There were many little fears that stopped Soraya Hadessian from presenting the letter she had stolen to Cyril. Soraya was scared she would get in trouble for stealing the letter, first of all. Interfering with written communication was a highly punishable offense, one her father’s connections would not help her evade. Soraya was also scared of reprisal from Xin. Even if she never told him what she’d done, invading the man’s privacy while he was minutes away from becoming a monster felt unforgivable. Cyril also scared Soraya. If the man had done something violent and clandestine, then there was no telling how far he would go to cover it up. Cyril could become furious at his secret being revealed and lash out at his initiates.
Most scary of all to the girl was the notion that she could not rescind this question. Soraya was dividing her time with these new friends, with a new teacher, into a “before” and an “after.” Before she had asked Cyril about the letter, they had grown close when closeness was something Soraya craved. The truth behind this mysterious letter threatened to sunder a delicate web only just forming into a meaningful bond. Guilt taunted Soraya, that this fear was greater to all the others. Her loneliness overpowered her instincts towards self-preservation. It was the same feeling that pressured her to ask about the letter, for she knew they could grow no closer without the truth being laid bare.
And so, Soraya navigated a murky mixture of guilt and fear and sadness while Cyril read the stolen letter. He read it again. He sighed.
“Okay, okay,” Cyril folded it carefully. “I’m not gonna ask how you guys got your hands on this. Not yet, at least. If you want to know if it’s real… well it definitely is. At least, nothing the letter mentions is a lie.”
His response was open and honest, but it did not address any of Soraya’s feelings. She had clammed up tight since offering him the letter to read. Piper seized the opportunity to ask the only question that had been on her mind for nearly a week.
“Why were you fired from the Silver Dragon Order?”
“I released one of the thirteen djinn from captivity,” Cyril said the words as quickly as possible. He wanted the truth out there before he could think up a good reason to lie. “I was unable to recapture the djinn and its whereabouts are still unknown.”
“A djinn?” Wakahn asked. “As in the ‘Age of Djinn,’ djinn?”
“Yes,” Cyril said. “I kept it a secret on orders from the SDO. The panic introduced by people knowing the djinn have returned was determined a threat to global peace.”
“I would think the djinn was the bigger threat to peace,” Piper said. She regretted the words, but Cyril didn’t flinch. The gravity of his actions did not return to his mind. They were never separated. His guilt clung to him like his shadow, only it never seemed to fade with time. “Is that why they let you go?” Piper asked. “So the truth wouldn’t come out?”
“No,” Cyril said. “They charged me with recapturing the djinn. An unenviable task. Actually, it would be more appropriate to call chasing after it alone a roundabout sort of execution.” Cyril had moved to Lyrique instead. Like the other SDO wardens, he had no way to track the djinn. Following his old guild’s orders was impossible for a few reasons. Cyril wondered if Bu had been warned of his arrival in the same way Pratima had been. The old man hadn’t mentioned anything about such a message.
The kids were stuck staring at each other in turn. Nothing equipped them for this answer. It fell far out of line with any of their theories, yet was somehow more diabolical than anything they had imagined. Cyril understood that and gave them time to process the story. He had been questioned about it enough to understand that they would go through three phases. Discovery was first. Best to get it out of the way quick, in Cyril’s experience. Second was disbelief and it usually came with a lot of questions. The kind of questions meant to poke holes in Cyril’s story force him to give up that the whole thing was fiction and they didn’t have anything to worry about from the big, mean, djinn.
Third was condemnation. Cyril had told this story separately to a few people now. It always ended with his audience roasting him over the coals for a decision he knew had been foolish. They separated themselves from Cyril and denigrated every quality of his character. It was natural. Learning someone close to you is capable of an action so heinous and dangerous that it repulses you is natural. Everyone Cyril had been close with made clear there was something sick hiding under his exterior. He had come to believe them.
“How?” Wakahn asked. He was still in the stage of disbelief. “I thought… didn’t you say they were sealed inside magic scales, wasn’t it?”
“The Silver Dragon’s scales,” Cyril said. “I didn’t need to break the scale, just disrupt the runes that sealed the djinn. You could do it too. Any warden could.”
“Only one did,” Piper said.
“As a human and as a Silver Dragon, I betrayed my allegiances,” Cyril admitted. “I accept that.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“That didn’t stop you from joining another guild,” Piper added. “You just figured you could start over? How’s that fair?”
Cyril didn’t get angry. He admired the girl’s sense of justice. “I…” Cyril stopped himself. He didn’t want to give the kids a morbid answer. He wanted their pity least of all. “I wanted to believe there was still something I could offer this world. Even if I never evened the scales, I wanted to do a little bit more good for people.”
“You must admit this is a terrible secret,” Wakahn insisted. “One to which we are all now a party.”
