“A few months back.”
Kira pressed into sitting.“Your coma.”
It had changed him.Gave him something Pallas had referred to as the madness.From what Kira had seen, it was a slightly dialed down version of her burst.
She tried to look it up later but found herself hitting a wall.The most she’d gleaned was that it was considered deadly.And that at one point in Tuann history it had been much more prevalent before fading into obscurity.
It was almost like someone had suppressed all mention of it.Leaving just enough so people knew it once existed but not what it was or what it did.
That made Pallas’s possession of such knowledge both strange and worrisome.
“That was the beginning.Yes,” Graydon admitted.
“What does Torvald have to say about all this?”
Graydon’s silence was telling.
“He doesn’t know,” Kira guessed, suddenly certain.
“I fear such knowledge would put him in a difficult position.A Face’s job is to be unimpeachable.”
“And you worry you no longer are.”
Kira supposed her presence in his life had played a big part in that.The right thing would be to walk away, but she wasn’t going to.
Call her selfish.He was hers every bit as much as she was his.
“Theislaxis not well understood and considered volatile.Perhaps more than any other gift.”
“Even the primus?”
“The primus can be controlled.”Graydon tugged on the knot over Kira’s breasts, reminding her that she’d somehow managed to retain her towel through all of that.“Training and discipline can tame the beast inside.You could say it’s part of you.Written into your bones and stamped on your soul.As are any other gifts you might have.”
The knowing look on Graydon’s face made it clear what he was speaking about.
Her burst.
That power that was solely hers—but also not.
Kira suspected Jin had been its original owner and during the formation of their soul bond some things got switched around.She’d thought it might go back once he got his body.So far that hadn’t been the case.
“Theislaxexists to carry out the Mea’Ave’s will,” Graydon explained.
She understood now.
“You worry that it might conflict with Torvald’s.”
Graydon grunted.“Emperors and the Mea’Ave have always coexisted in uneasy harmony.They do not always agree on what direction the Tuann’s future should take.”
Kira propped her chin on Graydon’s chest.“It can’t be easy sharing your rule with the sentient soul of a planet.”
“Hence the need for a priestess like Lady Amaris to act as an intermediary.”
Except in Amaris’s case her relationship with Torvald meant there was no such thing as impartiality.
Once lines got blurred, it was hard to keep your feet.You could find yourself in dangerous water very quickly if you weren’t careful.
Just look at Kira and Graydon’s situation.
