by Mark Albany
They were all still staring at Norel and Aliana as though their presence here was the most astonishing thing that had happened thus far, and probably wouldn’t move away from it until some kind of explanation was presented.
Norel rolled her eyes, pushing herself up to her feet. “You all know me and have trusted me in the past. You all know Grant and trusted him with the lofty position of Varion. Slight changes in appearance, and the arrival of our trusted associate—my sister—should not change any of that.”
“But… you’re an elf!” One of the men protested, pushing himself up from his seat. I recognized him from our previous meeting. Thick dark beard and broad shoulders, he seemed to be the most confused by these new developments. I wondered why.
“Yes, I am,” Norel said with a smile. “I am of the race that humans almost drove to extinction out of irrational fear. And yet, even with the elves gone, humans have gone and done worse than anything my kind have ever done. I can assure you that among all of us assembled here, only the three of us,” she indicated herself, Aliana, and me, “have done the most to stop it.”
The man opened his mouth, clearly meaning to argue the matter further, but lacking in any point to make quickly dropped back into his seat. A woman, one of the Emperor’s personal advisors from the purple ribbon on her shoulder, rose to her feet.
“I know for a fact that whatever form she chooses to take, Norel has saved my life and that of many others assembled here today at great cost, and only demanded that we join the fight in saving this Empire,” the woman said, her voice soft yet commanding the attention of all present. “I would only ask that the Varion step forward and name them, even this demonic presence, as trustworthy and necessary to the fight against Cyron and the powers he wishes to summon.”
She took her seat again. I realized that all eyes in the room were on me, seeming to be waiting for something I had to say. I had no kind of speech prepared, and as they were all looking at me, I could feel something like fear starting to seep into me. I’d never been great at addressing large numbers of people, and now wasn’t any different.
You charged at one of the power powerful mages in the world, stole his sword and used it to cut the legs off of a ten-foot-tall golem that was trying to kill you and your friends, I thought to myself. You can do this.
I stood as slowly and in as dignified a way as I could while I looked at the group of men and women assembled here. They were alternating their glances between me and the novelties of the women flanking me. It helped to know that they weren’t all just looking at me.
“The women you see before you… I’ve fought alongside them,” I started, clearing my throat and trying to keep my thoughts concise. “As they fought, they saved not only my life on multiple occasions, but the lives of all those present in this room today. Not because they needed to. Not because their lives were the ones at stake. But because they chose to. They put their lives at risk for a people who they knew hated them over grudges that have been forgotten for centuries. If you refuse to trust them over Cyron—a man who has been terrorizing your homes—and the evil he’s trying to raise, that shows a good deal more about you than about these two women. If your minds cannot comprehend that someone would keep your city and your lives safe just because they look different than you…” I paused to thump my fist on the table in front of me for dramatic effect. It turned out to be a mistake as a shot of pain rushed up my arm. I did my best not to show it.
“…That says more about you lot than about these two,” I finished once I’d regained my composure and slowly sank into my seat again.
The silence lasted longer than the last time. They were staring at me. Each time I looked at them, they quickly avoided my gaze. I wasn’t sure if it was out of guilt or hatred. They knew they owed their lives to something they hated. Something they’d been taught to hate since they were little children being told stories by nurses as they were being rocked to sleep.
I wondered what exactly those stories were. All I knew was from the books I’d read.
“We need to know what happened to our third sister,” Norel said, standing again. “We’ve all read the stories about the Sisters Three. Of those, two stand before you. The Star that we were tasked with keeping safe is at risk, if it is what Abarat is after. If it is, we will need our third with us to stop him.”
“Star?” One of the nobles asked in a particularly hostile tone. I didn’t agree with the hostility, but question was valid. What Star was she talking about? It wasn’t part of any of the stories, and certainly not something they’d told me about.
“Does this have to do with bringing your kind back?” One of the others asked, rising to his feet. “The elves? Is that what is supposed to happen?”
“Our order was tasked with keeping the Star safe,” Aliana said, her voice softer than Norel’s had been. She’d seen the look of surprise on my face, and I could tell she was feeling guilty about keeping something from me. “The Star was said to be all that is left of the beginning of our world. If Abarat is able to hold it, he could destroy… well, everything. It is an artifact of immeasurable power.”
“We don’t know about any Star,” the bearded man said, taking a deep breath. He seemed to be coming to terms with all the changes in the world around him. I wondered if he had been closer to Norel than most. “What we have discovered is that your Master Vis, and Cyron were definitely scheming together. I’m not sure how it might help your third sister, but they were looking for something. A magical artifact of considerable power, if the papers that were recovered from his ruined manse are to be believed. A ring of some kind.”
I looked at the man, but he was avoiding my gaze, looking away from me. From Aliana and Norel too, I realized. There was something in his eyes. Guilt. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but it was definitely guilt.
I didn’t have time for this. None of us did.
I pushed myself out of my seat. I didn’t like taking charge like this, but at the moment, there was nothing further here to help us.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” I said, keeping my voice firm, brushing my hands over the black robes I’d been given for the occasion. “I believe we may call this meeting adjourned.”
