Born into the cut-throat Autumn Court, Eris Vanserra had been surrounded by monsters his entire life and spent most of his time scheming for the crown his cruel father still possessed. His world is thrown into chaos when an unexpected source gets to...
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ASTRA
My lungs are filling with water
I disdain all glamours and gold
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold
The sound of Cormac clearing his throat for the hundredth time broke the eerie melody of his song. Rather than let him make it to the next verse, Astra interrupted. "Must you sing such a depressing song? Besides, Eris is a far cry from a jolly sailor."
"Do you wish for Eris to console you?" Cormac shot back from where he lay on the sandy ground a few paces away.
"No," she huffed with indignation. "I wish to bury a spear so deep into his mind that the truth will seep out with his blood."
Another grating question from Cormac was inevitable. "So, you've decided to believe Akar then?"
She didn't know what she believed at this point, but she didn't want another debate over it. "If Eris were searching for you as he'd said he was, I doubt we'd still be here."
"It's only been a day, Astra. Don't give up on my brother yet."
A day hanging in chains like a slab of meat in a butcher's shop felt more like an eternity. She'd stopped being able to wiggle her fingers hours ago.
"You gave up on him," she said with a humorless laugh.
"But from what you've told me, he's been different. Better."
With no one else for company and sleep chased away by intermittent daemati attacks on her mind, Astra had been trying to fill Cormac in on all he'd missed over the past months. When she ran out of things to say and got lost in her own despair, he filled the silence with ridiculous sea shanty songs. He might have had a good singing voice if his throat weren't so dry and scratchy.
"It's already been established that I'm a naive fool, so I'm not sure my take on Eris is reliable."
Cormac, she had learned, was good at sensing when a change of topic was desperately needed if he wanted to avoid crawling over to wipe her angry tears away since she was unable to do so herself.
My lungs are filling with water.
"For Cauldron's sake, sing something less depressing," Astra said with an exasperated groan. "That song doesn't even make sense."
"I learned it in Stormrun. My father used to send me there when he tired of torturing me. Being stuck in that miserable town was a different kind of torture, but I found many of the poor locals were remarkably skilled at singing and dancing around the taverns. I believe they stole the song from human sailors and rather unsuccessfully tried to twist the words."
When Astra didn't reply and closed her eyes, Cormac started up again with a more upbeat tune.
