Impossible. With every question I ask and every answer I receive I only become more lost in the web of lies.
Shaking my head to clear it, I tell her, “I’ve been to those villages, talked to the ones who survived. It was the feyn that took everything from them.”
She shakes her head solemnly. “It was the Vatruke, but the race of man saw no difference between the two and the war was reborn.”
I’m startled when I hear the general’s voice come from the doorway.
“All that we built with the La’tari, generations of careful planning, gone in a matter of hours,” he says, “as was our hope of reaching the fea that remained in the south.”
“What do they do with them?” I ask.
“We still don’t know,” Faidra says.
I shake my head, unwilling to accept what they tell me.
“Awri told me that you were in the second war together. Tell me how that is possible if the feyn were not involved,” I argue, grasping, searching for something to stop the fraying that has begun to unravel the story of my life.
The look he gives me is not the face I expect to see on a male who’s been caught in a lie.
“Many of us were on the southern continent the night they started the war,” he says, “Riah, Toren, Awri, and myself, among others. All for the same purpose. We soughtValtoura.”He expels a heavy sigh. “We were there when the fires started. When the wailing of young mothers could be heard all along the tidelands. So yes, we fought in the war, against the Vatruke, against the Drakai, but never against the people.”
“The villagers would have seen. They would have come to aid you,” I insist.
I know they would have. Even now the hearts of the La’tari people are strong. Even after everything they have been through.
The general shrugs. “What are two monsters fighting each other amidst a world on fire as you try to flee and save your family?”
I hate every word. Hate the truth I feel in all of it. Hate that I let myself be so deceived, so blind. What a mess we have made of our world. And how quickly this would all end if the La’tari people could be made tosee the truth.
Though some know. Recalling the contingent of Drakai that rode with the Vatruke male, I can’t help but wonder how many more are aware of the truth of this world. Leanna? Bront? …Vakesh?
Had anyone who had part in forming me known the extent of the lies they fed me my entire life? Had they all? No. Not all of them. There is one, and even after everything, I can’t bring myself to believe that he would deceive me.
“As a child,” I say to no one in particular, grasping at the last thread binding the delicate facade that is my life, “I witnessed a group of feyn attacking humans in the forest.” A small lie, and I suspect I know the answer before I even hear Faidra’s voice.
“Those that sided with the Vatruke.”
“Or,” the general adds, “made bargains with the La’tari king, not understanding what it would cost them.”
My company seems content to let me sit in silence for some time. My eyes on the fire before me, lost in the flickering heat emanating from the dark stone around it.
By the time I rise to excuse myself for the evening, Media has fallen asleep in her chair. The old woman breathes deeply, her colorful blanket slipping off the knobs of her knees. Adjusting the quilt in her lap, I thank Faidra before following the general back to our room.
“If your ancestors were trying to save the feyn, why would they leave the Vatruke behind? Knowing that they were opposed to the sundering, they had to expect something like this could happen,” I ask the general as I run my fingers through the tangle of locks draped over my shoulder.
He paces in front of the fire, unable to fully relax after the news Riah and I delivered this afternoon.
“The ancients knew that the Vatruke might grow vengeful, but they would not interfere with the choice those of us made to remain behind. So, they left us with a seed ofShivay, a soul to guard us if ever there was need. We call it,Valtoura.”
I tip my head quizzically. “Why didn’t thisValtourashow itself during the first war? Or the second? If it was meant to protect the feyn,surely that would have been the time.”
“I’ve asked myself the same thing many times,” he says, spearing his fingers through his hair.
A knock sounds at the door and the glare it puts on the general’s face is comically frightening. Though I likely wouldn’t feel the same if it were directed at me. He swoops in and drops a kiss on top of my head as he walks past to answer it.
“It’s been a long day,mi’ajna. Get some sleep. I’m not sure how long this will take.”
I glimpse Riah in the hall as I make my way toward the washroom. She will be briefing the general on her trip to see Toren at the barracks. Unless she came across trouble, the debrief shouldn’t take long, and by the sound of her voice she isn’t relaying anything terribly pressing.
