89: THE HIDEOUS TRUTH

(Senera’s story)

When Senera returned, she first encountered Veixizhau mutilating Suless’s body. She’d stabbed out the old woman’s eyes and was in the process of cutting off her fingers.

“Is that necessary?” Senera asked. No sooner had the words left her mouth than she felt like a fool. This woman had almost certainly seen the massacre of that entire monastery, including her husband and father-in-law. She’d probably witnessed those events thinking she and her child would be next.

In her place, Senera would probably have dismembered the corpse and burned every bit of it, piece by piece, into ash. Yes, it was necessary.

“She died too quickly,” Veixizhau said bitterly. Her eyes were wide as she set down the knife and picked up her baby, who had started to fuss.

“I know it must seem—” Senera paused.

Veixizhau didn’t mean that Suless should have died slowly, that it should have been more torturous. She meant Suless had died too quickly. And far too easily. Suless had been a god-queen. Why hadn’t she blocked Baelosh’s attack?

Xivan and Talea were still wrapped up in each other. Talea lay in Xivan’s lap, and the two were whispering in hushed tones. Senera decided not to disturb them. There were no sense calling a false alarm if it turned out that all was as it seemed.

Senera sat down next to Veixizhau, ignored the bloody dismembered fingers and the corpse, and unpacked her Cornerstone. The question was the easiest thing in the world. Was Suless dead?

And the answer was no.

Senera felt a chill. Was that really Suless’s body? She hadn’t meant to ask the question of the stone, but realized she had as her fingers began to write.

Yes.

Senera set down her brush, pushed the inkstone away from her. “If that’s her body,” Senera said out loud, “why does the Name of All Things think she’s still alive?” Senera stopped herself. She hadn’t asked if Suless was still alive. She asked if Suless was dead. That was not the same question.

She met Veixizhau’s eyes. “What do you know? Xivan’s too preoccupied right now to pay attention to you, but as soon as that changes, she may not be in a forgiving mood.”

Veixizhau shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. She was … Suless liked to gloat when everything was going her way, and that’s how she was acting at the end. Like everything was going according to her plans. She knew you were coming after her. She just didn’t care.”

Senera pulled the inkstone back over to her. “What was Suless’s plan for surviving Xivan’s arrival?”

She planned to transfer her souls to a witch mother.

Senera blinked. Transferring souls from one body to another was possible, but incredibly difficult, which was why it typically only happened with the help of an artifact like the Stone of Shackles. “Did she transfer her souls to a witch mother?”

Yes.

Senera looked up at Veixizhau, who shook her head. “I don’t know! All the witch mothers are dead. Except … Oh no.” She looked back at Talea and Xivan with horrified eyes, clutching the baby to her tightly.

Senera didn’t have time to slowly drag the answers from the traumatized woman. “Who are Suless’s witch mothers?” Senera asked.

To her surprise, only a single name resulted.

Janel Theranon.

“Oh fuck,” Senera said.


Senera gave serious consideration to the idea of not telling Xivan the truth, but short of killing Veixizhau to keep the secret, there seemed little point. Xivan would figure out what really happened eventually.

The surviving horses had gathered in a tight cluster, not quite certain of exactly what had happened, but glad to have survived it. Other than their nervous reassurances to each other, little sound echoed through the lush valley. The air was thick with the smell of rot and sulfur as Senera walked back to Xivan and Talea. Talea had been crying; they both were still busy mooning over each other. Xivan was stroking Talea’s hair. It all made Senera deeply uncomfortable.

Senera sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Suless isn’t dead.”

Xivan looked up. “What?”

Talea sat up. “But no—you said you found her body!”

Senera nodded and made a frustrated gesture behind her. “Yes, her body is dead. Her souls are hiding out somewhere else. And she finally managed to figure out a hiding spot where we can’t reach her. So … you’ve found your granddaughter at least. That’s honestly better than it could have gone. I’ll take you both back.”

