Radiance

Chapter Sixteen

“To the faithful you show yourself faithful,

To the blameless you show yourself blameless,

To the pure you show yourself pure,

But to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.”                                                                              

Psalm 18: 25-26

Tamar ran down the corridor looking for something familiar, something to indicate it was her room, thus finding Eliors’ nearby. Each door looked the same and she was sure she’d come too far. Her head swung left and right as she ran. Suddenly she realised how she could recognise it. His door would be opposite hers, directly opposite. Every other door had stood alone along the hallway but, what felt like a lifetime ago, he’d told her he would be just across the hall. She just needed to find two doors facing each other. She ran a little further to check she was far enough then went back on herself. Sure enough, four doors back she found two identical doors face to face. Just to be certain, Tamar quietly peeped into the room she believed had been hers and there sat the giant pillow she’d slept away the hours in. Closing it behind her she faced his door. Her nervousness peaked and it took a few painful seconds to make her cross the little corridor and raise her hand to knock. Her knuckle rapped three times on the wood but no response. After a deep breath, rationalizing with herself that this was not an excuse to run away, she knocked again.

“Elior.” She said softly but firmly. “It’s me. Please, let me in.”

*

Elior stood over his desk, spokeshave in hand and surrounded by wood shavings. He needed to do something productive to distract his thoughts, but still he saw her. She was there, printed on the insides of his eyelids. No amount of manual labour would get rid of that. His tree top platform could be a masterpiece of craftsmanship and still with it finished he wouldn’t have worked that girl out of his system. He slammed down the tool in frustration and threw himself into the chair. He forced the palms of his hands on closed eyes and tried to rub the image away. She’d looked so peaceful as she slept when he’d checked on her that first night. It was in that moment when he’d decided to try again, try and save another soul from corruption. There had been so many before; young and old, male and female, lost and lethal. Over the years Elior had grown cold to constant deception. Too many times he told them the truth and when push came to shove they let him down, they made the wrong choice. Disappointment became a constant companion. Occasionally he had managed to simply scare the curious away before they even entered the wide gate but other than that they had all Fallen, every one taken in.

But Tamar had been different, he was so sure. He’d seen her hesitate after crossing the bridge, seen her fear in the forest. She tried so hard to please him and he couldn’t understand why. Why would anyone ask for this life? Yet he saw glistening moments of a strong will in her, a determination he knew gave her a fire in her belly to think for herself. But she hadn’t. How dare she betray him after all he had confided in her? In times gone by this process had happened in a no more than a day. Elior had trusted too fast and then killed to silence his longings being revealed. But this had never happened before. His charge had never got away alive once they knew the truth.

He still couldn’t comprehend how he’d left the Night Ball without striking. She probably revelled with them all night, intoxicated with laughter at his humiliation, it made him sick with anger. For two nights now he had removed himself from their mocking gaze trying to decide what to do, where to go. But tonight he would still attend the Masquerade, there he would decide his next move. No one appeared to fear him less but it could only be a matter of time until he became undermined. And he supposed, almost hoped she hadn’t completely sold him out to the Sept with all she knew of him. Not yet anyhow. For a long time now the beasts had never spoken to him unless spoken to and this pattern still seemed to continue. So he had heard no news of her.