The sky was darkening when the Soulless led Alize back to the palace. They wound up the stairs, away from the grand entrance hall, to a narrow corridor flanked by doorways. Alize caught sight of the some of the rooms. Tile mosaics covered the walls in stylized floral patterns of blue, ivory, and turquoise. Cushions still lined the floor, their velvet surfaces faded after so many years.

The Soulless paused before a doorway and gestured for Alize to enter. Turning, she saw Davram laid out on a cushion, his eyes closed and his chest rising. The salt was next to him on the table. As Alize watched, it flickered between blue and white.

A shadow fell over Davram, and Alize turned to see Arouah, standing, regarding her.

“The Oghuz magic is fading. Let us see if the Hrumi magic will prevail. The runes,” Arouah spoke, “Rehsan’s runes will call his soul from the salt.”

The salt flickered blue again. Alize breath caught in her throat.

“How-“

“Like your dagger binding ceremony. It’s now time to pull his soul from the salt.”

“And put it where?”

“Back inside him. But don’t expect it to work the same way.” Arouah sighed.

Haltingly, Alize reached up her fingers to draw the salt rune on Davram’s chest. With each twist of her wrist, each flex of her fingers, she remembered Hesna and Hesna’s lessons. In life there is room for failure in almost everything. But not here, Alize. If the rune is not perfect, Rehsan’s magic will fail.

But Alize had practiced this magic for years. Her rune was perfect. As she completed it, it glowed in Davram’s skin, the starlight of humanity. It left spots in Alize’s eyes as it faded away.

Alize looked to Davram, anticipating a gasp of breath as he recovered. But he lay as before, unmoving.

“He will not wake,” Arouah stated. “The Deku magic cannot be undone with Hrumi runes. But it can be paused, indefinitely. You have stopped their robbery. His soul is safe.”

“Safe,” Alize stammered, “but what of Davram?”

“His suffering has ended.”

“But,” suddenly she felt short of breath, “That’s not enough!”

Arouah shook his head. “This is a better fate than he expected in his sacrifice.”

“Benay said you could save him! Save him!” Alize cried in horror. “I know the Deku can reverse their soultrussing – I’ve seen it!”

“If you had cloudfire, you could save him. But we do not. The Hrumi lost their cloudfire sometime in history, if they ever truly possessed it. For now, it must be enough that he lives, though I will not presume to protect him. These walls too shall fall with time.”

“We don’t have time!” To Alize, it felt that Arouah was conversing only with himself.

“Time is our enemy’s staunchest ally.” Arouah finished her thought. “but not yet our greatest weakness.“

“But the world expects Davram to lead the fight against the Deku!”

“He will not fight,” Arouah interjected, “His only purpose is to survive, to prevent the Deku from profiting from other souls.”

“And leave all the other provinces precarious in their fate?” Alize shouted. “Every breath bated, a blade always poised at their necks, waiting for him to die so the Deku might take up their grim harvest? He cannot abadon them – he is meant to be their hero-”

“There is no such thing as heroes,” Arouah answered, “Courage is an empty word we use to arm ourselves against the darkness when it rises. As if it helps us.”

“Stop it!” Alize rose from her feet, trying to fend off the panic that swelled hot inside her chest, “I cannot return to Parousia without Davram!”

“Parousia has fallen. There is no role for Davram to play.”

Parousia had fallen? Alize could not hear that. In her mind she saw Kell shaking his head when she begged him to keep her dagger. I may not be here when you return. She could not let her mind linger on that thought. “I have to-“

“There’s no role for you to play either.” Arouah interrupted again.

“No role for me?! Why did Hesna steal me from the Deku if not–“

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Wrong.” Arouah interrupted. “Hesna did not steal you. The Hrumi do not steal children, they save them. They may be the only nobility left in this defiled land.”

Alize gaped at the Conjurer. The truth she had been trying to tell for half a year, stated so bluntly by another. It burned somehow. “I know that! But it hardly pertains our problems now!””

“Wrong again,” Arouah shook his head. “That is the most important point here. Hesna was a soultrusser for the Hrumi, taught by her mentor. She knew the rune magic. It was always Hesna that mattered, not you.”

Alize took a step backwards.

“You,” Arouah growled at Alize, “you were an afterthought, a contingency! Hesna meant to save my Saikal from the Deku! Saikal who had trained with the Magi for years, all so she could hone the only weapon the Ginmae have to fight against the Deku! Saikal was the woman meant to save us all!”

“Then where is Saikal?” Alize cried over him. Onder and Davram had spoken of her and the Gray Lady had pulled a memory from Alize, when Hesna had spoken it too. And the Priestess, Alize realized with a jolt. She covered her mouth with her hand. “The Priestess told me to rouse Saikal.”

“And look what you did instead!” Arouah roared. “You condemned her to fate worse than death!”

“How is that possible? I’ve never met her!”

