“Mara.”
Amara woke with a startled gasp, jolting out of bed. She was back in her room at Raven’s Roost, and Mattias was seated in one of the dining chairs beside her. The sphere was nowhere to be seen. An intense but rapidly fading headache pounded hard at her temples.
“Thank goodness,” Mattias said with relief. “I was worried you’d be suffering ill effects from coming so near to the event horizon. But it seems I managed to grab you just in time.”
She looked him up and down with a grimace, absently rubbing at the pain in her temples with both hands.
“...What kind of ill effects?”
“You don’t want to know, frankly.” He paused, and she watched as his posture and expression visibly softened. “Amara, I’m very sorry for letting you fall. What I did was incredibly stupid, and I have no excuse for it. I should’ve taken much greater care with you.”
She allowed her hands to fall into her lap, and her gaze followed them. He'd given her no time to process what'd just happened before doing another incomprehensible thing. It was possible that his apology was sincere, that he'd genuinely just made a mistake, but there was never any way to feel certain about him. Anger at his carelessness hovered at the edge of her thoughts, but more than anything else she was struck by how easily he’d just admitted to it. Some part of her simply hadn’t seen him as being capable of making mistakes. As a Seraphim, he’d just seemed to be above that sort of thing.
“I can feel myself lowering in your estimation,” Mattias said, chagrined. “And I can’t say that I don’t deserve it. I allowed my impatience to affect me at the worst possible time.”
“Your impatience.”
He nodded, and a sigh suddenly exploded from him. “Your lack of progress with the dresser felt like a reflection on myself, I suppose. We’ll just have to try something else.”
“...Hm.”
His mentioning of the dresser caused Amara to think back to their conversation before the fall. She’d quickly come to believe him, more or less, when he’d said it was the wellspring of the Pattern, but the fall had put everything into a new perspective. The buzzing in her brain which had become overwhelming as she neared the Maw was proof that the Pattern did originate from somewhere. But, she realized, the buzzing hadn’t been caused by anything tangible—it didn’t actually come from the Maw. To say that it came from only one source seemed to imply that it wasn’t everywhere, part of everything, and she felt certain now that couldn’t be right. After all, she’d never needed to see the Maw or even to know it existed in order to use her power. From the moment she first felt it in the temple it had existed at the farthest edge of her senses, like something just distant enough to be indiscernible yet close enough to know it was certainly there, and would obey her command.
Mattias did say once that it was everywhere, she remembered. I wonder if he understands just how true that really is.
Feeling inspired, Amara abruptly leapt out of bed, wordlessly passing a surprised-looking Mattias on her way to the door.
“Where are you going?” he called out as she marched into the hall. She heard him rushing to catch up, and by the time she reached the stairwell he was keeping pace a few steps behind her.
The dresser was exactly where they’d left it before their trip to the Maw. She approached it cautiously, coming to a slow halt.
“Can you light the incense?” she asked without looking away.
Mattias said nothing, immediately moving past her towards the dresser to open it. She looked on as he extracted all the things he needed from his robes—how many times had she seen him do that over the past week?—and felt her command over the tiny flames on the incense evaporate once he’d sealed it inside. She was only vaguely aware of the curious look on Mattias’s face as he stepped away.
My power doesn’t come from me, she realized. I’m a conduit for it. Like the Maw.
Her eyes closed, and she tried to visualize the tiny flames burning inside the dresser. She and they were equals to the same thing. And then she had it.
She pressed her will to them, and they burst forth, exploding out of every possible crevice within the censer, searching for fuel. In her mind she saw the flames coating the insides of the dresser, and her other senses confirmed the success her eyes couldn't. After taking a moment to marvel at her newfound control, she willed the flames to hasten their expansion, and they soon found their way through tiny cracks and passageways out to the dresser’s exterior, setting the entire thing aflame.
Mattias let out a muted gasp when the flames reached the outside. Amara opened her eyes and turned to him, playfully sending a thin streamer of fire from the dresser across the vault’s floor around them both. Still without looking, she willed the flames to return to the censer and diminish, and within moments they were all completely extinguished, leaving the dresser singed and smoking.
Wood-smoke gradually filled the vault’s air as Amara and Mattias stared at one another in silence. Amara continued to say nothing, gleefully waiting him out. Eventually, a faint smile began to curl at his lips.
“Excellent,” he said. “Very good. Now, go and get ready. We leave for Lucyra in the morning.”
