“Open your eyes,” Dahlia’s voice commands, it sounds sly and guileful.
They gave you bread, perhaps you should see what they have to say.
“Human, we have brought you food and a blanket,” she says. Suddenly, the hiss of a match precedes a light flickering through my eyelids. This time, I do look. I watch as they light another torch, and warmth returns.
She looks around the room, and I feel the displeasure radiate off her in waves. She snaps her fingers, and the chairs and tables knit back together, setting themselves in their original places. I watch, wide-eyed.
“Who are you?” I ask.
Dahlia pauses. “We are the Six.”
“Aside from that. Why are you helping the giants?” I ask. “What have I done to you?” Despair laced in that futile question—I know very well people hurt people for no good reason every day.
“You haven’t done anything to us… yet,” Dahlia says. “And we have worked with the giants in the shadows for a long time. Mostly to alter your memories.”
I freeze. “What?”
She shrugs. “Little things to keep you in line. A few tweaks, and you forgot something you weren’t supposed to see, or perhaps you saw something much more awful than you really had.”
My eyes grow wide. “And you’ve worked on me?”
She nods. “Yes, but only once. You were young.”
The dream I had the first night I arrived in Zlosa lingers on the edges of my consciousness. I saw my mother save Mikal and I but I thought it was an error. “Please, there was a dream I had last night. It?—”
“Enough, we did not come to speak of what has or has not been done.” Dahlia holds up her hand, but my mind continues to race. The dream wasreality.
One of the women from the back row approaches the bars of my cage, carrying a small bundle in her hands. From here, I can see the animal fur. Its neat folds are testament to how the leather was processed to be soft and workable. I can also see the basket, with hints of color peaking back at me: orange, reddish pink, green…
Food.
My stomach growls.
I force myself to look back at the women. Even with the fire, their faces are mere shadows. I take a sharp breath at the sight of their strange forms.
“Do you not desire these things?” one of the women says.
I laugh inwardly. Of course, I do, but it wasn’t that long ago that they were forcing their way into my mind, slithering through my most private thoughts and watching. Rholker had called them mind slicers.
“Why bring simple comforts to the woman you’ve come to destroy?” I ask.
There is a long pause that hangs in the air between us.
“You have something we want. The giants are no strangersto our coven, and we met with Erdaraj before we met with Rholker. We agreed to come in exchange for what we seek,” she says simply.
Her voice has a slight echoing quality to it as she lays out the facts. As if she were the logical one, as if she were helping me.
I’m left wondering what she means by coven.Is it some kind of court?
“You agreed to shred my mind,” I seethe.
“What are a few memories in exchange for freedom?” Dahlia retorts.
“Those memories are worth my humanity.”
“One night with a man, and you think his prick a magic wand that will save you with one hard thrust. You are mistaken. Come with us, and you can have a hundred men, each just as well equipped as your azure monster,” Dahlia shakes her head, and for a second, I swear I can glimpse the planes of the face below. Not enough to make out pointed ears, but… it’s something.
“Out of respect for who you are, we offer you this exchange. Let us do our work, give us the thing we seek, and we will help you escape this gods-awful place,” she says.
