Court of Shadows (Indefinite Hiatus)

PART 18: AELIN

What Aelin wouldn't have given to be in an actual prison.

If Maeve had taken the High Lord's offer of a holding cell inside the manor, Aelin would have at least had something to go off of. A single walk through the house would have provided a world of intel. But trapped in those gods-damned gardens, with nothing to see but green hedges and flowers-- she had almost no information to work with.

The disorientation was starting to get to her. Aelin survived on always being one step ahead. She never entered any situation without taking a full inventory of her surroundings-- every single strength, weakness, asset, and liability. The moment she entered a room, sometimes even before, she had all the possible variables cataloged.

Now she was stuck in an unfamiliar world, surrounded by unfamiliar beings with unfamiliar powers, and she couldn't even get a rutting basic layout of where she was.

She cursed herself for becoming trapped in such ignorance and made a silent promise to never again find herself at such a disadvantage.

While plotting escape strategies in her head, Aelin reached yet another dead end and mentally crossed her current plan off her list. Ten days since Maeve had dragged her through the portal, and Aelin had yet to develop any sort of feasible means of escape.

Working with so little knowledge, everything she came up with were just shots in the dark. She felt like she was trying to grasp at straws, when all she had was a handful of rose petals.

Her mind continually wandered back to the fae woman-- Feyre. Even through the iron chains, Aelin could sense the woman's power. Magical affinities that no doubt made for quite the formidable opponent. Aelin had suspected underlying complexities during the first-day welcoming parade, but her suspicions were only confirmed once the woman had delivered the tray of food.

Aelin kicked herself thinking about it afterwards, but in that moment, she had seen something in the woman's eyes that had made her reach out. Something that she could only ascertain as an inexplicable sense of trust.

Aelin knew the second they made contact that, somehow, the woman was looking into her mind-- reading her thoughts.

And Aelin laid it all out-- opened her mind and splayed her entire story. Maeve, Erawan, the valg, the wyrdkeys-- all of it. The whole rutting shit-pile of current and soon-to-come catastrophes.

Aelin had sensed Feyre's growing panic and fear, but she only let go once her whole story had been revealed. 

She had known that Feyre would understand. 

Some unknown force had spurred Aelin into revealing everything. And now, she couldn't help the dreadful sensation that her survival might depend on a complete stranger.

Aelin crossed another plan off her mental list and started again.