Page 27 of A War of Embers

“I won’t kill you, but I can’t promise this won’t hurt in some regard,” I promise.

Meredith tips back her cup and takes a hearty drink. Sweat coats her skin and the bun she’d previously been sporting is barely managing to hang on her head. Up close, there’s a beauty mark to the side of one eye, right where the lines on her face crinkle when she smiles like she’s doing currently. “You’re not what I was expecting.”

“I’ll say,” Deena grumbles as she flops down onto the mat next to where Meredith and I are sitting. The raven haired woman gives me a mocking glare. “You’re a lot stronger than you look.”

Meredith rolls her eyes. “It’s because she’s an immortal.”

“Do you know what soul you have inside of you?” Deena asks.

Meredith reaches forward and slaps her hand against Deena’s arm. “You can’t just ask someone that, it’s rude.”

She huffs. “Like you’re not thinking about it.”

These women are not what I expected to find. Apparently they respect strength and once you prove yourself able to handle them in combat, they easily enfold you into their unit.

When Deena turns her expectant gaze towards me, I sigh. There’s no point in hiding it, though I wish I could lift my shirt to wipe my sweaty face off. Lord Rowan’s angry face flashes before my eyes at the thought of exposing my neon veins that match his own.

“I have four,” I decide to answer, leaving off the cryptic bit about having five like the Blood Witch claims.

Meredith frowns. “Immortals typically only have one soul. It’s simply an exchange from the one you gave to the one you were given. Is that not accurate?”

“In most cases that's true. I didn’t choose to become an immortal, though. And I don’t know why she placed four souls inside of me, but it is what it is.” Until I find a way to purge them all.

“How does it work with having four souls?” Meredith asks.

“I told you, you were curious,” Deena taunts her friend.

“For the most part I retain my essence of who I am prior to becoming immortal. It’s like the four souls go offline and I’m able to think straight again. Prior to coming here, they were activated by my Lady. I never knew I was activated until afterwards, when I’d come back to my conscious self after delivering punishments to the District I lived in.” Although some part of me wonders if the more damage I do to the veil, the easier it will be for Lady Gwenyth’s magic to reach me.

“You were a guard then,” Deena proposes.

Oh how I wish it was that easy. “No, I wasn’t part of the guard. I was an individual entity solely controlled through the souls I house. The guards are freely giving their service, I wasn’t.” Although the stories I’ve heard about the Slayer of Cinnabar sound like I'm a willing participant.

“So you escaped Tellus to come here?” Meredith frowns. “Can you still feel the power of your Lady within you?”

No, thankfully. Everything is silent and calm. Or as calm as I’ve ever been able to remember. But I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. If immortals were controlled during the Province Wars on all battlefields, then who’s to say she can’t reach me here the next time she desires to activate me? “I cannot. Something about the veil blocks her from reaching me, I think.” I hope.

“What do you plan to do while you’re here?” Deena inquires. “Or do you plan to go back?”

I hesitate to respond. If I tell them I plan to die, then they’ll be more wary of my motives when it comes to my behavior. So I offer a half-truth to pacify their curiosity over my predicament. “I don’t know. I wanted a way to escape,” I reply honestly. “Someone mentioned the Blood Witch would help me. When I jumped into the Blood Sea and met her, she led me here.” Not a full truth. “I’m hoping Lord Rowan will allow me to stay, so I’m trying to find somewhere to fit in to earn my keep. I was thinking of joining the guards here.” An outright lie.

Deena smiles brightly. “Lord Rowan is a peach.”

She must’ve only ever been around rotten peaches to believe such a thing. “He’s intense.”

Meredith and Deena frown at me. It’s Deena who responds though. “You’ve actually met him?”

“Haven’t you? You just said he was a peach.” Why are they looking at me like I’ve been communicating with a ghost?

“Through rumors.” Deena sits forward and slaps the mat in front of me. “You’ve actually met him? Seen him with your own eyes?”

“Yes,” I hedge. Shit. Was I not supposed to have met him? Does he not usually take appointments that are thrust upon him through bouts of violence and threats? “He was working in the study.”

“You’ve seen him?” Meredith gapes.

Okay, now they’re making me feel as though I’ve done something outrageous. “Yes. Is that not common practice? How do you meet with him?”

“One of his employees hands out his orders,” Meredith says, a slight glassy look to her eyes. “No one ever gets to meet him unless they’re part of his inner circle. Very few are trusted to be part of that. It’s what each of us,” she sweeps her hand across the room to gesture towards everyone, “has been working so hard for.”

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