Page 60 of The Sunlit Man

“You already let that voice do that,” he said. “So why care if we control you or not? Why care if we’re lying or not?”

She fell silent, letting him work a little longer.

“I don’t belong here,” Elegy finally said. “I can feel that is true. That other one, she expects something from me. But I’m not that person she sees when she looks at me.”

“What person are you?”

“One on fire,” Elegy said softly. “Burning with the fight. I…can’t explain.”

“Your entire body feels alert, tense, on the edge of panic. Something inside of you rages, like a storm, pushing you into motion. To action. Sitting still is agony. You need to move, to fight, to be running or struggling in some way.”

“…Yes.”

He looked up from his notes, meeting her eyes. “You’re right,” he said. “You aren’t the person she thinks you are. You probably can’t ever be that person again. You’re going to have to find a new way, both of you.”

“Let me free.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Will you attack me again?”

“Probably,” she admitted. “But you feel it too. You described it. We could fight. You and I. Struggle. Move. Be alive.”

“Not interested. Thanks.”

She’s charming, the knight says.

Rebeke soon returned with Zeal in tow. Using his device, they knocked Elegy unconscious and reset her chains. Zeal watched with curiosity as Nomad dismissed Auxiliary.

“How,” he asked, “do you control that shade? Shouldn’t it try to kill you?”

“Auxiliary,” he replied, “is a little different from your shades. He doesn’t attack with glowing eyes or a deadly touch. He uses sarcasm instead, and it’s far more painful.”

Excuse me, the hero interjects with a voice not the least bit sarcastic. I state facts. How you take them is purely up to you.

Zeal nodded to Elegy. “You sure you don’t want me to take her back to the prison?”

“He’s helping her,” Rebeke explained. “Zeal, shespoketo us, like I told you.”

“Never heard a Charred do that before,” Zeal admitted. “Well, all right. I guess I’ll leave this here.” He set the control device on the desk.

“Appreciate it,” Nomad said.

“What’s that?” Zeal asked, nodding to his notes. He leaned incloser. “Guns? On the ships?” He whistled softly, picking out the scale.

Nomad nodded. “I’ve got a little more experience with weapons than I do with boilers.”

“Do they need to be thatbig?” Rebeke said.

“We’ve picked the biggest, bulkiest ships to ascend over the mountains,” Nomad explained. “It’s what we need to carry all your people. But it means that once we emerge from the darkness and try to open the way to the Refuge, we’re going to be easy prey for the Cinder King.”

“Unless…” Zeal said.

“Unless we bring some serious firepower,” Nomad said. “And hit him with something he’s never seen before.” He sat back, holding up his notebook. “If your ancestors really can fabricate anything, given raw materials and schematics, then I see no reason not to go big. These should work with sunhearts as power.” He closed the notebook. “But they’re irrelevant for now. Unless we get over those mountains, nothing else is going to matter.”

“What are our chances of doing that?” Zeal asked. “If you had to guess?”

“No idea,” Nomad said. “But better than zero, which is what we’ll have if we stop moving.”

Further discussion was interrupted by a sound echoing through the city. A horn being blown. That was unusual, since the Beaconites typically tried to keep the flying town as silent and invisible as they could.

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