Imprisoned in the Orinovan priori labs, Ainreth undergoes torturous treatments daily in an attempt to crack the code to lightweaver creation. Things seem hopeless, until unlikely allies join his side to help him.
Meanwhile back home in Lys-Akkaria...
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Ainreth groaned as he woke up, his eyelids too heavy to lift. He wanted to go right back to sleep. His body just felt drained, oh so drained.
He could hear people talking softly nearby, but he couldn't understand the words they were saying.
What had he drunk to feel so dead? Then again, he didn't have a splitting headache or the need to throw up. He was just too tired to exist while his heart was squeezed with dread.
But why? What had happened?
Ainreth groaned again as he finally managed the impossible feat of cracking his eyes open. He expected he would have to squint, but his surroundings were actually very dark.
He squinted at the figures in front of him, watching him through...bars?
Wait.
He sat up, his head spinning as he looked around, trying to steady himself with his hands. Except his fingers wouldn't move. He looked down, his insides lurching when he saw the hand clamps.
Ain's eyes flicked back over to the people watching him. Them and their white hair.
Oh sunder.
It all came rushing back to him then. His fight against Fenn, Daryan's army, then against Orinovo's army too, his syphoning of the sun directly to burn them and protect the people he loved. Fenn....
Ainreth's eyes stung. Had he managed to save them? Or had he been captured and Lys-Akkaria had been decimated?
"Where am I?" he demanded, glaring at Neven and Yarima. Neven stared back blankly.
Why wasn't he gloating? What in the moon was going on here?
"You are in Diramisk," said the former Kapetan, a very slight grimace on his lips. "In the...dungeons, to be more specific."
Ainreth took a deep breath, trying to pull himself together. Right. That didn't necessarily mean anything. But it was better than hearing that he was being held in Lys-Akkaria by Orinovo, and all those implications.
"And the battle? How did that end?" Ainreth asked, needing to know. He was willing to beg them. He just wanted to know that Fenn, Petre, and everyone else was safe for now at least. Even if Ain wasn't there.
Yarima smiled sadly. "You saved your country again."
Ain sighed in relief, closing his eyes for a moment. He couldn't even make himself question why she was smiling about that, or what she was even doing here. Last he'd seen her she'd not been on the queen's side.
"Indeed. You murdered quite a few of our soldiers," Neven grumbled half-heartedly.
The fact that his heart wasn't in it was too much for Ain not to frown at him. He went to pull himself to his feet, but he didn't even make it halfway before his legs got too weak.
