12. Turn
Turn
Charlie fought the old panic that told him to run.
He would not run. He would not leave Fiona behind to save himself like Eyros had.
They were in this together. He was done running.
But Kaly still scared him though he was rather fond of Caemorn.
Even a Kaly-slice scared him. And this one was powerful.
“How long?” Fiona’s voice was rushed and low like an angry river crashing over sharp rocks. “How long have you been squatting in Tanis’ body, Kaly?”
The Kaly-slice lifted a delicate eyebrow. “What if I told you I was in this body from the beginning?”
“I wouldn’t believe you!” Fiona hissed.
The Kaly-slice shrugged. “Believe what you will. Just know that you have loved me well over the years. Let that guide your actions now, Wyvern.”
“Let that guide my actions?” The outrage reverberated in Fiona’s voice. “What about yours? Look what you’ve done to Seeyr!”
She gestured beyond the Kaly-slice to the cage beyond.
Charlie’s stomach flipped. Did Seeyr have her eyes?
Or had they been gouged out yet? They would have regenerated.
She hadn’t been starved enough for them to permanently stop coming back.
Gods, what had to have been done to her for them permanently not to come back?
“Seeyr, are you okay?” Charlie called.
He knew that was a dumb question but he couldn’t help asking it. Even if she wasn’t okay, what could he do to help her? She wouldn’t let him get her out of here. She likely wouldn’t even accept his blood.
“I am where I need to be, Charlie,” she answered in a soft voice.
That was the answer he expected.
“You’re where I want you to be!” the Kaly-voice snapped.
“Imprisoned.” Fiona shook her head. “Starved. Hurt. What are you doing, Kaly? Seeyr didn’t even fight in the War. She stayed out of it!”
“There are innocent casualties in war,” the Kaly-slice said with a shrug.
“Not that Seeyr is really innocent. She’s always interfering behind the scenes and then when things play out as she’s prescribed, she gets to act as if she had nothing to do with it.
She just foresaw it. Didn’t cause it. But she’s behind all of it.
So she deserves everything coming to her.
After all, if she wanted to avoid it, she could have. ”
“How can you say that?” Fiona shook her head in disbelief. “She’s our sister! Our friend! Your friend! She never said a word against you.”
“While you did?” The Kaly-slice’s smile was as thin as a lemon peel and more than bitter.
“Was I wrong?” Fiona demanded. “After all you’ve done, can you honestly say even the worst things that I or anyone else have ever said about you were wrong?”
The Kaly-slice said nothing at first. There was nothing to say.
They had started this War. Charlie guessed that someone could point out that the other Immortals–himself included–had not exactly covered themselves in glory in response to Kaly’s act.
But Kaly had begun all this and known all this and, arguably, ended all of this.
“Shouldn’t you be trying to reach my good side?” The Kaly-slice arched an eyebrow.
“You don’t have one. Not now. Not as you are,” Fiona said with a wave of one hand.
“I suppose that could be said of most of us during the War,” the Kaly-sliced said.
“I do give you credit. You mimicked Tanis well. For a time. But that throne! So garish. So tacky.” She shook her head, the angry smile on her lips looked like a knife’s gash. “Though you claimed not to have a role in choosing it, that somehow didn’t ring true. You were proud of it.”
The Kaly-slice’s smile grew a little more rigid. “Did that give me away? Well, it was awkward when you were asking who was going to sit upon it.”
“And it’s you, of course. I should have known.” Fiona let out a bitter laugh.
“At first, I thought you’d be proud knowing your First Fledgling was going to have such an exalted position in my new world, but no, you lack vision.” The Kaly-slice tilted their chin up.
“Proud? By the gods, you have no idea what a mockery this whole thing is!” Fiona threw her arms out.
“The Order! You didn’t even give it an imaginative name!
It is exactly what it says it is: order to keep us in line, order to keep us from questioning you, order to keep us down.
” Fiona’s eyes flashed with fire. “And to think I was a part of this. It’s disgusting! ”
“I had to do something to restore things. The War had gotten rather out of hand.” The Kaly-slice shrugged.
“Out of hand?” Charlie’s voice was soft. “You murdered our children. You destroyed the minds and bodies of our brothers and sisters. You smashed paradise into pieces.”
“It wasn’t a paradise.” The Kaly-slice sniffed rigidly. “Not anymore. Not after Daemon chose to leave it.”