“...Wait, what? Tomorrow morning? What happened to unlocking my second power?”
“Understanding the realities of the Pattern was your first step towards it. Actually unlocking it is something only you know how to do.”
Frustration caused a deep frown to cross her face. “I don’t know how to do it.”
“You don’t,” he agreed. “For now. It will come in time.”
He then turned away and made for the stairwell. Amara looked on as he left, her sense of victory dissipating into the cloud of smoke building all around her.
He called me Mara earlier, she thought, still frowning. I won’t let that happen again.
----------------------------------------
Evander was leaning against the wall beside her door when she emerged from the stairwell into the guest wing. His arms were crossed, and he looked to have been deep in thought before she’d appeared.
“Evan?” she called out, and was surprised to see him instantly respond by raising a silent, shushing finger to his lips. He nodded upwards towards the kitchen, and after a brief moment of surprise Amara responded with a nod of her own. They set off side by side, passing quickly through the empty kitchen and the hallway beyond.
Outside, the sky was heavy with gray, roiling clouds, and an anemic rain fell even as strong gusts of wind blew up the path towards them. The stormy weather took her by surprise—she hadn’t expected rain could even happen in the desert, weak though it was in comparison to the types of storms Shiloh had during the monsoon season. For his part, Evander seemed uninterested in the weather. He immediately set off down the path into the wind, clearly heading for the cave-cliff they’d discovered the other day.
If he doesn’t want to talk inside then something must’ve happened while I was gone, she thought.
Once they reached the shelter of the cliff, Evander abruptly turned to face her. There was a deep shade of worry in his expression she’d never seen there before.
“Where were you yesterday?” he asked urgently.
“...Uh…it’s kind of hard to explain. After breakfast I got frustrated with the dresser and exploded at Mattias. Then we flew off to see this weird…thing. A giant black sphere hovering over the beach near the ocean. He said it was the wellspring of the Pattern.”
He seemed to take this in stride. “The Pattern has a wellspring?”
“That’s what he said, but I’m not sure.”
“Why did you go see it? And why were you unconscious when you got back?”
Amara blinked. “Um—”
“No one was here for lunch yesterday,” he said. “Or for dinner. Not even Sunjata was around, it was just me here alone all day. And then, well after sundown, Mattias suddenly shows up at the door carrying you in his arms. And you’re unconscious.”
“I’m fine,” she said hastily. “There was just an accident.”
Evander stared hard at her, waiting for an explanation. It was obvious where his anger was directed at, and a sudden urge struck her to deflect it elsewhere.
“I slipped off his back,” she said. “It was my fault, not his. He saved me before I could fall in.”
His expression darkened, but he remained silent, his gaze roaming across her face.
I need them to play nice, she decided. For now, at least.
“I can control fire that’s outside of my vision now,” she declared. “Also, Mattias just said we’re leaving for Lucyra in the morning.”
“Did he.”
“Yeah! You’re not happy about that?”
“Of course I am, I’ve felt absolutely useless here. I don’t even merit a second thought in comparison to you. But he’s using you for something, Mara, and I don’t think you fully see that yet.”
“...You’re being—”
“I read his diary,” he interrupted.
“You did what?”
“Well, no one was here, right? So I decided to go looking around. Do some exploring. You know all those books he has in his room?”
“Yeah…?”
“They’re all written by him. Each one is a volume in his diary, going back hundreds of years. Maybe even going back thousands, I don’t know. There were way too many books to even think about reading it all, so I just picked a few at random. Most of what I read seemed pointless or just didn’t make sense, but I did find some stuff in there about you.”
A mixed thrill of shock and excitement rushed through her. For a moment she considered chastising him for committing such a blatant breach of Mattias’s privacy, before remembering that he’d been doing the exact same thing to her for at least a decade.
“What’d you find?” she asked, not bothering to hide her newfound curiosity.
“I think he knows way more about your second power than he’s letting on. Like, way more. He talked around it, but from the way he was talking about you I got the impression that he knows what it is.”
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Anger instantly blossomed within her, but for some reason it didn’t come as much of a surprise. It’d been perfectly clear from the beginning that he was intentionally keeping things from her.
“I’m not surprised,” she said angrily.
“Right, but there’s more. Remember all that stuff about progress and getting justice against the other Seraphim he mentioned?”
She nodded.
