Chapter 64 Jaya
JAYA
The most accomplished gamemasters understand this: The greatest games are played not in our arenas, but in the world outside.
—from The Gamemaster Manual
Elena and Samson stared at her, and for a moment, Jaya wondered if she had intruded on something soft and intimate, something she did not earn. She fixed an uneasy smile on her face.
“Oooor I can come back later,” she began when Elena stepped forward.
“No, it’s all right,” she said, her voice rough. She quickly dabbed her eyes. “What is it, Jaya?”
Jaya saw something dark and wounded cross Samson’s face. She was definitely intruding. One thousand percent.
“Um, I just needed, well.” She feigned ineptitude as she watched Elena carefully avoid Samson’s gaze. Slowly, she took out her device, a metal orb no bigger than her palm. “I was wondering if I could get an infusion of your Agnis. I’d like to study it.”
Samson shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. Agni can be unstable without a wielder, and two at once could be catastrophic. No, Jaya, perhaps another time.”
But she turned to Elena, keeping her voice steady, reasonable.
“I don’t mean to experiment now. I just need the melding, before you two go your separate ways.
” When Samson frowned, she added, “And I will report to you all my findings. Everything. You will know all the developments firsthand, and if it proves too dangerous, we can shut it down.”
Elena seemed to consider this, her eyes flitting from the orb to her. Samson turned to her, his voice low.
“Elena, this is a bad idea,” he began.
“Do you not trust me, Sam?” Jaya said loudly. “After I saved our hides on the killdoms? Do you really not believe me?”
He whipped toward her. “That was different. This is dangerous. You could harm yourself, or others, or—”
“When can you run an experiment?” Elena said.
Jaya pretended to make a show of it, counting on her fingers, drawing out the silence. “Three, maybe four days. If I have your Agni tonight, then two.”
“Then you can tell us your initial findings before I depart for Ravence.” Elena stepped forward, but it was Samson that Jaya watched. It was his look of pure, utter pain that suddenly made her twist in sympathetic agony.
Elena held up her hand, and a flame flared out with a soft hiss. “Sam.”
When he did not move, she softened her voice a fraction. “Please.”
With a deep sigh, Samson came forward. He held his palm under hers, and Jaya watched, her breath held, as a second flame burst to life.
They were so bright compared with the darkness of the hall that Jaya had to look away for a moment, blinking rapidly.
When she turned back, she saw the flames twine together.
Quickly, she raised her orb. Held it over the dancing, growing fire.
“Easy,” she whispered.
The heat of the inferno beat against the back of her hand. It felt like a needle, piercing her flesh. Jaya bit back a hiss of pain as she brought the orb closer. “Easy.”
Elena guided her hand up, Samson following, and together, they tucked the flame into the orb. Jaya snapped it shut quickly, and then hugged it to her chest, afraid they would change their minds.
But Elena only stood there for a moment, stock-still, as she watched the intertwined fire in the orb.
“Take good care of it,” she said, her voice oddly distant. She left then, her sari fluttering behind her like a dying, fading flame.
Samson hesitated. Jaya noticed how his eyes tracked her down the hall, how he always searched for her in any room they entered.
She did not know if Samson Kytuu loved their queen.
But perhaps that was love—obsession. The desperate urge to make sure the one thing you desired most was always within your reach.
They stood in silence, and when Samson finally spoke, his voice cracked with the weight of unsaid emotions.
“Be careful, Jaya,” he said, looking down the hall at Elena’s fading form. “Fire is more than just power. It is resonance. It drives us to do mad things.”
And with that, he followed in pursuit of the queen.
Jaya watched him go, her neck crawling with that strange sensation of being watched, but when she turned, there was no one there.
You’re being paranoid. She hugged the orb closer.
Dully, she felt a pang of guilt, then moved quickly to bury it.
She thought of Div, of the freedom they would have, the one almost within their reach.
The flame beat against the orb. Its heat pricked her skin, but Jaya only held on tighter.