Page 70 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 70 -SHADAE

I t was no wonder Lord Elias looked half alive. Last night had been that grand ball, and he had most certainly, been drinking.

We had walked a fair distance away from town, on our way to meet his mother. Elias had initially suggested we ride, but I still hadn’t been able to learn how to ride a horse well enough.

Which was probably part of the reason why the scowl on his face was so deeply etched into it.

In all honesty, I was surprised Elias had even managed to awaken this early to take me here.

Unless of course, he hadn’t slept.

I peered at him cautiously…maybe he really hadn’t.

Elias noticed me watching him.

“Do you have something to say?” His voice was dull.

Please don’t fall asleep halfway through a conversation with your own mother and leave me as the only conscious one in the room.

“No, no,” I replied casually.

Elias turned away imperviously.

Sometime later, we reached a house. It was large and appeared to be stately, situated not right at the outskirts, but not too deeply within the city of Iloris either.

Elias stopped at the door and spun towards me. “She’s not entirely coherent,” he stated flatly, his eyes blank.

“Oh…” I glanced at the windows.

Then why are we here? Is she coherent enough to…help us?

But that question was pointless. We were here now, and that meant for whatever reason, Elias believed the answer to be yes.

“And don’t…” Elias started to speak again, sighing through his words.

The door swung open.

“Is it you?”

Elias’ mother was a head shorter than me. Her light brown hair was tied up, and her eyes, a bright red, glimmered with joy as they fell upon her son’s face.

“It is you.” She smiled, brightly.

Elias smiled too, but with more restraint. “It is.”

The woman grasped his hand, clutching it tightly, then used the other to cover it.

Then, as if she had only just sensed my presence, she turned her head in a staggered way towards me.

The quizzical look in her eyes quickly disappeared.

She reached out and grabbed my hand instead.

I couldn’t hide my bafflement, staring at her hands as if they were coating mine in acid.

“Hello,” she said to me, staring at me with wonder. “Don’t you look wonderful?” She eyed me up and down.

I opened my mouth and looked to Elias for salvation, but he only watched impassively, feeling, of course, that he had already explained.

She wasn’t entirely coherent.

Did she even recognise my uniform? Did she even know I was a sorcerer?

His mother was still staring at me.

“I’m Erilia,” she beamed.

“Shadae,” I said uncertainly, as if I was unsure of my own name.

It was her family, her kin, who were responsible for the fact my brothers were in chains, but here she was, holding my hand, stroking it tenderly as if I were her own child.

She grabbed Elias’ hand with one of hers and mine with the other. She pulled us towards the entrance.

“Come, come, I’ve just cooked something.”

Snatching my hand away would be rude, but being dragged along like this by her, side by side with Elias felt so unnatural, that the discomfort on my face couldn’t be hidden.

Elias didn’t seem to notice, that or anything else.

We reached a kitchen. It was small, a long narrow rectangle engulfed by white tiling. A pure ivory table sat at the centre surrounded by several chairs.

“Sit…sit.” She grinned at us brightly and hurried over towards the various pots and pans she was attending to.

Elias sat down instantly. There were only four seats around the table. Two were facing towards the woman, and the countertops, one of which Elias had placed himself in. The other two were facing away from her, towards the entrance we had come through.

I wasn’t keen to keep my eyes off Erilia, and so I sat next to Elias.

He frowned as I sat down, as if he had expected me to stand, sit on the floor, or even run out of the house.

Why are you looking at me like that, huh? She said sit, so I’m sitting.

But I realised, it wasn’t me he was frowning at.

It was the smell.

Of the food.

I squinted at Erilia, busying herself over a half-prepared meal. I couldn’t identify any ingredients that would smell…like that.

“She can’t cook,” Elias muttered under his breath.

Just as he had done so, his mother spun around, and placed two bowls in front of us of…. something.

Bits floated around in sand thin brown water, pieces of what appeared like meat and hard uncooked vegetables. Part of it was thick and sludgy, sticking to the sides of the bowl relentlessly. The rest had a sheen of oily bubbles, reflecting my widened eyes back at me.

