Talentless

Verdict

           I watched the golden flecks in my eyes flicker by the dying evening light. The chains feel cold against my wrist. Medea might be sobbing. Inside, I was screaming. Even with all my senses numb my heart was still beating, waiting, like the first drop of rain bulging in the clouds.

          "Is...is this true?" This was not Glauce's voice, but Semele's.

          The drop fell. It was filled with acid and penetrated blisters and skin and bone before touches my heart and flies through the other side. Semele. Please. Please.

         "Yes." This person speaks with my mouth, wears my face, but is not me. Her voice throws off the walls and I hear it, but I cannot stop it. I can't even bring myself to open my eyes and meet Semele's face. 

          And I hate myself for it.

         "I killed him." No, please. Please. 

         "I was trying to defend myself. It was dark and I was scared and heard footsteps. I picked up the sword using telekinesis---" My voice bulged. It was as if I was so scared that my mind was seeking every happy memory so everything would not fall apart. Semele's smile. The waterfall and the lilies. Meeting Kesler Dizznee and his wife. What was her name? Juline? Even Elwin, as silly as he was, seemed of hope. I kept going.

          "And...well...you know." I gulped. How would these people know what happened to their sweet little kid? "I'm scared of myself. I keep getting memories and bad nightmares. I'm scared of everything I do and everything that's happened to me. I'm not supposed to exist. If this penalty is death, let it be mine and not someone else's." Did I just say that? Was that what I was willing to accept? Death? I thought of the human books, the cruel ways people were executed. I thought of a giant axe that would swing. But there was no going back. "Please, just to keep everyone safe, accept this."

          Time seemed to stand still. I closed my eyes, waiting. It was like bloodbending the rat and waiting for the blood to fall over the ledge and drown me. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting...

          Councillor Emery's voice was of stone. They broke every shield I held to keep out the screams. "Take her away."

          It felt like eternity. Blood was pulsing so hard in my ears I thought time was chiselling them to points. Whatever warmth that had accumulated between my goblin bodyguards and me was dust---their eyes seemed to want to focus at anything other than mine. Finally, Semele came in, closed the door behind her.

          "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU LITTLE---"

          I recoiled. This was the first time she'd raised her voice on me.

           "Is...is the court case over?"

            "No," Semele sighed. She sat herself down. She looked so small. "Emery called for recess. Everyone's too shook to continue." I bowed my head. Even if she struck me, I would allow it. She did not. Semele stood and sat next to me, holding my hand.

           "Look, I've felt what you've felt. I won't be lying when I say I've had my fair share with death. You were brave today. Leave the rest to me today, alright?" She hugged me tight, and, I felt too small as well. A church-bell like noise sounded. 

          Semele shook her head and dismissed herself, closing the door silently behind her.

          Semele appeared an hour later, accompanied by Atalanta and Atreus. 

          "How was it?" I asked, my voice raspy from disuse. I didn't know the punishment for patricide. Probably because it never happened in the elvin world. The Council would never execute a fourteen-year-old, would they? Though, just by the fact they believed my confession, there's no saying what they could do. I'd heard of Exile, the place the Council sent the people who were too dangerous to be kept living in the outside world. That place was at the center of the Earth, designed to make you go insane. That's the worst thing that can happen, I assured myself. I lose my sanity in a prison cell. 

          She shook her head. 

          My heart sank. I knew it. 

          "You're banished forever." she whispered. "Anadil---"

          I leapt up from the bench, the goblin guards drawing their swords. I didn't care. I just hugged Semele, hoping to never let go. Semele really outdone herself defending me. Exillium was the best thing I could ask for, even if it was a life sentence. I did not know much about them, only it was for the dishonored. I would be the first Vacker at Exillium, probably. I was a disgrace. But it didn't matter. I finally popped the question. I'd been sitting at the bottom of my stomach since I was taken away. "What about Mother?" Semele looked at me.

          "After you confessed? Probably cleared of all charges."

          "Oh." So my confession did help. Lady Glauce would survive, and, since the whole case was confidential, be cleared of almost all gossip. She would remarry, have another child. Maybe it'd be a son, and he'd be a prodigy with nice hair and blue eyes and a good person and everything I wasn't.  

         How would I live at Exillium? I relied on Semele my whole life. Even when she was busy organizing with the goblins she still had to come and take care of me. I wouldn't have survived a single day without her guiding me. Then I thought about the little sticks of incense that were in two little boxes. Fourteen years, plus a little more. In all those years, as little as they were, Semele taught me everything I need to know. How to grow my own food. How to cure sickness. How to listen to the wind and read the sun. I got myself into this problem, and I need to grow and face the world now. I love Semele.

          "You'll be starting Exillium tomorrow."

          Glauce barely acknoledged me as she packed.

          I wasn't even sure where she was going. From what I heard from the gnomes, she made arrangements to move into Atlantis. She never talked to me, only lifted her head to gesture me to fold up a black cloak, give her an odd-looking hairpin. The black cloak had a big, white eye sewn on the back. 

          The silver blood was gone now, color had returned to her cheeks. Her eyes were a normal teal, almost too normal. I could almost forget what shade of ice blue they flashed to. I'd never seen Glauce happy, and I thought this was as close as it could get. It was like Jacen was a kind of rock she was dying to put down. She turned to me, almost with a glitter in her eyes. She held dark crystal to the light. 

          Her eyes flashed ice blue.

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          As Anadil's light glittered away, she could've sworn she heard the call of a moonlark.

End of Part One