One last stop to make and then it was time to return to Avaelyn.
Valaris
The Keep
HE CHOSE THE DEAD of night.
The Keep was silent and, other than guards, everyone was asleep. The guards marked his presence, bowed, and retreated, leaving him alone in the space before the Throne.
The chains have not broken, he sent.
What you perceive as chains is a misconception, Torrullin. Truth has freed both of you from the bonds of what held you back before. What is in place now is uncertainty. It feels as if chains wrap around you, but they are gone, for the most part.
Torrullin sat on the edge of the dais, stretched his legs before him and stared unseeing into the courtyard. The real truth is, I feel as if I have fallen.
You have.
Torrullin closed his eyes.
It is not the end of everything, Torrullin. Do you not understand? Now is the time you stand up. Now you rise again and seek your nobility. To know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, you needed to fall. Far. Hard. I am not speaking of the grand ideals out there, but of the man you are inside.
Does it mean I must leave Elianas behind?
Amusement came in waves. Why would you do that?
He is dangerous.
Elianas has ever been dangerous, as you are. Nothing will change in separation. Ah, I see. You believe he is now able to overpower you. Now you understand how he has felt for a long time.
He thought I was able to overpower him?
Indeed, and still he played the game.
Torrullin was thoughtful. Now he believes we are equal?
Talk to him. And listen to him, Torrullin. Listen with your heart.
Torrullin snorted into the silence. Then, needing to test the fates, he rose and face the Throne. There is something you need to know. May I sit?
Of course.
Did he just detect wariness in the ancient seat? Torrullin approached and, before he could give it due thought, he sat. Instantly warmth stole into him, as ever it did, and the flow of knowledge commenced.
I read your fears. Blood of both Danae and Valla, a kin bond now intensified by what Tannil represents for both of you. Torrullin, there is nothing profane in your dual connection.
Delve deeper, Tarlinn.
Minutes passed and the seat resonated under him. He did not move.
You may vacate this space.
With every nerve twitching,, Torrullin rose. He faced the seat, and waited.
The barriers are in your mind. When you love, my brother, the multiverse smiles. How is love ever wrong? Know this, when you fall into bed with the one you love, you are not fallen; you are uplifted.
Torrullin inhaled raggedly. There was the answer he needed.
Thank you.
He bowed and stepped away.
It was time to discover what the Danae was.
Chapter 64
Anger clouds truth, rage obliterates it. Heat devours, fire destroys. Choose your emotions wisely. If you cannot, allow another to point out to you your situation. Attempt, reader, listener, to hear that other before your rage obliterates good intentions and real caring.
Arli of Pendulim
Avaelyn
HOW MANY TIMES HAD he not studied the situation?
Turning the options, such as they were, over and over in his mind? He was now at the point where none of it made sense. How many times did one have to look at something to understand? Before it became less than sum of its parts? It was soul-destroying.
Moreover, beyond the emotional knots of the present, there was a new Timekeeper in the universe. How would it affect him? And Torrullin? When all they had was time? They were the real timekeepers, having already bridged ages and eras.
As Elianas wandered into the stone dwelling, he knew Torrullin would agree with him. How not? Yet time and who measured it with what, and how and why it needed doing was not the whole of it, was it?
Nothing was simple anymore.
Was there an end?
All gods, he hoped so. If not an end, then change at the least, the means to alter what now seemed engraved in ancient rock.
New doors opened led to difference.
Ha. He had opened new doors when he took on the Warlock accruements, when he threw the Lumin Sword into the ether to sever dark wings from their moorings … and when he touched Lowen as desired with Torrullin present.
Everything was already different.
TORRULLIN FOUND THE DARK MAN where he thought to, in the kitchen brewing coffee. Elianas, for all his faults, had one major vice - the black and bitter brew.
He smiled as he entered, sniffing the air. “A new blend?”
“Fenu,” Elianas muttered.
“How did you manage that?”
“I have my ways.”
Torrullin snorted. Not much of a welcome, but what did he expect? He had been away many days, dealing with the results of the Nowhere Sphere, while Elianas chose isolation here. He wondered whether to share that Aislinn had coined it thus. The Nowhere Sphere. Apt.
He took a seat at the kitchen table and waited, watching as Elianas finished the brewing and stacked a tray. Neither said a word and the dark man did not once look at him. No, not much of a welcome.
Elianas came over eventually with the load and plonked it onto the table. He sat and helped himself to a mug, all the while ignoring the other presence at the table.
“I sense you are peeved,” Torrullin murmured.
“Slightly.”
Torrullin poured for himself. “Tian is fine and, barring the fallout from Menllik, Valaris is coping.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“I visited what Xen calls Ground Zero - the site of a nuclear explosion apparently - and it is …” Torrullin cleared his throat. “It will take time to heal - the Dalrish are on it already - and it will take even longer to rebuild. Nothing pretty there now. Sabian, bless him, came without being asked and did for the lost souls of the Valleur as he did for those trapped in Excelsior’s vacuum. He also helped out at the farspeaker enclave.”
No response came forth.
