Page 114 of Antiletum
Footsteps in the hall outside catch my attention, pulling me away from the sight of the carriage, sitting abandoned for yet another day.
A low, feminine laugh sounds. Blair enters thespirlinaryin a fluttering of rich satiny robes, chatting merrily in that strange language with a gaggle of her smoke creatures, the whole crew complete with matching turbans.
“I thought you were leaving,” she says without even glancing my way, amused and just as ethereal as every other time I’ve encountered her.
“Not yet.”
She reaches a brow towards her jeweled turban, meeting my eye. “Not yet, or not anymore?”
Blair gives me a subtle smile, exhaling smoke from her nose. Purple plumes form into a group of dragonflies that hum into the sanctuary. “You’ve been standing in here thinking about it every day for a week. Steeping the whole Citadel in pining and indecision.”
“You watched me?” I hadn’t noticed Blair lurking about in the days since Val has been gone, but as a Madame of Whispers, I suppose she’d be well versed in discretion.
“I don’t have to watch you.” She gestures to her wispy critters proudly.
Val had said it’s impossible to keep anything from Blair because of her smoke creatures. I try to bat away a dragonfly. It only disperses around my hand—its supple body surprisingly cool for being made of smoke—then re-solidifies on my head.
Blair walks further into the sanctuary, inspecting the ornate ceiling, the pristine statues lining the walls. She strokes a hand over the head of a caracal, the tips of its long, black-tipped ears.
“How did you come to leavePanthera?” I ask curiously, having quietly wondered since the day she came to measure me for new clothes. Too much has been happening to seek her out. To want to learn about the people around me in any meaningful capacity. An easy excuse to grasp at to stay within the confines of my comfort zone instilled by my parents, unhealthy as it may be. I’ve been avoiding anyone and everyone for far too long.
Blair smiles wider. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”
She glides onto a pew, gesturing for me to do the same. I settle onto the hard stone. She takes me by surprise, gently clasping her hand around mine.
“I think it’s important to preface my story by reminding thatPantheraare a secretive people. When thedeoswere betrayed by the children ofVulpesandNoctua, the daughter ofPantheradisagreed with overthrowing their parents. WhileVulpesandNoctuamade their new governments and put their magnifying glass on their people,Panetherasettled quietly on their own. They kept to smaller communities, mostly. All in the hope that they might keep their Heartstone location secret. Different tales spread about where it rests in an effort to save it from being sullied by an Ellden clock. In the new queen’smind, she’d rather see her mother’s and uncles’ magic die than be controlled by the children who were meant to protect it.
“ButPantherawas betrayed by one of their own, and a clock was constructed. The deceiver hunted down everyone who knew of the Heartstone’s location and killed them. As well as the first queen. All that survived were too many incorrect rumors about its home. The same measures weren’t able to be taken for the other two Heartstones. Too much of civilization knew about their whereabouts. But throughout time, even theVulpesden became more of an enigma.”
Blair sighs heavily, gazing at paintings on the ceiling.
“I was born in a village in a rolling savanna,” she continues lovingly. “I had my showing when I was a very young girl. Younger than most. I was around the fire and breathed in the sacred herbs grown inPantherathat brought about healing and luck and safety. Fire razed my lungs as I coughed and choked. With each breath, a new creature formed from the smoke leaving my lungs. It didn’t take long to learn that smoke of any kind would bring about my magical friends, speaking to me in our own secret language.”
Blair takes a drag from her long wooden cigarette holder, exhaling a new cloud of made friends. She smiles fondly at them while they whisper words meant only for her. The strangest image comes to me, seeing Blair as a child inPanthera, puffing on her wooden cigarette holder. Cracking it against the other children when they annoyed her. I barely stifle a smile.
“A neighboring clan heard of my gifts. They came to see the youngmurmuraregirl who could form smoke into sentience and read energy. My father and mother were worried about the interest shown in me, I could see that. But I was too young to really ponder on it too far. You see, not everyone inPantheraadhered to the general beliefs of equality within the faction. They longed for similar hierarchies ofVulpesandNoctua, despite how hateful they could be and how they stifled the masses. Many throughoutPantheraquietly spoke of the want for power and riches. And they sought the manifestation of their greed wherever they could.”
She stares over at the caracal statue again, an unseeing fog over her gaze as she’s lost to memories, her stern voice morphed into a quieter, softer thing. “They left us alone for some time. Until one night, I was woken by commotion. Screams. Despite our territorial nature, the enemy was thorough in their strategy to slaughter. Everyone was dead or dying when I came outside. My father, missing his head. My mother, bleeding out as she crawled to me. Telling me to run. But before I could, I was grabbed around the middle, a bag thrown over my face, and I was hauled away.”
I gulp hard, horror eating through me. “This doesn’t sound like you deferred from your faction at all.”
Blair laughs, which seems like an odd reaction. “I absolutely deferred. But first, I was stolen. Only the people closest to me are aware of this. And Parliament. Because Llewellyn ven’Sol sold my story to Parliament as an explanation for why the likelihood of my being aPantheraspy was low. And why I might be a devoted spy for theNoctuapeople instead, despite the rarity of changing factions.”
This surprises me. “Val’s father.”
She smiles. “Yes.”
“And why was he the one to plead your case to Parliament?” I ask, but I can guess at her answer, knowing how he brought Val under his metaphorical wing.
“Because I was his ward. He was the one who rescued me from my captors.”
I had no idea that Blair and Val were essentially raised by the same man.
Seems as if the late ven’Sol patriarch had a habit of collecting powerful strays. Just as complicated as everything else, I’m unsure of how to feel about this man I will never meet.
“Llew was a private person. Especially after the death of his wife. He holed away in his ancestral seaside home for a lot of years, right near theVulpesborders, of no use to Parliament anymore seeing as how he could no longer use his magic with his wife dead. Or at least, that’s what most believed. Though the Ellden clocks weren’t as easily upset before, it was still precarious. Andantiletumthat would even things out hard to come by. Still, he never stopped searching for necromancers though his ability to track was greatly hindered. That was why he was inPantherawhen he found me. Enslaved for years within my own faction to help the clan leader who kidnapped me build his miniature empire. Until Llew and Heath came along and gave me another choice. On my word, they killed him, bringing me back toNoctuato work with them instead. For a much better cause.”
“If Llewellyn was irrelevant to Parliament after his wife died, how did he becomeAlter?”I ask.
