“We have stories, though. Of the interaction between our races,” Rory interjected. “There is a legend. Of the first union of Aos Si and a human. It tells of the fey warrior queen Quinn and the human emperor’s son, Marcus. They fought on opposite sides of the Fey–Human Wars, and their love was forbidden.” Rory had such a knack for storytelling. I was riveted. I needed to know everything about Quinn and Marcus, and what had happened to them. “Their affair lasted many years, as the war raged on between the humans and fey. Eventually Quinn became pregnant. She gave up her immortality for Marcus and their daughter.”
I sat with that for a moment, trying to imagine a love so all-consuming that someone would give up their immortal life for it.
“So that explains why art and magic are connected? The music of creation?” I had chills.
“Yes.” Rory nodded. “It is why we consider music to be the most sacred.” He bowed his head to Ciaran.
“Fascinating.” I shovelled some elegantly spiced stew into my mouth and sopped up the sauce with a piece of that crustybread. “Thank you for telling me the full story.” I meant it. These legends, the stories of these people, were important to them. They would be important for me too, if I was to ever make my home among them.
Rory nodded, taking a long pull from his wine glass.
I spent the rest of the meal eating through all the delicious dishes and drinking way more of the sparkling wine than could be considered wise. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but feel sad—wistful. All these people had a shared history. A connection. Every year they prayed for their return from this underworld. But it didn’t seem so bad to be here, banished to the underworld with their celestial goddess. As I caught Ciaran’s eye over my wine glass and felt a jolt somewhere in the region of my stomach, I thought, no—it didn’t seem so bad at all.
SORCIÈRES
Weeks went by. I spent nearly all of my time Beneath in the training area with Ciaran, Fionn and Rory. We worked for a few hours every morning before the children came for their lessons. Rory was infinitely patient with them; I felt thatIwas testing that patience even more than they did.
I was having almost no success with magic. In fact, I was close to throwing in the towel altogether. It was only the intense shame I felt at watching those kids come to try their best every day that made me stick with it at all.
It shouldn’t have been surprising; I was so new to even accepting that I had magic. I should have expected it to take a long time to train whatever powers I had. But I was impatient, and my perfectionist tendencies got the better of me. If I worked hard, then I should have seen results. This mantra had been drilled into me since childhood as a ballerina. It just wasn’t happening, though. And I was trying so hard.
While my training was gruelling and frustrating at best, the bright spot in my days was getting to know Elena. I spent as much free time with her as I could, exploring the City Beneath.She was an excellent guide, showing me all the best places to go, though we usually ended up back at the Chat Noir Cafe.
I was doing my best to accept my life here. To embrace the culture, the community and all that it provided. But it was proving more difficult than I had initially thought it would be. I was having a hard time letting go of my old life completely. The more comfortable I got here, Beneath Lutesse, the more I seemed to miss my old life above. And then there was the gnawing feeling within me—that I needed answers. I needed to know who within the opera house had wielded a magic so powerful that it had caused the chandelier disaster. Who was responsible for destroying my old life? It was driving me mad. I was barely eating, hardly sleeping, ruminating on the sounds of the bulbs popping—the crunch of hundreds of pounds of twisting glass and metal crushing those poor souls beneath them. It haunted me.
I told Elena so much as we met for coffee later that day, sitting at our preferred table outside the Chat Noir. I told Elena how much it had been bothering me as I swirled my drink, the light and dark of the coffee and cream swirling together, like the darkness within my mind.
“There are… possibly… people who might be able to help,” Elena began with some trepidation, “but it would be dangerous.”
“I don’t care if it’s dangerous. I need to know,” I pleaded. I had barely slept a wink the night before, so dark were my thoughts.
“There are people with magic who do not ascribe to the more… let’s saycivilizedtype of magic that we do here. We have laws that govern how you can and cannot wield magic—what kind of forces should and should not be summoned. But there are those who practise a darker form of magic. They can commune with the dead and the unholy spirits of this Earth. They hear things. They know things. They are able to summonspirits who also know these things.” Elena’s voice was lowered to just above a whisper. I had to lean in to hear her fully. “I may have dabbled in this dark magic, before I met Ciaran, of course. I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. I was very young, living on the streets,” she explained, “but I still know some people from that community. They might be able to help you get the answers you seek. Where those here would be unwilling or unable to.” Elena sipped her coffee, weighing each word carefully. “There would be a cost.”
“What kind of cost? I don’t have any money.”
“Not that kind of cost.” Elena’s face was grim. “I told you, these people deal in dark forces. Dangerous. The cost required for the answers you seek would be steep. Something other than money.”
“I don’t care,” I whispered, “my entire life has been flipped upside down. I had everything going for me, and now?” I took a deep breath, trying to cool my thoughts. “Three people died. I need to know what happened.” My voice broke.
“Okay. We’ll go see them. Find out what we can.” Elena was determined. I knew she would help me if she could. “But Seraphina...” Elena’s eyes shifted, her lips pursing together in a thin line.
“Yes?”
“You can’t tell Ciaran about this.” Elena’s voice was barely audible. “He would be very angry if he found out I brought you to these people.”
“I promise I won’t tell him.” My voice didn’t tremble at all.
We plannedto go the following night; there would be less chance of detection from Scion’s police force under cover ofdarkness. Oh yes. We had to go to the surface, into Lutesse proper. The sorcières, as they called themselves, tended to move around a lot, but they had made their encampment on the northern side of the Sequana, on the other side of an ancient cemetery. My heart jumped into my throat at the mention of it. The sorcières masqueraded as a travelling carnival and were able to stay hidden that way. Elena told me they also had many Scion officials in their pocket and often worked with the corrupt Church to benefit both parties.
Ciaran would be away for the evening, attending a city council meeting. Elena and I would take the opportunity to go when he would not notice our absence. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of deceiving him, especially when he’d done so much to help me in these past few weeks. But if this was the only way to get answers, I had to try. I couldn’t sit idly down here one more day while my name was being dragged through the mud in the city above.
I put on a pair of black leggings and an oversized sweater stolen from Ciaran’s drawer. I tied my hair up in a bun and my heart ached to see it; I missed my days spent practising ballet above.If I get answers, I could go back,I told myself as I donned a hooded cloak that Elena had leant me. I laced up a pair of black combat style boots and we were off, making our way through the catacombs.
It was the first time I had walked this far east; many of the tunnels seemed to get narrower, not the open chasms and large spacious rooms of the western side. The walls became beaded with moisture the further we went, and I could tell we were close to the Sequana. There were fewer and fewer people this way, and the sconces filled with those flickering lights grew farther between.
“They couldn’t tunnel as well so close to the river,” Elena explained. “We’re nearing the eastern edge of the City Beneath now. We will come up the Medusa Steps, just at the river’s edge.”
“Where will we cross?” I whispered, as I watched the moisture drip down the limestone walls, gleaming eerily in the flickering light.
