“Get it off me,” she wheezed through the building anxiety, projecting her pain. “Get it off me!”
The next moment she was picked up and brought back to the baths, her body submerged in the water. Hands held her from all sides. She wasn’t aware of where her valos were, only that the gold wouldn’t wash off, and when Sundamar scrubbed it with a soapy substance, it remained. The light was inside her now, she knew it, and it wasn’t going away.
She watched in abject horror as it spread through the water, dying the reflected light of the double moons gold and darkening to grey-gold as the light waned and thinned. A hand yanked her out of the pool but it was far too late to stop the alien substance from infecting her.
Because that’s what it felt like, an infection.
“He’s here,” Quist growled from beside her, his eyes staring deeply at the cracked stone.
She could only nod and flinch. Somehow reminding her of her dream-turned-nightmare and her papa walking away, leaving her confused. She clutched her chest and the burn returned, but with it, a numbing sense of calm.I’m still confused.
A thundering, glass-shattering crash filled her ears and she flinched away from the sound and pulled from Galan’s hold. His wing curved around her back so she couldn’t go far. Her eyes landed back on Quist and the stone.
Where he slammed it into the stone ground, over and over, and over again. The fracture had grown infinitesimally and her mouth dried up. The last remaining haze of night was beginning to fade. Her heart raced and filled her throat
A man formed in the light, coming together from the liquid that endlessly dripped from her talisman. Quist’s hand had grown raw and red with blood. Yahiro jerked forward but was held back. She stilled when she looked up into Galan’s stone-cold eyes.
“It’s going to vanish!” she cried helplessly. “Galan, it might not come back!” Something she said broke through his awareness and he moved away from her and toward Quist.
Sundamar stood transfixed, broadsword in hand, as a body slowly solidified into what could be his exact twin. The stone was vanishing, and with it, the way to keep Lusheenn contained. Yahiro didn’t know what would happen once it was but she only cared about one thing; that his return would ultimately kill her valos. Kill Quist.
If they were the cost, she would see the divinity dead rather than returned. Her heart screamed for it as loudly as Quist crushed the stone into the floor.
“My... children... have found me.” The wispy voice that filled her ears made her skin crawl and her blood boil.
Galan dragged Quist away, pinning his feathers back, fighting with him tooth and nail, trying to get him out before it was too late.
The stone dropped with a thunk on the ground, already half gone. Without thinking, she dashed toward it, grabbing it before Galan or Quist could re-seize it. The moment it was in her palm, it set her flesh aflame.
The liquid light that poured from it stopped attaching to Lusheenn and instead, it fell unbidden along flesh where it streamed in rivulets down her arm. All she knew was that as long as it went to her, it wasn’t going to her valos’ Creator.
“My power has been preserved!” Lusheenn’s chilly voice filled her ears.
Laughter and the sound of struggle came next, the ugly stench of burnt flesh filled her nose, and when her eyes watered from the smoke coming off her skin, she tipped her head back and swallowed the stone.
The pain was more intense than anything she’d experienced in her life. She hacked and choked, her hands wrapping around her throat as the tip of the giant sun rose above the horizon. Sundamar yelled for her but she no longer understood him, drooling on her melted skin or from the liquid bubbling deep inside.
All she knew was that she needed to keep Lusheenn in the dark.
What was lodged in her throat hardened back into the size she knew. Hands gripped and pulled her on all sides but she still fell to the floor, and though she’d managed to slide it down her esophagus, the rock held reign and settled like a weight in the pit of her stomach.
***
YAHIRO PAINSTAKINGLYran her fingers through her hair. She didn’t know how long she’d been out but when she looked around it was full day and the slow sway of the molo’s feet covering miles of distance in one step assured her of where she was.
The pain. There was pain but it was under a thick warm blanket of numbness. Worst part, she was aware of it and aware of how much alien medication was probably in her system to keep her from screaming and going back into shock.
But even through the quiet, lulling, fake fog she was under, the stone in her stomach grounded her.
“Yahero, mana reem?” Sundamar was at her side, his eyes sad, and even though her throat felt like tough rubber and swallowing was near impossible, the way he looked made her ache more.
“Sundamar,” she barely croaked out, her voice unrecognizable to her own ears. “I don’t understand you.”
“Naro.” He shook his head, his flowing gold hair falling in beautiful ribbons over his bare chest.
She slowly touched her fingers behind her ear, already knowing what she would find, already knowing what it meant.My translator is broken.She dropped her hand before it reached its destination. Sundamar leaned into her and shared his breath. It wasn’t a kiss, but it was more comfort than she’d ever received, and the hurt that radiated off him affected her too.
“I wish I could speak to you,” she whispered sadly.
