Deviants of Giftborn (The Etherya Series Book 1)

by Amarcya, Zuri

  “You knew my aunt and you never said anything?” Clisantha was saying to Riyen.

  Nemma moved away and sat back in her seat, deep in thought.

  “Are you well?” Chesna asked, her voice almost a whisper.

  Nemma looked up. Both Innogen and Chesna watched her. “Yes,” she said, smiling at them. “Are you sure you still want to come with me?”

  Chesna returned her smile. “Definitely.”

  Innogen did not say anything.

  “Do you trust them?” Chesna asked, tipping her head to Clisantha and Riyen, who were deep in discussion.

  Nemma sighed. “I have no choice but to trust them for now. Ask me again if they get us out of Hannaw.”

  Chesna grinned. “You think just like a foundling.”

  “Or a criminal,” Innogen retorted.

  “Innogen, I’m sorry you have such a raw choice to make,” Nemma said, while Chesna scowled. “I’m grateful that you were at the Arc. You helped to cheer me up and take my mind from—”

  “Stop,” Innogen said, her eyes becoming moist again. “I have to choose between life as a criminal or a type of imprisonment that may end in death. I can’t ever see my family again. All because I was nice to you.”

  “You would have never seen your family again anyway,” Chesna said. “Is nothing that is being said here opening your mind to the horror that is the Arc?”

  “No.” Innogen seemed to be surprised at her own answer. “I know the Arc would take a hard line with criminals but that’s how they keep the rest of us safe. Innocent people don’t know about any of these so-called horrors, because we don’t ever need to know. Unless my best friend turns out to be a murdering beggar and drags me along in her escape, of course.”

  Guilt gripped Nemma as Innogen crumbled into tears again. Chesna rolled her eyes.

  “Nemma,” Riyen said, heading back over to them and sitting on a chair, followed by Clisantha. “Tell me about your time in the Arc.”

  As Nemma began, Innogen excused herself and lay down on one of the beds. Riyen listened in silence while Clisantha asked questions every so often.

  “So based on your skill level and strength, maybe you could help us?” Riyen said. “Carrick’s daughter holds some information that we need. You may be able to help me to extract it.”

  “Are you insane?” Clisantha said, her voice rising. “I’m not allowing a beggar-turned-scholar-turned-fugitive into my mind.”

  “She’s the reason you even remembered your father’s demise in the first place, Clisantha,” Riyen pointed out. “She came to see you and you suddenly remembered things. Code doesn’t affect her. She could destroy the web.”

  “I’m not destroying anything,” Nemma said, firmly. “I haven’t been fully trained. I could hurt her.”

  “I absolutely agree.” Clisantha crossed her arms.

  “You won’t. I’ll teach you what to do.”

  Nemma’s head spun. “No, not now. I’m too tired to concentrate.”

  Riyen nodded.

  “What’s wrong with her anyway?” Chesna asked.

  “Nothing is wrong with me,” Clisantha growled.

  “She has a mind-web preventing her from remembering some of the last things her father may have told her,” Riyen explained. “I think he may have told her important information about his research.”

  “What was he researching?” Nemma asked, looking at the bed next to Innogen and wondering if she should take a nap.

  “His primary focus was on how to remove the Gift and stay alive, but he was looking into other things as well.”

  Nemma looked back at him. “I thought that wasn’t possible?”

  “Carrick was researching it.”

  “I still don’t understand why he brought me to the Ryim and where I came from,” Nemma said. “Can you explain that?”

  Riyen shook his head. “When we get to the camp, Endra will explain everything she knows.”

  Nemma was unsure how she felt about learning about her background. She was curious about her father’s past and was intrigued about Carrick’s motives for bringing her to the Ryim but she also wanted that quiet, safe life. If the Gift could be removed, that would set her free from the Thaide forever and she could truly live in peace.