“Oh, oh! I’ll get some drinks,” Erilia moved away again.

I slowly and subtly glanced at Elias from the side.

“Just eat it,” he whispered.

“Eat it?!” I whispered back angrily.

Elias looked up from under his brows, slightly hunched over the table.

“Look at it!” I hissed.

Elias furrowed his brows. “I can see it,” he snapped in a hushed voice.

“It’s…what even is it?”

Erilia remained completely oblivious a few metres away.

“Just do it,” he grumbled.

Before I could respond, Erilia returned. She placed a jug of water and some wine on the table. Elias reached for the wine immediately, pouring himself a glass. His mother watched him grab it eagerly and frowned, puzzled.

Don’t you know your own son drinks? Why would you even offer up wine for breakfast?

Although, as I glanced back down at the watery concoction, I concluded that I was in fact, grateful for that wine, and poured myself a glass.

Elias’s glass froze halfway up to his lips as he watched me do so. I only widened my eyes in response and lowered them to the bowl.

You think I can get through eating this without the wine?

Elias continued to drink, understanding.

Erilia sat opposite us and dug into her own creation, sipping it off the spoon, seemingly delighted.

I looked over at Elias again and found him watching me.

Not entirely coherent and no taste buds either.

Elias picked up the spoon and began to eat, I tentatively did so, raising it to my mouth.

It slid down my throat like congealed milk.

I placed my hand over my mouth instantly. It was an effort not to spit it out.

Elias coughed as he swallowed. He clutched at his glass of wine and drank some more.

I did the same.

Erilia watched us silently, her gaze full of innocence and unbridled joy.

“Do you like it?” she asked, directing the question at me.

Why ask me? Ask your son!

But her large eyes watched me expectantly.

Elias swallowed another spoon, half gagging as he did. Erilia, who was still waiting for my judgement, didn’t notice.

“It’s…” I stared. “I don’t recognise the ingredients…they’re not common, where I’m from.”

Erilia looked slightly dejected.

“But it’s…”

Likely to give me food poisoning, disgusting, genuinely unfathomable, indescribably horrendous.

“Lovely,” I finished.

“Oh! I have more!” Erilia exclaimed gleefully, rushing back to the kitchen.

I stared after her, my jaw dropped.

Elias’ concerned expression told me that he too, was dreading the extras. He glared at me.

“What?” I whispered harshly. “You told me to eat it!”

“To eat it, not… to beg for more,” he grunted.

“I didn’t!” I turned around to make sure Erilia was still occupied, then faced Elias again. “What was I supposed to say, that it’s horrible?”

“That you weren’t hungry,” Elias gave me a wonderful alternative, much to my irritation.

“I don’t think I’ll be hungry for days now,” I whispered through gritted teeth, gesturing at my bowl.

Elias sipped some wine, watching me over the glass.

“It’s bearable,” he said as he pulled the cup away.

“You’re practically choking on it!” I retorted.

“Alright, so you’re doing a better job then,” Elias remarked sarcastically, still whispering.

“Well, I’m used to eating shit,” I spat back, thinking of the food I’d eaten at the draining centres.

Elias raised his brows. My face fell.

What is wrong with me?! Does this soup have an ingredient in it so poisonous it loosened my tongue? Why did I just say that?

“I mean…” I began.

But Erilia returned.

“Here!” She placed the whole pot on the table. A variety of herbs and leaves which had just been added, were floating on top, swimming in the sea of sludge.

“I’ll have it,” Elias said suddenly, "If that’s alright with you,” he directed to me.

None of this is alright with me.

“Elias!” his mother reprimanded him. “It’s impolite to take a lady’s food!”

“No…it’s alright,” I faced his mother, “I’m not very hungry anyway.” I glanced at Elias as I used his excuse, but he was already facing back into his bowl.

