Diffraction

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Price of Serenity

"And though the Cities band together under Astriana's banner, we need not fear. The General can muster an army, yes. But the courage they'll need for this battle is beyond her call."

"So tell me how it works," Jahrin growled, extending another golden chunk of dried melon to Ellers.

The Aquamental lay in a stone-hard bed that until yesterday belonged to one of the miners of Stappendurn. Leather boots stained by layers of thick coal dust stood vigil outside the room, but the clothes and décor within appeared pristine, no doubt through the diligence of the mistress of the house.

Both the miner and his wife likely occupied a place in the ziggurat of flesh that stood outside the village. Kristophe and Lyllithe attended to the task of burying the bodies as best as their Refocusing magic could allow. Sizzling fat in the next room told Ellers of Josephine's presence in the kitchen. Ellers focused on the scent to forget the disturbing thoughts of the house's former occupants.

He took the piece Jahrin offered and made a show of chewing the fruit, shifting his jaw and licking his teeth inside his mouth to buy time while considering his answer.

In truth, he swallowed the piece at once and whole—a drop of water tossed at the bonfire in the pit of his stomach. For the last three hours, Jahrin and Josephine had brought a constant trickle of food and water to nourish him.

Yet Ellers felt no hint of satisfaction. Whether from the mattress or from the knife's manipulations, I couldn't say.

Jahrin sat beside the bed on a three-legged stool, a satchel of foodstuffs on a small table beside him. With disheveled hair matted from the fight and stubble thick from the journey, the man looked haggard and exhausted despite a night of rest.

A small stream wound past Stappendurn to the south and supplied the village with water both for the residents and for use in the mines. When Ellers awoke that morning, he saw Josephine and Lyllithe with Jahrin. Both women looked clean and refreshed. Yet Jahrin still seemed a mess even now.

"Did you stay with me the whole night?"

"You're changing the subject again," Jahrin said.

Ellers opened his mouth for another piece of fruit, but Jahrin withheld it. Ellers weighed his options for a moment. The ache in his belly demanded food, despite the attentive effort of his allies. But it wasn't the hunger from the last few days that weakened him and brought him to a hallucinatory state.

They're not stupid. The truth will be revealed sooner or later. I might as well control how it comes to light, if I can.

A pungent aroma of spices wafted through the open door of the bedroom, and Ellers perked up. Besides, whatever that is, I've got to get a plate of it.

"All right," he said, feigning resignation. "I'll tell you anything you want to know—whatever I understand of it, at least." Or most of it.

Jahrin raised an eyebrow and took a seat on the stool beside the bed. He set the plate of fruit on a nightstand that Ellers noted sat just out of reach for his own comparatively short arms.

The large warrior leaned forward, his face stern like an interrogator before a criminal. "First," he asked, "where did this knife of yours come from?"

"It's a family heirloom. My Ba had it, and my Daba carried it before him. I'm the eldest, so when my Ba returned to the soil last autumn, the knife came into my possession."