The One Who Was Chained

6

A thick fog obscured most things from our view. But a tower, tall and black as death was not easily missed. It looked almost exactly like the last one, but I knew there was something different about it. Mairen and Klika landed, claws clipping the rocks. She paused, looking around for something. Someone. I circled the island from above, but the mist limited my ability to see much of anything happening below.

"Mairen?" I called out.

"Better view from up there?" She responded. I let out a sigh of relief. Nothing had happened to her or the wyvern. I swooped down with as much grace as one could muster with limited visibility, crashing into Mairen's shoulder.

"No, not really." I regained my control, circling around her. "Anything out of the ordinary down here?"

"Nothing. It's strange," She began pacing across the slate, "He should be here."

"Finn?" Mairen only nodded in response. A silence came over us for a long time. Even Klika stilled, as if sensing the uneasiness in the air.

"Eleven years ago, Finn took everything I had away from me." She whispered. "We were the best of friends. Then he killed one of the Councilmembers. Joan Arthurs. He put her in chains and sunk her to the bottom of the well. And I was framed for it." I could feel her dismay, her anger rising to the surface. "I was framed for it because I could summon chains. It was easy enough for them to suspect me. I was the only one who could have done it, at least in their eyes. They took my power away from me after that, and only after nine years of devotion and service and the pity of the Council was I able to be granted some of it back. But it wasn't the same. No. The chains are long gone. But my rage is not."

"What wonderful, moving words, Mairen. Too bad no one else was around to hear it." A voice as sharp as glass pierced the silence. It was not hers nor mine.