“I’m so happy you’re okay,” Talon whispered.
“I worried you were dead,” said Emmeric.
“I thought youweredead,” exclaimed Talon, standing back. “What the fuck happened, old man?”
Emmeric ran his hand through his hair, letting out a breath through pursed lips. “Fuck, whatdidn’thappen… Butyou,” he said, pointing an accusatory finger at Talon.
“Me?” he asked, confused.
“What in the nine hells were you thinking out there?” Emmeric asked in a forced whisper. “Trying to evacuate the villagers?”
Talon glanced back at the door to make sure it was closed. “You saw me?” They were both whispering now.
“No, but an old woman in the village did. She’s the one who informed me of your…heroics.” He was sufficiently angry at his best friend, now that he knew he was safe.
“Phaedros take you, Emmeric, don’t make it seem like saving innocents is a bad thing,” said Talon. His voice was raising as he also became angry.
Emmeric gripped his hair. “It’s not, Talon,” he started. “I just—” He sighed. “I wish you had let me in on it. You realize I would’ve helped, right?”
“After a shit-ton of grumbling and trying to convince me out of it,” Talon pointed out.
“Well, yeah,” he conceded. “But what if someone else saw you? If Imo noticed, somebody else could have too. Someone who would readily turn you in to the authorities. And we’ve all seen the punishment Uther doles out for shit like that.”
“I know, I know,” said Talon. He paced the room. “That’s why I kept you out of it. It was my idea. I should be the only one going down for it.”
“Talon,” Emmeric chastised. “If you go down, I go down with you.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll give you a heads-up next time.” Talon grinned. He never stayed in a bad mood for long. “But never do this to me again, man. Honest to Altea,I thought she had whisked you off to the Everlands. I’ve been frantic all this past week.”
Emmeric raised his eyebrows. “Could’ve fooled me. You seemed to be having a great time with the twins.”
Talon waved his hand in dismissal. “You know me. I hide all my deepest, darkest feelings behind humor.” There was another winning smile. “But tell me what happened.”
Emmeric inhaled deeply and launched into a recap of the crazy week he’d had. He debated against telling Talon about Altair and his plans against Emperor Uther, but in the end he decided that it would be awful to be hypocritical just a few minutes after asking Talon to be open with him. So he told him everything. The falling star that crashed during the raid was Altair. Iyana had called to the stars for assistance to fight back, the discussion with Imo and Altair, Imo dying, and then his lonely trek back here. He left out the weird dream from the previous night, thinking it was a one-off and not Tal’s business. The telling took longer than he anticipated, and by the end they were both sitting on the ground, backs against the bed, sipping on some whiskey Talon had run down to grab when he realized how insane this story was.
“So,” Talon said. “If I understand this correctly, this girl—”
“Iyana,” Emmeric interrupted. Talon looked at him suspiciously.
“Iyana…is the Aztia, a super special person who comes about once in a generation and has a fuck-ton of magic.”
“Yup,” said Emmeric, taking another sip of whiskey. He wanted to chug the bottle.
“And you’re the Kanaliza—”
“Allegedly,” he interrupted again.
“Shut the fuck up, man,” said Talon, shoving him. “So you’re this Kanaliza, essentially a conduit, there to direct and amplify her magic. And…she and the star, who is now an attractive man…”
“I didnotuse the word attractive,” he protested.
“I’m just assuming,” said Talon, continuing. “They’re plotting against the emperor, who apparently is this super great evil bent on taking over all of Arinem.”
“I’m only telling you what they told me,” Emmeric said, defending himself.
“No, no, it makes sense. It’s totally something Uther would do.” Talon paused. “Does Zane know? About his father’s plans?”
Emmeric shook his head. “Altair doesn’t seem to think so. He said all the plotting they’ve been able to see has been away from Zane.”