8
“Something isn’t right,” I said as we moved out of the mansion.
Neither Aliana or Norel seemed surprised by my statement. The meeting hadn’t gone to plan, and yet I didn’t think it could have gone any better. There was no way to present the knowledge that there were elves still walking among them and come away from it cleanly.
Aliana had come out and made her existence public. As an elf and a djinn, there was little chance that her existence would be kept a secret. Norel had enjoyed the benefits of being a member of the gentry, but there was no guarantee that she would still be afforded the same benefits now that it was revealed that she was from another race entirely. What I said was true, but that didn’t mean there weren’t going to be people who would take advantage of the knowledge.
Both she and Aliana knew there would be consequences to their actions here today. But knowing that there were consequences and having them crash down on their heads were two different matters. They would need to come to terms with that as well.
I could feel the sense of realization beginning to dawn on Aliana and I could see a similar expression starting to appear on Norel’s face, but at the same time, I knew that wasn’t what I was feeling. Aliana would know what it was, if she weren’t wrapped up in her thoughts. We moved out of the mansion, but not beyond the walls. Aliana was too occupied with her thoughts to be able to put up a field for us for the moment. As we moved into the gardens, I could feel the sense of wrongness nagging at me.
Needles digging into my brain. Probing touches, but the touches were sharp and painful…too close to what I’d felt the night before for me to ignore the connection.
Aliana looked over at me, sensing it immediately. “What is it?” she asked, looking concerned. A gleam of steel ca
ught my eye—her dagger was already in hand.
“She’s back,” I growled, rubbing my temples gingerly, feeling a shot of pain as I tried to resist the touches. “She’s coming through my connection to the ring. Does that mean that she’s close? Somewhere nearby?”
“Just walk,” Norel said, grinding her teeth. “Ignore it.”
“I can’t ignore it,” I hissed through my teeth. “I don’t like that she can reach me like this.”
Norel didn’t like it either, I realized. She didn’t feel what Aliana was feeling through our connection, but she believed that I wasn’t making this story up. Her slitted eyes moved across the garden, seeing more than I did, apparently, and still coming away with nothing to show for it.
“We need to leave,” Norel finally said, shaking her head. She was understandably upset, and I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do to help. I wanted to. I wanted to fix it. Fix everything. Make everything right for them, with something to make her smile the way she had when she first saw Frarris again. That had been something for the damned ages.
As we moved away from the house, Aliana placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. She knew what I was feeling, that heartache. And from what I was getting back from her, there was one thing on her mind. Well, it was an assumption on my part, but not a baseless one. We all needed to relax after a day like today, and Norel needed it more than most. Aliana was still feeling the repercussions of what had happened, and her mind was still churning over it all. Yet she couldn’t help but worry about me and her sister. It was rather sweet.
Aliana brought up her field and we moved beyond the walls, content to ignore everyone around us and be ignored in turn. I could still feel the probing touches of the djinn. She wasn’t toying with me, though I could feel that she wanted to be. It was something different. She wanted me on edge, but she was… curious.
I wasn’t sure how I knew that just from her needle-like touches on my consciousness, but then again, there was a lot about the magic I was dealing with that I didn’t fully understand. That wasn’t the magic’s fault, but mine. My ignorance wasn’t something I was proud of. Of course, there were a lot of factors that made it a thing of the present, and yet if I held everything I was to Vis’ throat, I didn’t claim any of my identity for myself. I needed that. I needed to be someone beyond what Vis had made me.
I rubbed my temples again. The pain wasn’t getting worse, but it was nagging at my mind like she was trying to tear at the walls I’d put up in there, one metaphorical brick at a time. And it was getting on my nerves. I looked down at the ring still on my finger, wondering if this was how she was tracking me and if maybe lack of contact with my skin would prevent it.
It seemed unlikely. Magic was rarely, if ever, that neat.
“Fucking elves,” I heard a voice say, bringing me out of my train of thought. “Who would have thought they could have fucked all this up so badly?”
I could feel the spark of annoyance from Aliana, and honestly, I shared it. The gleam of steel was back in her hands as she moved over to the two men, with Norel and I in her shadow.
There were two men—younger, lesser nobles—who were shocked to suddenly see us there. The perception field had been working on them, too. They quickly realized that Aliana was inches away from slitting their throats and leaving them to bleed into the gutters. It wasn’t like anyone would remember us passing by, and now that they were inside the field, they too were invisible to the rest of the people strolling by, and would continue to be until we’d left them behind.
I could see the terror in their eyes that came from more than just the sight of knives and the horned woman wielding them. There was something primal. They knew that elves were dangerous, and now here was the proof.
I wanted to let Aliana do what I could feel her body begging her to do. Unleash all the tension of the day on the poor dumbasses by tearing into them, showing them that they were all too right to fear the elves.
I placed a hand on her shoulder. She seemed almost startled, looking back at me with accusation in her eyes. Why was I stopping her? I wanted the same things she did.
Not like this.