His mother shrugged and poured the remaining contents of the pot into it. Elias slowly blinked and sighed as it filled up.

Can you really eat all of that?

But Elias dug in, seeming to have mastered hiding his cough more easily.

I still hadn’t finished my portion, so I returned to it. I could feel myself sweating with every mouthful.

“So…how’s your unit?” she asked Elias.

Elias sighed. “Mother…I don’t… have a unit anymore.”

I watched as Erilia furrowed her brow and scratched her head, after which, she brought her palm back down to the table.

“No…you…you do,” she insisted quietly.

“No, I don’t. That was years ago. Remember?”

Erilia’s eyelashes and lips quivered. She placed her hand over her mouth, but she quickly dropped it away again. All her movements seemed erratic and fuelled by confusion.

“I’m…forgetting things again…aren’t I?”

Elias winced, but gently. Pity and concern were in his eyes. “It’s alright.”

Erilia cleared her throat then looked up at me, smiling suddenly. “You’re…you…work for him?” she asked, her tone becoming more uncertain at the end of her sentence, as she realised she may be wrong.

“We work together,” Elias answered.

“Oh…Oh…I…but…” she shook her head, “You’re not from here.” She squinted at me.

“That’s because I—" I began explaining.

“She moved here some time ago.”

I frowned slightly but was astute enough not to look at Elias.

“Oh,” his mother said. “Do you… like it here?” Do you like working with my son?”

No and definitely no.

“Yes,” I lied, smiling.

“Ahhh, of course. They all like him!” She reached out and stroked Elias’s upper arm. Then she frowned. “Liked…liked him,” she corrected herself. Her facial expression was changing every second.

It brightened again, “He’s always made people feel at home, welcome, he’s always—"

“Stop,” Elias met his mother’s eyes. His tone was serious enough for her to cease speaking immediately. An awkward air passed through the room.

“Yes…he…treats us well,” I said hesitantly.

Elias’s head rotated in my direction.

You’re… welcome?

“He’s always so busy! Never comes to visit his parents anymore!” She turned to Elias, “Just the other day your father was asking about you.”

Elias leant back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Somehow, without knowing, without him saying anything, I understood.

Elias’ father couldn’t have asked that.

Elias didn’t have a father.

Not anymore.

“Mother –” Elias tried to speak. A forlorn look clouded his eyes.

“He’s always so proud of you! He is!” She nodded at me.

I pressed my lips together.

“Mother,” Elias repeated, slowly opening his eyes. His glance was so pained, so drawn out, that even I empathised with him in that moment.

“He’s not here anymore,” he said softly.

“Oh, I know but he’s coming back soon and—"

“No, mother. That’s not what I mean. You’re…forgetting again.”

Erilia rubbed her forehead. Her mouth twisted within the space of several seconds from a frown to a laugh, to a smile, to a frustrated grimace.

Then a quivering lips once more.

“Oh…oh…” She looked up at Elias, “I’m so sorry…I…. oh. Gods you must—"

Elias shook his head slowly as if to say, It’s alright.

She remained silent for a few moments then poured herself a glass of water.

“So…why…have you come?”

“Where’s Harlin?”

“Oh…she’s urrr…she’s outside.”

At my confused look, Erilia explained, “She’s my friend. Well, she was…my husband’s sister…she…lives here too. She…helps.”

I nodded.

“I need to ask you something. If you don’t remember that’s…it doesn’t matter.” Elias said. “But I need to know…if you know.”

Elias had never sounded this unsure before. It was strange.

“Of course, anything to help my boy.” She watched him tenderly.

“I need the sword.”

His mother’s face fell instantly.

“Mother, I know that—"

“No!” She shot up, it was so unlike her previous actions that Elias and I jumped.

“No! That sword is evil! That…that thing ! He was never the same after holding that! Never the same!”

“I know…” Elias said, “But I need it.” Elias tried to make his words sound gentle, but his voice was unmistakably tense.

I remained silent, but internally, I was trying to make sense of the situation.

This must be his father’s sword.

