“I am sorry Ashyn,” the Exemplar whispered compassionately.
His voice paper-thin, he squeaked, “You know who Julietta is?”
“I have always known.”
Anger filled him. He yelled, “Then why have you never said anything? For winters, I’d been living with the thought that my sister was dead, when you’ve known the whole time! You’ve known how to contact me and let me know she’s safe! That’s she’s alive!”
He shook his head as rage extended to every fiber of his being. “I’ve trusted you! And you let me go on thinking that she was dead while she was being tortured, mutilated, and probably worse!”
She whispered weakly, “I did it to protect you both.”
“Protect me!” he roared. “I am a Recreant now because I’ve given up everything to save her! There is no safe haven for me no matter where I go! I’ve made this choice because I felt I needed to get her away from the Ferhym. Now you’re telling me that at any time you could have bestowed this information upon me and you chose not to, to protect me?” He turned away disgusted, “Fuck you.”
Ashyn heard her sob, but he didn’t care. He was livid beyond his own understanding of the word. He wanted to hurt something, someone. He was willing to sacrifice everything for his sister, and in some ways he had. Now the Exemplar told him she knew the truth of his sister and chose not to share it. Still beside himself, his tone suddenly shifted. Meekly he asked, “How? How would this protect me?”
Her voice trembled as she spoke, and Ashyn listened as Relm explained, “Twice. I tried to reunite you with your sister, and twice I failed. The first time was at the waterfall, before I marked you. I tried to communicate with you, and even with the wizard, but you didn’t understand me. I tried to make eye contact so I could show you, but you avoided me.”
Ashyn responded flatly, “Xexial told me that the elves told him that Julietta was dead.”
“It is true, they did. When I tried to interject, I was talked over by Elumin, or just ignored. And because we couldn’t communicate, I couldn’t tell you the truth of your sister.”
“And the second time?”
“Czynsk. I was placed on Whísper’s vanguard to identify the wizard, and any other potential skewers. I was allowed to take a small contingent with me, and for that, I nominated Julietta. They allowed it. I wasn’t certain you would arrive with the wizard, but I knew you lived, and I knew you had gone to Czynsk as a child. I hoped that you would be there. After we arrived, and I identified you, well Whísper made the connection first between you and Julietta, and she made other plans.”
“And you did nothing to stop those plans, did you? You let my sister be used as bait. Food for Bristle Wolves, to lure me out.”
“I didn’t know!” she swore. “I was immediately sent back to Feydras’ Anula, under guard by her most trusted huntress, after you left with the wizard. Whísper denied me my entourage so I knew something was happening, but I didn’t realize that she remembered that Julietta was your sister. It was a decade past, and so much happened in her life after that singular moment.”
“You could have warned me before; you had eleven bloody winters to do it in!”
Though he couldn’t see her face to know she was crying, he could hear the trembling of her voice. “Wards.”
“What?” he asked.
“You were behind a wizard’s wards. Our connection cannot penetrate a wizard’s wards.”
Ashyn was astonished. His own tower had denied him the truth from the Exemplar all this time. When she spoke again, she was much quieter.
“After Whísper returned, she was in no condition to talk about Julietta. By the time she was, Brodea was already aware of her and aware of the connection. It was as I feared all along. Identifying your sister to you had now placed her in danger. Up until the moment you recognized Julietta as your sister, the Council of Elm could not confirm that she truly was a dui Nuchada. Because of this indecision, members of the council would not let her be killed, but they wouldn’t let her go into the world either. She would have to remain watched until such time that her true nature itself became known. So they kept her here, safe in the fields, for the last eleven winters.”
“But they burned out her eyes…” Ashyn cried.
There was another prolonged silence. “Her eyes were lost to Julietta in the forests of the Shalis-Fey. No Councilor or hunter was responsible for her going blind.”
Ashyn felt all his rage leave him. He asked in a low voice, “They haven’t tortured her?”
“I’ve kept an eye on her almost every day since we were children. No one in Feydras’ Anula has ever laid a hand upon her in harm. I cannot say that they have been friendly or kind, because they have not, but no one has ever tortured her. The cause calls for the balance of nature, Ashyn. Not for the punishment of children for no reason. While I don’t agree on many things with the Council of Elm, most of them are not the monsters you think they are. Julietta never displayed the propensity for magic like you have. And without her eyes, no Voïre dui Ceremeia can peer within her to see what she truly is. That is why she wasn’t killed for being a dui Nuchada.”
Ashyn’s legs grew weak and he fell to the ground, or whatever it was in the dream state. “Then Xexial was right. I should have gone to the Seven first. I never should have come here. Julietta was safe.”
Ashyn felt tears building up; his face grew hot, not with anger, but with shame. He betrayed his master, condemned his life, endured torture, and his sister had been safe the entire time. He failed Xexial, and now he was failing Julietta.
“She is not safe any longer, Ashyn.” Relm told him. “Brodea knows, and come the week’s end when the council convenes, they will know. When Brodea starts torturing her, you will do everything you can to stop it, and they will see the truth. Julietta is a dui Nuchada. They will have no choice but to swiftly balance this skewer that has been in their midst for far too long. That is the power Brodea will hold over you. For only she can stop the execution of Julietta, if you translate the book for her.”
Ashyn buried his face into his hands in defeat. Brodea was going to win. Ashyn would have no choice. She was the reason he was here. She was the only reason he cared to draw breath. If Brodea took that away from him, it would destroy him.
“She will not bluff with this, Ashyn,” Relm said as if reading his mind. “This is it. If you refuse to translate the tome, Julietta dies, and then you will die too.”
Ashyn whispered, “Then Brodea has won. I won’t let my sister die.”
“I know.”
“In a few days, this will all be over and I will unleash the Netherphage.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“I read enough,” he admitted, not caring anymore. He failed. Ashyn failed everyone.
“Then it’s time you read all of it.”
Ashyn lifted his head up in surprise.
“I have a plan. We,” she corrected, “have a plan. But first I know you’ve been planning as well. Tell me, and tell me why you need me to help guide you back to magic so badly.”
Ashyn felt his chest grow tight. The Exemplar had help, and he was fairly certain he knew who that help was.
“And Ashyn, if we’re going to make this work, call me Relm.”