Peri Ayse's smile doesn't falter, but something flickers in those ancient eyes—respect, perhaps. "The warrior has wisdom," she purrs. "Very well. The fifty years I take won't kill you, but they will age you. Not in appearance—immortals are vain aboutsuch things—but in essence. Your bodies will become more fragile. Your healing will be slower. Your magic will be slightly diminished. The weight of stolen time has consequences, even for those who claim eternity."
"And the binding between me and the betrayer?" Nesilhan asks hoarsely, struggling to speak through exhaustion. Her hand moves unconsciously to her chest where the binding pulses beneath her skin.
Peri Ayse's smile sharpens with something like appreciation. "Ah, the divine siphon. Erlik's masterwork, really." Her gaze shifts to Yasar. "Quite elegant in its cruelty. Two souls bound together, one feeding on the other, slowly transforming the parasite into something unprecedented."
She moves closer to Nesilhan, studying the way the binding pulses beneath her skin with visible magic. "To break bonds forged by divine power requires divine sacrifice. Not blood. Not years. Something more... fundamental."
The chamber falls silent except for distant dripping water echoing through passages.
"I would need," Peri Ayse says, each word deliberate, "your capacity for love. All of it. From each of you." She pauses, letting us process. "Forever."
The temperature in the cave seems to drop ten degrees.
"Meaning what, exactly?" I demand, shadows surging around me with protective fury.
Those burning eyes meet mine without flinching. "Exactly what I said, shadow prince." Her voice remains honey-smooth, but there's steel beneath it now. "I would take your capacity to feel love. All of it. Not just romantic love—all forms. Familial. Platonic. The bonds that make you care whether another being lives or dies."
She gestures elegantly, as if describing something mundane. "You would remember caring for each other. Remember everybeautiful moment, every sacrifice, every tender word spoken in darkness. The memories would remain, perfect and clear." Her smile turns knife-sharp. "But feel nothing. The emotions would become... academic. Historical facts without weight. You would look at the person you once loved and feel only emptiness where devotion once lived."
A cold fist closes around my heart. She's not talking about severing a binding—she's talking about destroying our ability to love entirely. To turn us into shells who remember being human but can't feel it anymore.
"No," I say flatly. "That price is unacceptable. We'll find another way to break the binding."
Peri Ayse shrugs one elegant shoulder, utterly unbothered by my refusal. "As you wish. The offer remains, should you change your mind." Her gaze slides back to Nesilhan's leg, where the dark veins continue their inexorable crawl upward. "But we haven't finished discussing your wife's... condition."
"You said the Veil poison was manageable," I remind her, my shadows coiling with renewed tension.
"Manageable is not the same as harmless, shadow prince." She circles Nesilhan slowly, studying the wound with clinical interest. "The venom is spreading. Slowly, yes—but it's attacking her magic at the source. Left untreated, she'll lose the ability to wield twilight entirely within a fortnight. Within a month, the poison will reach her heart." That knowing smile returns. "She won't die immediately. But she'll wish she had."
Nesilhan's face goes pale, but her jaw sets with stubborn determination. "Banu first. We already agreed."
"Of course." Peri Ayse waves a dismissive hand. "The fairy's healing, then your wife's leg, then transportation. Three requests. Three prices." She pauses, letting the words settle like stones in still water. "We've established the first two—fifty years for the fairy, and I've named what breaking the binding wouldcost. But purging Veil blight from twilight magic..." Her burning eyes fix on Nesilhan with unsettling intensity. "That requires something more personal."
"Name it," Nesilhan says before I can speak, her voice steady despite the exhaustion dragging at her features.
Peri Ayse's grin spreads, and I feel a chill run down my spine. She wanted Nesilhan to be the one to ask. This was calculated.
"Your lies," the Peri says softly, each word precise as a surgeon's blade. "Every deception you might speak. Every half-truth. Every polite fiction that smooths the rough edges of existence." She moves closer to Nesilhan, close enough that her golden glow reflects off my wife's pale skin. "I would take your capacity for falsehood entirely. From the moment I heal you, you will be capable only of absolute truth."
The chamber goes very still.
"You can't be serious," Elçin breathes, her warrior's composure cracking. "In the Fae realm? Where words are weapons and truth is vulnerability? You'd send her into that world unable to lie?"
"I'm quite serious." Peri Ayse doesn't take her eyes off Nesilhan. "No more protecting yourself with careful words. No more softening blows with gentle untruths. No more hiding behind polite deceptions." Her smile turns knife-sharp. "Every thought that demands expression will pour out of you, raw and unfiltered. Every feeling you'd rather keep hidden will be laid bare for all to see."
"Nesilhan, no." The words tear out of me before I can stop them. My shadows surge toward her protectively, wrapping around her shoulders like a shroud. "This is a death sentence. The Fae courts will eat her alive."
"Perhaps." Peri Ayse's voice is almost gentle. "Or perhaps she'll learn that truth has its own power. That honesty, wielded correctly, can be more devastating than any lie." She tilts herhead, studying Nesilhan with something that might almost be respect. "The choice is hers, shadow prince. Not yours."
Nesilhan is quiet for a long moment, her golden eyes distant. I can feel her thinking—weighing the cost, calculating the risks, trying to find another way. But we both know there isn't one. The Veil poison is killing her slowly, and we're about to walk into the most dangerous court in all the realms.
"If I refuse," she says finally, her voice carefully controlled, "what happens?"
"Then I heal only the fairy, and you keep your precious lies." Peri Ayse shrugs. "The poison continues spreading. Your magic withers. Eventually, the poison reaches your heart and you die in agony, but at least you'll die with your deceptions intact." That terrible smile again. "Some people find comfort in such things."
Nesilhan closes her eyes. I watch her shoulders rise and fall with a single, steadying breath. When she opens them again, there's steel in her gaze that makes my heart ache with pride and terror in equal measure.
"Agreed," she says quietly. "My lies for my life. I accept."