“Years he had that thing! You know what he did with it! And still…you…. you…how could you!”

What he did with it?

“I do know,” Elias sounded a mix of impatient and sorrowful, “That is why I need it.”

“No! I don’t want to see it…to think about it! Ever! You come here! You…ask this! You…you!” Tears spilt from Erilia’s face frantically.

“Mother…please,” Elias stood, trying to comfort her.

“Don’t!” She jerked away. “Don’t!”

After hearing the commotion, a woman entered the room.

“What’s wrong?” Harlin, it must have been, asked. Her dark brown eyes were tarred with restrained anger.

“He…” but Erilia couldn’t finish the sentence, sobbing between her words.

“I need the sword,” Elias explained. Harlin whose hands were around Erilia’s shoulders now, glowered at him.

“Why?” she asked bitterly. Then she noticed me, “And why is a tracker here?”

Erilia stopped sobbing at that. She stared at me, understanding flashing across her eyes. “You…you brought one of them here!” she yelled.

I stood and took several steps back, naturally preparing to be attacked. Since I couldn’t defend myself fully with the cursed brand upon my wrist, I needed to create some distance.

But Erilia lunged, slipping out of Harlin’s hold. Her fingers were outstretched, clawing forwards.

Elias stood in front of me.

Erilia’s nails landed on his face, slashing across his cheek. Elias flinched slightly but barely acknowledged the injury.

Erilia, realising what had happened, shook her head violently, and began trembling. She watched her son, her eyes full of disdain and confusion.

Small trickles of blood escaped from the scratch marks on Elias’ face.

The same colour as his eyes.

I shifted on my feet behind him, looking up at the back of his neck, the side of his face.

“After what they did to him! You…brought one here!" Erilia glared at me angrily, “I even fed her!”

Unfortunately.

“I asked her to be here.” Elias’s voice remained, as it had done since we arrived, vacant and tired.

“She!” Erilia spat. “You’re…”

Harlin gently moved Erilia away, who apparently, had lost all resolve once she’d discovered she had been hosting a sorcerer.

Harlin glared at Elias, “That thing was destroyed along with the rest.”

“No, it wasn’t. He never handed it over,” Elias replied confidently, “Neither did you.”

Harlin raised her brows in surprise. “How did you know that?”

“So, you’re lying,” Elias said, not answering.

Harlin laughed coldly. “Why don't you ask your sorcerer to find it for you?”

‘Your’ sorcerer…Ugh…

“That’s not how it works,” Elias retorted.

You really didn’t need to clarify that.

“Where is it… aunt ?” Elias dragged out the final word.

“Aunt now? You don’t even come to visit, but I’m your aunt, when you want something.”

“And when I don’t,” he replied, smiling falsely.

“You’re just as bad as he was.”

Erilia blinked hard several times, staring into space, not seeming to register the insult directed at her dead husband.

“Will you tell me?” Elias ignored her statement as well.

“What do you even want it for?”

“What do you think?” Elias asked.

There’s no way she’d be able to know. Even I don’t know what you want it for.

“The fact I have no idea is what concerns me,” Harlin continued to look at Elias with apprehension.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be doing what he did with it,” Elias’ voice was bitter.

“How have you got the gall to—" Harlin started.

Elias’ voice rose. “You don’t own that blade. It was his, and by rights, it is now mine. Tell me where it is, and I’ll leave. You don’t have to worry about me visiting again for a while.”

“That blade shouldn’t belong to anyone,” Harlin snapped.

“Which is all the more reason why you should have handed it in, but you didn’t. Why didn’t you?” Elias tilted his head and raised his brows.

“You know why,” Harlin hissed.

Elias stood patiently. I was behind him still.

“It’s at the lodge.”

Elias nodded and took a few steps towards his mother. She was on the ground now, crouching. She gradually raised her head as he approached.

“I’m sorry I upset you, but I’m doing…” Elias halted then laughed and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter,” he said quietly.

