"If you would just tell me, I wouldn't have to use sentences like that."
"Fine…” he huffed reluctantly. “The Red Moons ritual removes every curse. It frees the Architects. Frees the Noctuans from the dark. Allows Duarb out of his tree, the removal of the Infi. Arbina would no longer be caged in her waters. And..."
The silence that followed made her stomach knot. He was hiding something, and she needed to know what.
"And what, Commander?" she demanded.
His eyes rolled up to meet hers. "It frees those trapped at the Edge."
"What do you mean trapped at the Edge?” she asked, insides vacating. “I thought the void there was a myth, and it was simply a normal realm just like every other place in our land."
"The Edge is a normal realm. Quite beautiful too if you go during the Deads," he said. "It's the only time the lunaren flowers bloom. I've men who frequent there—“
"Don't change the subject," she interjected. "If the void is a myth, then how are—what do you mean trapped?"
"The void isn't a myth," he said. "It's very real. If you get caught too far into it, you'll be lost."
None of his explanations were helping, and the frustration began to swell in her.
He apparently caught her confusion and sighed as he took a seat on the edge of the boat. "The void you've read about that you think is a myth— it's real. It's like a pocket area within the Edge realm where the dead sometimes gets trapped."
"Okay... So, how does the Red Moons ritual free these people from that void?"
"Depends on what they want. Whether to go on into death or come back to avenge the land."
Nyssa stilled... How nonchalantly he'd explained it, as though if he shrugged it off as something minuscule, she wouldn't catch it.
Come back to avenge the land.
"And how exactly does one get trapped at the Edge?" she made herself say.
"Nyssa—“ He stood and started to reach out for her, but she swatted his hands away.
"No, Nadir. Tell me."
A new fear had filled his constricted gaze. A fear she didn’t know he possessed. For a moment, she thought he might turn on his heel, leave her without an answer.
But—
"They sacrifice themselves for Haerland," he finally answered.
Her entire body drained, and she had to grab hold of the boat to keep herself from limping to the ground.
Sacrificed themselves for Haerland.
Sacrificed.
Trapped.
Aydra.
"Nyssa—“
"How is it done?" she snapped. "How is the ritual performed?"
"You can’t—“
"Why the fuck not? If it will free them—“
