Then there were my two new toys: Entangle and Compel. I could practice one and get it up to 20% fairly quickly, but the other was another matter entirely. Compel required certain particular circumstances before I’d even consider using it, and those were rare enough as it was. Still, if we captured another assassin, they’d be getting some rather special attention from me for sure.
Overall, as I closed the last screens, my mood was somewhat better. We’d still suffered tremendous losses, and they weighed heavily on my heart, but we had also taken out a huge threat that could have stricken defenseless villages across Eória and Olóra—perhaps even in both Kingdoms. Kingdoms whose citizens were mine, and who were under my protection. It was far better, even considering the terrible price we paid, that the beastkin horde had attacked our Army instead, and been eliminated in the process.
I was able to fall asleep on my own that night before Tási came back to our tent to join me, something that hadn’t happened in weeks. I even slept well, despite my concerns. The battle had drained me completely, and I took solace in the words of my Sintári bonus message, choosing to take them as an omen that Líann was alright. I didn’t quite manage to convince myself of that fact, but I let myself believe the lie I told for a time at least.
When we finally emerged from the forest and into the wide-open space outside the Garrison wall, my sense of dread and anticipation had not only returned but had also risen to an almost intolerable level. The feeling of reassurance I’d talked myself into after reading the notification hadn’t lasted very long, and Tási had actually begun to worry about my well-being, as I could only fall sleep at night if she helped me, and even that had become a challenge.
News of our victories had preceded our arrival, and our Army was received with a great deal of enthusiasm and fanfare. As much as I appreciated it and put on a fake smile as I waved at all the people who’d come to welcome us home, I was utterly consumed inside by my concern. Absolutely nothing would make me feel better until I saw Líann again and made sure that she was alright.
When we finally reached the Palace, I jumped out of my carriage and took the steps in bounds. I expected to see Líann waiting atop them to welcome me home, and my heart clenched up tightly when I saw Thelmé’s troubled face instead. I stood there, frozen in place, scared to death to hear what the pained look she had on her face meant, until I felt Tási take my arm and gently tug me forward.
“Come on,” she coaxed me. “I’ll be right there with you.”
“Where is she, Thelmé?” I asked shakily when Tási dragged me the last few steps.
“It’s okay, Thelmé. I know about them,” Tási prompted when the woman hesitated to answer me.
“She’s not been well without you, Empress,” Thelmé answered, obviously reluctant to discuss her Queen’s condition with Tási present. “The last few weeks have been very difficult. She’s resting in her chambers at the moment. We both thought it best that she wait for you inside.”
“I’ll handle everything else—go to her,” Tási prompted me as soon as Thelmé finished her answer.
I didn’t need her to tell me twice, or even once for that matter. I was off before she’d even started speaking, and as I ran ahead, I heard Tási calling my guards back, keeping them from following me as I darted inside the Palace.
The soldiers keeping watch over the Queen parted before me, and I headed straight for her bedroom. When I burst through the door, she was sitting up, leaning against the headboard, and a thin smile crossed her lips when she looked up at me. Her response was somewhat underwhelming, but only because that was probably all she was capable of.
Líann’s skin always had an almost glowing quality to it, an effect that lent her pale tone it’s nearly ethereal quality. That tone was gone, replaced by an almost death-like pallor, and her haggard look with dark circles under her eyes spoke volumes about the ordeal I’d put her through. I looked at her in shock, and she did not miss the expression on my face.
“I know,” she replied softly. “I look terrible.”
Her stark assessment broke me out of my trance, and I hurried over to sit beside her.
“I’m so sorry, Líann,” I apologized profusely. “I didn’t realize how bad it would be. I won’t let this happen to you ever again. I’m taking you with me everywhere I go from now on, I promise.”
“Feed me, Dreya,” she replied weakly, reaching out her thin fingers towards me as she did.
I had no illusions about what she required from me, and it wasn’t any kind of food that Líann needed to satisfy the desperate hunger that she felt. But Líann wasn’t in any condition to receive my darkness in the usual, and very rough, way I typically fed it to her, so I improvised.
I placed my hand beneath the covers and laid it across her chest, just above her heart, and winced as I felt the outline of her bones protruding slightly where before there’d only been soft, smooth skin. Every sharp angle that I felt as I pressed my hand against her cried out to me accusatorially, letting me know the fullness of the damage I’d done to her.
But I pushed my guilt aside to tend to her, and finally begin to relieve Líann of the burden I’d forced her to bear. With my mind focused only on my task, and no longer dwelling on my shame, I sent myself inside her delving into Líann for the first time.
Unlike Ella or Tási, she’d never needed my healing talent, so there’d never been a need for me to even try this with her before. But the situation seemed to dictate my actions, and I sought out the place where I knew her hunger originated—her core. What I found when I reached it made me pause for a moment, but I should not have been surprised by what I saw.
A familiar-looking sphere of swirling colors floated in the vastness that surrounded me. Fire raged across most of its surface, but there were also areas of deep calm. It was so much like Tási’s core that I mistook the calmer areas for the same deep waters she possessed. It was only when I drew closer that the difference became more obvious.