Torrullin sipped, and then sipped some more. “Grinwallin is secure. Alik takes her finals soon. Bannerman Junior will do the same, but is already employed on Mariner Island, wants nothing to do with Beacon, his mother or the political fallout there. He has a great future now, one that will mean much to many.”
“That is good.”
“Teroux is no longer Teroux as we know him. Rose is aware of the truth and understands.”
Elianas set his mug down. “Teroux has a true second chance. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Rose agrees.”
Elianas shoved at his mug. “I did not know Teroux felt the way he did, I swear. Considering what went before, I should have suspected, but it did not occur to me.”
Torrullin, watching the lack of expression presented to him, entirely at odds with Elianas’ small and revealing actions, murmured, “I did not see it either.”
“Leave it. I do not desire to further discuss Teroux. What happens to Lowen?”
A beat of silence ensued, thoughtful on Torrullin’s part, but it appeared it was a casual question; with no loaded intent. There was not the slightest finger twitch to bely mere curiosity.
“Lowen remains for the present with Rose. I think, in trying to help someone aid another without memory, she hopes to forget.”
Elianas’ stare was unblinking. “She cannot forget. We cannot forget.” Finally he blinked. “Where were you?
“Seeking distance.”
“From what?”
“You, me, Lowen.”
“Ah. And?”
“I found some. In the aftermath I have come to realise our issues are small.”
“Really.” It was a toneless response.
“Yes, really,” Torrullin insisted. “Death and destruction has a way of engendering humility. We are not that special.”
Elianas raised an eyebrow, t
he first sign of underlying emotion. “If that is how you prefer looking at it.”
“That is what I prefer, yes. So bloody what if you are Warlock. So what if Lowen has mighty Wings. So what if we stepped over lines in that nowhere place; it did not translate to here, unless we reveal results.”
“Crap. I am Warlock here and Lowen does possess her shadows. It translated.” A thread of frustration now weaved into Elianas’ speech.
“But no one knows.” Torrullin tapped the table, frowning.
“You are fooling only yourself.” Elianas’ eyes narrowed. “You have had a vision or visitation or something like it, haven’t you, something pretty enlightening. This is why you regard our issues as small; it has nothing to do with the reality of death and destruction.” Elianas’ hand whipped across the table to grip Torrullin’s wrist. “What changed for you?”
Torrullin suffered the grip without complaint. “Tarlinn.”
Elianas removed his hand with a snort of disgust, before muttering, “What happened?”
Torrullin smiled inwardly. Now they could talk. The man’s curiosity had been aroused. The Throne’s involvement meant questions and answers they had not before considered.
“I revealed all.”
Dark eyes fixated on him. “Why?’
“I needed a reaction.”
“Bloody hell, why?”
Lifting his mug, Torrullin said, “You know why.”
Elianas stared into the distance of the kitchen for a time. When he focused anew, it was to address the issue of Tannil.
“Tannil will go to Valaris first as the Tannil who was Vallorin, for revenge. This is dangerous for those who knew him then and will be especially uncomfortable for those coping with a destroyed city, and grief. Thereafter he will make his way to Akhavar as the Tannil of ancient time. Also for revenge. He may even do something that reveals Kalgaia. Akhavar has too many hiding places, Torrullin; we must stop him on Valaris.”
“You have been thinking.”
“My way of creating distance.”
Ah. “I swore never to revisit war upon Valaris of any kind.”
Elianas nodded slowly. “I hear you, but fact is, it has already come. Nukes and kidnapping. And they will not be ready for Tannil. Many there, especially the Elders, retain guilt over the gauntlet scenario and they will fall over themselves trying to atone. He will be allowed more freedom than would normally be the case.”
Yes, indeed, the gauntlet now gifted Tannil a degree of laxity. “Valaris then, and may the gods forgive me. Before Valaris, however, there is something else that needs doing first.”
“What now? I hope you do not mean the accruements. We cannot afford to wait until I find the means to release them. Valaris cannot wait.”
Thus, Elianas had no idea what to do about the Warlock paraphernalia. “I am talking about Teighlar. We need discover what it is only Alexander Diluvan can tell us.”
Elianas sighed volubly, as if releasing tension, and poured a second mug of coffee, this time for both of them.
“We will summon him to the Healer’s Facility,” Torrullin suggested. “I have a suspicion his revelation should not be heard here.”
“As if it would impact our sanctum?” Elianas frowned.
“It could.”
“I agree. Now, would you say? Will you send the call? I will prepare lunch; give us an hour before meeting.”
Torrullin nodded, without remarking on the man’s need for haste. Clearly Elianas required distraction. He had not yet achieved sufficient distance.
“How are you, Elianas?”
A glittering dark stare impaled him. “I will survive. One issue at a time. Certainly not the small ones first, hmm?”
He rose and strode into the kitchen at large.
TORRULLIN DID NOT LET Elianas out of his sight after that, much to the man’s chagrin.
He teased him for packing a lunch basket, calling him old and fussy. Elianas snapped back, saying Teighlar always ate like a man starving, and they too were hungry, were they not?
