Chapter 58
Darrow
Aella and I stood side by side before one of the blacksmith forges, studying the alloy in its molten form.
It had taken them three days since our return from the Oarwar desert to extract the turlarium from the sacks of rock we’d brought.
Now, Loden guided them through the process of blending the alloy to the correct proportions.
“Will it be enough?” I asked my friend.
He nodded. “Yes, with a little to spare just in case.”
“Did you find any metal workers powerful enough to handle the job?” That was the next major hurdle, with less than three days left before we needed to go.
Loden’s expression tightened. “Unfortunately, no. I took the most skilled person we have to the ring this morning with Aella’s help.” He paused to gesture at her. “But he said he couldn’t do it. We need a strong high fae, except that ability is rare among the upper class.”
“We need Tadeus,” my wife said, turning to face me. “I know you don’t trust him—and right now I don’t either—but he could get the job done.”
I sighed, hating that she was right. “Very well. We’ll go to Alavaar and speak with him.”
“Good. I’m overdue to see my sister anyway.”
Loden’s brows furrowed. “Give this a little time to cool, and we’ll bring it with us. I don’t want to delay any longer than necessary since it will need time to set before Aella can reactivate the ring.”
After that, she’d have to have a recovery period because it would likely drain her to handle one that large, considering how much it took from her to reawaken the smaller one in Alavaar recently.
I would help her as much as possible for the cross-galaxy trip, but I preferred to avoid calling upon the God of Wrath before then.
“We’ll return after lunch,” I said, giving him a nod.
Aella let me guide her out of the forge. “Where are we going?”
“First, to make arrangements for our prisoners while we’re gone.” It would be more expedient to kill them, but Ulmar and Elgord had only begun the suffering they deserved. As for Gretel, she might still prove useful, so we’d continue holding her. She just wouldn’t be mistreated like the other two.
My wife frowned. “What sort of arrangements?”
“The prince will oversee everything, but I wouldn’t want our two newest acquisitions getting too comfortable in our absence,” I said as we headed for the boat dock.
It was bad enough we’d had to heal Ulmar nearly back to full health after my mishap with him the other day.
We’d only returned once to break the bones in his feet since then, while Elgord worked to regrow his man parts Aella had sliced off.
I’d thankfully missed that show while acquiring the healer for her cousin, since witnessing the aftermath was horrific enough.
She’d brought her vereloe plant in a pot to tend to the baron’s missing pieces, with its tentacles working on him as he watched in silent horror, chained to the wall.
It slathered some sort of natural ointment on his private area every four hours for the first few days.
That ensured he’d regrow his appendages so that she could mutilate them again later, if she wished.
Aella had remained completely calm through all she did to our prisoners and showed no hint of remorse.
It was…enlightening. That dark side of her appeared to come out more and more during our trips to the dungeon.
I was glad for it. She needed that ruthlessness to survive in my world and had proven disturbingly adaptable at sinking herself into it.
She kept her gaze forward as we walked. “I don’t want them to live a single day where they aren’t feeling the agony of what they did to others.”
“They won’t know an hour of peace, I assure you.”
Thankfully, my father agreed to pull his strongest mental tormentor from use in Siggaya to take over the dungeon here in Darynia during our absence.
Both male prisoners would be put into a deep sleep and fed their worst nightmares until we returned.
The torture expert would have arrived in the city an hour ago.
I wanted to give him his final instructions since we likely wouldn’t have time later with everything we needed to accomplish before departure.
“And after we make those arrangements?” Aella asked, lifting a brow.
“We’ll head to our chambers.”
She frowned. “I was planning on doing some final garden preparations while the fog is thinner. We’ll only be gone a week, so the plants should be fine, but I want to make sure they have all they need during my absence.”
“Later. It’s time I tell you about the shapeshifter.
” I’d been putting it off because of the tension between us, but I couldn’t delay any longer.
Sometime in the next two days, we’d need to get her.
Though it was difficult to tell a story I’d kept quiet for decades, my wife deserved to know all of it.
