“All right.” Eira’s voice quivered despite her best effort. Her knees shook as Ferro left her side. She loathed the man. But at least he was offering her some measure of protection here. Or…she thought he was.
There was more clanking. Eira felt the sound of a lock engaging in her chest as much as she heard it. Footsteps retreated and then, silence. Silence stretched on endlessly.
“You may remove the blindfold.” Ferro’s voice echoed to her from far away.
Eira did as instructed. But was met with a darkness somehow even more complete than behind the cloth. Eira slowly raised her hands to her face, touching the corners of her eyes, tapping lightly underneath her lower lids to verify they were, indeed, open.
“F-Ferro?” she called out.
“Learn to love the light. Seek it within.”
“Ferro?” Eira held out her hands, shuffling in the darkness. She wandered aimlessly until she ran into a cool, damp stone wall. “Ferro?” she cried. “Ferro!” Her scream reverberated all around her, whispering in the silence that underscored just how alone she was.
* * *
Darkness surrounded her. Cold, as cold as the water was that night. Tighter and tighter it swaddled her—smothered her.
She shook violently, clutching herself, curled in a ball. In the first day, Eira had learned that the void had shades to it. There were creatures that lived in the impenetrable ink that she breathed hour over hour. They flooded her system like the water she should have inhaled.
It should have been me who died. This is my punishment.
There was no sense of day or night in this horrible place. But Eira knew she slept because there were hours where Marcus was still alive.
He swam toward her, pushed away by the relentless current. She stretched out her hand with all her might.Come to me,Eira wanted to scream.She would save him this time. She would reach.
But then she watched his eyes go wide. She watched him choke and die.
She shivered, in a different position than she last remembered. “Awake,” Eira muttered into the darkness. “I’m awake. I’m here. Marcus is dead. I’m in the Pillars’ stronghold. Marcus is dead and Ferro is here…”
He had died because of her. Because she wasn’t fast enough. Because she couldn’t break the shield.
Her fault.
She deserved this.
No, Eira, the disembodied voice of her brother whispered to her like a hug from the void.It wasn’t your fault.
“My… My…” Her thoughts were breaking down, as if the darkness were some parasitic being that was gnawing through them, through her, from the inside out. There was no escaping it. No reprieve. Darkness and silence and—
Light.
Eira blinked several times, certain she imagined it. The light grew brighter and began to illuminate the prison she’d been left in. It was nothing more than a stone room, circular, with a staircase that ended at a locked iron door. The light chased away the shadows that she’d allowed to torment her. The darkness that had seemed so alive and threatening mere minutes ago.
The haunted thoughts scuttled into the corners of her mind as Eira pushed herself to her feet, scampering over to the door, desperate for the sanity the light brought. Booted feet appeared and Eira followed them up the tabard to the face of the young man who had brought her food in her room. A task he seemed responsible for yet again.
He stopped right before the bars, judging her. Eira gripped the iron so tightly the skin on the back of her knuckles split. She inhaled, suddenly breathless. Anxiety wormed its way up her chest, into her throat, nearly making her gag.
Let me out, she wanted to say. The words burned her lungs as she held her breath. If she breathed, she’d say them. She’d beg for reprieve. They would know they were winning. But Eira had enough strength left not to allow that to happen.
Luckily, the young man spoke first. “You might be drenched in the evil one, but the Champion has deemed you worthy of a meal. Bless his goodness.”
Eira held out her hand expectantly, but the Pillar didn’t move. He kept holding the loaf of bread with both hands. He seemed to be waiting for something.
“Bless his goodness,” he repeated.
“B… Bless his goodness,” Eira echoed.
The man smiled serenely. He looked like a statue of temperance and charity as he passed her the loaf. Eira snatched it between the bars, bringing it to her chest as though he would take it from her again.
