Is it possible to wrong the beast that keeps its fangs at your throat?
You’re no better, Vargrún,Auryn thought before she could control herself.
Cold sweat broke out on her nape. Her skin sandpapered with gooseflesh.
The next time his voice came, it was closer. Sharper. Like the rasp of an animal's breath right at her ear.
An answer. At long last. Emberling, your voice in the Bond, it is—
He took a breath, and when he spoke again, his voice was deafening.
EXQUISITE.
It took all of her self-control not to flinch at the hunger in that single word. The overwhelming fear that forced her body into a shudder at the victory in his tone. Void help her. She hadn’t meant to answer him. Foryears, she’d tried never to speak back.
Only to break now? In this moment?
She clenched her hand into a fist so hard her nails dug into her palm.
One predator in her mind and one standing before her.
One she called madness, and one she labeled ‘Father’.
You pity the one who looks so much like your Resh’Agar, and yet you feel no empathy for the one that has given your Silari the strength to wade through war. To come home to you unscathed.
His strength is his own!
Her nails dug harder into her palm. Anger rose up like bile in her throat. Raw. Fierce. Unchecked.
Again, she’d answered.
Damn it all.
She turned her full focus on Shu’Khan. Forced herself to count the twists and turns embroidered in gold on his ethereal robes. She thought back to the temples. The blood. The children. How theyneededher right now.
“Father,” Auryn cleared her throat, steadying herself. “I came because you summoned me. But I need to raise a serious matter.”
He didn’t speak. Not yet. Just stood before the roaring fluxhearth, his silhouette bathed in shimmering orange and blue.
“The Council is not following the Writ of the Ninth Lattice,” she continued. “Assistance to the temples in the Commons is being withheld. While the Companions swim in luxury — bathing in the rarest Lustrals — our People are dying.”
Shu’Khan nodded,slow and solemn. The flickering flames reflected in his iridescent eyes, evoking images of far-off stars and time-forgotten magic.
“Spoken as a true and noble leader,” he said at last. “We are proud,ilphara.The next Council session is nigh, is it not? We shall attend.”
Her breath caught.
“You will?”
“You have Our word.”
Her eyes narrowed. Suspicion flared, quiet but keen. “But the moon cycle is nearly upon us. With your affliction, will you still—”
“We will attend,” he said again, silk-soft, his voice wrapping around her like warm velvet. “This is a matter of grave importance.”
He turned back to her now, the folds of his robe whispering with every step. “You sacrifice much,” he reminded her. “Even when your own condition burns your body with fever. Do you not? How then could We do less, when Our ownSokârleads by such radiant example?”
Radiant and blinding. Like a dying star shining in its final moments.
