Chapter 26 #2
I stop in my tracks, watching her throw her damp hair behind her shoulders and shake out the locks.
Of all the versions of Alora I’ve met, this one might be my favorite. Carefree.
Her bright smile turns my direction. She’s carrying an armful of clothes and hands them to me.
Suspiciously, I ask, “Where did these come from?”
I inspect the white pressed linen shirt and dark trousers.
“I had them brought here. You can’t always go around wearing black. It makes you too desireable.” She winks as she turns and I want nothing more than to grab her and bring her back to me so I can hear the words again.
But unfortunately for me, she must know this as she waits near a walkway between the hedges.
Reluctantly I pull on the clothes, watching her sneak peeks of my naked body.
After the clothes are buttoned and cinched, I use my fingers to rake out my hair, letting the strands rest out of the knot they’re usually tied back into.
We begin down the trail that we walked yesterday, the lichen spongy underfoot, until we walk to the main cobbled path.
I follow behind her as she walks quickly through what I would assume to be the outskirts of the small village.
The rim of the vault we’re currently tucked in is high, really fucking high. I watch birds fly around the opening until they look like little flecks against the bright light filtering down.
“How long has this been here?” I find myself asking.
She glances at me before answering, “Hmm. I think at least a hundred turns? We can ask Naaveen, he’s the historian around here.”
How much had passed in the centuries I’d been imprisoned with Euron? What else in the realm hadn’t we known about. If The Hidden had grown this large in recent years under our nose, what about the kingdoms across the ocean?
Curiosity gets the better of me and I ask, “What about other kingdoms? Do they help The Hidden?”
“We have few allies in the Kingdom of Niamh, more in Rial but it’s very sparse honestly. For a long time, we just made do, but eventually when others in the realm realized that Euron was trading people for his own agenda…well they found us.”
This is news indeed. Niamh had started closely following along with the king.
More and more ambassadors had arrived in the last few turns.
Their monarch hadn’t crossed the sea yet, as for why, I was unsure, but I had a feeling it would be discussed with their plans to join King Euron during his masquerade.
“What are the thoughts of King Euron from what you’ve gathered with intel from those of Niamh?”
She stops, her brow raising. “What do I need to know in return about that kingdom?”
A grin slips across my lips. There she is, the commander of The Hidden. Her intuition and keen knowledge of the realm is one of the reasons she’s one of the heads of the council.
Getting closer as to not be overheard I begin, “Their king, he’s been getting closer to Euron, though it hasn’t been disclosed as to why. If I had to guess, it’s to form an allegiance, but what Euron could offer King Zephyr, I’m lost on.”
She nods but her eyes look distant.
“Interesting,” she whispers to herself, “an allegiance would make sense for Euron. Their military is expansive and known for being ruthless. I’d even argue their warriors are of the best stock.
We’ve heard that there’s pressure on King Zephyr from his council, but for what we also don’t know.
Something about a lost object that he seeks.
So what would the king of Niamh need with the kingdom of Noxia? ”
My brain begins to throb with each step we take.
Not because it’s yet another problem we’ll eventually have to face, but instead, I have a growing suspicion that King Euron knows I’m not able to come to him.
“Honestly, Alora, I’m not even sure it matters until we can figure out how to ensure we both stay free. Euron will have sent Orlin to find me by now. We won’t have a Noxia to defend if we’re not here to fight for them.”
I rub my temples with the onslaught of a growing headache.
Her eyes focus on me, honing in on something changing within me.
“What will happen when we go to the capital? When the king demands you to explain your absence? Gods Kassiel, we’re not prepared for this.”
Her worry threads through the air, it’s almost tangible.
“We’ll figure it out, we have to. There’s no other option. Let’s focus on one problem for now. Where in the realm are we going?”
We’ve passed nearly through the entire edge of town and now look to be traipsing through massive overgrowth, falling under part of the rim that the sunbeams don’t illuminate.
The temperature difference in the new part of the cavern is surprising. Though the flora is lush and thick, the sweat that had begun to bead on my back now cools swiftly.
She continues to lead us forward through a haphazardly trimmed trail.
I grab my temple again and Alora pulls me to a stop.
“Will you be alright?” Her eyes crinkle as her brow furrows.
