With each passing season, I value ever more that which invests me in the present.
—Phaeliisthia
Dinner did not happen as expected. A delay, we were told, and an important guest would be arriving along with Ussen Liinya Lajiir and her partner. Shuttled and shuttered in the room I’d been staying in, it was all I could do to watch the goings-on through the shadows.
Servants moved with practiced, hurried motions. My sisters, likewise trapped, took things differently: Kyrae practiced her sigils, and Ssiina practiced wearing a groove into the floor slithering back and forth. Elsewhere, Nistala watched the setting sun with heavy eyes.
Phaeliisthia—
Caught me snooping.
“Do you have no sense of self-preservation?” she hissed, looking up from her position lounging on her elf-style bed. “You must know your sisters’ protection may no longer be enough.” She closed the clasp on a new-looking leather satchel and spun to sit on the bed and stare up at the shadows I was watching through, white eyes rimmed with red. “And I will not be there. I do, of course, intend to see you in the future. You and yours are too taken by wanderlust for the Empire’s borders to prove material.
“You will leave, and then I will know of your progress, or your fate.” She smiled wanly and leaned back against the headboard, resting horns against wood. With one piercing eye open, she continued, “I do hope you succeed in your venture, Issa. Your sisters as well.” Her drawn-out sigh was cut short with a swift raise of her brow. “Ah, it appears the guest of honor has arrived. Be a dear and pull yourself back together. This is someone for whom a bad impression cannot be afforded.”
Before I could even reply, a blinding flash sent me reeling. For a moment, I felt my body seemingly pull itself together, and when my sight returned to me, I was looking at the floor through a thick mien of shadow. I’d tumbled and spilled out of my own bed, onto the cold stone floor. When the shadows pulled away from around me, I felt vulnerable.
A knock on the door sounded not a moment later.
“Pardon the short notice, Hssen Issa,” a servant whose voice I vaguely recognized said, “but you are to prepare to meet a guest of the estate prior to this evening’s meal.”
I hope my eyes are still magicked.
***
My eyes were, in fact, still magicked. Which was a very good thing, as I’d been placed with my sisters in a line in front of the estate, facing the road in.
We weren’t alone, though; Nistala coiled nervously nearby and Ussent Lyniss fidgeted in his place at the fore of the assembly. Anxious to see his mom, or nervous about the guest? Perhaps more telling, Phaeliisthia was dressed in simple clothing, satchel over one shoulder, haunting the opposite end of the line.
We didn’t have to wait long before the visible dust cloud above the coastal palms resolved itself into a carriage, pulled by two immense siilaks. The big lizards pulled close and turned, and the coachwoman on top slithered down to open the door for the occupants.
First out was Ussen Liinya. I remembered the immense ke’lania, nearly as long as my sire, from the night of the coming-of-age ceremony. Beyond her size, however, she hardly seemed the same person. Gone was her jovial smile, and her skin was paler, light brown hair limp around her face. Honestly, her warm browns looked more like cold river mud.
Behind her, she pulled a listless-looking ke’lania man—her partner, no doubt. He had lighter, almost sandy brown scales, and was a good deal smaller. He was also injured, visibly scarred where sigilcraft hadn’t been enough. One hand was missing, and the other was half-curled and very still.
“Father!” Ussent Lyniss shouted, darting toward the carriage.
His father’s frozen hand reached out, and with agonizing slowness opened to run through his son’s hair. “It’s… okay.” His words were haunted, barely more than a whisper.
Ussen Liinya hugged her son, coiling protectively around him for just a moment and whispering something I couldn’t make out. Then, she let go and slithered forward, bowing formally before my sisters and me. “I hope our estate has been to your liking, Hssens.” She lifted her head and a faint smile graced her thin-drawn lips. “Thank you, Phaeliisthia, for saving my son.”
Phaeliisthia stood straighter, letting the silence stretch out a moment before her reply. “You’re welcome, Ussen Liinya.”
“How gregarious of you, Phaeliisthia,” said a woman’s voice came from inside the carriage.
Liinya pulled herself tighter and stood up straighter. “Allow me to introduce Her Holiness, Ea’Ssyri Thelia Mistwater.” Between the ceremony and now she’d lost her jovial accent, and in its place had slithered cold formality.
