“Why do you feel this is necessary?” Helen’s Avatar stepped firmly between Kaylin and her view of Bellusdeo.
“Why do you feel it’s putting Kaylin at risk?”
Helen is not wrong, Ynpharion said.
Bellusdeo is never going to hurt me.
No. But Bellusdeo is not the only person present. You understand that what I did—what IbelievedI was doing—was attempting to be free of the constraints of my race? That I, who felt powerless, wanted to feel powerful? I had lived my life behind the lines prescribed for me by circumstances of birth, and I was given the opportunity to change it.He said this with a lifetime’s worth of bitterness. Or several lifetimes, from Kaylin’s perspective.
And you feel you were lied to?
Yes.Pause.Yes and no. I did feel free. I did feel unconstrained, unconfined. It quieted those fears.
But?
Those were not the only fears, Chosen.She stiffened in surprise; Ynpharion almost sounded respectful. This annoyed him enough that he descended into his usual tone.You have your very odd family—and I will call it that, because your ties seem to be inexplicably ties of kinship. You have your fears. They are not what mine were, but they are constant and solid, the little voices that eat away at you when you have time to stop and think. Which is probably why you don’t do it often.
Gee, thanks.
If, one day, someone offered you power—
No oneoffered methese marks.
—and that power alleviated all of the fears which have caused so much pain, you might feel relief or even joy at the lack of a fear that has been a constant. But what if, in that reckless, heedless joy, you accidentally destroy your family?
No answer.
Yes, exactly. What I saw was only the immediate end to a specific pain. I did not see—did noteven look—at the other costs. And those costs, were I to have suffered them, would cause a pain far, far greater than the fear it alleviated. That fear, in large part, is due to the nature of our names. If you could see a name—just by looking intently—and could take that name and use it as a way to control the person who both owns and is owned by it...
Fear.
Yes. Think of what I became in order to be free, in part, of that fear.
These people aren’t you.
No. They willingly took that risk with each other—but they did it when they were children. And children often do not survive to become adults because they make foolish decisions like theirs. But they do not consider you a threat; inasmuch as they can trust outsiders, they trust you. That has been made easier because of your mortality. Even the marks of the Chosen do not elevate you, in their eyes.
And this will.
And this will.
She glanced at Bellusdeo.Doesn’t matter. They’re visitors. Bellusdeo actually lives here.
And that therefore gives her the right to command you?
Kaylin shrugged.It’s not really a command—it just sounds like one. And yeah, it gives her the right to ask.
Why, exactly?
“I think Ynpharion is correct,” Helen said.
Kaylin stared at her back. “I get that. But I think Bellusdeo is also right.”
“If you are concerned...” Bellusdeo began.
“I am not concerned that Kaylin will harm you. Nor am I concerned that you will feel threatened enough to subsequently harm her. But this is not an ability that anyone should have—”
“The Shadow at the base of the High Hallsdoes,” Bellusdeo countered.
