Chapter 26
Eldric
S he had been there. Next to him, while he slept. Had entered the door he left unlocked just for her, just in case she would come home to him. He kicked the barren tree at the end of her drive. He had slept through it—a goddess-given opportunity to set things right, and he had missed it.
Curses left his lips as his breath smoked into the air, cold biting at his nose and snow turning his bare feet into frozen blocks. He felt none of it, turning back toward the house and pulling on socks, throwing on his cloak, and stuffing his feet into shoes. He was tired of waiting. He did not expect forgiveness or understanding, but wanted her to know how truly sorry he felt.
He followed her footprints through the snow, back into the heart of Athera. Even as the trail disappeared on the salted streets that were just beginning to be shoveled by merchants in front of their stalls, he knew where she would go. Where she had been this whole time and he was too scared to follow. His fist banged against the large double oak doors at the front of the temple until an acolyte opened them.
“Greetings from the star—”
“I need to speak with High Cleric Wynmar,” he interrupted, not having time for pleasantries.
The acolyte’s dark brows raised in surprise at his sudden request. Every muscle tensed as he took in the wild look in Eldric’s eyes, the way his chest heaved from running there.
“You’ll need to return during our public hours.”
“I need to speak with her. Now .” He felt himself bristle, ready to barge through the doors. To search through every room in this damned hall until he found her. Eldric shouted her name, trying to pass the acolyte who glanced to the side who tried to calm him.
“Sir, sir . I apologize but—”
“I’ll take care of this,” came a familiar voice that made him pause. Heinrich Holst.
The acolyte looked relieved to see him as he gave a bow of reverence. Heinrich stopped, resting a reassuring hand on the other man’s shoulder.
“Apologies, High Cleric Holst—”
“Heinrich, where is she?” Eldric cut off the acolyte who was looking increasingly annoyed. He didn’t care. The High Cleric dismissed the acolyte, who left in a small huff of robes, before turning to Eldric with a raised brow.
“You’ve known where she is for the past month, yet this is the first time you have come for her—and with such a fuss. Why?”
Eldric clenched his jaw, holding back a retort. If anyone would get him to Lorali—or keep him away—it would be Heinrich. He didn’t need to anger the one person who could help him. “It’s complicated.”
“Well, uncomplicate it for me.” The high cleric’s brow rose as he crowded Eldric’s space and forced them to both step outside. He clasped his hands behind his back, the door still open behind him.
Eldric was torn between rushing in, tearing the temple apart to find her, and following Heinrich, who could lead him to her. He knew in his bones that he wouldn’t get far with the former. It pained him to turn away from those double oak doors once more, allowing things to be left unsaid between them. But even now, without knowing where she was, he could tell that he was within the grace of her presence. The splitting migraine he’d had for weeks eased from just their brief time together. He did not trust Heinrich, did not know him. But he had watched over Lorali every day until Eldric came into her life, had her best interests at heart. And he believed that was something he could have faith in.
He followed Heinrich’s steps to a courtyard outside, protected by hedged bushes and the sound of a flowing fountain to cover their words. Eldric spoke of things he had not mentioned in years with hushed tones. The high cleric’s impassive face never faltered as he listened to Eldric’s confession, of his secretly linked past to Lorali that he had only recently uncovered. Of how he broke his oath to the guard and that they had uncovered Lorali’s file when they investigated further. He tread lightly as he divulged the contents of those papers beneath the first portrait ever drawn of her in the Order’s garb, of altered memories and planned deaths, while avoiding mention of Daeson’s plans. Eldric told Heinrich that if he wanted to confirm, Lorali now had that same file with her. Had come back to retrieve it after the initial discovery before Wynter Solstice.
Heinrich only listened, taking in the information until the thief had nothing left to say. The only indication of any emotion was the slight downturn of his lips, a tightness in his jaw. Eldric had nothing left to say to fill the silence that followed, nothing else that the high cleric could know. He watched light palms run through coiled black hair, those silver eyes strikingly similar to Lorali’s. He had once thought that, perhaps, they were related by blood. Now he knew differently, that it was a sign of power.
Heinrich hadn’t immediately called for the guards and had him arrested, which Eldric took as a good sign. Hadn’t been phased in the slightest, just lost in a thoughtful pondering that drove him mad.
“She doesn’t know,” Heinrich finally said to Eldric, who only blinked in confusion. “If she did, she would never have run from you. That you had the file was a breach of trust itself, not its contents. If I had to guess, she’s still worried you’ve been manipulating her. Has been since the anniversary of her parents’ death where you used me as a cover. Do you realize how much I had to talk her down?” Heinrich shook his head. “Why didn’t you just tell her and save us this misery?”
