“Power is such a fickle thing, don’t you think?” Chaska interrupted Nina’s thoughts and slid the cup of tea in front of her, head canted subtly in thought. “It can be incredibly deceiving and yet, somehow, we all believe when one claims to have it.”
“It isn’t difficult to believe when every command is obeyed.” Nina sniffed her tea and took a small sip. It was fresh and hot and familiar, just as she liked it, and for a moment, all her worries were soothed.
“Yes, but we never seem to question whotheyanswer to.”
Confused where this was going, Nina narrowed her eyes. “They answer to no one but themselves. That’s the problem.”
Chaska leaned back, the steaming cup of tea cradled in her hands, her red dress so dark it almost looked black in the firelight. “Everyone has a master,” she casually said. “The most dangerous are the ones who believe they are righteous rulers. That the suffering of some is necessary for the salvation of all.”
“And you disagree with that?”
“No,” Chaska said quickly. “I only believe that we should have the right to choose our suffering. If someone is forced, then we cannot blame them when they fight against it.” Her sharp umber eyes met Nina’s, and though the room was dim, they were filled with light. “We cannot run from suffering, just as we cannot escape death. But we can rise up against those who demand our blind faith.”
Chaska’s words were inspiring, but the weight of them was lostunderneath their circumstances. “But you are here,” Nina said, gesturing to the room, to Chaska’s clothing and jewelry and general ease. She was speaking of resistance while she sat comfortably in the lap of luxury. “You are not rising up against anything.”
“Am I not?” Chaska leaned forward and placed her cup on the table. “Hereis where I belong.Thisis my seat of resistance, and there is much you do not see because you are not willing to look.”
The wordresistanceechoed in Nina’s mind, and Chaska’s voice slowly morphed into Shayim’s.
We are a resistance,the Seer had said.
“You cannot hide from this, Nina,” Chaska said softly. “The future is uncertain, but your part in it is not.”
Nina opened her mouth to ask what she knew. Was Chaska aware of her true fate? Did she still think Nina was there to marry the emperor? Did she somehow know what Nina intended to do last night? But Chaska held up a sharp hand. “I cannot say more than that, but I can tell you that I amnotyour enemy, Nina.”
“You are all my enemy,” Nina said, but the venom with which she had said it to Kasik was gone.
Chaska lightly laughed and shifted back in her chair. “You remind me so much of your brother.” She said the words casually, as if Nina could have known, if only she had thought to ask.
“Is he here?” Nina leaned forward and gripped the small table, hands trembling and heart racing. “Is he safe? Can I—”
“He is not here,” Chaska interrupted. “And you can rest knowing he is safe with my people. For now. But Nina, the tides are rising, and no one will be safe much longer. One day soon, you will have to make a choice.”
But Nina had made her choice, and she would not share it with Chaska, no matter how adamant the empress was. They may not be enemies, but neither were they allies.
They finished their tea and then Nina was escorted to Master Wara’s room. Unlike Kasik, Chaska politely knocked on the door. It was opened a few moments later by a harried-looking Master Wara, who took one look at Empress Chaska and gave a small bow. “Empress,” he said breathlessly. “What a surprise to see you. Will you be joining us for today’s story?”
“Not today, Master Wara. I have many things to attend to before the festivities begin.”
“Of course,” Master Wara said. “Another time, then.”
“Yes, another time,” Chaska replied. Then she turned to Nina. “Remember what we spoke about. It’s never too late to change your mind.”
Nina watched the empress leave and ignored the urge to chase after her and demand to know more about her brother. Whatever the reason, she knew Chaska would not give her answers. Perhaps Kasik would explain once they were free of this place.
Master Wara opened the door wider, and Nina entered. Just as before, she was struck with an overwhelming sense of awe the moment she stepped over the threshold. The amount of information hanging from every available space made her feel insignificant. Her fate inevitable. She imagined her story hanging from one of those hooks and what, exactly, it would say about her.
“There we go.” Master Wara extricated himself from a tangle of threads. One caught in his hair and he plucked at it absentmindedly. “Come—sit. If I remember correctly, we left off right about here.” The threads were fanned out on the table in front of him, and Master Wara ran his fingers over one with many knots.
In fact, the last several threads were thick with them. Nina eagerly sat across from the teacher. Finally, she would hear the rest of the story.
“As I said, the Emperor pleads for the Adviser to heed his words,and the Adviser relents. That night, he goes to confront the Girl that he loves and she denies using her attay to influence him. She tells him that she is with child,hischild, and begs him to leave with them. The Sister and the Scholar are waiting for them just outside the kancha grounds.”
Nina settled into her chair, once again pulled into a story so rich that she could almost see it. She watched Master Wara’s gaze go distant as if he, too, could feel everything.
“But the Adviser has changed. The Girl cannot find his threads, and the Sister cannot See them as before. He is no longer filled with love or free will, and not only does he refuse to go with the Girl, but he drags her to the lowest levels of the kancha, where he keeps her imprisoned until she gives birth. The Sister waits for the Girl and watches, devastated, as the Scholar’s threads change before her very eyes. She tells him he must go back, that it is his fate to accompany the Girl in her final days of life, and then to teach and love her Son like his tayta will not.”
No longer was Master Wara’s gaze distant. He was staring right at Nina, his words like arrows through the fog of denial and refusal that she had surrounded herself with.