  “How come you’re here?” Clisantha asked Riyen, after a few moments had passed. “Aren’t you needed in the Arc?”

  Riyen shook his head again. “I’m not a Thaide, so I’ll only be summoned if they need extra bodies. Also I was given leave to visit a serf ward on the southern edge a few days ago. The Arc hasn’t yet summoned me back. As soon as they do I’ll need to go in.”

  Clisantha said to Nemma. “You should lie down.”

  “Yes,” Riyen agreed. “You look tired.”

  Nemma headed over to the bed beside Innogen, who was asleep, and lay down, sighing as her muscles succumbed to the overwhelming bliss of rest.

  A gentle shake woke her after what seemed like a few moments.

  “Nemma. Endra is back,” Riyen murmured.

  Nemma sat up. Innogen had gotten up and was eating another pie, avoiding eye contact with her.

  She joined Clisantha, Riyen and Chesna assembled in front of the window.

  Endra stood between two men with shaved heads beyond the window. “Hello again, all. Riyen, you didn’t tell me that the city has gone into confinement. Who was it that escaped the Arc?”

  “Nemma.” Riyen answered. “The Thaide Priest was unable to prevent her from flying over the Arc wall.”

  Endra raised an eyebrow and a smile played on her lips. “I’d like to hear about that, Nemma.”

  “How are you getting us out of Hannaw?” Nemma asked, uncomfortable with everyone’s eyes on her.

  “How many of you?” Endra asked, her demeanor switching to a serious one.

  “Three,” Riyen answered.

  Clisantha shot him a look.

  “The easiest way to do it would be through a bridge,” Endra said, “but it will take a lot of energy and the Sovereign will be able to detect it.”

  “The Sovereign himself?” Chesna asked, panic on her face. “I don’t think we should risk that. How else can we get there?”

  Endra thought for a moment and asked, “How did you get through the Torak Gates from the Ryim, Nemma?”

  Nemma shrugged, “I don’t think they detected me.”

  Endra looked at her strangely, and the two men beside her glanced at each other. “What about when you left the Academy and the Arc? Any problems?”

  Nemma shook her head.

  “Very interesting,” Endra murmured, observing her with a strange look.

  “What about the rest of us?” Clisantha asked. “Can we take a moment to think beyond Nemma?”

  Endra threw her a hard look and spoke to Riyen. “Take them somewhere you can create a decent bridge and let Nemma help you to make it powerful enough to transport you.”

  “That won’t be easy,” Riyen said.

  Nemma said, “What if the Sovereign detects us, what will he do?”

  “He could close the bridge while you are still in between ports,” said one of the men by Endra. “Or he could capture whoever’s crossing. It could be anything.”

  Riyen said to her. “The most important thing is to get you out of the country.”

  “Well that’s not the most important thing to me,” Chesna said. “No offense, Nemma, but I don’t want to be captured by the Sovereign.”

  “If you want to leave Hannaw, it’s a risk you’ll have to take,” said Riyen.

  “Riyen, there is limited time for you to create a bridge,” Endra said, interrupting them. “The Thaide are scouring the entire city and searching every household. They will be watching every corner and every road. In a few hours, they won’t allow anyone to be on the road.”

  Riyen dipped his head.

  “I look forward to meeting you, Nemma,” Endra said, before walking out of view.

  Twenty-Three

  Essen swallowed the whi
te vynth in one. It warmed his throat and burned his chest, providing some relief from the annoyance that raged through him. The icy blue walls of his control room in Thaide Capital did nothing to calm him, not even looking out of the window at the buttery sun beaming over the beautiful city. All he could imagine was the beggar girl, soaring through the air.

  He threw the glass back down onto the short-table under the window and turned to Kelvedon who stood in a corner of the office, hands clasped before him. The girl had been in the Arc the entire time and it seemed like everything in the Realms had convened to allow her to slip away from them. He would say she had the Sovereign touch if her actions did not directly conflict with Sovereign Law.