I nod, not necessarily lying, but also withholding some details.
“The tie between Euron and us lends me to … feel when he’s about to lose control.”
She openly frowns, urging me to continue.
“This tie, what do you remember about it when it happened?”
I look away. There’s some things that I'd like to take with me when I pass through the veil.
The horrors of that moment are too dark to repeat.
The chittering of crickets and little reptiles fill the silence.
I absorb the unique beauty of where we are while my mind battles itself. Large blooms grow along the veins that hang low.
“Kassiel?” Her concerned voice is quiet.
I clear my throat and look back at her.
“The best I can describe it—” I swallow the words. I don’t want her to think of me any differently.
I change the subject and point towards where the trail disappears into the forest. “Is this the way to Naaveen’s?”
Her smile is bittersweet and she closes her eyes briefly.
“It is. I think he can help us with understanding how to break your bond.”
“So that’s why we set off so quickly?” I ask.
She studies me, “We don’t have much time before the next eclipse, and I’m not willing to share you anymore.” Her cheeks turn bright pink as she looks away.
“So this is why you ask about the ritual?”
She nods her head. “The king thinks he can keep you, it…does things to me. It’s like a stirring of darkness wants to peel back my skin and let rage consume me. People are not meant to be bartered with. They are not meant to be kept.”
She’s right, of course. We’re not meant to be caged and used when it advances someone's position of power.
My voice shakes with the sudden admittance that forms on my lips, something I thought I’d never repeat to anyone but Rune.
“Then I’ll tell you, Alora, what I remember from that night.”
I grab her hand and begin, “In a moment of survival, I chose to not surrender. Instead, I fought him.”
I look away as the words feel too heavy, “Because of that, there’s parts of me stained and marked by my punishment.”
She waits, giving me space to sit with myself and speak on my terms.
“King Euron is not a benevolent man, especially when someone doesn’t do what he wants.”
I clench and unclench my fists.
“When the Siorai Ban is performed, all who are linked to the king are there. So for my bonding, it was a few oracle witches and Rune, and obviously King Euron.”
She begins to move slowly along the path and it’s a relief to be moving again.
“The witches said the body needed to be willing, and I was too combative, so they lit herbs I wasn’t familiar with while also giving me a sedative which they forced me to drink. I felt like I was out of my body.”
Her brows furrow more as her lips turn into a flat line.
Continuing, I add, “I’m thankful I don’t remember everything.
But they called on my essence, my magic.
They had stones that glowed a bright crimson though they were blacker than the darkest night, and the witch drew symbols on it that she had pulled from my essence.
She said that my soul had fractured, so she stitched it whole again, which feels a lot like your body being licked by fire.
And then she somehow pulled the wretched thing out of my body and floated it above me. ”
I try to recall the memory, to imagine the wisp of my soul that shimmered in the dark firelight.
“It was like,” I pause, thinking of the word, “like every memory I had was projected into a million fragments that somehow looked like smoke, but thicker. And worse, when Euron stole bits of it, it’s like I could feel him inside me.
He absorbed parts of my soul. Then the oracle did the same to him and forced me to accept some of his soul.
I could see all his atrocities, all the harm he’d caused, all the violations of others he wanted to do.
The intimate pleasure he found in the moment watching me fight him. ”
My stomach turns and I grab my jaw and massage the clenched thing.
I dare not look at her, not now.
“The worst part was that it was like looking into a mirror and you can’t tell what’s yours and what’s his. For a long time I didn’t know if the pleasure and release that was found during that fucked up ritual was mine, or if I had seen it through Euron’s eyes. I guess I still don’t.”
We approach an even smaller cottage than Alora’s. It’s tucked away behind two giant trees that reach clear to the opening of the cavern. Looking closer, it appears that the cottage is built into the tree, as if it’d been hollowed out.
A warm hand grabs mine and pulls me to a stop even though my feet desperately want to keep moving, as if I could run away from this confession.
“Kassiel,” she begins. When I don’t look at her she moves closer to me and whispers in my ear, “No matter if you had somehow found pleasure in it, you couldn’t have given consent. Not when you were drugged. Do not let that blame fall on you for what you did or didn’t do.”