“…You’re right,” he agreed—though he didn’t seem disappointed by this.
I guess it was somewhat of a relief, to not have to think about our magic and the way the bond between us was changing. But it made me feel oddly vulnerable, too. I was no stranger to fighting the battle of us and our magic, whatever form it took. And without that familiar fight to focus on, I felt…exposed.
Like there was one less thing insulating us from the truths that threatened to condemn us in here.
“…Mind carved into one realm,” I recited, trying to keep moving. “I wonder if we need to look for whatever thoughts or confessions Lorien carved here?”
It was as good a plan as any, so we split up and started to do just that.
I had only been searching for a few minutes when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Aleks had stopped moving.
“Nova. Look.”
I hurried to his side, gaze trailing up to where he was pointing.
Lorien’s name was carved there—a hasty signature I could barely recognize. Above it, several lines of text stretched across the wall.
His confessions.
But they were crossed out, struck through with several deeply carved lines that made it impossible to read what he’d written.
“That’s…strange. Who would want to cover up whatever he confessed?”
After a moment of considering it, Aleks said, “…Why do I feel like the Order had a hand in this, too?”
I didn’t reply. Couldn’t reply. My attention had snagged on the mere mention of the Order, and now my thoughts were racing, all the truths I was trying to bury about that clandestine organization threatening to rise up.
Confront him,something whispered.Confront him with the truth.
When I spoke again, my voice didn’t sound like my own. “You should know.”
He gave me a curious look.
The words surged out of me, harsh and quick, even as I tried to hold them back. “You know about the Order and the hands they have on all these different things. The hands they control. The lives they manipulate like pieces on a board. Deep down, you know. You’ve always known, even if you don’t remember.”
Aleks had gone very still, his eyes widening with something between confusion and dawning horror.
I pressed my lips together, fighting the compulsion to keep speaking, to spill every secret I’d been holding. I bowed my head, shaking it as pain radiated through my clenched jaw.
I would keep my mouth shut.
I wouldn’t give in to this place so easily.
The whispers around us grew louder, swelling like a tide rushing in to fill the silence I was desperately trying to keep.
Then, a singular voice rose above them, not from any one direction, but from everywhere at once. Maybe from the walls themselves. It said only one word:TRUTH.
The word reverberated around the chamber. The carvings on the walls began to glow brighter, light pouring out of them and spinning into a cyclone that reached nearly to the ceiling.
A woman stepped out of the swirling mass of light.
She wore a white silk dress with swaths of gossamer fabric that trailed behind her like folded wings. A gold ribbon was tied around her face, hiding her eyes, but she moved with grace and precision, all the same. She held a small crystal dagger on a cushion of blue velvet, offering it as she stopped before us.
Again, a disembodied voice spoke, filling the room and vibrating through the very core of my being:Those who seek the path forward must first shed falsehoods. Carve your confessions or let them destroy you. The choice is yours.
I stared at her. I wanted to rip off her blindfold, for some reason; the urge was so strong, my hand cramped from my efforts to fight against it.
Aleks looked between me and the blade she held for a long moment before he seemed to make up his mind. He stepped forward.
