Chapter 34 #2
I pull the empty chair out and settle in the seat, waiting for her to speak again.
She lifts her eyes to mine and once again I’m struck by the unique beauty of her. Her face lights up as her smile overtakes nearly her whole lower face.
“Alora, I can tell you’ve never met anyone descended from oracles.”
I blink dumbfoundedly. Opening my mouth to speak, I promptly shut it when I realize, that yes, I have not ever met a single person descended from beings that I thought were childhood stories.
I’m sure it’s amusing to watch me gape like a baby bird.
She simply waits, letting me process what she’s telling me.
“Oracles?” The word is practically croaked out as I try to speak again, “You mean—”
“Yes, they’re real.” She doesn’t stop there, “Anyways, we have more important things to talk about.”
She shuffles the cards again in front of me, with such ease I’m sure she’s done this thousands of times.
“Go on… Lis, is it?” I’m sure Leeson would be laughing at how abrupt I’m being.
She offers a placating smile, warmth touching the corners of her lips.
“Yes, it’s Lis. Now, I know you’re going to ask me about the tower. But it isn’t important, you already know King Euron keeps his treasured here, his menagerie as it’s referred to.”
I nod my head as that does check out. Though many of us had heard of his sequestered menagerie, I hadn’t realized that it was quite literally in Ezmelir.
She continues, “I’m not sure how high it is, but I know that he keeps a person with a rarity on each level. Basically we’re prisoners, but sometimes we’re able to interact when Euron is feeling generous. Unfortunately, I’m locked up here because of my bloodline.”
She speaks quickly now and I’m not sure if it’s because she hasn’t had company in awhile or that she’s worried we won’t have time.
“Because you’re an oracle?” I almost stumble on my words.
“Well I’m not an oracle but I come from oracles. That’s not important, what’s important is why you’re here.”
My stomach tumbles. I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to relive anything that happened prior to this.
“I’m not important,” I whisper and look away, “I’m no one.”
She laughs and I slam my gaze back to her, my brow lifting in the process.
“Oh, gods,” another round of laughter, “I’m sorry, you wouldn’t know. How could you?”
She sets the cards down and grabs my hand, not giving me a chance to snatch it away.
“You have the ability of iludreer. It’s been many turns since anyone had that magic. The last time anyone possessed such essence, the beginning of all this started.” She waves her hands around emphatically. I simply blink, not knowing how to react.
“You’re the great harbinger, the change in the kingdom. It could only start with you as it ended before.”
I take back everything I said, she’s crazy.
Slowly, I pull my hand out of her grasp.
In an effort to change the subject, I ask her, “How do we get out of here?”
Her face drops and she closes her eyes. Sadly, she says, “We don’t. At least I haven’t been able to escape yet in my many turns up here.”
Turns.
I feel like I’m going to be sick so I push to my feet, toppling the chair in the process.
I hold my hands up to her to keep her from following and make my way back to the silken bed.
Looking around the room I take inventory of the surroundings. No doors except one and there’s no handle on the inside where we currently reside.
I lay back on the bed, my thoughts spinning in a different direction. I’ve been a prisoner before, but this time feels different. Like I will die here.
Lis’ soft pandering of feet on the marble slowly makes its way to me.
“You know,” her voice seems smaller this time, “I’ve been in love before.”
I scoff, not at the idea of her loving, but of love in general.
Spite laces my reply, “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the biggest farce in this forsaken life.”
She kneels at the edge of the bed, watching me again with her feline eyes. “Alora, you must hold true to your heart. Don’t forsake what you know to be true. There is still love in the center of heartbreak’s remains.”
Lis speaks in riddles and I don’t even know if she realizes it.
Callousness creeps into my tone. “The remnants of my heart are overshadowed with disappointment. I should have noticed long ago that the gods have forsaken us to those that would watch the world be torn apart, and tear it apart in turn.”
She doesn’t blink, she just studies me.
“I’m sorry you had to watch me earlier, when I was tossing about in my own disappointment.”
“There is nothing to apologize for, Alora. You’ve been through a lot in such a short lifetime.”
I pause for a moment in my thoughts, unsure of the weight of my words.
“There’s always those that will have it worse than I do. I just need to push through and endure. I’ll be fine.”
I’ll be fine.
And I will be one day, because I don’t have the luxury not to. Because the alternative is that which I’ve teetered on before, and I long ago made a promise to Leeson I wouldn’t attempt again.
So I force the words out again, “I’ll be fine.”
Lis stands then, gracefully, as if she were a goddess to usher in goodness and grabs my hands again.
I nearly move them away so she can’t hold them, but she does anyway.
I don’t need someone to feel bad for me.
Her empathy deserves to be on those suffering worse than I have, someone more deserving.
But she squeezes her hand, holding tighter than I thought her petite form could.
“It’s okay to not be okay,” she says softly before kissing the top of my hand. It’s not seductive or lewd, or even inappropriate honestly. She makes it feel reverent, as if she sees the real me, the one I’ve quietly shoved aside for nearly all my life.
I do my best to not break down, so I fill the emotions with lead and heave them down further into the void of a heart, where the vines can bury them deeper and choke away anything good that may grow from them.