“I don’t think that’s really what he wants. He talked about them quite a bit, but he never once mentioned anything about doing stuff for the good of the people, or whatever. I think he’s really angry at the other Seraphim, Mara. He’s trying to use you against them somehow.”
“Use me,” she repeated slowly. “Use me how? You’re saying this has something to do with my second power?”
“I have no idea. Look,” he said, taking an urgent step towards her. “We should ditch him as soon as we get to Lucyra. Whatever he’s really after can’t be in Shiloh’s best interests. Or ours.”
She nearly agreed with him, even opened her mouth to say it before another thought occurred to her which caused it to close.
“No,” she said firmly. “We might need him in Lucyra. Especially if we really do have to fight Shabboleth. Besides, I'm not sure how we'd even get away from him.”
“...Yeah, about Shabboleth. To be honest I’m starting to doubt he had anything to do with this.”
“...Huh? It was his soldiers at Shiloh, Evan. Remember?”
“You’re not the one who got pinned to the ground and tied up by them,” he said, scowling. “But what if that wasn’t what it seemed? I mean, how hard would it really be for a Seraphim to steal a couple dozen sets of armor? Then just give them to a group of bandits, or something?”
“Evan—”
“Or what if he just bribed them? He’s not trustworthy, Mara. I know he was your pet and you care about him because—”
“I don’t trust him, and I don’t like what you’re implying. I’m using him exactly because we don’t have any idea of what’s going on. And we’ve already learned a ton of stuff by coming here, haven’t we?”
“I guess,” Evan spat out.
“I’ve developed my power, and you’ve improved as well. Right?”
“I could’ve practiced my throwing anywhere.”
She glared at him, and a look of sheepish remorse soon crossed his face.
“My point is that even if he is using us, we’re using him right back. I’m not blind to anything you’re saying, Evan. But we still need him.”
An awkward silence then fell between them. Evander looked out and scanned the darkened dunes for a little while before returning his gaze to her.
“...Alright. If we still need him.”
“We do,” she said with a certainty she didn’t actually feel. “For now.”
He gave her a grudging nod, then cast his gaze to the ground by her feet. Guilt began to flood through her at having lied to him earlier, and to cover it she gave him a light, playful punch on the shoulder.
“C’mon. Let’s go get ready for Lucyra.”
He gave her another nod, and followed along when she then turned about to leave the cliffside. The storm didn’t look ready to subside any time soon.
----------------------------------------
They separated upon returning to the guest wing, each entering their own rooms to begin preparations. Amara had lost basically everything except for the clothing on her back during the wolf's attack, but she still went about organizing the small amount of clothing and other things Mattias had given to her. While separating everything into neat, orderly piles on her bed, she found herself dwelling on him and what his real motivations might be.
How does he know what my second power is?
The easiest way to find out would be to simply ask him, of course, but some part of her feared doing that. She recognized the contradiction within herself between wanting and not wanting to know, and after thinking it over for a while she sided firmly against asking. There was no need for her to know absolutely everything, she told herself, especially when the answer was likely to bring her nothing but more pain. Nevertheless, a tiny, vexing thought remained in the back of her mind, a nagging suspicion that simply couldn’t be set aside. Some part of her felt like it already knew the answer, and it mocked the other part of her that wanted to ignore it.
Everyone assembled for dinnertime a few hours later. Mattias and Sunjata prepared a platter of roast turkey alongside a medley of fresh summer vegetables to celebrate their imminent departure. The meal was delightful, and Mattias in particular seemed positively enthusiastic as they ate, though it wasn’t clear whether he was more excited by the food, Amara’s success with the dresser, or their upcoming trip.
Once everyone had finished their meals, he stood up to address the table, turning first to Sunjata.
“Sun, would you mind running down to grab what we were talking about earlier?”
“Of course,” Sunjata said evenly, and moved his chair back to stand up.
Everyone looked on as he walked over towards the guest wing, and after he disappeared into it Mattias turned to address Amara and Evander.
“Since we’ll be leaving soon, it’s time for us to talk about Shabboleth.”
“Finally,” Evander groused.
Mattias ignored him. “Shabboleth was a brilliant chemist before the Cataclysm, though I suppose it would be more appropriate to call him an al-chemist, now. As I’ve said before, he’s essentially invulnerable. I’ve personally witnessed arrows and sword strokes bounce harmlessly off of him exactly as though he were made of steel.”
“Alright,” Evander scoffed. “Then we shouldn’t try to fight him at all.”