Ussent Lyniss’s father pulled him aside, and the coachwoman took the slender hand that emerged from the door. The elf who stepped down had a presence that belied her modest stature. Ea’Ssyri Thelia wore robes of green and white, hemmed with golden thread and dusted with emeralds.
Her head, however, was unadorned, her black hair swept up into a loose bun, save two long locks that framed a slender, angular face with sharp cheekbones, a small nose, and silver-green eyes. She was pretty, and not quite as cold as I’d expected.
Not like I’d expected seeing her here at all—or ever.
She walked wordlessly over to Phaeliisthia, staring up at the taller, horned woman. My tutor did not flinch, but her smile evaporated, taking all the emotion in her face with it. Immediately, I remembered a meal in a garden half a decade ago. The Phaeliisthia then had a face that didn’t really match with how she felt to me now.
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She… was Phaeliisthia really that… cold?
“Phaeliisthia,” the Ea’Ssyri started, shoulders square and back straight. “You have not left yet.”
“Yes.” Phaeliisthia showed no emotion.
Silence stretched, the two locking stares.
Phaeliisthia relented first. “I will leave immediately, then.”
“See that you do.”
My tutor of a quarter of my life nodded sharply, and jumped. Clearing the height of the Lajiir estate, immense, feather wings burst from her back. One flap, and she dwindled to a fist-sized dot. Another, and in a burst of golden light, she took her true form. One more, and a rush of wind I could feel even from the ground, and she was a speck in the sky.
Then gone.
I stared up at where she had gone, and I didn’t pay attention to the rest of the conversation. I heard “Hesuzhaa Jii’ssiisseniir”; I heard my name, and I even heard Sire’s name.
Phaeliisthia was gone. Banished.
Yeah, she’d told me, but we hadn’t really said our farewells.
We’d never even gone to my spot. But… it was outside the Empire—in whatever would become of the heart of another empire.
We’ll meet again, Phaeliisthia. I’ll make sure of it. She’d said as much, even.
Nothing to worry about.
I looked back and forth between my sisters and the Ea’Ssyri, and I tried to listen. Off to the side, Ussent Lyniss was talking quietly with his parents. Beyond that, the shadows were tense, recoiling from the Ea’Ssyri’s presence.
“Then you understand the necessity of this, correct?” the Ea’Ssyri said to my sisters and I, and I wished I’d been paying attention.
“Necessity of what?” I asked before I could stop the words.
Ea’Ssyri Thelia frowned, defiling her otherwise-placid face. “If you did not listen, then you must not consider the matter important. Into the carriage then, all of you.”
I glanced at the Lajiir family, and saw Ussen Liinya give a shallow nod to the Ea’Ssyri.
“Where are we going?” I asked. For a moment, I panicked over my belongings, but… I hadn’t come here with any.
The Ea’Ssyri responded by turning away and striding purposefully back into the carriage. “I will not ask again. We’ve a schedule to keep. I will ensure that your family knows of your survival, Ussen Nistala, and it is their decision as to whether you will attend the Spring.”
Ssiina looked at me and slithered forward.
Kyrae and I locked eyes. She whispered, throwing her voice to where the shadows could just barely catch it, “We’re going straight to the Spring of All Life.”
“What about Sire?”
“Too dangerous to go to Ess—”
“No!” my sisters winced at the shouted word. “Sire needs us right now!”
“Issa!” Kyrae hissed.
Ahead of her, Ssiina slowly pulled herself into the carriage as the coachwoman took her seat again. I dashed in front of Kyrae and pushed my upper body inside, only to be greeted by lavish curtains and a blood-chilling frown.
“We need to see our sire! Please!” I bowed, formally.
“No.”
“Then I’m not going!”
Childish, yes, but I felt childish. Rather than respond, a blindingly-fast hand motion saw searing chains of pale green sigilcraft bind me and pull me inside, effortlessly. I screamed, but it was muffled.
Ssiina stared, wide-eyed between me and the Ea’Ssyri. “Ssyrin Ea’Ssyri, please do not take offense to my sister’s actions. She cares deeply for sire, as we all do, and simply has not—”
“Quiet.” The Ea’Ssyri did not move her eyes from me, nor tilt her head. “I understand this is not a sickness of the mind borne of her affliction. But I do not have time to argue with children who will not listen, even those who are by law adults.”
Behind us, Kyrae slid in silently, shooting an apologetic look my way. And so, it was in chains that burned my scales that the carriage door closed, and it began to roll down the road away from the Lajiir estate.
