Sun's Heart

Chapter 24 - A Monster's Cage

The crystal dangling from her fingers glistened in the candlelight. Gale lowered it and cleared her throat. "Uh, thanks. I've...always wanted a rock."

"Ha!" Dain shouted, startling her and Sani. He swallowed his grin, abashed.

Wil showed her a similar one strung around his neck. "Dain had an accident."

"Makes it sound like I pissed myself—"

"He nearly killed us, so I thought it appropriate to take a souvenir in the eventual case he forgets about his humiliation and needs a reminder."

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh. I see. Why does it feel—"

"It has the footprint of the lightning spell that created it," Dain said. "Talaris made sure it never disappears so I can actually get some decent sleep and study it."

"Talaris made this into a relic?" She hung it around her neck with a skeptical arch to her brows.

"He gave life to a pillow."

She grimaced, recalling the sick unease she'd felt radiating through her as the feather-rabbit had touched her. She looked to Sani. "Sani, why was it such an awful thing for the tonafang to have souls? You've been killing them for centuries."

The willowy woman, dutifully holding up a wall of their new temporary quarters, shifted her weight to the other leg and avoided eye-contact. "Exactly. They are as important to our way of life as water. It is the worst imaginable crime to attack our own. We do not even kill our criminals, we cast them out. To know tonafang have souls...They suffered like animals, and we have done all we can to destroy them."

Dain murmured, "Well, it's not exactly one-sided."

Gale nodded, adding, "They hunt your nusitti and attack your camps. They kill the children just like they kill men and women."

"The hawk hunts mice and waits for them to leave their homes. It kills the injured and ill as it kills the healthy." Her face screwed up, tears appearing at the corners of her eyes. "Who were these Minyai, to die for living in pain? If we had known..." She took a deep breath and finally met Gale's eyes. "We would have asked for the academy's help long ago. Talaris was able to tell us everything after minutes of observation."

Wil cleared his throat. "About that, I've never heard of an ensoulment rune. And he didn't pull through a relic. Dain, how is your father able to use black magic?"

"He's a black mage. Obviously." Wil stared at him. He rolled his eyes. "Alright, don't get excited. You now know as much as I. I don't know Talaris very well. Oh, don't give me that look," he said to Gale as her heart swelled with something close to pity. He glowered darkly. "He won't answer your questions until he thinks you have to know the answers. As of now, we're nothing more than nosy children to him."

"So he won't take us seriously," Gale sighed.

"I wouldn't say that. Unless we convince him we're absolutely essential to his plans —and make no mistake, he has plans— he will continue to brush us off or feed us the bare minimum."

"I mean, he told us about the..." Gale glanced at Sani. He'd said it was a dangerous secret. "You know. Wouldn't that mean he already trusts us?"

He frowned at her. "That's what I said. He trusts us. He takes us seriously. He simply doesn't think we need to know his plans. We're like some sort of side-show to him. A momentary fascination, then he's off again."

"How long ago was black magic lost?" Gale inquired softly.

"Four centuries ago." Wil frowned. "Why was black magic 'lost?' He can't be the only one who knows it, and why hasn't anyone else appeared who has its affinity?"