Ugh. Running, Sesto thought, right as he resolved he had no other choice if they wanted to intercept her. The other abbots at the Reliquary used to tease him for how light he was on his feet and how that was, apparently, not how running was done.
Huffing and puffing, Sesto slid in front of her.
She snapped her head in a tight, startled shake. “Sesto? Where have you been?” Her lips turned inward. “Did you know?”
“I most certainly did not,” Sesto said, indignant. A determined Jesstin was not a stoppable Jesstin. “But if that’s where you’re going, then let’s talk first.”
“There’s no time.” She thrust her arm toward the tent. Her face glowed red. “They’re starting any moment now!”
“Lady Elloven!” Daire’s pitched plea arrived before he did. “Please, it’s imperative I explain things to you... if you’d be obliged to listen.”
“Can we do this later, Daire?” she said. “Jesstin is about to get himself killed... again.”
“He knows, love,” Sesto said, taking her by the arm and turning her. She resisted, so he gave her a less-gentle tug, which she scoffed at. “Lady Elloven. Dear. You cannot stop this. What is in motion will remain in motion.”
“I can and I will stop it.” She wrenched her arm away. Fire flickered across her face. The wind picked up, and clouds moved faster across the dark sky.
“My lady, please,” Daire said gently. He touched her elbow, and the wind died down. “He cannot go into the labyrinth upset. And if your magic takes over when he’s in there, you will, without question, get him killed.”
Her eyes flared as she sized him up. “Me?”
“Do you trust me?” Sesto asked, only realizing the asininity of it after. She didn’t even know him. He wouldn’t trust someone he’d only just met.
She seemed poised to say exactly that, but her wild demeanor softened. “Jesstin trusts you. Asterin and Rhiain trust you. I suppose it would be shortsighted for me not to.”
Sesto sighed in relief. She was far more reasonable than Jesstin. “Then trust me when I tell you there is nothing you can do aside from wait.”
“How? How am I supposed to wait and just hope...” She flailed her arms.
“Once Daire explains matters, you’ll understand why we’re asking for caution and patience. Jesstin is different from anyone else who has done this.”
Elloven glanced at Daire, who nodded solemnly, then turned her attention back to Sesto. “What if I’m the only one who can save him?”
“Nothing you do can save him,” Daire said. “The labyrinth is warded against outside magic. You’ll only alert him to your own distress. Distractions will get him killed faster than anything else.”
“How is Jesstin unlike the others?” Elloven asked in challenge. “Because he’s not from here?”
“His enhanced necromancy, of course,” Daire said.
She stared at him like he’d grown a second head and shrugged her hands in confusion. “I’m sorry, his what?”
Sesto’s eyes fluttered closed. It was not how she should find out, but disclosure would calm her better than withholding. Jesstin could be testy about it later. “Jesstin can... on occasion... speak with the deceased.”
“Speak with the deceased,” Elloven replied, deadpan. A dull snicker escaped her throat. “Since when?”
Since before he killed your brother. “I can’t say for sure. A while. It isn’t something he’s particularly pleased about.”
Elloven shook her head at the ground. “No, it doesn’t make sense. That kind of magic doesn’t exist. If he could do this, he wouldn’t be walking around freely. He’d be at the Sepulchre. He’d be... studied.”
“It does exist,” Daire said, chiming in. “Conversing with the dead is not so uncommon, in your world or ours. People of all different magics can do it, with the right focus and environment. True necromancers, like Jesstin, are rare, but there are presently four others in the White Kingdom whom Ryquin is aware of.”
“Why is Ryquin tracking these... necromancers in the kingdom?”
Sesto hid a proud grin. She was asking the right questions, just at the wrong time. “Perhaps you can set her mind at ease by explaining what you explained to me, Daire?”
“Yes,” Elloven said forcefully. “Quickly.”
“The labyrinth is a place where the barrier between life and death is thin. It’s warded from the inside and the outside, to protect the dead and the living. Jesstin’s objective is to find the exit, but to do so, he must use his wits to persuade the dead to help him rather than driving him further into the maze, to madness or death. The dead are tricksters, at least the ones who rise up to taunt our challengers. Some of them challenged the labyrinth themselves and died doing so. Most necromancers cannot use their ability to their advantage in there, because they require focus, but the dead can appeal to Jesstin any time they want to. Isn’t that right, Sesto?”
