Chapter 46 #2
“You concealed the last battle, the last time we fought over this, and what happened.” Orion’s words are a gamble, but I watch as if the weight of that secret leaving his lips lifts him up.
Mumbles start up around us, the meaning of those words starting to find the light.
“We concealed the threat a Fifth can bring,” she spits back at him, but her eyes scan the people around her. Her concentration on the people beside her. She locks her gaze with each one in turn, checking on them.
Is she doing it now? Influencing their emotions on this?
“There have been many wrongs in our history, but at least I can say I’ve always acted to protect Kirrasia. To keep our power in balance, as our Goddess has always demanded,” Orion keeps going, defending his side of the narrative.
“You are delusional, Ciro.”
Just as Kamari looks like she’s about to move or attack, the doors creak open again. But I don’t expect who I see walking through them.
“Mother!” Ten’s whole body tenses as he watches Celestine Ciro walk out with the support of Rigel at her arm.
She is still the woman I first met in the Great Hall, elegantly dressed and adorned with jewels.
Just frailer. Older. As if time has attacked her in earnest and left its mark since our first meeting.
She looks at her husband, then at Kamari, whose eyes narrow on her. She’s suspicious of the fellow Guard.
“Celestine. What a surprise.”
“I could say the same, Kamari. Why are you attacking my husband?”
Ten stands and pulls me with him, making sure the hood of my cloak conceals my face. We step between the gathered people calmly, all of their attention directed at the confrontation playing out ahead of them.
“Your husband isn’t… well.”
“That isn’t his fault. That is my burden.”
“Celestine?” Orion looks at his wife, who’s only standing with Rigel’s help.
“I think it’s time we give up our secrets, don’t you?” Celestine nods at Kamari.
“I have no secrets,” Kamari seethes back.
“Well, I have enough for both of us. My son reminded me of that.”
“Your son. We cannot trust anything he has to say following his behaviour. He is a traitor to Kirrasia. The evidence is clear.”
No, this can’t be happening. Kamari can’t be the one in control here.
I clench my fist and wish, for a split second, that I still had the power to stop this, but that thought shocks me to my core, because isn’t it the exact same way I thought towards Micah, in this same situation—wanting to protect Ten?
Celestine ignores Kamari and continues, “This started because they fell in love. And we banished them for it. Two Fifths, forbidden to be together because of the fear of what their combined powers might be able to do. That fear, that decision by the Orders, has cost us everything since.” Celestine talks not just to Kamari, but to all of us.
She’s talking about Elex and Aerith. I risk a look at Ten, who glances back, and I don’t need to read his mind to know what he’s thinking. This is our fight, too.
We’re nearly at the front of the steps, jostling past Warriors and Guards alike.
“What has this got to do with anything, Celestine? You sound as crazy as your husband. Maybe a family trait. A weakness, perhaps.” As her words ring out, I feel it. That seed of doubt, as if she’s cast it out to take root in everyone’s mind.
As quick as a flash, Ten relieves a Warrior of his sword and bounds up the steps ahead of us, my hand still locked in his. “They are not weak or crazy, Kamari.” He levels the point of the sword at her, standing between his parents and the head of his old Order. “You are the traitor here.”
A sea of whispers rises like the tide in a storm, gathering at the sight of Aten Ciro.
“You!” Kamari ignores the blade and looks directly at me, the hood resting on my shoulders after running up the steps. I can’t help but offer her a gleeful smile.
Orion takes the distraction and bursts forward, his strength winning through to overpower his captors and disarm them. He goes to Celestine and Rigel’s side, but his face twists into the angry, ruddy colour I drew from him when I shoved him back in the hall, as he sees me.
The Warriors, still under his command, follow his lead and move to defend. Yells, shouts, and movement in the crowd spread like a ripple in a pond, until the people gathered aren’t sure who is friend or foe.
“Surprised to see me? Were you expecting my brother?” I taunt Kamari.
She moves to step closer, but Ten finally breaks his hold of me, and takes the sword in both hands and presses forward, pushing the blade closer to her neck. “No. You stay there.”
“Aten. A real family reunion. I was under the impression you’d been banished.”
“I banished you,” his father echoes. “To protect you from her. From the Fifth. She is a risk to us. What happened last time can’t be allowed to happen again,” he starts to ramble, and I can see the desperation in him—his need to protect what he has loved and sacrificed for.
“It won’t. It can’t,” I say.
Questions and cries rise from the crowd, with more and more joining in.
“Who were the Fifths?”
“What happened before?”
“What cost?”
“We will tell you. We will answer your questions,” I say, keeping half an eye on Orion and one on Ten.
“We can’t believe anything you say, Fifth.” Aten’s father shows no new love for me.
“I am not a Fifth,” I shout above the crowd. “Not anymore.”
My confession stifles everyone, including Kamari. The whispers that I heard after my Transference start up again, still riddled with fear and confusion. As they grow in strength, the grip Kamari had over the Guards falters, and I know many are trying to sense my power and coming up empty.
She stares at me, a slight tilt to her head tells me what she’s doing. “Impossible,” Kamari says, the first crack in her facade. “It’s a trick.”
“I assure you, it is not.”
Celestine edges her way toward me and holds out her hand. I take it, happily, and I cradle hers in mine, taking her weight, too.
She gasps, just a little, at the realisation that I am now powerless.