The vast patches of what I had mistaken for smooth water were, in fact, patches of darkness, but that darkness was sickly and impure. Instead of being tinted in deep, rich tones of blacks and grays, it had become pale and ashen after being neglected for so long. This was the darkness that I’d awoken in Líann, and she had suffered greatly in my absence, withering away from the inside out when I’d denied her what had become her most basic need.
I couldn’t give Líann what she required the way I always had in the past; she was beyond the point where that was even possible. I needed to feed her my darkness directly, so that’s what I did. I sent a tendril of my own darkness directly into her, connecting both our cores with the thread of black shadows. Her response to my tendril was both immediate and intense.
I felt her hunger the second Líann’s core began siphoning off my darkness from me. The deep, hollow emptiness of it was almost like a living thing, tearing her apart from the inside out, and for a moment at least, I experienced a portion of what I’d done to her. As I fed her more, Líann pulled at me desperately, ripping away at my own store of shadows to satisfy her yearning need, until she threatened to drain me completely, and I could let her take no more.
When I knew that I’d reached my limit, I cut off the tendril I’d sent her and withdrew my presence from inside her. I only hoped that when I opened my eyes, I’d recognize something of the woman I loved again.
While my efforts had not produced the dramatic transformation I’d hoped, the difference in her was noticeable, nonetheless. The dark circles under Líann’s eyes were gone, and although she still looked far too thin, some of the color had returned to her skin. I may not have healed all the damage I’d done, but Líann was far better off than she’d been just a few moments before.
“Thank you,” her voice returned with some of its former strength. “I don’t know what you did, but I feel much better now.”
“Don’t thank me,” I replied bitterly. “You’re only in this situation because of me.”
“I
know you blame yourself, and I understand why you feel that way,” Líann responded, barely able to keep her eyes from closing shut. “But I would have done the same thing if I were in your place. You put the needs of your Empire first. That is the mark of a true leader.”
I was about to tell her exactly what I thought about being a true leader, but she slipped off into sleep once she’d spoken. Feasting like she had after such a long period of going without had drained her, so after I shifted her into a more comfortable position, I tucked her in and let her rest once more.
When I closed the door softly behind me, Thelmé was waiting for me outside, and shot up immediately from her chair as she saw me exit Líann’s chambers.
“I was able to restore her somewhat,” I told Thelmé before she could even ask. “She’s resting now, but she will need much more from me to repair all the damage I’ve done to her.”
Thelmé’s relief was obvious and she followed up on my statement with a question that had likely been bothering her for quite some time.
“What happened to her, Empress?” Thelmé replied. “We tried everything to help her, but nothing we did had any effect.”
At the time I brought Thelmé in on the secret of my relationship with Líann, I’d told her what little I understood of the bond we shared. While I would likely never explain the full details of that to her, considering Thelmé’s love for the Queen she viewed as her own daughter, and the confidence I’d already shared with her, I decided to reveal a little bit more to her.
“We share a connection, Thelmé,” I explained to her. “A bond between our souls, you might call it. Our need for each other transcends anything I could explain to you with mere words. I suffered greatly while I was away from her as well, but circumstances allowed me to purge myself of that burden, or I’d be in far worse condition than Líann is right now.”
“For now, let her rest,” I instructed Thelmé. “I will return later and see what more I can do for her. But please, if she needs me before that, send word and I will come for her.”
I’m not sure why I felt so comfortable sharing things with Thelmé. If I had to guess, it was the motherly way she felt towards Líann that made me open up to her. Being brought into existence via a combination of computer pixels and magical effects had denied me any sort of parental figures or influences. I think that void in myself might have been what drew me to Thelmé.
Once I’d finished there, I headed upstairs for a little rest of my own. It was still early in the day when we’d arrived back home, but I’d slept little, and poorly at that, during the final stretch of our trip. After a quick check with Talína and my other aides, who miraculously had nothing that needed my attention for once, I tossed my gear aside and threw myself into bed, hoping to get the first real bit of sleep in many days.
“How was she?” Tási’s voice called to me just as I closed my eyes.
I hadn’t even noticed her when I entered the room, but from where Tási’s voice seemed to come, she was sitting in one of the chairs across the room.
“Very bad, Tási,” I turned my head towards her, so she could hear my reply. “I was able to soothe her a little, but she’s still not well.”
“I was afraid that would be the case,” Tási sighed deeply before continuing.
“I had Talína schedule you for dinner with the Queen. Líann tended your Empire while you were away, so, obviously there will be much to discuss with her now that you’ve returned. It would not be surprising for your meeting to last quite late into the night, and you might be too tired to climb back up so many stairs once it’s over. No one, myself included, would be surprised if you chose to remain there this one night.”
What Tási told me came as a complete shock—not only was she willing to overlook me spending the night with Líann, but she’d even set the whole thing up for us, complete with the perfect deception. I couldn’t even comprehend what she was offering.
