Everyone around the table seemed stunned into silence, except Ash who slammed his hands down on the table.
‘How do you know all this? Why should we believe you?’ he shouted, pushing his manacled hands against the hard wooden surface and standing as he spoke for the first time since entering the room. His voice was filled with grief, and he looked truly upset by everything Esther had just said. But there was a hint of distrust in his tone, as he demanded his aunt explain further.
The two guards on either side of him stepped forwards and placed their hands on his shoulders, forcing him back down into his seat. Ash didn’t put up a fight and crumpled easily beneath their strength. He looked genuinely stunned and broken by what he had just heard.
Esther’s smile turned warm again as she faced Ash. ‘Because I am Lora, Eva’s daughter,’ she replied.
‘So that makes you…’ Rowe started, the words barely forming in her mouth as she stared at Esther with wide eyes.
‘I am your sister. Your very, very old sister,’ she announced with a laugh.
Sloane sat back in her chair trying to make sense of everything Esther had said, but her mind felt too full of thoughts, and each one was fighting for her attention. While it all sounded so unbelievable, a part of Sloane desperately wanted to trust her aunt. She felt like the story left her with so many questions. But it also went some way towards giving her the answers she had been looking for, including whether or not her father had been speaking the truth in the Liftsal caves. It all lined up with Esther’s story.
‘I know it’s a lot to take in…’ Esther said. She turned to look at Sloane, almost willing her to believe her words.
It was Lorian who spoke next though. There were tears welling in his eyes and a sense of hope shining from them like Sloane had never seen before.
‘She’s telling the truth,’ Lorian said, a smile slowly starting to form on his lips.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Vas asked.
Lorian slowly turned and looked at Sloane, Rowe and Ash, one by one. ‘Because they all have my daughter’s eyes.’ He shook his head a little as if he couldn’t believe what was happening.
‘So, that would make you our grandfather,’ Rowe said, her voice quiet and almost hesitant as she made the connection.
Lorian’s smile grew wider. ‘Yes, I believe it would.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ Ash shouted, throwing his hands up in the air before slamming them down on the table again, causing everyone to turn in his direction. ‘That is not proof. This is surely impossible, and there’s no way to know if she is telling the truth.’
‘Actually, Ash, there is,’ Esther said calmly. ‘I told you I knew where a piece of the Oblivion Stone was; so let me show you.’
Esther turned to face Sloane. ‘Do you still have Mother’s necklace?’ she asked.
Sloane shook her head, frowning at the request. ‘No, I gave it to Rowe.’
‘Can I borrow it?’ Esther said, focusing her attention on Rowe.
Rowe’s frown was almost identical to Sloane’s, but she nodded. She reached down into her top and pulled out her mother’s pendant. Sloane leant forwards on the table and watched as Rowe lifted the necklace up and over her head before handing it to Esther.
Esther smiled as she held the locket carefully in her hand. She gazed at it in awe for a few seconds before she turned back to Vas and passed it to him. ‘A piece of Oblivion Stone is within the necklace,’ she said. ‘If you want proof of my story, this is it.’
Vas’ eyes widened as he took the pendant and stared at it. The longer he looked at it, the more his eyes began to fill with tears. Sloane had never seen Vas display such feeling, and for a moment he didn’t look like a king who had just been handed a stone of immense power. He looked like a man who was being haunted by the ghosts of his past.
‘What is it?’ Rhyn asked, clearly noticing the level of his father’s emotion.
‘I gave this to Eva to bring her luck the night before the battle against the Brakys,’ Vas said, his eyes softening as he continued to behold the pendant in his hands. ‘I etched this design into the metal myself.’
He brushed his thumb over the silver surface of the locket, and his teary eyes seemed to drift off as he recalled a memory over a thousand years old. As everyone in the room watched the king, his thoughts lost in the design of the pendant in his hand, Esther broke the silence.
