Page 17 of A War of Embers

“What day is it?” I ask, turning towards where Alyvia is drying a set of plates.

“The fifth,” she answers immediately. Frown lines deepen on her face. “Why? Were you under the Blood Sea for long?”

It’s morning then. Or getting close to midday with how diligent everyone is working. “No.” I must’ve left Halley’s in Cinnabar closer to midnight or a little after. Time moves the same here it seems. Maybe I’m wrong then and Lady Gwenyth hasn’t called upon me yet to notice I’m gone.

“Keres?” Alyvia says my name, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Is something wrong?”

“No. It feels like more time has gone by.”

“When was the last time you slept?” Zeke’s dull voice asks as he turns his body to face me, his empty plate forgotten on the counter.

The question takes me off guard. Usually I sleep every few days, but it’s been longer. Too long. I can identify where I was for every moment going back several weeks, but that feels wrong. Surely I’ve slept in that amount of time at some point?

When I don’t immediately respond, he flicks an eyebrow up. “You don’t recall?”

“Immortals operate differently than mortals.” It sounds defensive even as the words slip out.

Zeke huffs a strangled sounding laugh. “Right.”

Alyvia gawks at him. Apparently he’s not usually this friendly or chatty based on the pure shock radiating off her face. Quietly she steps forward and takes his empty plate, handing it off to the person currently at the sink.

“Char is protective of you,” Zeke comments. “He doesn’t like most people, but you call to something in him. Maybe one of your souls is a kindred spirit.”

The tentacle arm without a face told him this? Doubtful. “Really? He didn’t speak to me.”

Zeke doesn’t smile or talk as though he’s superior and I’m dumb for assuming a tentacle can talk. He merely shrugs his large shoulders with a contemplative look on his face as he stares at me. “Char is telepathic. He has to be, what with living under the Blood Sea. He acts as a conduit for me to be able to relay information here if anyone makes it past Sereia.”

“What exactly is Char?” I ask.

Alyvia flinches, her shoulders shrinking in on her small frame as she hastily dries a dish.

Zeke has no such reaction. “A monster.” For a moment he grows silent. “A giant squid is probably the easiest translation to his being. He guards the Blood Sea.”

“Not the Blood Witch?”

He actually smirks at me. “No one guards the Blood Witch. Why would we? She chose to be insular during the Province Wars.”

I frown at him. “She’s the Lord of Monsters and the Lord of Shadows mother.”

Everyone chooses that moment to tense in the kitchen, as if my assertion is crude. Zeke easily waves away my remark. “As if that makes her entitled to being called a mother when she had no hand in raising the children. They have nothing to do with her and vice versa. She only calls upon them when she needs to threaten someone to do her bidding.”

He’s speaking as if the twin boys Sereia gave birth to are still alive when I know one is dead. Franklin’s warning lulls in the back of my mind about the son left alive with only a piece of his soul, but his heart missing. “But the Lord of Monsters is dead.”

“Is anything ever really dead when you have the Cliff of Embers at your disposal?” Zeke hums, a cruel smile tilting the corner of his lips. “Maybe on your side of the sea those that die stay dead, but over here? Monsters come in various forms. Not all are creatures that prowl in the night. Some are far sinister. Darker than anything your mind can conjure.”

“Stop trying to scare her,” Alyvia admonishes.

Zeke turns his head and glares, though Alyvia doesn’t seem to be scared of him. “She’s immortal, from the wrong side of the sea. The only thing she seeks is to die, correct? Why else would she come all this way? Char found her anger to be of interest because not many people are ready to die yet she tried to complete an impossible task.” He whips his head back in my direction. “Whoever turned you into this clearly forgot about the willpower that lingers long after the soul is removed. It kills your ability to die with your original state, but does not dismiss who the person is.”

A scoff leaves me. Zeke must have few interactions with immortals if he truly believes that nonsense. Every fiber that bound our mortal soul to us is severed, creating a divide. It’s like knowing what an emotion is because it was felt and suddenly being dull to it. While I can still experience emotions, just like my anger at him right now, it’s not the same as it was before. Without having gone through the process of losing his soul, Zeke has no idea what it’s like to be an immortal.

“You don’t agree?” he taunts.

Does he want to pick a fight right now? Is this why everyone thinks he’s a dick? “Lose your soul then come tell me how it works.”

A collective intake of breath can be heard from the kitchen staff. Zeke merely shakes his head with a bored expression. “Maybe one day I will.” He tilts his head. “Then again, if I’m able to tell you, wouldn’t you have to be alive to do so? For someone wanting to die, maybe don’t promote challenges you have no wish to keep up with.”

My back teeth clench once again. The air seems to vibrate in the room, rattling everything right as the awful taste of ash floods my mouth again. Fuck. The weight of my blade I left at the door suddenly descends in my hand; a horrible screeching noise as the blade drags against the tile at my feet.

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