“First off, I don’t have the right personality for it. I’m far too rebellious. Second, I hate authority and any form of control. I believe it is mostly fueled by a trauma response but also just because of my temperament. Anyway, religious life was too rigid for me. Being an Inquisitor suited me far better on top of allowing me to fight back the type of people who made my life hell.”
“Why didn’t you just leave once you reached maturity?” I asked, intrigued. “None of your memories hinted at you even considering it.”
“Because I already knew that they never would have left me fully out of their sight,” Eleni said with resignation. “The raids to capture me continued up until my twenty-second birthday. During that time, there were always Clerics, Templars, and other arcanists lurking around me. It was like being in a gilded cage. After that, I started gaining more and more freedom. I assumed that the cult had given up on me as I had likely become too old for their plans.”
“Do you think what is happening now is a set up from your former cult?” I asked, tension audible in my voice.
Eleni shook her head with an air of confusion. “Honestly, I’m not sure. From what I remember, the cult got decimated. But then who was performing those raids to get me back? For the years that followed, the Templars and Inquisitors hunted them down. Many more were killed or incarcerated. But what could they possibly want with me now? I didn’t get the training or preparation they wanted to give me.”
“You are highly trained and an extremely powerful mage,” I countered.
“Right. But I doubt thatthiswas the type of training they had in mind for me. On top of that, I’m no longer a virgin, and at thirty-two, more than double the age they wanted to perform their ritual. So I want to believe that it is merely a coincidence. After all, I have performed hundreds of missions over the years. I was bound to eventually run into something related to that old cult. It wouldn’t be the first time scavengers make use of abandoned places of power,” Eleni replied in a reasonable tone.
“Nevertheless, it raises the question whether you still think this mission is safe for you to be involved in,” I said.
That seemed to take her aback. To my delight, she didn’t immediately jump into a defensive mode and took a moment to reflect on the question before answering.
“In truth, it’s no less safe than any other mission. We always go in knowing there’s a chance we might not come out of it. But it is now much safer thanks to you,” she said in a serious tone devoid of flattery, even though her last sentence stroked my ego.
“Glad to be of service,” I replied teasingly, making her smile.
“That said, I doubt that it is my old cult. Elliot is around my age, and I never met him in the Sanctuary. He would have been among those of us who were freed and raised by the Church or placed in an orphanage. The portals surrounding that waypoint by the swamp are also gone. I strongly feel that this is merely a case of scavengers using it. I also have no memory of having to enter a black vortex.”
“What about the Sanguine Crocuses?” I inquired.
“I don’t recall seeing them glowing,” Eleni said pensively. “We were hardly ever allowed to leave the Sanctuary, and we always traveled with far too many handlers to allow us to escape. But the few times I did, it was either broad daylight, or the moon was out.”
“I see.”
She smiled at the unenthusiastic way in which I responded. My gut told me that the cult was indeed involved. Elliot seemed a bit too happy that Eleni specifically had shown up with Vivian. Then again, he hadn’t seemed to know that she would be the one coming to rescue Sienna. So maybe this truly was a mere coincidence.
“But enough about me,” Eleni said before putting a bit more food onto her plate. “What about you? Was your youth more entertaining than mine?”
“In many ways, yes. But my conception was just as messy as yours,” I said in a neutral town.
Her eyes widened. “How so?”
“My sire tricked my mother,” I confessed, the old shame, anger, and resentment resurfacing. “I believe he used an illusion. According to rumors—since my mother always refused to go into the details of what actually happened—he passed himself off as the male she loved.”
Although I already considered Eleni as my mate, until our bond was sealed, I couldn’t tell her that my sire pretended to be Lord Azrael, the great Angel of Death himself. Together, my mother and Azrael had already conceived my brother Pharos.
“My mother and her beloved had planned on having a second child together, and they were supposed to try to make it happen that night. So my sire took on his appearance after delaying him so that he could take his place,” I said bitterly.
“But how did he know that it was to happen that night?” Eleni asked, rightfully baffled.
“I don’t know. They’ve kept too much hidden from me. But my understanding is that my sire knew him and conspired to delay his arrival.”
“That’s horrible!” Eleni exclaimed, her disgust palpable although thankfully not seemingly directed at me. “Did he use a glamour spell?”
I shook my head. “No. My mother would have seen through it. Like me, he was a doppelganger. When we shift, it is nearly impossible to detect the deception. Physically, we literally become the person or creature we morphed into, down to our scent if we sampled their blood or flesh. Usually, the only way someone will discover our treachery is if we slip up by not having a specific answer to something we should know.”
“Nine Hells!” she whispered.
“Her beloved sent my mother a message warning her that he would be late, but she didn’t receive it in time,” I said dejectedly. “To add insult to injury, my sire tricked my mother into promising that she would take extra care to make sure she brought me to term.”
“What a fiend!” Eleni hissed, outraged. “He knew that his treachery would be discovered sooner than later!”
“Exactly,” I said, anger audible in my voice. “And of course, she agreed. Shewantedthat second child with him—or at least with who she thought he was. But her real beloved walked in while they were still together. He understood immediately what was happening and pulled my sire off her. A part of me wished I had the full detail of what they did to him once they realized his betrayal. I’m not even certain if all this is accurate. All that I know is that my mother utterly destroyed him for taking advantage of her.”