‘The stone was shattered during the battle,’ Esther said. ‘Eva fought a Braky to protect one of the broken fragments, but the creature took the piece of the stone and escaped to Earth in an attempt to foil the Unfaih’s plans to close the rift.
‘Eva was injured, but she followed it through the rift to retrieve the stone. As she battled the Braky, the rift began to close. She knew she couldn’t leave the creature on Earth though, so she made a choice.’
‘She chose to stay on Earth?’ Lorian said slowly.
‘Yes. Eva stayed and killed the Braky, but by the time she had defeated it, the rift had closed forever,’ Esther added. ‘She hid the fragment of the Oblivion Stone in her pendant.’
Vas had looked up from the necklace to listen to Esther, but he dropped his eyes to the locket once again and tilted it on its side as he attempted to open it.
‘There’s a special way to open it,’ Esther said gently, holding out one hand. ‘Let me show you.’
Vas nodded and passed it to her. Esther clasped her hand around the locket before bringing it in close to her face and studying the edges of it. Sloane leaned in to get a better look and considered her mother’s necklace with fresh eyes. Though she had never realised it before, the faded swirls across the façade of the pendant were almost identical to the design on the Unfaih’s shields. And she now understood that the letter E that was inscribed in the centre of the design wasn’t for Elena, but for Eva.
Esther’s face was filled with concentration as she turned the locket around in several different ways, pressing her finger across the tiny ridges that made up the design. A moment later there was a soft clicking sound and the pendant fell open.
Sloane leaned further forwards as Esther placed the open locket on the table. There, set in the middle of it, was a tiny shard of the Oblivion Stone. There was no bright green glow to the stone like the piece that Sloane had worn during the battle with the humans. It was dull and lifeless, just like the other fragment had been when she and Kai had first retrieved it from Joran.
‘So, it’s true,’ Rhyn murmured. ‘Everything you said was true.’
Esther gave a small nod. ‘It’s true.’
Sloane sat in shock as she stared at the locket and the stone on the table. She’d never known her father’s family and Esther was the only other relative she had when her mother died. But now Sloane had a grandfather and a second sister, and it made her heart warm with happiness. But most of all she felt a sudden and intense sense of belonging. Her mother was an Unfaih, and the knowledge that she was one of them filled Sloane’s heart with joy.
But she also felt relief. Esther had an Unfaih mother and a human father; just like Sloane. The fact that Esther had not turned into a Braky after drinking the Liftsal gave Sloane hope that she would not suffer the terrible fate she feared so much. She needed to ask Esther about it, but she didn’t want to bring it up with so many people watching. She remained silent and revelled in the small sense of hope that she too wouldn’t turn into one of the creatures.
Sloane looked around the room, taking in everyone’s reactions. If there had been any doubt about Esther’s story before, it had well and truly vanished from all those seated around the table, and they all looked in awe at the revelation. Everyone but Ash that is. The colour had drained from his face, and there was a look of horror in his eyes that Sloane couldn’t understand. She didn’t know what to make of his response, but then again, she felt like she didn’t know him at all anymore.
‘Can I take a look at the stone?’ Kai asked, his gaze resting on Esther as he waited for her permission.
>
‘Go ahead,’ she said.
Kai took the piece of the Oblivion Stone and held it up to the light to look at it properly. He was mesmerised as his eyes scanned every inch of the rock. Jack was also intrigued and had stood from his chair to look at the stone from over Kai’s shoulder. As Sloane watched them, she finally recovered from her shock and found the words to speak.
‘I don’t understand why you and Mother kept this from us for so long,’ she said to Esther.
‘You were so young when she died,’ Esther replied. ‘The two of us had spent the better part of a thousand years hiding from men who knew of the Liftsal and knew of our presence on Earth. You were too young to understand the truth about our history. It was too much weight to put on such young shoulders.’
Sloane nodded, but as she did her eyes fell to the floor. She understood why Esther and her mother had kept it a secret, but she couldn’t stop wondering if maybe she could have helped in some way if she had known what they were going through. She raised her eyes again when Esther reached across the table and lightly touched her hand.
