6
Her parents took her to their room upstairs. It was basic and sparse, underscoring how they had only managed to escape with whatever was on their backs. Still, Eira couldn’t resist sweeping the room with her magic, catching echoes that clung to each object. Neither of her parents were sorcerers, so she, somewhat expectedly, didn’t find much. All the voices were unfamiliar and likely belonged to previous owners of the bedframe or chair.
“How did you end up in Qwint?” Eira asked as she settled on the lone chair. Her parents were opposite, side by side on the edge of the bed.
“When…it happened,” Herron began. Reona’s eyes were instantly vacant as they stared through the present and back to that fateful day. “We fled with the rest. It was chaos…so much fire and violence.”
Eira barely resisted pointing out that she knew viscerally how chaotic and bloody that day had been. But, clearly, she’d had more success over the past few months working through the echoes of that night than they had. She let them explain it in their own way, and their own time.
“We were pushed along with the pack of people trying to escape. There were people who fell…barely recognizable.”
Reona grimaced, staring at her feet as if she could still see the men and women who had been trampled beneath her.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Eira was compelled to say; she was familiar with how easily guilt wormed its way through every thought. Both of her parents seemed startled. “Those people, while incredibly unfortunate…it wasn’t your fault they died. It wasn’t anyone’s. It was just how it happened.” A crowd moving that quickly was more dangerous than a ravenous beast. “There was nothing you could’ve done to save them, either.”
“It’s hard to find peace with a cruel death like that…there’s always something that could be done,” Reona said softly.
The contradiction to her sentiment caused Eira to bite the insides of her cheeks. She resisted the urge to further emphasize her point. But doing so would only put her in a different bind. She’d be admitting to them just how many people she’d killed. A fact that they knew only the tip of, now. Something that was also underscored by her mother’s statement—hard to find peace with a cruel death like that… Like the deaths by Eira’s own hands? A peace that her parents would never have with someone like her? Even after all they’d seen, they still believed there was a simplicity to the world that indicated there would be justice, good and evil, righteousness. All lines that had blurred together in Eira’s world into a flat, gray color.
“In any case”—Herron seemed to sense the tension and continued—“we followed the masses. One group had split away, talking of a boat along the river that could escape the carnage. They didn’t object to anyone boarding. We got on with the intention of getting off at Risen but…”
“By the time we got there, they’d already burned all the Solaris ships,” Reona finished.
“How did you escape?” Eira asked, veiling some of her curiosity for the state of Risen with her compassion for them. “Was Risen mostly normal other than the attack on the Solaris ships?”
“Far from it.” Herron shuddered. “The city was burning, led by a man they claimed was anointed by the goddess.”
Ulvarth.
“He certainly looked it,” Reona added. “Neither magic nor weapons could touch him. They all seemed to reflect off.”
“Reflect off?” Eira repeated, curious. Ulvarth didn’t have magic…unless he’d managed to open his channel once more? It was worth knowing what she’d be facing when she arrived. Though the likelihood of getting clear answers from her parents were slim with how little they knew about Lightspinning.
“We didn’t get close enough to see.” Reona shook her head.
“Nor would we have wanted to. We were focused on surviving.” Something about the way Herron spoke made Eira think that he assumed she’d be upset at them for not investigating. Eira held her tongue. Any remark she’d make about how Ulvarth would annihilate them with a look would be offensive.
“There were those pillaging the river so we had to move quickly,” Reona continued, “but somehow we made it out into the great bay of Meru. From there, we managed to stop at the port of Parth.”
Eira knew the city: It was one of the last major ones on the southern half of Meru. A port that could collect resources like furs and timber from Hokoh—the largest city—and ferry it to Risen faster than the land routes.
“I take it the Pillars hadn’t made it to Parth?” Eira asked.
“Not from what we saw,” Herron said. Though Eira was instantly skeptical of that, after Ofok. Though, perhaps Ulvarthhad exerted his force there because he knew if she were to escape by water, it was there or Risen.
“Those from Qwint took us in. There were no vessels going to Solaris and it didn’t seem safe to stay on Meru any longer. We didn’t want to wait and see what happened,” Reona said. “They said Qwint had a long history of taking in refugees and allowed us to come. That it was also a seafaring city, for the most part, and they’d find a way to get a ship back to Solaris.”
Eira resisted pointing out that if their goal was to keep themselves safe, they’d picked an odd location by going farther from Solaris, from Meru where Solaris would likely be sending forces to take vengeance, and to a city-state that was in constant peril from their larger neighbor. But, however unlikely, their choice had worked out. Because she was here, now.
“How did you escape?” Herron turned the story to her.
“And come to be associated with the dreaded pirate queen?” Reona whispered in horror. She moved faster than Eira could react, falling to her knees and scooping up Eira’s hands. Between the contact and her mother’s wide, glistening eyes, Eira was stunned to silence for a beat. “We tried so hard to save you from this slander. From the rumors and myths that we feared would haunt your every step. Forgive us that we failed.”
Reona pressed her forehead into Eira’s knuckles, drawing shuddering breaths. Eira was still too startled to react. Part of her felt like she should offer her mother comfort. The other part wanted to tell her parents that she was, indeed, “involved” with the pirate queen’s slander and had loved every minute of it. That the “dreaded Adela” had become part mother, part teacher to her.
But Eira stayed her verbal blades. She wanted peace with them more than she had realized when she’d entered.
“It’s all right,” she encouraged. Hoping that if they walked away thinking one thing, it would be that. The more she said it,the more she realized it was all that she wanted, too. She wanted things to be all right enough that she could move on from this once and for all. “I went in the opposite direction as you—to Ofok. It’s a town to the northwest of Meru and the other exit of the river. I had a ship I also escaped on, and then managed to find another vessel that was more seaworthy. We came here to deliver Lavette and Varren—the only two of Qwint’s competitors that survived.”
