Why hasn’t this…
power that everyone wants delivered me there already? Why can’t I just go?”
“Maybe it’s not what you need.”
Something in Aela’s chest concaved at his words, yet it made sense.
She didn’t understand how her power wanted to care for her and give her things she needed, yet what could she possibly need more than her Line?
More than to be reunited with her family?
The thought she never let form resurrected from the back of her mind.
“Do you know what happened to them? Are they gone? Is that why I can’t get home?” Aela’s lip trembled.
Eros said nothing. It was answer enough, and Aela shuddered.
“Did you…” Aela couldn’t bring herself to finish.
“No, Timora. It was not me.”
Aela’s lips pulled back on an empty sob.
No.
“Get out,” she whispered. She couldn’t break down in front of him, couldn’t let him see.
“Aela,” the way he said her name with such understanding and empathy had her raging to her feet.
“Get out!” she screamed. Her chest heaved; everything she feared, everything she told herself wasn’t true to keep a glimmer of hope alive while she was alone, fractured around her.