‘In a thousand years, I never saw our mother as happy as she was in the short time she was with you three,’ Esther said, glancing around the table at Rowe and Ash. ‘She loved all of you so much. I think she’d begun to forget the danger even existed.’
‘We’re not young anymore,’ Rowe said, softly. ‘Why didn’t you tell us after she died?’
Esther gave Rowe a sad smile. ‘You may not feel young, but to me you still seem like children. I wanted to protect you for as long as I could.’
‘But why now?’ Rowe asked. ‘How did you know to come to Aeris? How did you get on the ship? Father didn’t tell you anything when he came and took me from your house.’
As usual, Rowe had been mostly quiet during Esther’s story, but now the questions were spilling freely from her lips as she started to scramble for more answers. There were still many things Sloane wanted to ask Esther as well, but she barely knew where to start.
‘I was never just going to let you go,’ Esther responded. ‘And it wasn’t difficult to find out where he had taken you.’
Sloane frowned slightly at the explanation. Esther had remained composed throughout her story, but now her eyes were focused on the floor rather than locked onto the person she spoke to. Sloane suddenly felt like her aunt was holding something back.
‘What aren’t you telling us?’ she asked.
Esther’s gaze darted up to meet Sloane’s, and she could see a hint of worry in her eyes. Despite everything that Sloane had heard so far, she feared that what Esther was about to say next would shock them even more.
‘There’s one final thing I need to say,’ Esther replied.
‘What is it?’ Sloane asked, raising her voice slightly.
Esther let out a slow breath and her eyes filled with sadness as she looked at them all. ‘I told you about the men who hunted our mother,’ she began. ‘As descendants of the first humans to discover Ellysia, they worshipped the Brakys and longed to find a way back to the Liftsal. Ever since the rift was closed, they passed their cause down through the generations. They were the ones who found and murdered our Mother.’
Esther bowed her head in sorrow as everyone around the table leaned in closer to listen to what she was about to say. She took a deep breath and looked up at Sloane, Rowe and then Ash.
‘Your father was one of those men.’
Chapter Seventeen
Sloane pushed her chair away from the table and stood. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked, somehow managing to keep her voice calm despite her rapidly pounding heart. ‘The Captain killed our mother?’
Esther gathered herself and pushed down the worry she had previously shown, ignoring the deadly look in Sloane’s eyes. ‘No, George didn’t kill her,’ she said. ‘But his people did.’
Sloane’s hands clenched into fists at her sides, and she struggled to keep her breathing measured. She looked at Rowe, but her sister hadn’t moved since Esther’s revelation. Ash was simply shaking his head, his eyes filled with doubt. It was clear he didn’t believe a word Esther said. At least, he didn’t want to believe. Sloane knew that Esther wouldn’t lie about something like this, but that didn’t mean she understood it.
‘Let me explain,’ Esther began, beckoning for Sloane to sit back down. She didn’t want to sit though. She could barely move, and all she wanted were answers.
‘Your father was one of the Braky supporters his whole life, and he was tasked with leading the operation to find the Unfaih girl who had been trapped on Earth. After years of searching, he finally tracked down our mother. But he couldn’t go through with his orders.’
‘What were the orders?’ Rowe asked, her voice stuttering as she uttered the words.
‘To capture her and bring her to his people so they could force her to lead them back to Ellysia and the Liftsal.’
Sloane felt her stomach churning with anger as she imagined everything her mother had gone through; a thousand years on the run because of the Captain’s evil cult.
‘But he couldn’t do it,’ Esther continued. ‘Because he fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Your father protected her from his people, and they escaped together and went into hiding. He told her everything about his past and kept her safe for years. They got married and had you guys. But they were always on the run and could only stay safe for so long.’
Sloane felt herself slowly begin to shake her head as she listened. She had always despised her father, as he had hated her. She had blamed the Captain for her mother’s death all these years, and Esther was now confirming that it was his fault all along.