“Tási… I,” I started to search for some way to respond.
“This is a one-time exception, Dreya,” Tási cut me off. “Although I meant what I said about all of us being in this together, I have my limits. You made me a promise, and I’m going to hold you to it, but considering the circumstances, I think she really needs this. Both of you do.”
“I understand,” I replied when she made herself clear. “And thank you.”
Tási’s realization that our relationships were a shared thing, both a blessing and, in some cases, a burden to us all, had been quite accurate. In times past, when the Sintári were more common and better understood, the bonds between a Sintári and their Tári came with much less friction and jealousy than I was struggling to manage. Those relationships were not hidden; in fact, both the Sintári and the Tári were proud of and even honored for them. But with the Sintári long gone, and even the memories of their ways lost in ancient history, it would not be a simple thing to overcome the deeply entrenched ideals of this world. Especially if even Tási, knowing as much of the truth of things as she did, couldn’t fully embrace what it meant.
Tási’s limitations were somewhat underscored by the fact that she chose not to join me as I laid down to rest. Part of me desperately wanted her to simply abandon her preconceived notions and embrace who we were, not the just two of us, but all five of us, together. But I knew that was simply asking too much too soon. She’d already had her own insights, however, and I hoped that in time, not only Tási, but the others as well would understand things the way I was coming to. We were bound together as one, joined by unique bonds that no one on this world had experienced for millennia. And that was a cause to rejoice, not a reason to hide.
Those thoughts belonged to some distant future, however. For the present, I needed to sleep for a while. The long road, and my lack of rest while I traveled it had caught up with me, so I closed off my mind for a while, and let my body get the rest it had been denied for too many days.
I managed to wake up on my own in time to get ready for my ‘meeting’ with Líann. Even the relatively short rest I’d gotten had done wonders for me, and I felt almost normal for the first time in… I had no idea how long. Unsurprisingly, Tási was nowhere to be found as I got myself ready, but I understood. She’d already done far more than I would have ever anticipated. Watching me head off to spend a night with her rival was far too much to expect.
When it came time for me to depart, I headed down to Líann’s suite and left my guards outside the doors to her chambers, where I always had them wait for me during my visits with the Queen. Thelmé greeted me when I came inside and immediately escorted me to Líann’s room, leaving me at the door to enter by myself. But before she departed, I gave her a few instructions.
“Thelmé,” I told her. “Líann and I have a great deal to discuss. Our meeting will go on for several hours, and during that time we will not be interrupted. I will grow tired at some point and decide to remain for the night rather than return to my own residence. You will inform my guards of this change of plans. I trust you to know when the time is right to make them aware of my decision. Do you have any questions?”
Thelmé’s eyes grew wide as she realized what I was telling her, but to her credit, she maintained her composure and replied quite calmly.
“I will see that all you have told me is attended to, Empress,” she replied, even adding a slight curtsy, an unusual gesture for the typically reserved woman.
Líann was waiting for me when I finally stepped inside her room, sitting in a chair at the small table where we’d be sharing our meal. But she hadn’t waited for me to arrive before digging into the food, as her appetite had apparently returned with abandon.
“Sorry,” her cheeks flushed as I walked in. “I couldn’t wait.”
“Don’t be, you need it,” I replied as I took my seat across from her.
I took a few bites myself, but mostly I watched her as she continued to eat far more than I’d ever seen her ever consume before. Líann almost reminded me of Stel and the way he shovele
d food into his face when Venna wasn’t watching, even though she didn’t quite manage to replicate his level of gluttony. Although her appetite was a reassuring sign to me, it was the return of the nearly luminous glow to her skin that truly let me know that she was no longer in any danger. It might take some time for Líann to gain back the weight she’d lost, but observing her softly radiant tone finally gave me the assurance I needed that she would indeed recover from her ordeal.
I wanted to tell Líann all that Nentai had explained to me about her being my Táriel, but knowing her, Líann would want to jump right in to the process of experiencing all my V’Ríel, and in her condition, I doubted that she was up to the task. So, I held back on disclosing it to her just yet, saving the information until she was ready for what I assumed would be a rather strenuous endeavor.
“Talína told me you were able to handle everything while I was away, but other than that, we didn’t go over things,” I began our conversation with the few important items we needed to get out of the way. “Did anything happen that I need to be aware of?”
“No. Actually, things were quite boring in that regard,” Líann replied between bites. “The way you’ve structured things, your Empire runs mostly on its own. I had little to do other than see to the needs of the Imperial District itself.”
We talked of small things for a time, the minor details that had come up during my absence, and I told Líann some of the specifics of our conquest of the horse lands. She’d received reports via the messengers that had traveled between the District and my Army of course, just as I had, but there were still several interesting tidbits and points that required clarification left for us to discuss.
As we talked, Líann and I shared a glass of wine between us. I would no sooner set it down, then she would pick it up and take a sip from it herself, peering at me enticingly every time she did so. Líann had a way of knowing exactly how to appeal to me, and I could rarely resist her when she chose to lure me in—this was not one of those times.
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