Anger tore through me, but the shackles were keeping my magic in check.
I looked around the room.
Tables had been set up, and a huge breakfast buffet was placed alongside the windows. It smelled of coffee and baked goods, but I wasn’t hungry. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on conserving my energy.
I felt her arrival before I saw her.
The room grew more quiet, and I opened my eyes to see that Maelis had entered the room.
Every head in the room turned towards her.
“Wordsmith, good morning. Please, help yourself to some breakfast,” Ignara purred.
Maelis headed towards the buffet and loaded her plate with bread, eggs and some bacon. “I trust you slept well,” Somnaris purred as I took a seat at the table.
The others followed and soon everyone was sitting around the dining room table.
“I did, thank you. Although it seemed like your powers were trying to play tricks on me.” Her bluntness surprised him, I could see his irises widening.
“You can’t blame a God for doing what he does best.” He smirked, and she gave him a cold smile of her own.
Ignara looked at Maelis with an arched brow. “What did you do, Somnaris?” Ignara asked sharply.
He smirked. “I sent Maelis on a little sleepwalking trip last night, to the dungeons. I wanted to see what would happen if she was alone with Auretheos. It seems like she called my bluff, so I am not sure how genuine their conversation was.”
Maelis sat up straight.
“You’d be better off remembering that I am not your little puppet here. I also do what I do best, and if I feel like you are disrespecting me with your little mind games, I will go where I am being appreciated.”
Ignara laughed out loud at that.
“Meow! I did not think you had it in you, wordsmith. To be honest with you, you had me fooled with your little lovesick performance too. I guess I underestimated the level of hatred you feel towards us Gods.”
Maelis turned her cold gaze towards her then.
“I do not hate you. I simply don’t care about you. I wantto get this over and done with and return to my life at home. It was bad enough having to feign any interest in the God of Wisdom, so I don’t appreciate being manipulated by your cronies here too.”
Somnaris was about to say something, the anger on his face visible.
But Ignara held up her hand and silenced him.
“He will stay out of your mind and dreams, right, Somnaris?”
She gave him a pointed look, and he actually backed off.
“So, tell us wordsmith, how did you entice the virgin God to stray off course? I did not think you could do it, he has been so pure for more than 500 years…” the Faerie at the table asked her.
She shrugged and feigned disinterest. “It wasn’t difficult at all. Auretheos has been locked up in that temple of his for centuries, surrounded by nothing but other boring men. All it took was showing him what he was missing outside his temple and in his bed to win him over. He fell for me faster than I had anticipated, it was almost too easy.”
I wanted to be sick.
This is why they had brought me here.
They wanted me to hear this, wanted to break me.
And truth be told, they succeeded.
The pain I felt upon hearing Maelis’s words were rawer than any blade could inflict on me. I had put my trust in her and believed every lie she had told me like the gullible, naive idiot that I was.