She took a step back, following the tug of my arm as I stepped in between the three of them, staring at the two terrified noblemen.
“Remember that elves were the ones to save you the last time humans tried to send the world to shit,” I said, my voice soft as I patted the men on their shoulders. “Speak ill of them again, and you might just find that they aren’t there to dig you out of the mire your own race tossed you into.”
I patted them on the shoulder again and indicated for them to make their way out. They followed my instructions with enthusiasm, quickly rushing away.
“I could have taught them a lesson without killing them,” Aliana growled, shaking her head at me as the two looked behind and seemed almost surprised when all of a sudden, the three of us were hidden from their vision somehow. It was an odd sensation.
“Anything you did to them would only serve to reinforce hundreds of years of stories telling them of the evils of your kind,” I said softly. “I think that’s a fire we should avoid feeding for the time being, all things considered.”
Aliana smiled. For once, I was the one with a point in the argument, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that. I smiled, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder gently. She dipped her head to press a light kiss on my hand before we started moving again, heading back to Norel’s estate.
It was interesting, I realized. As I’d gotten angry alongside Aliana, the pain in my head had lessened and disappeared, almost without me noticing. I took comfort in the fact, and kept it in mind should there be any need for it later.
9
Once we returned to the estate, we found ourselves in a study with a handful of chairs sitting around a desk. I removed the ugly little ring that had been adorning my finger over the past few months and placed it atop the desk, grappling with the fact that I’d kept the damned thing in the first place. With all the horrible things it meant to Aliana, I should have just discarded it when I got the chance.
Then again, I thought, pausing, staring at the ugly little piece of jewelry, even though she wasn’t bound to it anymore it was still a magical artifact of some value, which meant that leaving it around for just anyone to find would have been a very dangerous mistake. Since she’d been the one bound to it and knew more about its properties as a magical artifact than I, if anyone was going to make the call to throw it away it would be her. And so far, she’d voiced no such inclinations.
“If this is the ring Vis is after, we need to know why,” Norel said softly, breaking the silence. “Do they want it because they believe Aliana is still bound to it? If so, how did they know about her at all? It could be they wanted it for some other reason. We need to learn as much as we can about it.”
I pushed myself out of my seat, pacing around the table. “Of course, it’s what Vis was after. He sent me to steal a scroll that would lead me, however unwittingly, right to where she was being hidden. That can’t be a coincidence. It had to be what they were looking for.”
“Which begs the question of why you were the one to find it, when you were merely instructed to steal a scroll that was already in the possession of another, very powerful mage,” Norel said, leaning back in her seat and rubbing her temples. “Why did they need you to find the piece at all?”
It was a good question, and not one I had an answer to. In fairness, I didn’t even know what was on the damn piece of parchment I’d stolen. That seemed like the kind of thing Aliana usually had an answer to, but she was uncharacteristically quiet.
For a moment, I’d forgotten just how much she hated that simple, ugly little ring. I moved over to her and kissed her cheek. It wasn’t much, but she smiled, turning up to me and kissing my lips back.
Norel sighed. “Grab the orb, Ali. Let us see if we can’t find the origin of the ring. That thing has to be of some use, even if we can’t use it to find ou
r sister.”
Aliana nodded. Her hand flickered and there it was, appearing out of nowhere. I would have to ask her how she was doing that since apparently, it wasn’t just her knives she was capable of keeping hidden that way.
Frarris jumped up onto the table, looking at the ring curiously as well until Norel leaned over to pat her on the head. A soft sound, similar to a cat’s meow but not quite, could be heard as the tiny dragon moved over to the other side of the table and curled up on herself.
“Pick up the ring, Grant,” Norel said softly. I obliged, pulling the piece of jewelry from the table and looking at it curiously. This tiny thing had been there at the start of everything. Sure, the going had been made difficult at times, but there was also the fact that I was now with two people I cared about instead of a slave to the man who killed my parents, learning and growing more in these past few months than in my entire life.
I slipped the ring onto my finger as Aliana placed the orb on the table looking down at it with a conflicted expression on her face as she took my hand and put it, with hers, on the orb.
“Focus on the ring,” Aliana said softly. “Feel the power radiating from it as you touch the the orb and try to visualize its origins.”
I nodded, taking a deep breath as I focused on the little band of bronze on my finger. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to visualize its origins. I had no knowledge of simple metallurgy, much less the magical elements of it, but I tried anyway.
I smiled, feeling Norel cover my hand with her own, not sure if she was doing it to show support or if she was trying to look into the orb as well.
“Focus,” Aliana admonished softly. I nodded, focusing on my breathing and letting my mind wander while trying to keep my focus on the ring. The orb was starting to grow hot, I realized. The temperature was rising slowly, so while it wasn’t quite hot enough yet to burn, it felt like it was going to reach that state soon. I gritted my teeth, determined to keep my hand on the damn thing for as long as I could stand it. I could feel Aliana’s free hand gripping mine, squeezing, trying to show support. I wasn’t sure if there was anything happening, if my attempts were even working, but I kept at it, squinting my eyes shut as the heat started to hurt my hand.