  “I want to know,” Essen said, trying to keep his voice calm, “how she managed to defeat our gates and walls.”

  “It’s possible she is working with the Phalorians,” Kelvedon said. “They could have provided her with some kind of training or strategy to fool our complex codes.”

  “If the Phalorians are so advanced that they can trick our codes, why would they send a beggar girl who didn’t even stay to complete her Arc training?”

  “She managed to get from the Ryim into the city and into the Arc, High Priest. That is no small feat, and unlikely without some help.”

  “The beggars testify she was born and raised in the Ryim. We interrogated them thoroughly, didn’t we?”

  Kelvedon nodded, his straight hair swinging by his jaw. “Then we should consider that she could indeed be a separate rarity.”

  Essen sat down behind his wide walnut desk. “Officers!”

  The door opened and a young red-haired woman entered, escorted by an officer.

  She sat down in the chair, hands in her lap, and looked at Essen.

  “Puryth Loyora, tell me about your diagnosis of the girl,” Essen said. “Don’t leave anything out.”

  “Her mentor referred her to me because her Gift strength felt incredibly weak but her release incredibly strong,” the Puryth began, “even when she was accessing the Gift. Usually this is caused by some kind of blockage in the way that the Gift runs through different parts of the body, like when someone is injured, but even then the Gift strength would still feel stronger overall. So we conducted the usual tests and found nothing unusual in terms of her Gift ability. She scored high for Gift strength and I concluded that there was an anomaly in the way her Gift signals traveled. Other than that, she was a normal Giftborn.”

  “How high did she score?” Kelvedon asked from his corner.

  “Extremely. Within the top sector. One of highest in a long time.”

  “Was that not strange to you? A fourth quarter citizen with such strength?”

  The Puryth served Kelvedon with the same determined stare. “No. I was given no history or background on her, other than her mental state, and we get plenty of strong magiens from other countries in the Realms that are poorer than the fourth quarter.”

  “But not that strong,” Kelvedon insisted. “No one born outside of the Arc could score that strongly.”

  Loyora lowered her eyes.

  “Had you seen anything like this before?” Essen asked.

  “No.”

  “And you consulted no one about her condition?”

  “I logged it,” she said. “I highlighted it for the attention of the Care Priest to check when she had time.”

  “Did you consult any records or books about her condition?”

  “No.”

  Essen said nothing, waiting for her to provide an explanation.

  “I didn’t believe that it was vital to gain an explanation immediately, High Priest,” she said, her eyes remaining low. “I thought we would have further chances to examine the girl. All I can do is offer my sincere—”

  “Take her back to her cell,” Essen told the officer standing by the door, “and bring in the next one.

  It took a few hours to see everyone that had had some kind of contact with the girl, and almost all of them had only good things to say about her. Most of her trainers said she was intelligent, bright, withdrawn but eager to learn. She did not have a lot of friends and kept to herself but excelled in almost all areas. The most surprising statement came from Thaide Adran. He rarely showed any kind of affinity towards the scholars, but he seemed to like this one. He said she took risks and experimented with her abilities, resulting in further progression than the rest. She showed compassion to others in her training group, even though she shared no allegiance to them, and successfully won almost every flight training exercise. Kelvedon questioned him thoroughly, keen for his thoughts. Adran was one of Kelvedon’s most trusted Thaide and expressed numerous times that he was wasted as a trainer. However Essen found Govenyth Col’s statement the most interesting.

  “She holds contempt for the Law,” he declared. “But in a different way from most other scholars who have had unpleasant experiences or resent being brought to the Arc.”

  “Why do you say that?” Essen asked.

  He leaned forward. “She released the screaming serf girl from a force-bind, while I was holding her. Right there, in front of the class. She didn’t engage with me at all. She didn’t bother to try and plead with me or beg for the girl or ask me anything. She felt it appropriate to release the girl herself,” Col said, tapping a finger on the desk, “and did so, of her own accord. She has no respect and she has no regard of her place. It’s a complete disregard for everything we stand for, and suggests to me that she wasn’t absorbing her training correctly.”