“Don’t interrupt me, impatient youth,” Mattias shot back. “Shabboleth has spent much of his time since the Cataclysm experimenting with the Pattern, using it in combination with his knowledge of chemistry to create elixirs and many other…interesting things. Invulnerability is a power granted to him by the Pattern, and between that and his alchemy he’s capable of practically anything. On top of all that, he has a large cadre of troops and retainers, competent men who’ve sworn their undying fealty to him. He commands their loyalty through fear.”
He turned to Amara. “The elixir you need to save Shiloh’s crops will be inside his vault, and it’s here that I must confess something. I’ve been inside it before. In fact, I used one of Shabboleth’s elixirs to heal Evander’s wounds.”
“You did what?” Evander shouted.
“You’ve attacked Shabboleth before?” Amara asked, aghast.
Mattias nodded to her. “I say all this so that you know what you’re up against. He’s undoubtedly taken drastic steps to secure his vault against further intrusion since the last time I was there.”
Evander sat forward a bit more, incensed. “This is insane! You’re expecting the fucking impossible from us!” He turned to Amara. “I’m sure we can find some other way to save Shiloh once we’re in Lucyra, Mara, one that doesn’t involve us dying horribly at the hands of a Seraphim.”
“Unless you can find some way to acquire an entire year's worth of food for your village within the space of a few days, you really have no other choice but to acquire this elixir,” Mattias told him. “And do you really think I would have brought any of this up if I didn’t already have a plan?”
“Let’s hear it,” Amara immediately said, preempting another outburst from Evander.
“Shabboleth does have one vulnerability,” Mattias continued. “An external one. He’s always been the cantankerous sort, but his relationship with his only daughter, Jezebel, is unusually good. It’s there we’ll strike.”
“His daughter," Evander said, frowning. "You’re asking us to kill a Nephilim?”
“Absolutely not,” Mattias replied quickly. “We’re going to take her hostage. With her in our possession we’ll be able to negotiate with Shabboleth for the elixir from a position of strength.”
Amara shook her head. “...Right. And how exactly is taking his daughter hostage supposed to be easier than getting into his vault?”
The smile Mattias gave her was full of smug satisfaction. “...This is a matter of perception. Shabboleth will be expecting an attack against his vault. He will not be expecting us to target his daughter.”
“Even if we agree to try this idea,” Evander said. “Which I’m against, by the way. You have no way to guarantee that it will work.”
“Shabboleth’s love for his daughter is genuine,” Mattias replied. “It’s incredibly out of character for him to form this sort of attachment to anyone. Even before the Cataclysm we knew him to be standoffish and aloof. He’s always been the least liked by the other Seraphim.”
“Beside yourself,” Amara quickly pointed out.
Mattias blinked. “...Yes. Beside myself. Obviously.”
“Your plan stakes Shiloh’s fate onto Shabboleth’s love for his daughter,” she continued. “I’m sure getting to her won’t be easy. And even if we do get her, how can you be sure that he’ll fold once we have her?”
His expression hardened. “I know Shabboleth. Jezebel is a source of weakness for him, and with her in our hands he will lack the conviction to risk putting her in harm's way. He’ll exchange the elixir for her safety. He won't place more value on something that is replaceable for him than a person who is not.”
“So, just like that,” Evander said.
“Yes, in fact. Just like that.”
The dubious look Evander turned to Amara told her exactly how he felt about Mattias's plan. She held eye contact with him for a while, thinking, before turning back to Mattias.
“You just said that we would only have a few days to acquire the food Shiloh needs if we don’t go through with your plan,” she said. “Why?”
Mattias responded with a shrug. “Because Shiloh is going to be starving soon, of course. Have you forgotten your need to hurry?”
“That isn’t what she asked you,” Evander said angrily.
A realization then occurred to Amara, and it caused her to let out a quiet gasp.
“...The trip through Sunjata’s portal isn’t instantaneous.”
A frown crossed Mattias’s face, and he looked away, casting a studious gaze across the table before her. Evander looked between them both, visibly confused.
“What? It wasn’t? How long did it take, then?”
Amara stared with growing fury at Mattias, waiting for him to answer. There was no apology in his expression.
“Oh, about a week, or so,” he eventually said.
“What?!” Evander instantly shouted.
“Be specific!” Amara snapped. “How long was it, exactly?”
“Ten days.”
A stunned silence briefly fell over Amara’s side of the table.