“Oh but you have,” Arouah sneered. “You know her in the pit of your stomach, resting in the very fabric of your bones. To protect Saikal that night, Hesna stored her soul inside you.”

Alize stood frozen. Someone else’s soul, inside of her, all these years.

“Saikal,” Arouah’s voice cut through her horror, “is the reason you did not die the night of the Temple Battle. She could manage the echoes enough to save your useless body! And you gave her to the Deku the first chance you had!”

Alize’s voice seemed to come from somewhere else, somewhere far away. “After the Temple Battle, the Deku took my magic,” she spoke each word with equall emphasis.

“You stupid girl,” Arouah berated, “Did you think your magic was a gift from the gods? Did you ever think at all?”

“I thought it was magic!” Alize choked.

“All magic is made of human souls! You’ve not figured this out already?!”

Alize staggered backwards. “But souls suffer if they are separated from their body.”

“Yes,” Arouah leered, “and suffering has power. For those untroubled to have others suffer on their behalf, they can amass great power indeed. And Saikal,” Arouah continued, “volunteered to suffer, so that one day she could be restored. And because of you, all those years of suffering amounted to nothing.”

Alize had to turn away from Arouah because her sorrow slammed into her once more, knocking the breath from her lungs and drawing stinging heat into her eyes. Saying anything further would invite Arouah into that pain, and Alize had no intention to reveal any part of herself to him.

“She,” Arouah spoke into the silence, “was the only weapon we had against the Deku. This fight is already lost.”

“No – “ Alize shouted.

But Arouah turned from her. “I’ve no more use for you.”

Instantly Alize found herself surrounded by Soulless. After she pressed past them to speak to Arouah again, they separated her from him with their bodies and pressed her out fo the room. When she resisted, her a Soulless man griped her wrist so tight it had to be magic. “You will depart now,” her informed Alize in his dead voice.

Alize’s shouts echoed through the corridors as they passed into the darkness of the shaded rooms, down staircases of cold stone. When they emerged for the palace Alize squinted in the sunlight and saw more Soulless outside. When she managed to free one arm, she punched the Soulless in the face. His nose began dripping blood, but another Soulless took his place immediately.

“You are no longer welcome here,” they told her in one voice. “You are now leaving.” Ahead of her the city wall peaked over the stout buildings. The gate was opening.

“My dagger!” Alize shouted, “You cannot send me from here without my dagger! I will die without it, and you will have all the Hrumi at your gate! Release me!” Alize screamed.

Alize felt the rush of feathers on her cheek as a falcon swooped down before her to circle around the great gates. As the trajectory brought the bird to face Alize once more, she balked as she recognized the clipped talons of a Deku falcon. But then its wings spanned outwards and it seemed to freeze in midair while its body ruptured.

The falcon’s form contorted, transforming and growing all at once. The sight halted Alize’s struggles. Before her, Arouah coalesced from the falcon’s body. He stood between her and the gate to the Silver City. A shapeshifter.

Alize grimaced and broke into a run, but Arouah raised a hand and she flew backwards in the air to sprawl on smooth cobblestones.

She staggered to her feet, snarling, “You have power. You could fight this war.”

“You know nothing of my battles,” Arouah replied coldly, “I will protect your prince, but you will not remain here with him.” A Soulless approached him, breathing hard, gripping something between his hands. When he handed it to Aroauh, Alize bristled to recognize her dagger, holding her corrupted soul.

How dare he?

Alize smirked and reached for her Hrumi magic, keeping her eyes intent on Arouah’s fingers around her dagger hilt. To her astonishment, his grip tightened.

Arouah did not drop the blade.

“Learn your weapons, child,” Arouah told her, “Your soul cannot be wielded against anyone aiding you.”

“Then why aren’t you on fire?!” Alize shouted.

But instead of reacting, Arouah merely stepped forward, twisting the dagger to present Alize with the hilt. His grim steadiness mocked all her inner upheaval.

“You realize that the Deku will seek you among the Hrumi,” he told her, dripping condescension, “you will find no safety with the clans. And neither shall you return here, are we clear?”

“Why should I listen to you? You are a monster, for everything you have done.”

Arouah frowned. “Be careful with the words you cast, lest they return to you someday.”

“I am nothing like you,” Alize spat. Murderer, monster, and coward.

“Your soul is Deku too. As Iedaja gains power, you will feel its pull. And then,” Arouah evaluated her, “and we shall see the true strength of your convictions.”

He still stood with her dagger extended, and though Alize glared at him, she held out her bag, and he dropped the dagger into the folds of the fabric. She could feel his eyes on her as she strode forward, walking through the gates on her own volition. I will pick my battles. Alize resolved. She could not help Davram from the Silver City, not yet. But after she crossed the threshold Alize whirled around to watch the old Conjurer. He returned her gaze, not angry, not defiant, but something else.

The gate closed in and finally slammed shut. Behind them, a falcon rose above the walls and flew in the direction of the palace.