When Elianas made his way to the bathroom to wash his hands, Torrullin followed, earning another dark stare. He merely grinned, knowing he was irritating the man, knowing also Elianas needed - subconsciously - to see him close again.
As the time approached for the meet, they headed into the atrium where Elianas had deposited the lunch gear.
“The plants need a trim,” Torrullin murmured. “Not too much, though.” He sat on a stone ledge and stretched his legs out. Gazing up into the sun-dappled, leafy ceiling, he added, “It is peaceful.”
Elianas, after a moment, sat nearby, legs similarly extended. “Normality. This is the only space entirely enclosed and it feels normal. The kind of space others emulate in other places.”
“Poor Teighlar; hates being so exposed when he is here. He might agree with you.”
“You do not?”
“Nothing about us can be normal, Elianas.”
“Not even the state of our families.”
“And finally the opening appears. We get to Tymall at last. We need deal with him. He is not a small issue.”
Elianas stared into the fern fronds opposite. “You need deal with him. He is your son.”
“We, Elianas. Truth. I will tell you how I feel and hope you can do so also. Then we put him behind us and move forward.”
“Fine. Truth.”
“I am relieved he is dead. This is terrible for a father to say about his son, but I am truly glad he is gone. I admit also I am happy another killed him and I have no need whatsoever of viewing his grave. I will think of him, of course, and hope one day to recall only good memories.”
Elianas levered up, ran a hand through his hair, glared up into the verdancy overhead, and then hunkered before where Torrullin sat.
“I am glad to hear you are unburdened, but, truth is, I am angry.” He paused. “Ah, so this is about me; thank you for pointing it out. I know you were meant to kill him, but I wanted to do it. I desired to hurt and torture him, make him suffer. Can I get past that? Yes. Eventually.”
Torrullin leaned forward. “Elianas, if you need closure, ask Sabian where his grave is. Do what you must, but do not tell me, that is all I ask.”
A heavy look raked Torrullin’s face. “You would offer that, knowing what I could probably do to his mortal remains?”
Torrullin’s eyes narrowed. “Rid yourself of your anger. I understand your reasons. Finish it, Elianas. But I do not want to know.”
Silence again, and thereafter a drawn-out sigh sounded.
Elianas clambered to his feet. “I am fine. I merely need time.”
Healer’s Facility
THE HEALER’S FACILITY, the site Torrullin had allowed built on Avaelyn for the purpose of healing the dreaded Titan’s Disease that swept through the universe, was the single exception to the rule of permitting no foreign and man-made structures upon the surface of his world. Avaelyn was for nature and for nature’s creatures as Mother Universe had intended when she created the spark of life in this region of space.
The dwelling was testament to that belief; built with nature, for nature, because of nature. The Facility stepped outside of that, but at the time it was a necessity. All building materials, however, were natural, and the whole would one day be absorbed by the growth surrounding it.
It was not yet reclaimed, although forest growth peeked from corners and crevices, a cheeky reminder of what ruled supreme upon Avaelyn.
As Torrullin wandered through the cottages to the kitchen zone, to stop there and stare over the level area where once Mercy Ships landed with many ill and more in preventative stasis, he thought back to his unwillingness to move even a stone out of its natural position. Had it not been for the needs of those who helped him during that period, he would have affected healing by sitting in the mud until it was done.
Now deer roamed amid new grass and tiny, bright wildflowers. Birds in fancy dress sang from the roofs. Avaelyn would take back what had been taken fro
m her.
He glanced in Elianas’ direction, to where the man sat on a log alongside a fire pit already filling with forest debris.
The healing had been extreme, every act then meant to reverberate through the spaces into the realm Elianas had been lost in, meant to bring to him hope, and therefore strength to break free. Perhaps sitting in the mud would not have been the best idea. Given how the healing had taken so much from him, Torrullin, by way of energy, power … and compassion. The waiting had been the worst factor of all to endure.
As Elianas had waited for him to return from the persona that was Rayne.
Both of them had acted in a manner others had not fully understood. No punishment was due. Appreciation, yes. As well as acknowledgement of the love that brought on sacrifice, which meant suffering the censure of those who had not and could not ever understand.
He said the man’s name. “Elianas.”
Dark hair swung as Elianas shifted his way, face devoid of expression.
“Forgive me.”
Silence answered him first, and then, “You understand.”
“I was blind.”
Elianas rose and approached. “You saw, but with your guilt over Tymall and what you knew I would perceive as betrayal. Now Tymall is gone and your heart and mind is free to see.”
“I see you.”
They smiled at each other.
Teighlar appeared then, gaze instantly shifting from one to the other. “I sense a truce. Good; you are easier to talk to when you are like this.”
“A truce on one issue. You still have to tread lightly,” Torrullin laughed.
Teighlar shrugged, and noticed the basket Elianas packed. His gaze fixed on it hungrily. “And what have you in there?”
EPILOGUE
IXION STOOD BEFORE Adagin in a forest of stars. Grass underfoot consisted of cosmic spangles and in the heavens constellations played hopscotch.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 186