Eldric stepped in close to the cleric, voice dropping into a low whisper. “How am I supposed to tell the woman I love I delivered her directly to the person who arranged the death of her parents?”
The words were out his mouth before he realized them, stunning them both into silence as he revealed his feelings. Heinrich’s lips pressed together smugly, as if he had known all along. “A touch dramatic, aren’t we?”
Eldric nearly growled in response before Heinrich held up his hand. “But I assure you that you worry for nothing. Lorali harbors no ill will toward the person who brought her here. Quite the opposite in fact.”
“Her memory has been altered.”
“No, that memory would have been left untouched—it’s too insignificant.” Heinrich’s voice was strained as he shook his head, disbelief creeping past that stoic facade. “Memory alteration is delicate magic. The mind is a tangled web, intricately woven together. Pull the wrong thread and a person can cease to exist, their mind unraveling until there’s nothing left. She remembers her life before the Order. Her parents. You. The memory of what happened that night has changed, but not the aftermath. Not the feelings. Those feelings are all her own.”
Eldric’s breath caught in his throat, the cold having little to do with how he was frozen at those words.
“Despite what brought her to us, Lorali has flourished and grown within the temple. It was her home, her comfort.”
“Was?”
Heinrich smiled.
“Yes. Was. Now, her home is you.”
Eldric’s heart nearly stopped, bursting with joy. “So you’ll take me to her?”
“I will see if she wishes to see you. If she does, then yes. But I will not take you unless it is what she wants. ”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s all I’d ever want.
***
The courtyard was small and his pacing steps carried him across the narrow expanse in heartbeats. Faith did little to quell his racing heart and the nervous way his hands clasped behind his back, fidgeting with each step. It had been well over an hour since Heinrich left. Half of him thought maybe Lorali didn’t want to see him. Or that Heinrich was trying to convince her. If she hadn’t read the document before, had she read it now? What were her thoughts? Did she hate him as much as he hated himself?
Shouts and the general drone of the city filling with its daily crowd became a buzz, the sound of birds chirping overhead and the lull of the fountain doing little to settle him. His hand rubbed over his mouth, a long exhale as he tried to calm his frantic heart. Clearing his throat.
When the bells chimed the hour, he would go find him. Or her. Or both. He was tired of waiting. Had done enough of it these last weeks. It had done nothing but test his patience and bring him misery. He had thought Lorali didn’t want to see him, but she did. She had stayed beside him for goddess knew how long while he slept. If there was any sign that she did not hate him, it was that .
His mind was made up with a plan, determination coursing through his veins. If Lorali wished to never see him again, he would stay away. Stick to the shadows of her life and never approach her light again. All she had to do was say so. They had been through too much together to part without a final word, without decidedly knowing how their year would end. Resolve washed over him, and just as he took a step out of the courtyard alcove, he saw members of the guard patrolling. Old habits died hard, and he turned around to head the other direction only to see more guards.
Sudden realization hit him. This wasn’t a patrol. This was an ambush. He cursed to himself, returning to the little protection the hedge offered. Besides the temple, those were the only ways into the city crowds. Eldric gathered his breath, steeling himself, shifting from toe to toe as he prepared to run out of the courtyard.
“I wouldn’t try, Oathbreaker,” came a calm, almost whispery voice that had grated on his nerves the very first time he heard it. Flowing robes concealed their form as Sage appeared.
“You took something of mine, and I wish to know how.”
His heart was within his throat, eyes frantic and wild, palm twitching as he decided if he should just rush past or if he should accept the confrontation .
But pure horror soured his stomach as Archcleric Sage held up not the folder of Lorali’s life, but several papers with underlines and scribbles in the margins, a diagram that he had drawn recreating Daeson’s maps. His own plans for Veridian he'd been tinkering with at his desk, trying to find a way to keep Lorali safe. He hadn't encrypted them before he went to sit by the fire and fell asleep next to the warm blaze.
The world turned from beneath him as guardsmen surrounded him in the courtyard. He put his hands up, fingers laced behind his head as he kneeled, waiting for the all too familiar bite of metal against his wrists.
He was shoved downward, a knee pressing into his back as a familiar, sneering voice curled hot into his ears.
“I knew it from the start,” said Fulke as he finished handcuffing him, wrenching his head backwards by a handful of hair. Forcing him to look at him. “An oathbreaker like you will never change.”