Aella’s eyes widened. “A shapeshifter? You know one?”
“Yes.” I squeezed her hand. “But I want you naked in our bed with my mouth between your legs before I tell you more.”
Her gaze darted around the island of blacksmiths and armories, her shoulders relaxing when she realized no one was near us. “You could have said that telepathically, you know.”
“You blush more when I say it aloud.”
She rolled her eyes. “If I didn’t really want to hear this story, I’d leave you to spend time with my plants instead.”
“You do that enough as it is,” I said with a laugh. If I were a lesser elf, I might have even developed a complex about how devoted my wife was to her murderous plants compared to me.
We stood outside Priyya’s house, but no one answered.
Neither she nor Tadeus appeared to be there.
Aella stood stiffly next to me, and though only inches separated us, it felt like it was miles.
She hadn’t been entirely pleased to hear about the shapeshifter female, Ori.
The moment I mentioned that I’d slept with her long ago, my wife grew furious and refused to listen to the rest of the story. I could hardly get her to talk to me.
“Most likely, my sister is with the dragons,” she said, looking at Faina, Jax, and Loden.
All of them carried bags of supplies we’d need, though I had the heaviest pack since I insisted on holding the precious alloy for the intergalactic ring in Penoria—the fairy island off the northwest coast of Zadrya.
“You three stay here.” I turned to Aella. “We’ll go find Priyya and return soon.”
Loden glanced up the road. “I’ll go see my father since we have a couple of hours until we can leave.”
I nodded. “Good idea.”
We left them behind to head south in the opposite direction from Fionbar.
Our boots crunched over the colorful fall leaves blanketing the ground and dirt road we walked along.
As a child, I’d enjoyed piling them high and hiding within them to scare my twin sister.
She’d scream and run whenever I popped out of the dead foliage like a monster.
Considering our land was full of dangerous creatures, I figured I was helping train her for the unexpected.
I stopped after gaining my powers. Between my emotions dimming and the brutal winter training in Karganoth, I didn’t find it fun anymore.
As a trained soldier, I saw things differently.
The birds tweeting and small animals scurrying past us to gather enough food for the winter told me they didn’t suspect any danger nearby.
That, in this place, we should expect safety.
They were blissfully ignorant of the war in Zadrya and the land slowly dying.
I couldn’t imagine a life without constant strife and battles.
Usually, Aella would be soaking in the nature around us and admiring its beauty, but at the moment, she was a storm cloud of emotion. While she’d begun to learn how to block her feelings, she left the connection between us open more often than not.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I said, glancing at her tense expression.
She scowled at me. “You wait until you have me naked and close to coming to say you met with a woman weeks ago that you used to sleep with and even passed out in her bed. How am I supposed to be okay with that?”
Aella also knew that Ori wasn’t there when I fell asleep, and I’d explained that I’d used too much magic to remain awake. Except when the God of Wrath powered me, teleporting exhausted me quickly. Still, I probably hadn’t explained it well.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “It seemed like the best time while I was showing you that you’re all I want.”
Before my wife, the only woman I’d cared to keep happy was my sister, but Faina was used to my ineptitude and rarely held it against me anymore.
Without the ability to feel deeper emotions, I struggled to understand what might hurt someone, what wouldn’t, or how to prevent it—aside from the most obvious, anyway.
I would try harder for my wife’s sake, though.
“First of all, you should have told me right away when you returned from seeing her.” Aella gave me an accusatory look. “Second, I don’t like being naked and vulnerable when hearing things like that.”
“We see things differently. If you were to tell me about a past lover, I’d prefer you were pleasuring my cock with your mouth to show me that another man meant nothing,” I said, which was why I planned it the way I had. That made the most sense to me.
She let out a frustrated sound. “Well, for future reference, that won’t work for me.”
“I promise that I’ve learned my lesson,” I conceded.
We continued down the leaf-strewn road with an opening in the forest ahead.
Aella rubbed her face. “And you said you want to bring Ori—that’s her name?” She paused for my confirmation, and I nodded. “You want to bring her with us to Earth?”