The Matriarch's Daughter

Chapter Twenty-Three: Sacrifice

Thepa watched Rory's green eyes drift back and forth across the briefing pages. Part of her wanted to scream. Two days of frantic waiting, three months of unanswered letters, and there she was, calmly flipping through the report like she'd been there the whole time. No explanation. No apology. Just... reading.

Thepa's first instinct was fury. Long, aching hours spent hoping for a glimpse of her sister through the crowd. And now Rory sat here, already inside, as if she'd been here the whole time and Thepa had been the one late.

And yet, another part of Thepa couldn't help but be impressed. If there was a way to dodge the confrontation building between them and still show up for the mission, Rory had found it. As it was, all she could do was trade glances with Claudia as the others filtered into the room, taking their seats, before picking up their mission briefs as she awkwardly offered a rundown.

The next twenty minutes passed in near silence, the only sounds the occasional scrape of parchment or the shift of armor against a chair. When she was sure the team had read the notes twice, she leaned forward and broke the stillness.

"Thoughts?" she asked.

Lily leaned back in her chair, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Why can't we get a simple smash and stab mission?"

Had the tension been more relaxed, Thepa might have laughed.

"Any constructive thoughts?" she added.

As the silence lingered, Will set down his quill, his confusion evident. "So, what exactly is our directive here? Are we just supposed to gather intel? No extraction? No direct target?"

"That's the gist of it," Thepa said, her uneasiness growing. "We go to Bellmouth Abyss. We find out what's happening. And if there's a threat... we take care of it."

"So, we will need to be stealthy?" Vivian asked.

"Stealth first," Thepa said. "Adaptability second. We'll teleport to the Lightmount-controlled ionic crystal, head to the goblin stronghold, find the cave, quietly eliminate the guards, and make our way inside without being detected."

Will shifted in his seat, "I don't see any other possible plan that could work. This whole thing stinks worse than a recruit after a week in the field."

"I know," Thepa said quietly. "But this is the best intel we've got without doing it ourselves. Until then, there's no better plan."

Silence greeted her once more. No one disagreed, but no one looked satisfied either. Instead, she stood up, nodding.

"Alright. Rory. You're on."

Rory stood without a word, not even a glance. She stepped to the center of the room and raised her hands, fingers weaving through practiced motions, lips parting in quiet chant. Pale light coiled around her, wrapping her in soft spirals of magic. As the spell built to its crescendo, the air in the room grew taut, humming.

Thepa watched her closely, trying to reconcile the woman she saw with the sister she once knew. The Rory who sat at her bedside after she was ill in her younglinghood. The Rory who danced barefoot in her foster mother's kitchen, her laughter echoing around the shallow walls. That Rory felt far away now, swallowed by whatever choice she had made, her a liar, betrayer, and coward.

When the final word left Rory's lips, the magic surged. As the energy swallowed them all, pulling them toward their mission, Thepa could only think one thing.

She greatly missed her sister.

The group arrived without incident. Thepa consulted her map and deduced that the cave was north of the rocky hills ahead. As the group set out in that direction, they walked in silence. Now and then, Thepa thought she caught sight of something in the distance, but dismissed it as a figment of her imagination, with the oncoming rain, her earlier assessment about the sky being right.