  “Why did she do it?” Essen asked Puryth Mayea when it was her turn.

  “She claimed that she wanted to help the girl,” Mayea said. “She said that force-binds are painful and she couldn’t bear to see someone suffer.”

  “How does she know they are painful?”

  “I asked that, and she retracted, saying it just looked painful. I was planning to investigate her mind the following day.”

  “Tell me about her state of mind,” Essen said. “She suffered some kind of depression when she first arrived and hardly made friends with anyone in her training group. Why was she not monitored more closely?”

  Puryth Mayea’s eyes slid between Essen and Kelvedon. Being held in a cell, even for a short time, did not suit her. Loose strands stuck out of her usually perfectly groomed hair, her robe was crumpled and her eyes were puffy. “It’s not unusual for children to have problems adjusting to life in the Arc, particularly fourth quarter children or children from some of the poorer countries in the Realms. Some remain depressed for many months, unable to participate in training until the next training group or next two training groups. This girl wasn’t depressed as such, she just wasn’t willing to participate in life in the Arc. She believed that she was going to be killed.” She shook her head. “She had some type of irrational fear about the Arc that I thought was due to her foundling upbringing. The fact that she took part in the training and was doing well was a good sign. And her aide kept close watch on her and reported back to me every few days.” She paused to bark out a series of dry coughs. “After the incident with Govenyth Col, I was planning to investigate her mind thoroughly and look into her past memories.”

  “Why did you insist she return to her room?” Essen asked the next detainee.

  “She was kept in the cell for days, High Priest, I just wanted her to be comfortable,” the boy muttered. He kept glancing at Kelvedon, who watched him from his corner.

  “What was she like?” Essen asked. “I have heard that she didn’t grow relationships with anyone in her training group except you. Why was that?”

  The boy half rose his shoulders and dropped them. “I think I made more of an effort to get to know her than anyone else.”

  So he liked her. Essen eyed the boy. His brown hair was messily tied back and stubble covered his chin and jaw. He looked like most of the other male youngsters trying to be like Kelvedon. The question was, did she care for him?

  “We were in the same sub-group because we
didn’t access the Gift straight away like everyone else,” the boy continued. “She is really clever and able to figure things out really quickly—”

  “Your trainers have said as much,” Kelvedon said. “Was there anything about her that seemed strange or unusual or that no one else but you would know about her?”

  The boy thought for a moment. ”She’s always negative about the future. I think it’s because of the strangeness of her Gift. She doesn’t seem to think that she deserves to be here and really misses her life in the fourth quarter. She’s strangely unambitious. She doesn’t want to be a Thaide, even though she would make a great one. She really likes learning though and helps me a lot with my extra training. The way she thinks up solutions and ideas to problems is so—”

  “Wait,” Essen interrupted. “You receive extra training?”

  The boy nodded.

  “And you shared this with her?” Kelvedon asked.

  The boy nodded again, looking between them. “I know that the extra training is provided for those that pay for it but I wasn’t aware I couldn’t share what I learn. Isa helps me to understand a lot of it.”

  Essen leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table between them. “What is your name boy?”

  “Terris. Terris Sokara.”

  “Ah, you are Adonyl’s son,” Essen said. “You’re training to join the Thaide?”

  The boy nodded again.

  “What did you share with the girl from your training?” Kelvedon’s voice was hard.

  Nerves overtook the boy and his shoulders hunched up as he answered. “We practiced the different ways to manipulate platforms and shields, we experimented with different energies from different sources, we learned about the theory behind strikers and code, we learned about Gift-pull, we looked at the way things can be fortified and how some energies effect each other…” He paused to think.

  “What did you talk about regarding code and strikers?” Kelvedon asked.