Page 82 of Destroyer

“Good morning all,” he said, nodding at the academics and blatantly ignoring the Children. “I thought your team should be first to know. This morning we received a pigeon from the palace. Though I am not following your work on the artifact closely enough to have been privy to this knowledge,” — he shot a glance of admonishment at Ru — “it seems that, as of yesterday, you’ve made some kind of major breakthrough. So major, in fact, that as of this morning, the regent’s advisor is on his way to the Tower to witness said progress in person.”

“Lord D’Luc?” said Ru, hoping she had heard wrong. “Coming here?”

“Yes,” confirmed Cadwick, “and with only a few days’ notice. I suppose you thought it best not to keep your professors apprised of your progress down here?”

Archie and Gwyneth glanced at each other.

Ru’s brain whirred with heightened anxiety. They had made no progress. There was only the horrible mistake she had made in speaking to the artifact, in obeying the Children’s orders. It hadn’t been a breakthrough, it had been madness. But if the Children had sent for Lord D’Luc, then her suspicions were correct — whatever they had seen, their eyes glittering dark, was exactly what they’d been looking for.

An uneasy weight settled in Ru’s gut. Would he want her to replicate the experiment himself if he knew the truth of it? If he knew the destructive possibilities, the death that lay in the wake of that thin sheen of darkness? It didn’t matter – there was no world in which she would replicate it for Lord D’Luc. She wouldn’t dream of even attempting such a thing.

Ru turned to Inda, Ranto, and Nell. They were still half-shadowed, watching Professor Cadwick with expectant expressions. She had to put a stop to this, to whatever the Children might share with Lord D’Luc. She took a breath and put on her best cheerful but confused face, looking around at Cadwick and the Children.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” she said. “We haven’t made any major breakthroughs. Unless Lord D’Luc sees determining the physical density of the artifact asmajor, then I fear he’s been misinformed.”

Inda stepped fully out of the shadows then, her expression serene. “On the contrary, Miss Delara. We witnessed something extraordinary yesterday morning. A reaction. The artifact seemed to have been… activated, in some way. This is a major step toward discovering what it is. What it does.”

“I’d agree with you if that had actually happened,” Archie cut in, to Ru’s relief.

“Yes, the Children seem to be mistaken,” Gwyneth said, in a sweet but determined tone. She twirled her hair around one finger. “We attempted a new experiment yesterday, which was rather… unorthodox, shall we say. The Children themselves requested it. Ru tried speaking to the artifact, you see, to determine if it would respond to human voice. But it didn’t. The experiment failed.”

“And Ru was sick anyway,” added Archie. “She couldn’t have put pencil to paper, let alone produce a major breakthrough.”

Professor Cadwick adopted a thoughtful expression, directing his gaze first on the research team and then the Children. “Delara, you were sick?” he finally said.

“I fainted,” she clarified. “I didn’t eat breakfast.”

Fen nodded along as the others spoke, submitting his agreement, making no attempt to communicate with Ru. The artifact, at least, thrummed reassuringly against her consciousness.

“I see.” Cadwick shrugged, apparently convinced. “There you have it, then. Inda, Ranto, Nell, shall we send a pigeon to Lord D’Luc? It appears there’s no need for him to travel all the way to the Tower for a misunderstanding.”

“Do not worry yourselves,” said Inda, and her impassive face — off-putting at the best of times — sent a chill down Ru’s spine. “We are certain of what we saw. Lord D’Luc, as you call him, will be eager to see the replication of your experiment when he arrives.”

Professor Cadwick frowned. “If he’s hellbent on it, we can’t deter him I suppose. Though I do hope you’ll warn him that you may have misunderstood the—”

“We didn’t,” interrupted Inda.

“Very well, very well.” Cadwick turned his back on the Children and said to Ru, “Don’t fret. The conclusions you’ve already drawn will no doubt be fascinating data for the regent's advisor to pore over.”

With a smile and a nod, he hurried out of the dungeon.

Uneasiness rolled through Ru like a sickly wave. It was still so strange to her that Lord D’Luc led these people, so inhuman in their mannerisms. What had happened to the animated Children she’d seen in the palace? Lord D’Luc, by contrast, was so vibrant, so charismatic, and thoughtful, that the disconnect was vast enough to be farcical. She wondered when Simon would respond, and hoped it would be soon. She hadn’t heard from him since his first letter of warning.

And now, she realized with a weight in her stomach, despite Simon’s attempt to protect her, everything would be revealed in three days. It would be immediately obvious to Lord D’Luc that every detail, every description she had sent in her weekly updates, was nothing but a lie. She didn’t want to think about what would happen then. He would alert the regent, and the research, the artifact, would fall out of Ru’s control entirely.

They conducted the last of their tests in research phase one, as if the day previous hadn’t happened at all. As if Ru hadn’t nearly vaporized the dungeon, her friends, possibly even the Cornelian Tower.

Ru moved by rote, her mind flitting from one thought to the next, each more troubling than the last. She was afraid to probe for the artifact, to move a thought against its presence in the darkness of her mind. Even so, she knew it was there — she could feel it, always.

To worsen Ru’s day further, Fen seemed to be avoiding her. When she went to his station to ask for a spare notebook, he handed one to her wordlessly, not meeting her gaze. While Ru would normally have joked with him, made excuses to touch him, casually brush against him as she passed, every time she came near him, he moved away. As if she disgusted him.

He said he still trusted her, but beyond that… had she lost him?

By the time evening fell, everyone packing up their stations for the night, Ru’s disappointment and hurt had curdled into resentment. Fen had no reason to avoid her. She had been just as frightened as he had yesterday. She needed reassurance. Support. His distance was confusing, painful, and cold. If he had made a mistake in almost kissing her, as she’d thought… then he should have said. Been honest, outright with it.

It was pure bad luck that as Ru packed up her desk, her fingers slipped and she dropped a glass vial. It shattered on the floor, tiny shards of glass scattering across the dark stone.

The Children were filing quietly up the stairs, just behind Archie and Gwyneth. None of them seemed to hear. But Fen, still at the foot of the stairs, stopped and turned back.

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