“But I sneaked into your group’s hideout. I listened in on your meeting. They will never trust me.”
“These things can be forgiven, depending on your intentions… Why did you come to our meeting that night?” His eyes bored holes into her skull.
Eira chose her next words carefully, wishing she could think about them longer without raising suspicion. “I was looking for you.” She started by skimming off the top of the truth. “After what you did to Marcus, I…I thought I wanted to kill you.”
“Youthought?”
“I don’t know anymore.” She widened her eyes to the point that they began to water. “I’m so confused, Ferro. Meru is everything I wanted but also, nothing I expected.” Eira shook her head. “I loved you! Why did you do it? Why did you attack us?”
“Because Solaris is a blight on the world—a festering wound that must be cut out from the roots.” He spoke so plainly about killing everyone and everything she’d ever loved. It was so chilling his words almost made the room feel cold. “I know it might be a shock to you, but that’s only because you grew up being fed their propaganda. Your mind was filled with false tales of their righteousness and goodness. But, Eira, the very Emperor and Empress whom you lived under were the ones to set Yargen’s antithesis, her mortal enemy, Raspian, free with the destruction of the Crystal Caverns.”
There was the name Raspian again. So the Pillars perceived the Crystal Caverns as having some connection to this evil god and thus used their destruction as proof that the Solaris Empire was on the god’s side because he was “set free.” It undoubtedly also explained part of the motivation for attacking Solaris’s candidates. The last people the Pillars would want to see Meru aligning with were the perceived acolytes of an evil god.
“You told me about Raspian once,” Eira murmured, trying to keep up her act. “One of the nights…”
“I was trying to warn you. It pains me to see you like this. Someone with so much promise still within their veins should not be relegated to the depths; let me lift you up. Yargen spared you that night. She revealed your powers to me and gave me a revelation—a path forward that I set into motion before I even left your shores.” He had been captive. How could he have…unless he had people even in Solaris working with him, for him. Eira was beginning to get a sense of just how deep the Pillar’s influence ran. “You can be of use to the Pillars. You will have a place here, people who care about you, people who will want to elevate you—not tear you down.” He was trying to play to every insecurity she’d ever shared with him.
“Like a family?” She made her voice quiver on the last word.
“Yes, we will be your family,” he soothed. “So long as you love us like your family. Are loyal to us like family.”
“What if Adela is my family?” The words were a monumental effort for her to say. This whole conversation had sweat streaming down her neck and back, but not from the heat. Her hands trembled, though not from the weight of the shackles. These words dredged up genuine fears and insecurities Eira hadn’t fully confronted. She didn’t want to tackle them, not here and now. But Ferro seemed to feed on the vulnerability they wrought in her. So she didn’t push them back underneath the deep waters. She swam in the emotions.
She had to be vulnerable to this horrible creature to survive.
“Your family is who you choose. Will you choose the parents who didn’t even bother to see you off? Who so clearly blame you for your brother’s death? Or will you choose us? And in doing so, I’ll free you from this place. You will mean something to a new family.”
“All right,” she croaked. How did he know about her parents? He had been watching her the entire time she thought he was the one trapped. “I will put myself in your care. Help me, Ferro.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He eased away from the bars with a satisfied smirk and, before she could say anything else, disappeared down the hall.
They kept her there for another day. At least, it felt like another day. There was no way to know without windows or natural light.
She lay on the floor in a ring of fire, her magic thin and straining to protect her against the heat. Eira rasped softly, the air thick and hard to breathe. Had she played the wrong hand? Did Ferro suspect her still? Even if he did, she was still valuable to them as long as they thought they could use her as leverage over Adela.
After that…it depended on her acting.
Eira kept her eyes closed, for the most part. The fire was too bright, and they kept drying out. She would give anything for water. Her whole body was wrung out and dried up. She’d long since stopped sweating.
Then, without warning, darkness.
The walls popped and hissed as they began to cool. Eira sat up, blinking. The faint glow of one of the Lightspinner’s orbs appeared, bobbing behind Ferro and another woman she didn’t recognize. The woman glanced warily at Ferro, who just gave her a nod.
She inserted a key into the lock, using mitts to protect her from the radiant heat of the metal. Ferro approached Eira like a predator stalking its prey. He knelt down before her, producing a waterskin.
“Be reborn, Eira. Wash away the sins of your forefathers,” he whispered and poured the water over her head. She couldn’t resist the urge to tip her head back, mouth open. It was the sweetest thing she’d ever tasted. Steam hissed all around her as the water met the hot stone. “Now come with me, my pet,” he cooed like a lover as the waterskin emptied.
His arms wrapped around her and Eira barely resisted the urge to push him away. The woman still wore a skeptical look, but said nothing. Eira had more than just Ferro to win over.
“Where are we going?” Her voice cracked. She could drink two more full waterskins before the day was done.
“To your new room.”
13
There were four other holding cells, Eira learned. The two others she saw on her way out were empty. She couldn’t tell if the rustling she heard in the fourth was rats, or another person.
Ducot?Eira wondered. Had he been captured, too? She had to find out. But first, she had to keep focused on saving her own skin. She wouldn’t be helping anyone if she was dead.