Cyril shook his head, “You made no promises to keep my secret. I won’t tell you to keep quiet.”
The questions and comments petered out. Cyril knew what came next. The condemnation of children. Cyril didn’t mind them knowing the truth, but being hated by them terrified him. They would no doubt depart from his tutelage. Cyril was surprised to feel he was already mourning the three. Soraya stayed pretty quiet as she absorbed it all.
“Did you hurt anybody?” Soraya asked in the lull between words.
“No,” Cyril said. “The details of what I did are intricate, but I didn’t hurt anyone to free the djinn. Though I’m sure many have been hurt by it since then.”
“Did you free it to hurt people?” Soraya asked.
“I freed it on the promise that it would help somebody, actually. Only it didn’t really. That’s another long story, but no, that’s not why I freed it.”
Soraya gave a long sigh of relief. All the air came out of her in one long and drawn out breath. She collapsed onto the table in front of her. All the burdens of the world had lifted from her face and her shoulders.
“That’s really good,” Soraya noted. “Okay, how do we do this?”
“Do what?” Cyril asked. Piper and Wakahn were both lost as well.
Soraya showed off her talisman, the silver metal disc that contained the gwyll. “How do I get this thing’s powers? Let’s go!”
Cyril’s jaw dropped. Surprise overcame Wakahn too. Only Piper seemed capable of stringing words together. Her and Soraya, anyhow. “Soraya,” Piper said gently, “that’s it? You believe him just like that? He basically just freed… I don’t know… the most dangerous spirit the world has ever seen and you’ve moved on?”
“He said he was going to find it again, right?” Soraya looked confused.
“Eventually, yes,” Cyril said. “There are other wardens hunting it too. We just don’t know where to look.”
“If you knew where it was right now, what would you do?” Soraya asked.
Cyril didn’t need to consider the question. “I’d get there,” he said. “Wherever it is, I’d be there first in line to bring it back to where it belongs.”
Soraya opened her hand as if that was all the material evidence she needed. “See?”
“You can’t just take me at my word, Soraya,” Cyril tried to explain.
“Why not?” she asked. “Are you lying to us?”
“Well… no.”
“I was really worried you hurt someone,” Soraya said. “Someone that didn’t deserve it. I know you did a bad thing, but I also believe you when you say you want to make up for it. Sorry they had you keep it a secret. Are you sorry?”
Cyril didn’t need to think about that question. "I’m sorry I didn’t tell you three.”
“I forgive you,” Soraya said. As if forgiveness could really be that simple.
Cyril awaited condemnation. He awaited judgment. He had been weaned on this reaction. To experience something else made him uneasy. It set his senses on edge. Piper and Wakahn felt their own fury and disappointment placated by Soraya’s response. They could not stand to be mad when this little girl had already overcome any sense of being betrayed. Whether or not they truly forgave Cyril was an entirely separate matter, but at least sitting near him didn’t feel as awkward as when a terrible secret loomed over every conversation.
Soraya started theorizing what spellcraft her new denizen might offer. Wakahn and Piper couldn’t help but join in. Cyril tried to get comfortable without being punished. Forgiveness would take some getting used to.
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Xin fled Gwyllion Abbey. He had rushed back from the bank so that he might be present for Soraya’s assimilation with the gwyll. Instead, he’d almost stumbled into a heavy, emotional atmosphere. The boy had stopped himself from entering the guild mess hall when the kids were asking about some letter. Xin eavesdropped to find a moment for someone to break their tension and give him an opportunity to walk in.
A pink package in his hands enclosed warm cookies from the fancy bakery downtown. Xin wanted to distribute the treat amongst the kids. Cyril might even be allowed a bite of it. He could not help but to discover what he had. One of the kids had stolen Pratima’s letter from atop Xin's desk. He knew he hadn’t simply misplaced it. More importantly, Cyril admitted to them that he committed the worst mistake a warden could make. Yet, the kids seemed fine with it.
Soraya apologized to him! Wakahn and Piper hardly protested. What was it about this intruder that commanded everyone’s trust? Xin realized it then. That Cyril had not committed the worst possible crime for a warden. Xin himself had been the culprit of that. He had been born weak and charmless and that was more reprehensible than anything Cyril could ever do. At least in Soraya’s eyes. At least in his father’s eyes.
Xin would not allow Cyril to escape punishment. The kids started talking about what fabulous powers Soraya might obtain with the gwyll that nearly killed Xin. So he fled Gwyllion Abbey. He marched back out onto the dirt roads with a boiling rage in his chest. Xin launched the pastries into the dirt. He brought down his heel on the pink package a few times and continued his march. Ants quickly rallied towards the discarded treats. Xin figured the bugs deserved it more than anyone in that guild.