Page 36 of Bound By Blood
She sits in the chamber's heart, so ancient she seems a part of the stone itself. Her skin has the grey-green tinge of deep cave moss, her hair is white as bone, her eyes are milk-pale with blindness.
"Ah." Her voice rustles like dry leaves. "The flame-bearer comes at last."
Drokhan bows deeply. "Honored Seer. I seek guidance for?—"
"I know why you've come, young chief. As I know why she follows." Those sightless eyes seem to bore into my soul. "Approach, child of two worlds."
My feet carry me forward without conscious decision. Power radiates from this place, older and stranger than anything I've ever encountered. It makes my Kheval markings tingle with recognition.
"You've felt it, haven't you?" Morketh extends a gnarled hand. "The pull between opposites. Light and shadow, human and Orc, healing and destruction."
"I've felt something. Connection. Like recognizing like."
"Precisely." She grasps my wrist, feeling the glowing marks. "Two magics should not merge. Human healing flows cool and deliberate, shaped by will and knowledge. Orc fire burns wildand passionate, fed by emotion and instinct. Yet in you, they dance together."
"Is that wrong? Dangerous?"
"All power is dangerous, child. The question is whether you'll master it or be consumed." Her grip tightens. "But first, you must understand what you truly are."
The crystals flare brighter. Images flood my mind, not visions, but memories. A young woman with my eyes fleeing through winter forests. Orc raiders pursuing her, not with violence but desperation. A wounded chief bleeding out in the snow. Hands that glow with healing light, saving a life and forging a bond that would shape generations.
My great-grandmother. The family secret my mother never quite spoke aloud.
"You see now." Morketh releases me, leaving my wrist burning where she touched. "The blood runs true, though diluted by time and human breeding. You are not the first to bridge our peoples, merely the first in many years."
I sink to my knees, overwhelmed by revelation.Mixed blood. Orc ancestry. Everything I was taught to fear and despise flows in my veins.
"Why didn't she tell me? My mother, my grandmother, why keep it secret?"
"Because human nobility would see it as contamination. Orc clans would see it as weakness." Morketh's laugh holds no humor. "Fear makes fools of all peoples."
Drokhan moves closer, his presence steadying. "What does this mean for her safety? For the clan?"
"That depends entirely on her choices." The seer's attention returns to me. "Power without purpose is destruction waiting to happen. You must decide what you serve. Your own desires, your human heritage, or something greater."
"I serve life. Healing. The oath I took as?—"
"Pretty words. But when the test comes, and it will come soon, will you choose comfort or courage? Will you flee back to human safety, or stand and fight for the bond you've forged?"
The bond.Our joining last night, sacred and profane and transformative. Already it feels like a lifetime ago, eclipsed by politics and revelation.
"I won't abandon what we've found."
"Won't you?" Morketh tilts her head. "When your human family demands your return? When the clan council weighs your life against their traditions? When choosing love means choosing exile from everything you've ever known?"
She's right. I haven't truly considered the cost, the full weight of defying both worlds for the sake of one impossible connection.
"Your flame will either bind or burn," the seer continues. "Forge lasting peace with our peoples, or ignite a war that consumes everything you hold dear. The choice, and its consequences, are yours alone."
The chamber falls silent except for the soft drip of water somewhere. Drokhan's breathing, steady and controlled. My heartbeat, loud as thunder in my ears.
Bind or burn. Peace or war. Everything or nothing.
"How do I choose correctly?"
"You don't." Morketh settles back against her cushions. "You choose honestly, with full understanding of what you risk. Then you live with the results."
Honesty.Such a simple word for something so terrifyingly complex.