“You’re so sick with jealousy over that. You should have been enough for him! That’s what you think. Even though you have some idea of the joy of turning fledglings.” Fiona shook her head in dismay. “He watched us all make families while he remained alone.”
“We are his family!” The Kaly-slice snapped. “We should have been enough!”
“For me, but not for thee?” Charlie shook his head.
“Ah, Kaly, such cruelty from you towards the one person I know you love. Why did you not keep your gift solely to yourself instead of making fledglings then? Why not be alone in solidarity with Daemon? Because there is no greater joy than sharing our gift. Giving our blood. Watching eyes turn silver and knowledge flow over beloved faces. Daemon never got to see that. Only pain then death and nothingness.”
“He held on for us for so long,” Fiona reminded the Kaly-slice. “Through countless disappointments and deaths. Through eons of time. But you couldn’t give him a few orbits of Earth to rest and recover and find his one?”
“Find his one? She convinced him there was one! She would have done better to keep her mouth shut if she could not encourage him to stay awake with us!” The Kaly-slice hissed and pointed an accusing finger behind her towards Seeyr.
Seeyr said nothing. She remained in the shadows looking as insubstantial as cobwebs in the moonlight.
Charlie’s heart ached to see her so frail.
Seeyr had always seemed pared down to the bone as if by looking ahead the tides of time washed over her and it took constant, unceasing strength not to be blown away by them.
“She told him the truth, Kaly,” Fiona said. “Daemon has found his one.”
The Kaly-slice’s finger trembled ever so slightly. “So one of those insignificant humans survived his blood. So what? How old are they? Not even a hundred! With little experience! Little understanding! Not worthy of him!”
“Julian has more wisdom than most who have lived a thousand times his age,” Charlie said loyally. “But it is good for Daemon to be with someone so new and fresh. They come to him with such joy and wonder. He is remade himself. All of us are.”
The Kaly-slice shifted to face him. “You expect me to believe that this future we all have together is glorious, wonderful, and peaceful? I know you’re lying. I’ve seen you all claw each other’s eyes out. You could never live in true peace again!”
“You can’t believe the future will be what it is because it means you are wrong. About everything,” Fiona said with sadness and empathy that Charlie wasn’t sure he could feel for this thing before them right now.
“Really?” The Kaly-slice mocked. “Your best friend Eyros leaving you to die while he ran away. Mirryr, you fled like the rat you are into the garbage heap! Seeyr letting me put her inside this cage without even the littlest fight! So many others dead, gone, finished! But you want me to believe after you ripped your masks off in front of one another that you can forgive and forget? Let bygones be bygones? Please!”
We’re right to take other names. Caemorn is not this being. He could never be this being.
“It is not easy and we are still healing. But this War–and what comes after–taught us lessons we desperately needed to learn. Including you,” Fiona said.
“I am ashamed of what I did here, how I behaved, how I allowed myself to fall into the expert traps you laid for me, and how, even before then, I separated myself. But no more. I am a part of the whole now. I am with my family.”
“I don’t believe in fairy tales, Wyvern. You shouldn’t either. It is what walked you into this trap after all.” The Kaly-slice smiled.
“It’s not a trap, Kaly. I have to speak with Seeyr. Perhaps, this was the only way that would happen for certain. And you brought us here. Why? Why did you accommodate us? Why did you give us the one sure way to accomplish what we need to do?” Fiona asked.
That was true. They needed to be down here.
And while they might have been able to fudge their way down through the Spire, kill the guards, hide their bodies, and slip into this place, it would have raised alarms. He doubted they would have been able to get out.
Maybe this was the only way they’d ever have gotten in here and had a chance to escape.
After all, this was only one Kaly-slice and they’d already dealt with Artemis. They could deal with Tanis, too.
“I only have one cage–presently–set up to hold Immortals. So you’ll need to share some space for a while until I construct others. I thought of using Daemon’s cells… but Nightvallen must remain empty. For now,” the Kaly-slice explained.
“You wouldn’t dare use Daemon’s palace for your vileness. The only person that will be down there is you and your people,” Fiona said.
“If you truly believe that fate is on your side and there is only one future that will come of all of this, go inside there. See what happens. Find out if you’ll truly be saved.” She pointed to the cage where Seeyr still stood silently in the near darkness.
Fiona crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. “We’re not going in there. Try to make us and you’ll see just how capable I am of teleporting out of here.”