“Hey, you should have warned me about him. You told me you had no family and that your parents were dead.”
“Yeah, because I never thought you’d meet my brother!”
“Or your sister, or your mother and father?”
She clenched her chest and sat back down on her legs again. “What?”
“The codex was hidden in your cellar.”
“Please tell me this is a dream…”
“Come on, Jezz. I wouldn’t have thought of you any differently if you’d told me you were royalty.”
“Easy to say now that you know! All of this brewing in the matter of days! When I was gone no less!”
“I hate Rufian more than the next guy, but—”
“Rufian?”
“His alter ego.”
She rolled her eyes. “Now this all makes sense. I was wondering how you managed to get all of this done. He was your source. Honestly, I am shocked he didn’t just steal the shards and back stab you, literally.”
“He wanted to, but couldn’t. Seeing as the dungeon core is inside me, she refuses to let her shards go. Something I learned while being in his genocidal presence.”
“So you know what he planned to do and you still helped him?”
“Of course not. I only realized it later, about the time I found the codex.”
“For a second, I thought your views on the other races had changed.”
“They haven’t. And… I hope yours hadn’t either?”
She sighed. “It’s hard to see things clearly right now. Especially after… well, you know.”
“Look I get it. Dragons aren’t making friends with anyone right now. I’d love nothing more than to storm the castle and take down everyone in it. After hearing what they’d done to you, it’s taking everything in me not to teleport over there and do just that. But we need to play this smart. We have to be strategic about our next move.”
She frowned. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Silas. I was just… ashamed and afraid.”
I grinned. “You don’t need to apologize to me, Jezz. And you have nothing to be ashamed about. But after all of this is said and done, I was hoping to get a job at the court as your personal chauffeur. A peasant like me still needs to pay the bills.”
“See! See!” She squeaked, but I was just messing with her.
At least she got a kick out of it, leaping into my arms and snuggling close. “I did a lot of soul searching in Lucyna’s subcells. There were so many prisoners, Silas, mostly human, but others orcs, goblins, and fae. When we were down there, we were all seen as the same—toys for the dragons to play with. It wasn’t orcs vs humans, fae vs goblins, or goblins vs orcs. Just races suffering together. I saw children, babies, women, and elders. They looked so hopeless, starved, frail, dismembered, sickly. Down there, I realized that we were fighting for more than just ourselves. We were fighting for the freedom of all the oppressed, for the right to live without fear of being enslaved or killed for someone else’s pleasure. When I saw how all the races tried to work together and push through, then I understood it was hate that was holding us back. I know I was against saving everyone else before, but being within those walls really opened my eyes. I started to see what you meant, Silas. Mama Kar’s message was clear. In order for us to move forward, we needed to become one.”
“I hate that it took something so fucking horrible to happen for you to see that, but you don’t know how happy hearing that makes me, Jezz.”
“So, what are we going to do, now?” she asked, looking up to me.
“There’s a lot to do, and a lot to think about. For one, I thought that securing the shields would help the dungeon core feel better, but all of the pieces are needed for her repair. It’s either they are all there or they are not. We aren’t slowing down the clock by having two out of three requirements.”
“That worries me. If Mama Kar continues to weaken, then wouldn’t Lucyna become more of a problem? She still has a way to stalk her thoughts, right? Remember what Mama said to you in the spirit world?”
“How could I forget?” I sighed. “That’s another thing to keep in the back of our heads. If that wall Alzera has to prevent Lucyna from diving into her mind weakens, then she will find me, and if she finds me before we are ready, then it’s game over.”
“Lucyna is hurt, her great warrior escaped, and the security of dragons everywhere is shot. We should use this time to hit them hard.”
“I’m with you there. But knowing Lucyna, she’s going to go after the goblins for what they did to her people. And when she does, that’s when we will strike.”
“Hmm, considering if news spreads that fast.”
“They do when we have a wise orc shaman on top of everything. I’ll just tune into Etorl news.”
“And what about my brother? Do you know where he is going to be next?”
“If I know Rufian, he’s going after the Deo. The asshole is dead set on killing them all. Even though enforcers have caught them, he believes that Clave would break them free. I have to be in Rufian’s mindset and think ahead…”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say he was sure that Clave would work his shadow magic and free them. Not only is Clave a nuisance in general, but Rufian can’t move forward with his own plans knowing Clave is alive. The asshole can manipulate curses, and Rufian will be generating curses with the Grimoire. Rufian needs to neutralize Clave first, so he will head to their next checkpoint.”
“And that is?”
“I saw the list that had their hits. It was brief, but he might be heading to Weppin. If we find him now, we can avoid the genocidal maniac from turning Thalian into a curse landfill.”
END
Thalian World Map
