“Like the clear summer sky reflected in the stillness of the sea?”
“I’ve never seen the sea.” He didn’t match her grim amusement. “And the sky gives me shivers.”
She dipped her finger under his chin, tracing his throat. He must’ve been distracted, because she reached a protruding scar that seemed to traverse his throat from ear to ear, and he reacted too late, his hand squeezing her wrist almost painfully. She jerked back up to his lips, but she’d already memorized the texture of the scar – uneven, bumpy, as if the sutures had been removed too late. Or not at all.
That last thought she had made no sense, because if sutures weren’t removed, the wound would get infected. Clearly, what Rune had was a scar that had healed wrong.
She wondered what sort of injury could’ve left him with a scar like that, running underneath his jaw from one end to the other.
“You’re blind,” he started to say, but paused when the movement of his chin as he spoke made her thumb slip over his lower lip.
They froze, Seraphina feeling the plumpness of his lip under her sensitive fingertip, Rune holding her there, not yet releasing her wrist. She swiped her thumb over it before pulling away, as if by accident, and he let her go when she moved to place her hand in her lap.
She chuckled awkwardly. “Very observant.”
He didn’t catch her joke. “You’re blind, yet you move with certainty. Not once did you trip over the bucket, or the bowl of food. You exercised without bumping into the wooden cot, you seem to be aware of where I am at all times. And you said you can fight.”
“Hm.”
“Had you not told me and let me see for myself, I would’ve never guessed.”
Seraphina took a deep breath and released it slowly. She’d said it to be funny, but he was observant. She considered her options. Brush him off and change the conversation to their imminent escape. But would he let it go? Maybe. Or maybe, during their escape, he would be distracted by what she hadn’t told him, pay more attention to her and the way she moved than to the guards, and get himself killed.
Or she could tell him. What did she have to lose? At this point, after having shared a cell with him for nearly two weeks, after he’d ripped his shirt sleeves so she wouldn’t have to free-bleedon the straw, Seraphina could safely say she trusted Rune. She didn’t believe he’d run off to shout her secret in the main market.
“I’ve told you many things about relics. Do you want to know more?”
“I don’t understand what that has to do with–”
“It’s relevant.” When he didn’t interrupt her again, she continued. “I told you there are true relics and farmed relics. The true ones come from genuine, uncontrolled sacrifices, and most of them are very, very old. Especially the most powerful ones, which are divided into two categories: apex relics and greater relics. These are so valuable, absolutely priceless, and they’re usually owned by old families who’ve had them for generations, passed from father to son, mother to daughter. Few families declare and register them. They will register less important relics, so the Sarumite Order is satisfied and believes their regulations are taken seriously, but they will keep the rare ones secret. But nothing is safe in a box. Not even if you hide that box in a wall or dig a hole and bury it. Some bones are small enough to be placed inside jewelry or the seam of an undergarment, but anything can be stolen, anything can be lost. Unless it’s sewn under one’s skin.”
At that, she felt Rune jerk away, stumbling back as if he’d lost his balance. He recovered quickly and readjusted his position, pressing his knees back to hers.
“People hide apex relics and some greater relics that are worth the trouble by implanting them under their skin. Somewhere concealed, like between the ribs or on the inner thigh. Somewhere no one has access to, except for a husband or a wife. This way, the person can use the power of the relic without anyone being none the wiser.”
“Bones implanted under the skin,” Rune said. “Don’t they get infected?”
“No. They are sacred, remember? Consecrated. Made by God, or by magic we don’t understand. Not only do they not get infected, but they keep sickness away. Fevers, the pox, consumption.”
“Do they prevent aging? Make one immortal?”
“Not unless the relic’s power is to do specifically that. Those would be apex relics, and theoretically, they exist, but I’ve never seen one, nor found one in the academy’s register. And Krähenstein has the biggest register in Europe. An implanted relic will keep the body healthy, but aside from that, it will only do what it’s meant to do.”
“And do you... Are you trying to say that...”
Seraphina smiled. He was catching on. Rune might not have known anything about the world, but he was a fast learner. And he paid attention.
How she loved that he paid attention to every word she said.
“When I left Saint Vivia’s Convent, I took something with me. I stole it from the nuns. Their most sacred relic, the atlas vertebra of Saint Vivia herself.” She lifted her hand to the right side of her face and gently pressed her fingers to the corner of her eye socket. “Saint Vivia was a child when she sacrificed herself to save her followers, who listened to her preach in the catacombs of Rome. It was the late 3rd century, when Christians were persecuted, and Vivia was a mere child, but she’d been touched by God, the legend says. When she spoke, the Virgin Mary herself spoke through her, and the people listened. Despite the dangers, they gathered underground, and Vivia would talk to them for days. The Roman soldiers discovered them, of course, and Vivia stepped forward, took sole responsibility, and begged to be punished, offering her life so her followers’ lives would be spared. She was walled up alive in a niche, and her followers were forced to stay and listen to her cries until she perished in absolute darkness.”
“That is... horrible.”
“All stories of true relics are horrible. She was twelve years old. Decades later, after the Edict of Milan that allowed Christians to worship openly, they looked for her remains. They found her bones, and among them, a single one covered in green moss. When they touched it, the moss peeled away, and Saint Vivia’s relic was revealed. The atlas vertebra, which allows the wearer to see in the dark.”
Seraphina fell silent for a minute, her hands rejoining in her lap, her fingers grinding together.
“I stole it from the sisters. They will never forgive me, not even if I bring it back and beg them on my knees. I knew it was imperative that no one could steal it from me or find it on me, if I ended up in a situation that was out of my control. Like being arrested and searched, for instance.” She chuckled. “I took a knife and sliced through the tissue in my right eye socket. I shoved the bone inside, and the tissue regrew over it, hiding it completely. So, I have the bone of a child. In my eye.”