Xivan stood up. “I’m not giving up. If Suless is still alive, my work here isn’t done.”

Senera rubbed her eyes. “I already asked the Name of All Things. Suless is at the Mother of Trees in the Manol Jungle. She might as well be on one of the moons; I can’t take you there.”

“Why not?” Talea asked.

Senera waved a hand. “One cannot simply open a gate into the Manol. It is protected by a web of defenses that prevent exactly such a thing. Suless didn’t teleport there; she just transported her souls. We don’t have that advantage. Thus, we can’t follow her.”

“The Mother of Trees?” Xivan tilted her head. “Why would Suless go to the Mother of Trees.”

“Oh, I don’t think it was intentional,” Senera said. “But seriously, we should go. I have no idea how long it will before Sharanakal or Baelosh or both return, but we don’t want to be here.”

“We’re not leaving yet,” Talea said. She walked over to a wilting bush and started plucking gems from the leaves. “So you might as well explain exactly what Suless has done. If she transported just her souls, that means she transported them to something. What? Or who?”

Senera stared.

Every time she made the mistake of thinking Talea was simple, the woman pulled something like this. “What are you doing?” Senera asked, choosing instead to target Talea’s odd jewel harvest.

“Thurvishar said these were tsalis—souls trapped in stone,” Talea explained. “We’re not just leaving them.” She paused. “It might go faster if you helped, though.”

Senera scoffed and turned back to face Xivan. “There’s an impenetrable barrier around the Manol Jungle. No one breaks it short of one of the Eight Immortals. Suless anticipated that we’d successfully reach her. She planned for it. So she had a prepared body waiting. Baelosh didn’t kill her; she had already moved her souls into the prepared body and let her old body die.”

“A prepared body?” Xivan scowled. “A witch mother? But we didn’t let her keep any—” All expression fled her face, then a furious anger moved in to fill the void. “When were you going to tell me Janel was in danger?”

“Oh, Your Grace…” Senera sighed. “Janel isn’t in danger. Janel’s already dead.”

“Is she?” Talea said. “Have you checked?”

“I don’t need to check!” Senera protested. “She’s gone. Suless wouldn’t have taken her over in a gentle, kind way that allows for us to recover her. When Suless did this, she annihilated Janel’s soul—and now she’s set up shop. Your friend is dead.”

“She’s your friend too,” Talea whispered.

“No, she’s not,” Senera said emphatically. “We never liked each other. She’ll never forgive me for what I’ve done to her, which I can hardly blame her for. The only reason I ever helped her was because—” Senera paused. The only reason she had ever helped Janel was because Relos Var had asked her to. Because Janel was important to Relos Var’s plans. An importance that probably hadn’t changed.

So Suless not only wasn’t dead but Janel was.

Relos Var would not be pleased to discover that Suless had once again meddled with his plans. Despite what Thurvishar thought, Senera was loyal to Relos Var. She was. She would, absolutely would, make sure his will was done.

“You’re being either disingenuous or naïve, Senera,” Xivan said. “You know perfectly well Janel isn’t a normal person. She’s been possessed before. I rather doubt Suless would be able to destroy a soul Xaltorath could not.”

Senera paused. “That’s … that’s actually a good point.”

“So check,” Xivan said.

Senera did.

“Ha!” Talea said, pointing down at the word yes scratched into the ground. “I knew it!”

Senera stood to her feet. “I think you’re still forgetting that the same logistical difficulties that applied to Suless absolutely apply to us. We can’t just open a gate to Janel’s location. There is a magical ward that blocks our way.”

Xivan shrugged and pulled Urthaenriel free from its scabbard. “Then we’ll break it.”

Senera rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t work like that.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the black sword. “Wait. Maybe it could.” The wizard looked thoughtful. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try an experiment.”

Talea grinned. “Help me gather up all these tsalis. Then I’ll grab our supplies.”