“So, Sentinel, may I ask your name?” Tawv asks me out of nowhere, and it takes me a minute to pull my attention away from the hustle and bustle of the market and realize he’s talking to me.
“Vinna,” I answer after a beat of hesitation. “This is Valen and Bastien,” I continue, pointing to the twins. Tawv gives them a nod. “Siah and Knox,” I offer, gesturing to them. “And this is Ryker. My other two Chosen, Sabin and Teo, are with the tribunal.”
Tawv nods again and goes quiet. He winds us through a couple stalls selling pots and pans and other housewares.
“Do you know who your parents are?” Tawv inquires.
“My father was...is,” I correct, “Vaughn Aylin. He was a paladin with the casters before he met my mother.”
“Ah, so the line is from your mother’s side then,” Tawv inserts, but he seems like he’s saying that more to himself than posing a question to me.
“Um...yeah. Her name was Grier.”
Tawv stops suddenly. If the dude had brakes, they’d be screeching right now. He studies me intensely and then tilts his head to the sky in contemplation. “Grier of the First House?” he asks on a reverent whisper.
“I don’t know. I never met her?”
Tawv’s almost white eyes fill with sadness. “So sheisgone then,” he states quietly, his shoulders sagging with resignation. “The Bond Weavers suspected as much, but her House was still holding out hope when they couldn’t be sure.” He looks at me speculatively. “It all makes more sense now that you are here. Her magic inyoumust have been what was throwing them off,” he states, like he expects me to understand what he’s talking about.
“Wait, what?” I stop him mid step and ask, abandoning mykeep quiet and go with the flowplan.
“Your mother left us almost four hundred years ago. She was part of a group of Sentinels who were assigned to do a Chosen search outside of our boundaries. The Sovereign at the time was responding to a push from the people for new Chosen bloodlines. You see, many of the lights of the Tierit Sentinels weren’t marking other Sentinels of the city. We had done a search once before and had success,” Tawv explains.
“Grier and two others were the only ones not to make it back. The Bond Weavers could feel that they were alive, so all we could do was wait. Then, one by one, their light went out. Grier’s light, however, only dimmed some twenty-odd years ago, and then it was reported that it was brighter than ever. So the First House believed that maybe she was injured and healing. But alas, it wasyou. They will mourn and rejoice all at once,” he states matter-of-factly and then turns and begins to lead the way again.
I reel with all this new information. I’ve wondered for so long where my mom came from and what she was doing out in the world all alone. How did Adriel find her?She was out looking for mates.I cling to these new puzzle pieces of information and put them in place in the story of my existence. He said something about a First House? Does that mean I have relatives that are still here? My heart hammers in my chest at the thought, but I furiously stomp out the flicker of excitement that flares in my soul.
Fuck off, hope, we’ve been down this road before.
“So if you guys knew there was a possibility she was still out there, why didn’t you go looking for her?” I ask, biting back the other part of that question that I can’t bring myself to put a voice to.Then maybe you could have found me. I swallow down the vulnerability and frustration that’s sitting in my throat.
“That is not our way, Vinna. Your mother knew the risks when she left.”
I grab Tawv by the arm, stopping him. Talon’s dying words ring in my head, and I wince at the memory of what he told me about how he met my mom and helped her escape.
“She knew that she could be captured by a psycho lamia and tortured for hundreds of years?” I state, my tone and eyes bleeding frustration and indignation. They knew she was out there, and they just left her. Tawv closes his eyes as if this information pains him.
“Not those circumstances exactly,” he croaks out after silently absorbing the sting of my words for several seconds. “But she was aware that there have always been others that hunt and covet our kind.”
I shake my head at him, not satisfied with that answer, but what else is there to say? Enoch told me about how the Sentinels up and left the casters without a backward glance. The Forsaking he called it. Why would I expect any different from these people? I may not know exactly what the First House is, but I can tell it meanssomething. My mother was something to these people, and they left her to suffer. I let resentment build a wall around my hurt, burying the loss, pain, and abandonment deep inside where I can ignore it for a time.
“Maybe you’re right,” Tawv tells me, agreeing with something I haven’t voiced. “Maybe we should have shaken off these walls and taken our place like many of us wanted to do. But the Sovereign died, and with that came change and fear. Only time can tell what the future holds for the Light Marked.” Tawv pats me on the arm twice and then whirls back around and nimbly steps away.
Bastien reaches out and twines his fingers with mine. I know he’s probably picking up on all the turmoil that’s frothing inside of me, but I don’t have it in me to turn around and reassure him. I don’t want to wear a happy-mask to cover up all the fucked up shit I’m processing right now. I squeeze his hand once and then move to follow Tawv again.
“Here we are,” he announces as he leads us through two more rings of the city streets.
We stop in front of a house that’s bordering a fair amount of what looks like farmland. The house itself looks like a quaint cottage that’s in the process of undergoing some repairs. Before we can open the rickety gate and walk up the path to knock on the front door, it opens, and out walks a giant of a man.
I thought Aydin was massive, but this guy has to be almost eight feet. His hair is long and black as shadows. His skin darker than Torrez’s and Knox’s. His eyes are like black holes, threatening to suck us all into oblivion with one wrong move. There isn’t an ounce of fat on his shredded body, and I can vouch for this because the dude is sans shirt. He sports a brutal scar across the front of his neck. As he turns to pull the door shut behind him, I catch two more gnarly looking round scars where it looks like wings might have once been.
Before seeing Ory and the other mysteriously winged Sentinels, I probably wouldn’t have made that connection with the placement of his scars, but now it feels undeniable. This is a male that’s experienced some seriously fucked up shit. When he turns back around, he’s carrying what at first appears to be a pile of gray rags.
“Getta, I’m grateful for you agreeing to do this,” Tawv states, his tone oozing respect and admiration.
I watch the shadow soaked giant, waiting for him to respond. So when a frail female voice finally answers, I find myself surprised and searching for the source. It takes me a minute to realize that the pile of gray rags that the giant is carrying is actually the feeblest looking woman I’ve ever seen. Her hair is white, and her paper-thin skin has clearly been loved by the sun. Her eyes are a milky white, the pupil a light blue. I’d wager that she’s blind, and based on the fact that she’s being carried, very fragile.
“Now, I didn’t agree to anything. I only said I would see if she’s worthy. So don’t go twisting my words like your kind is prone to do.” The old woman glares at Tawv. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Tawv cowered slightly at her reprimand.
