Chapter 36 #2
I wasn’t interested in what any of them had to say to me.
I lifted the shackles up over and over again and tried to slam them hard onto the ground, hoping the material would crack. My wrists were burning in pain, but I kept going.
The wounds from the battle had been tended to, but the bandages were already covered in dirt again. The bruises on my legs and lower stomach looked vile.
The whole dungeon was filthy and the smell was almost too much to bear.
Someone moved closer to the cell and their figure cut a shadow on the floor.
I glanced up and took her in from head to toe. She was still dressed in her fighting gear, her hair arranged in a bun atop her head, and she looked almost like the woman I had fallen in love with.
“Have you come to finish what you started?” I asked quietly.
She shook her head.
“No, I just wanted to make sure you were locked away well and good, I wouldn’t want to wake up with a dagger to my throat,” she responded coldly and anger flared in my stomach.
“You truly think I could do that to you, Maelis?” My voice came out quieter than I expected.
“After everything we’ve been through?” I gave a dry, humorless huff.
“Of course you do. Because that’s exactly what you would do, isn’t it?
If the roles were reversed. Tell me. Was this your plan from the start?
Stage an attack by the Heralds, so Caelan would fast-track your entry into the continent?
Play the part of the terrified, gifted outsider just long enough to catch my attention?
” I shook my head, as if trying to reason through it like a formula that wouldn’t compute.
“Or was it more gradual? Did it shift somewhere along the way, when you realized how easy I was to read? How badly I wanted to believe someone saw me?” A beat.
“Did you even hesitate, Maelis? Before you made your deal with the Fraction? Before you set fire to everything we built?”
She stayed quiet for a heartbeat.
“I knew for a while what I was. But when Caelan came to me and told me about the prophecy, it all made sense. You Gods are so out of touch with the mortal world that you didn’t even stop to think about how I would feel with being tasked to save you.
So no, I didn’t have a plan when you brought me here.
But the whole ‘no touching, or you will ruin the prophecy’ part made it easy to get to you.
I didn’t know if I could fool Lydia or the Abbot and sometimes I thought they were onto me.
But you immortals are so vain that you are blind to see what’s around you.
I don’t care for the Heralds and their thirst for power, I only care about the people that matter to me. The ones that I love.”
Her last words hit me like she had just punched me in the face.
The message couldn’t be clearer: ‘You are not one of those people.’
My breathing had steadied. But I didn’t bother hiding my anger.
“I pity you, Maelis. Say what you want about me. About how I felt. At least those feelings were genuine. At least I meant them. When this ends, you’ll have nothing. Not because someone took it from you, but because you threw it away.”
I turned without waiting for her response and went back to the chains, gripping the iron as if she were no longer in the room. As if she’d never been there at all.
* * *
At some point, a servant entered my cell and started to clean me up.
It wasn’t a proper bath, but at least they cleaned me with soap and bandaged up my wounds again.
A bag was lifted over my head, and I was led out of the dungeons and up the stairs into Somnaris court.
Someone pushed me to my knees and ordered me to crawl forward.
When the bag was removed from my head, I could see that they had brought me into an expansive ballroom.
They had placed me in a fucking cage, like some dog in a kennel.
Anger tore through me, but the shackles were keeping my magic in check.
I looked around the room.
Tables had been set up, and a huge breakfast buffet was placed alongside the windows. It smelled of coffee and baked goods, but I wasn’t hungry. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on conserving my energy.
I felt her arrival before I saw her.
The room grew more quiet, and I opened my eyes to see that Maelis had entered the room.
Every head in the room turned towards her.
“Wordsmith, good morning. Please, help yourself to some breakfast,” Ignara purred.
Maelis headed towards the buffet and loaded her plate with bread, eggs and some bacon. “I trust you slept well,” Somnaris purred as I took a seat at the table.
The others followed and soon everyone was sitting around the dining room table.
“I did, thank you. Although it seemed like your powers were trying to play tricks on me.” Her bluntness surprised him, I could see his irises widening.
“You can’t blame a God for doing what he does best.” He smirked, and she gave him a cold smile of her own.
Ignara looked at Maelis with an arched brow. “What did you do, Somnaris?” Ignara asked sharply.
He smirked. “I sent Maelis on a little sleepwalking trip last night, to the dungeons. I wanted to see what would happen if she was alone with Auretheos. It seems like she called my bluff, so I am not sure how genuine their conversation was.”
Maelis sat up straight.
“You’d be better off remembering that I am not your little puppet here. I also do what I do best, and if I feel like you are disrespecting me with your little mind games, I will go where I am being appreciated.”
Ignara laughed out loud at that.
“Meow! I did not think you had it in you, wordsmith. To be honest with you, you had me fooled with your little lovesick performance too. I guess I underestimated the level of hatred you feel towards us Gods.”
Maelis turned her cold gaze towards her then.
“I do not hate you. I simply don’t care about you. I want to get this over and done with and return to my life at home. It was bad enough having to feign any interest in the God of Wisdom, so I don’t appreciate being manipulated by your cronies here too.”
Somnaris was about to say something, the anger on his face visible.
But Ignara held up her hand and silenced him.
“He will stay out of your mind and dreams, right, Somnaris?”
She gave him a pointed look, and he actually backed off.
“So, tell us wordsmith, how did you entice the virgin God to stray off course? I did not think you could do it, he has been so pure for more than 500 years…” the Faerie at the table asked her.
She shrugged and feigned disinterest. “It wasn’t difficult at all.
Auretheos has been locked up in that temple of his for centuries, surrounded by nothing but other boring men.
All it took was showing him what he was missing outside his temple and in his bed to win him over.
He fell for me faster than I had anticipated, it was almost too easy. ”
I wanted to be sick.
This is why they had brought me here.
They wanted me to hear this, wanted to break me.
And truth be told, they succeeded.
The pain I felt upon hearing Maelis’s words were rawer than any blade could inflict on me. I had put my trust in her and believed every lie she had told me like the gullible, naive idiot that I was.
Ignara seemed to be satisfied with Maelis’s answer and started talking about the plans for the day. Mae was supposed to meet with one of their priests and explain to him the spells they needed for the harnessing.
Apparently, Mae had written down everything the Abbot had told her and would go over the details with the priest and Somnaris. How she had convinced the Abbot to entrust her with the spells, I had no idea.
Maybe they had been working together this whole time.
The ritual was supposed to happen later tonight.
Maelis looked down at her plate and scooped up the last bit of egg when she casually asked, “When are you bringing Auretheos out of his cell? Does he suspect anything?”
Ignara gave her a cruel smile that made the hairs on my arms raise.
“Oh, he is already here. I didn’t want him to miss out on all the fun.”
She pointed towards the end of the room, where I was crouched on the floor.
A dog in a crate.
Maelis looked over to me, but quickly turned away from the cage, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Please make sure he gets some food, Ignara. I don’t want him to faint when we harness his magic, it will be difficult enough as it is,” she said.
She stood up then and waved for the servant to take her plate.
“Where can I meet with the priest?” Maelis asked.
One of the Heralds stood up. “We can start right away, my lady.”
I snorted at that title, and she whipped around to look at me.
“You are pretty snarky for someone in your position, God of Wisdom. You should know when to keep your mouth shut and when to speak up.”
Even though I had trained my face to be impassive, I was sure she could see the pain behind my eyes. She had always been able to read me like a motherfucking open book.
“I will see you tonight,” she said curtly and followed the priest out of the room.