“I’m not … I won’t pretend I’m all the way back yet.” His voice drops. “Some days are hard. There are times when I think I’m still in the cage, and I can’t remember how to breathe. But I’m trying.”
“That’s all we can do.”
“Is it?” He turns back to the window. “Therin told me about the plan for Ivylock.”
I let him change the topic without comment. If he wants to talk about war instead of what was done to him, I understand that too. War is simpler. Cleaner. You know who the enemy is and what needs to be done. The other thing, the slow work of putting yourself back together after someone has spent centuries taking you apart,that’sharder.
“I want to be part of it.”
“You will be.”
“Imeanit, Cairn. I’m not going to sit in a room while everyone else fights. I’ve spent centuries being nothing. I’m done with that.”
“I heard you the first time. We move in six weeks. Use the time.”
“To do what?”
“Whatever you need. Train. Sleep. Remember who you are. Whoweare.”
His mouth curves slightly. “That I can do.”
I move to the corner of the room and pour three drinks. Serath takes hers with a small smile, then I go to stand beside Caelum, handing him the goblet.
“Therin told me the human female is still here.” He takes a sip of water. “I remember her sitting with me. I couldn’t move or speak, but I could hear her.”
Of course Therin told him. Therin tells everyone everything, usually with embellishments.
“It was strange. All of you came to talk to me, and I couldn’t reach any of you.” He shakes his head. “The only way I can describe it is like being at the bottom of a well, hearing sounds from above, but unable to climb toward them.”
I stay quiet, waiting for him to continue.
“But she was different. She talked about herself and what she’d done.” His lips twist. “She was drowning too, in her own way. And something about that … hearing someone else struggling to breathe …” Another pause. Another sip. “I don’t remember what I said to her. But it was different after that. I knew there was a surface and I could reach it if I tried hard enough.”
The human who came to hunt me helped pull one of my Guard back from the dark. The same human that the Nightwild magic now wants for its own. The irony isn’t lost on me.
The door opens again and Kaelith steps through. He stops when he sees who is in the room. For a moment, nobody moves. Kaelith just stares at Caelum like he’s seeing a ghost. Which, in a way, he is. The last time they saw each other, Underhill was still open, and the world hadn’t learned to cage us.
Then he’s moving across the room, and pulling Caelum into an embrace. Serath rises from her chair, and he reaches for her too, pulling her in until the three of them are tangled together.
“When the bonds went dark—” His voice is rough.
“I know.” Caelum grips him back. “We’re here now.”
Kaelith pulls back, eyes moving over Caelum’s face, taking in the changes, the gauntness, the shadows that weren’t there before.
“You look like death.”
“I’ve spent more time closer to it than I’d like.”
The door opens again, and Therin, Vessara and Sorel crowd through. The room turns to chaos. Arms reaching, voices overlapping, Vessara laughing and crying at the same time as she tries to hold onto both Serath and Caelum at once. Sorel just stands there, grinning, until Caelum pulls him in.
I stand back and watch.
This is what they took from us. It wasn’t just the freedom or our magic. It was this. The simple act of being in the same room with those you’ve bled beside. Kaelith and Caelum fought back to back. Vessara and Serath trained together. Sorel taught both of them how to hold a blade.
And the humans took that from us. They stole it with iron and cages, and the belief that we’d forget what we were to each other.
Wedidn’tforget. The bonds holding us together might have been cut, but the memories remained. We’re not whole. I don’t know if the others are lost or caged. But we’re more than we were.
