Starsinger

Water Plaza

Hallucination.

Aaron stirred, his mind in a fog. Everything was grey and the air pressed close, suffocating him. He opened his eyes but saw nothing. Was that Delia?

I can't reach him. There was panic in her voice. It's in his mind, woven into his consciousness.

Get it out. That was Jace, gruff, angry. Afraid.

I'm trying, she said. Tracing a spell like this is near impossible. There's no light to follow, just emptiness... It's like reading in the dark. I need time.

Trace. Hallucination. Spell.

It's not real, Aaron realized in a bolt of clarity. It's not real, only a dream. But then her face swam before his eyes once more, purple and contorted, gasping for breath, and his heart exploded in his chest.

Aaron, Delia whispered. Aaron, hold on.

It was only then he realized he was sobbing.

---

Aaron felt as if he was caught in a heaving ocean tide, drowning in nightmares. There were moments of respite when he would break through into the empty grey, gulping deep breaths of air. Sometimes he could feel green fire, burning at the edge of his awareness. Then another wave would swallow him and drag him down into the roiling black depths.

He was in the plaza again, but this time the streets were deserted. She was the only other living soul, sitting by the fountain, its yellow crystal spears casting golden light on her face as she washed her clothes and laughed. Laughing with no one.

When he tried to run he found his legs moved as slow as molasses. He tried to scream but couldn't make a sound. He waved his arms but she couldn't see him. Again, her face grew still.

The only sound was the splash as she fell back into the water.

---

He was calling out to someone. A woman.

Aaron was shivering. The black ocean was cold, and he was soaked to the bone.

When?

When I found him. In Aaron's mind, this voice was blue. He was half-mad, trying to run and screaming at the air. I had to hold him down.

What did he say?

Just that he needed to reach someone, to save her.

A low curse, and for a moment Aaron could see Jace, half bent with shoulders sagging, his fist clenched on the surface of a wooden table.

Poor bastard, he heard Jace whisper.

What? There was concern in Sapphire's voice, but that didn't make sense. She didn't care.

When he was fifteen, he watched his mother die.

---

Aaron relived it a hundred times over.

Sometimes he was young, as young as he had been that day. Sometimes he was a soldier, sword in hand, slashing through enemies to reach the glittering Old World fountain. Sometimes his mother could see him. She would call his name, reach for him, her brown eyes pleading.

Aaron, she cried. Aaron, baby.

A hundred times over, he failed to reach her. A hundred times over, he watched her freckled skin darken and heard that horrible splash.

Her heart, he knew now. Her heart gave out. Nothing to be done. He remembered hearing the doctor say it, apologizing to his steepled fingers. She had a weak heart.

It made him angry to remember it. She loved people like she was the sun itself shining down on them, he wanted to yell at the doctor. There was nothing weak about her.

Sometimes her pupils would grow until they swallowed up her eyes in blackness, like his attacker's eyes. Fatemonger. Raven. Then her face would go cold and cruel, and the look she gave Aaron would brim with hatred.

Once he was chained to a post, bound like a prisoner. "Mama," he shouted. Her back was to him, her long ashy brown hair falling to her waist. "Mama!"

But when she turned to him it wasn't his mother's face, but Raelyn's. She smiled at him and waved, holding up a shimmering white stone for him to admire.

Then there was a soft thrum and Raelyn's face froze, a red rose blooming on her chest where the razor bolt of a crossbow pricked through her tunic.

Behind her, Sapphire lowered the crossbow, eyes grim.