Her screams, she was learning, were different from Lorna’s. She’d been hearing them at interminable intervals since the Saj had arrived and Evie had ordered her to be questioned.
Aya was no stranger to torture. She had watched it, heard it, felt it, and, in her darkest of moments, even relished in it. It should have been no surprise when she was dragged from sleep by the tenor of Lorna’s screams. They had, after all, done the same with the humans. But they’d placed Lorna even closer, in a cell right next to her own.
“That’s enough,” Evie ordered softly. She flicked her wrist, and the Diaforaté crashed to his knees, a pained whimper escaping him. The man pushed to his feet and scampered toward the back of the cell, his head ducked.
“Wait for us outside, Dimitri,” Evie ordered. She waited until the Diaforaté had left before turning to the Vaguer. “So?”
He cocked his head as he took a step closer to the table, his gaze scanning Aya’s prone figure.
“Magnificent,” he breathed. “She has so much to give. I cannot sense her power with these shackles, but I could feel it flowing into the Diaforaté. She could, perhaps, fuel an entire army if we are mindful. Incredible, Your Holiness.”
I could make him hurt. I could make him suffer. I could make him wish for death.
Aya had once shied away from such thoughts. She’d deemed them a sign of the darkness she was sure lurked within her. When such whispers had arisen in the desert in the Soul Trial…
Embrace your rage. Embrace your essence. See what you are destined for…
…she had known only fear.
But now she let those whispers grow until they were all she could hear.
Your true nature always decides.
You cannot escape what you were destined to be.
“Come,” Evie murmured to the Vaguer. “Let me show you the results.”
The Vaguer nodded, but his gaze stayed fixed on Aya. “If I may, Your Holiness…” He trailed off, until Evie urged him on with a dip of her chin. “She should be kept in a different cell. One with light. And perhaps company.”
Evie raised a brow. “You think spoiling her will motivate her to be more amenable?”
The Vaguer scoffed. “It’s not for her demeanor, Your Holiness. If the oxen is to be eaten, it must first be nourished. It is, after all, how the heart grows so delectable. A neglected ox yields tough meat and bland taste. The same could be said for her power.”
There was a pointedness to his words, a meaning there that Aya could not grasp through the haze of her pain and disgust.
Let your power rise.
Let it remove your pain.
“A point well taken,” Evie mused. “I will consider it. Come.”
She turned for the door, but the Vaguer…
The Vaguer took another step toward Aya.
“Finally we’ve learned who you are, Daughter of Darkness.” His smile was a broken flash of yellow as he followed Evie from the room.
Nothing. She was…nothing.
***
Later, in the confines of her cell, Aya dreamt.
She dreamt of a wolf, its blood-soaked maw widening until it swallowed her whole. She dreamt of a raven, its silken feathers turning to ash the moment she touched them.
She dreamt of an ox, its eyes wide and water-lined. Innocent.
Seize all that the gods you worship refuse to give you.