Sloane couldn’t help but feel confused by the news though. It was hard for her to believe that the Captain had rescued her mother and that he had once cared for her. Deep down Sloane always knew that her father must have loved her mother at some point, but all she remembered of the man was his brutal selfishness.
‘George’s people eventually caught up with them,’ Esther went on. ‘They must have been watching them for a while, as they waited until your father was away before they attacked. They killed our mother as they searched for any clues that would help them find the Liftsal or a route back to Ellysia. They found nothing in the house, so they took Rowe.’
Sloane turned to look at her twin sister, and she saw Rowe recoil slightly from Esther as she spoke. Whenever she looked at the scars that ran down Rowe’s face, Sloane was reminded of the torture her sister had endured at the hands of her kidnappers. But Sloane knew the memories were clearly etched within Rowe’s mind at all times.
‘Did our father really rescue Rowe?’ Sloane asked, turning back to look at Esther.
‘Yes,’ Esther nodded. ‘After he found our mother's body, he went after the men who had taken Rowe. He saved her and brought her to me. But something about him had changed. He had always been a serious man, but he seemed completely broken after Eva’s death. He wanted revenge on the men who had killed her and kidnapped Rowe. And he took it. But his thirst for vengeance seemed to run deeper than I could understand. The hunted became the hunter, and he went after his own people. Sometimes he was gone for years at a time, and we heard nothing from him.’
Barely a sound came from anyone else in the room as they continued to listen to Esther’s story. Sloane scanned the table, and her eyes fell on Ash. Her brother had buried his face into his chained hands and was staring blankly at the table. He seemed more shocked than anyone, which surprised Sloane. She had assumed he knew more than any of them, given his allegiance to their father. But maybe Ash had been kept in the dark just as much as his two sisters.
‘Every time he came to visit Rowe, he seemed colder, more withdrawn and more determined,’ said Esther. ‘On his final visit, I could no longer see a single shred of the man our mother had once loved. The anger in his eyes had been replaced with a feverish hunger and excitement. He no longer spoke of his desire for revenge. Instead, he seemed focused on finding so
mething, and I sensed that he was close to his goal.’
‘Was this the night he took me to the Explorer?’ Rowe asked. ‘I remember the look in his eyes. He said it was urgent. He said we didn’t have time to say goodbye.’
‘Yes,’ Esther nodded. ‘He took you without my knowledge. But it didn’t take me long to discover that he was on a mission to another world. It was then that my suspicions were confirmed. He was no longer set on finding our mother’s killers. He was after something else, and I feared he had once again become the man who had been trained to support the Brakys and hunt the Liftsal.’
‘We fear the same thing,’ Rhyn said, as Esther finished her tale. ‘He has stolen some of the Liftsal and taken it to find the Brakys.’
‘Well then,’ Esther sighed. ‘If there was anything left of the man who loved my mother, it will not be long until it is snuffed out forever.’
Sloane folded her arms across her chest, taking a deep breath in to try and clear her thoughts. This was all too much to handle. She glanced at Rowe to see how her sister was taking it. Her eyes seemed troubled, but she looked to be keeping it together. Rowe was nodding at Esther, and she reached out to grip their new sister’s hand for comfort.
Ash, on the other hand, had utterly broken down. The shock and despair Sloane had seen in his eyes earlier had been replaced with a dark stare, and his body had become stiff with anger. She still couldn’t work out what he was honestly feeling, but she was struggling too much with her own reaction to care.
After everything she had heard, Sloane felt overwhelmed by a mixture of emotions. She felt a deep sense of belonging and joy at the news of her connections to the Unfaih world. She felt a sense of understanding about her past and the troubled and demanding life she had led so far. But she also felt anger, and confusion about the way her father had ultimately led their mother to her death and, for reasons she couldn’t quite comprehend, turned his attention to the Liftsal, at a devastating cost to the Unfaih.
The Rift War Page 19