I didn’t get to say goodbye to Nistala either!
“Curious,” Ea’Ssyri Thelia rotated me, inspecting the agonizing burns where her magic met my flesh. “You are still of… sound mind, yet you are not entirely lamian. I can see why Phaeliisthia took a liking to you.”
That’s not why! I struggled against the bind over my mouth, jaw clicking as it released.
She raised an eyebrow, then sighed. “Will you behave yourself if I release you?”
The pressure around my mouth lifted. “…Yes.” I ground the word out.
Promptly, she released me, and I winced as her magic, now much calmer, washed over me. It burned almost as much as it healed, leaving me raw-feeling and exhausted.
“You wished to say something?” she looked at me, not with malice, not with anything I could even begin to place.
“That isn’t why Phaeliisthia liked me.” I felt like I needed to spit, but I swallowed instead. It burned.
The Ea’Ssyri’s eyebrows went up. “My mistake then.” She didn’t offer an apology.
I frowned and coiled as best I could onto a too-small seat. “Why can’t we see Sire?”
The Ea’Ssyri narrowed her eyes. “Listen, Hssen Issa, and I will explain. Do not discount my words without hearing them.”
I fought a hiss, then nodded slowly.
“Good. Phaeliisthia did well to bring you here, and it seems the Lajiir family is not working with your enemies or the Temple’s. Which are still at-large and of unknown strength and reach. But, where you are has doubtless gotten out anyway—we’ve little time to move you safely, and Phaeliisthia could not be an option.
“The capital is not safe for you, nor your sire, nor the Jii’Hssen.” She leaned forward, jaw tight and perfect teeth visible behind thin lips. “To take you there, then to a known location, would necessitate a guard larger than we can afford, and it may not be enough. The Jii’Hssen is personally nearby your sire and Jii’Hssen Ssyii, and I have been told you know and trust Noksi, who is caring for them.
“Do you understand now, Hssen Issa?” The Ea’Ssyri’s shoulders sagged. “This is unprecedented.”
“I don’t like it,” I hissed, drawing the words out. I looked first at my sisters—neither met my gaze—and then back at the Temple’s second-in-command. “But I guess I get it.”
“Good.” The Ea’Ssyri sat up straighter. “I don’t enjoy this; if it were feasible, I would take you straight to your sire. That said, as soon as it is safe, reuniting you all is something we very much intend to do.”
“Doesn’t make me feel better.”
“I imagine it doesn’t, no.” Ea’Ssyri Thelia pulled herself up into a proper posture again, face neutral.
“Does the Temple approve of my sister’s adoption?” The question just sort of slipped out.
The Ea’Ssyri quirked an eyebrow. “That is the purview of Hssen.”
“What about you personally?”
She sighed. “I do not have an opinion on the matter.”
I glanced at Kyrae, and I swallowed my next words when she shook her head. The slight smile she wore did more to that end than her disapproval, honestly.
Silence reigned for a while in the carriage, until Kyrae asked about the Ea’Ssyri’s position—and her magic. Slowly, my sisters engaged in conversation that I barely understood. All the while, I glared near the second-in-command of the entire Temple.
Eventually, Ea’Ssyri Thelia glared back. “If that is the effect of your sigilcraft, then perhaps it is best to hear from the problem herself as to the nature of her affliction.”
“I touched an idol, and it linked me to something not of this world.”
“Do not play coy with me, Hssen Issa. I and the Jii’Ssyri—and the few in the temple who know—wish to help you, and we see you as a victim.”
It didn’t take a genius to hear the threat in those words. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“It’s a long carriage ride, and a sizeable trip by ship. Start from the beginning, if you will.”
“I’m not going to tell everything.”
“...Acceptable.”
I hissed, but started anyway.
Ynna and my first real job, Ssyri’zh Onussa, Ssiina, Sire. Phaeliisthia. Somewhere along the way, I forgot about the carriage, but Kyrae and Ssiina were there, and the shadows didn’t quite close in.
That night, memories of bygone days on a certain serpent dragon’s estate played through my mind, splashes of color against the cold void. All this, and I still had to fall in line, had to go where others told me and do as they asked.
Phaeliisthia would have me master this power, seize control from whatever lurked on the other side that I was now a part of. If I did that, could my sisters and I be free to live as we choose?