Caged Source

Chapter Six

Tarron

I stared Rimi down, waiting for her to break the silence. She was punishing herself, that much was obvious. Kieran had already pointed out that she should not have been out of mana, even in her cell. She had access and unless she was purposefully avoiding the mana, she shouldn't have been at the point where she was empty and her well was feeding off of her life force.

I'd dealt with a lot of criminals. The guilty ones often did not feel true remorse or regret, did not feel the need to be punished.

The ones who wanted to be punished - the ones like Rimi - usually hadn't actually committed any crime. Of course, that was a generalization. But as I watched Rimi, seeing her replay the most painful night of her life, I would put money on the fact that Rimille Maza had not actually done anything wrong that night.

"We can do this later," Kieran spoke up, breaking the stare off between Rimi and I. "We have time, and Rimi needs to rest. Start gaining some weight, practice with her magic. We don't need to rehash this now."

"We do. It needs to be now."

I understood Kieran was trying to protect her and give her time to acclimate. But I could see she had given up, and if we let her stay in that stays, if we did not push her and help her start to realize she had done nothing wrong, there wouldn't be a fae to help us when the time came.

Rimi's hands were trembling when she raised her bowl to take a sip of broth. She broke eye contact to drink and after setting the bowl down, stared over my shoulder. Her eyes were unfocused, her eyelashes fluttering but never closing. I could feel her magic wrapping around her like a barrier. I wondered if she knew she was doing that, or if the instinct to protect herself was just so innate.

"I was too late to save them."

It was a whisper, and if I hadn't been waiting for her words, I would have missed them. My companions got silent, all of them even holding their breath for a beat. For a moment, the only sounds in the garden were of the wind and animals.

"Who were you to late to save, Rimi?"

"My family. Theoden. By the time I got home, it was too late, too late, too late. Someone had already hurt my parents and sister. They were hurting Theoden, and I couldn't stop them. It was like my magic just."

She pauses here, her gaze flitting from over my shoulder to her hand which she had clenched into a fist. There were tears running down her cheeks, but her voice was steady. Strong.

She was quiet when she spoke, but everything about Rimi commanded attention. Her magic was overpowering, and it was laced in everything she did, even in her voice. The magic helped to carry her words so that even at the low volume they sounded strong and demanded your full attention.

"Was just gone," she finally continued, releasing her first. A few gold sparks flew from the tips of her fingers at the action. When they landed on the ground, new flowers bloomed.

"You were 13. Of course you froze. That's normal when you see someone hurting the ones you love," Atlas tried to gently console, tracing one finger along the edge of the cloak nearest him.

"No, that's not what I mean. I didn't freeze - it was like my magic was locked inside of me, like there was a door between me and the well. I could feel it, but I couldn't touch it, couldn't use it.

"My sister, she died first. Her whole arm had been torn off, a huge hole in her chest. I don't know how she survived as long as she did. As soon as she saw me, she pushed her well into me and died. She didn't even have time to say anything, I didn't even get to say goodbye!"