“...We’ve been gone for almost three weeks already?” Evander said, horrified.
Mattias nodded. “The portal trip from here to Lucyra will take less time, only seven days. But the trip from Lucyra to Shiloh will take another ten. That is, if we're alive to take it.”
Amara was furious but remained silent, trying her best to process it. Evander rubbed his chin with a mixture of shock and concern, glancing several times between Amara and Mattias.
“You purposefully didn’t tell us that,” she said, accusing.
“If you knew It would’ve made you less likely to accept the training,” Mattias admitted. “And thus, less likely to succeed against Shabboleth.”
It was then that Sunjata reappeared from the guest wing, carrying what looked to be a long and bulky gray-white fabric bag in both arms. A length of brown twine was tied in a simple knot holding the bag closed at one end. There was also another, much smaller pouch atop the bag, made of what looked to be well worn, brownish leather.
“These are gifts for you,” Mattias said as Sunjata carefully set down both bags onto the dining table. “You can consider them my apology.”
He stepped over to the long bag and quickly undid the twine holding it closed. He reached inside, pulling out what looked to be a long, simple spear, silver in color, and emitting tiny sparkles here and there beneath the kitchen’s torchlight.
“These are for you, Evander. A brace of javelins, six in all. They’re specially designed for long distance throwing, and made of a special material which makes them capable of traveling much farther and faster than normal javelins. An ideal weapon for someone with immense strength who can accurately hit their mark. They won't do any real damage to Shabboleth, of course, but they'll be quite lethal for anyone else. They're sure to be useful, so long as you're clever with how you use them.”
Evander rose to his feet and accepted the javelin from Mattias, examining it up and down closely before flipping it over a few times in his hands. The look on his face made it clear that he had very mixed feelings about the gift.
“They’re light enough for Amara to carry, if for whatever reason she has to, and once they’re thrown they’ll bend completely out of shape upon hitting their target. Making them impossible to throw back at you. However, that does also mean that they’re a one-time-use sort of weapon. So use them sparingly.”
“Well, thanks,” Evander muttered.
Mattias then reached into his robes, and pulled out the small metallic-looking object he’d been using to light the incense during her training. He offered it to Amara, and she accepted it, studying it in her hand closely.
“This is called a lighter. With it, you’ll have a portable source of flame that you can carry with you wherever you go. It’s an ancient, simple design, of course, but in today’s day and age it is completely unique. You can refill it with lantern oil via a latch at the bottom. To turn it on—”
Amara had seen him use it enough times to know how it worked. She pressed her thumb to the switch at the top, and a tiny flame erupted from the spigot beside it. Once created, the flame responded to her command instantly, briefly lengthening several feet into the open air above the table. Sunjata took a cautious step backwards before she willed it to retreat.
“Thank you,” Amara told Mattias succinctly. “This’ll come in handy. But it doesn’t make up for your bullshit.”
“I never suggested it would,” he said, sounding disinterested. He then gestured to the smaller bag Sunjata had placed on the table. “As my final gift to you, this sack contains two hundred lira, a replacement for the money you lost during the wolf attack. You’ll need it to buy food and board for at least one night in Lucyra.”
Amara’s eyes went wide, and she shot a worried glance over at Evander.
If I remember correctly, Mattias said he was leading the wolf away from us when we left Shiloh, she thought. But if that’s the case, then how could he possibly have known about the money the chief gave us?
“I hope you enjoyed the meal, and your gifts,” Mattias continued. “Now, go and get as much rest as you can. You’ll need it for what’s ahead. Sunjata will create the portal to Lucyra for us at dawn.”
With that, Mattias nodded to Sunjata and walked off, heading for the guest wing. Sunjata half-bowed as he passed, and followed Mattias at a respectful distance once he’d left the kitchen.
After waiting a few moments for their footsteps to disappear, Amara leaned close to Evander, whispering.
“Did you ever tell Mattias about the money we got from the chief?”
A look of surprise crossed his face, and he whispered back. “No. Did you?”
She shook her head with worry. “...No. Maybe we should try ditching him in Lucyra after all.”
Evander responded with a slow nod, and leaned up a bit to look past her towards the hallway, where Mattias and Sunjata had disappeared. After almost a week in Raven's Roost, she’d finally caught Mattias in a lie, dead to rights, but doing so had only opened more questions.
We’re finally escaping from the spider's web, she thought. Only to walk right into the lion's den.