He spun around and walked away, striding past me swiftly. I followed hurriedly, I didn’t want to be left alone in a room with those two women, even for a moment. They clearly wanted me dead.

Elias walked as he always did, in long strides, so that it was an effort for me to catch up to him.

When I finally did, I stood to his left.

His face was still bleeding.

“Ur…your…”

Elias kept walking but bit out a, “What?”

“Your face…It’s still—"

Elias rolled his eyes. “It’s nothing.”

He began walking faster.

“Can you…slow…down.”

Elias didn’t slow down, instead, he came to an abrupt halt.

I hadn’t expected that, so I walked a few steps ahead of him and turned around.

“You wanted to walk,” Elias reminded me.

“Yes, but…I can’t…” I waved my hand around in the air, trying to find the words.

Elias’ eyes flattened, as if he had expected, and grown accustomed to how long it took me to form sentences.

“We didn’t get to exercise much,” I explained.

Elias moved his head to the side, glancing at the ground, then continued to walk. Slowly this time.

“So…this sword…” I put to him.

He sighed deeply. “I’ve long suspected something about it. I want to confirm it.”

I hesitated to ask the next question. Normally, I wouldn’t have but…he had stood in front of me.

He also made you eat that…concoction.

“Why…didn’t you do it…before?” I asked tentatively.

“Do you need to know that?”

“No but—"

“Then stop asking questions. I’ll tell you what you need to know, that’s all you need to remember.”

Can you really blame me? The intensity of that conversation with your family about that blade would make anyone with a brain cell curious.

I was about to thank him then, for defending me, when I realised he was part of the reason I wasn’t even fully free.

Thank you? No, that’s ridiculous. Besides, he doesn't seem like he’d be in the mood to accept thanks, or even expect it at all. But then…shouldn’t I try to make sure he has a favourable impression towards me? I suppose the only reason I’m out of that cell is because of his favourable impression of me. Wait…Is it favourable? Or just not…unfavourable?

I changed my mind, I faced him, opening my mouth to speak. He was watching me.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

“I…wasn’t—"

“You're terrible at controlling your facial expressions,” Elias said bluntly, looking away.

How would you know about that? You never even try! Not that you’d need to, you can get away with whatever you want to, ‘Lord’ Elias.

“I was just going to say…thank you…for…getting me out of the cell and for the…” I gestured to the left side of my own face.

Elias’s face twisted in a complicated mixture of emotions I couldn’t understand.

“It took you that long to think of that?” Elias said, suspiciously.

I frowned and turned away. “I didn’t know if I should, or if you’d want me to.”

“I don’t want you to.”

“So, you can understand my dilemma.” I gave him a side glance.

“There is no dilemma. I don’t want you to thank me, from this point onwards.”

I shrugged.

Easier for me. I didn’t even want to thank you anyway.

“Are we…going there now?” I inquired.

“Not now, later.” Elias replied.

“Oh…”

“What is it?” Elias asked reluctantly.

“No, it’s only that…you…look…”

Elias abruptly stopped walking again and faced me.

“Stop being so petrified to speak around me. You can say whatever you have to say. I've already told you that.”

“I…” I glanced at his dark boots. “It’s hard for me to believe you.”

“What exactly is it you’d think I’d do if you said something I disagreed with?”

Anything? I don’t know.

“Do you think I’d kill you? Is that what you’re worried about?”

I faced him, lifting my chin up. “No.”

“No, you’re not worried about that, or no, you don’t think I’d kill you.”

“I don’t think…that you’d kill me. But I…can’t be sure.”

Elias took a step towards me. “I’m not going to kill you. I don’t just kill people because of something they said for fuck’s sake. I also have no intention of sending you back to the draining centres, even if you do start to become a problem, I’ll just use another Navigator. So, say what you want to say.”

“As long as it isn’t ‘thank you’…” I replied.

Elias squinted and huffed a dry laugh out, although there was little humour in it.

“As long as it isn’t that,” he drawled.

I nodded then. I closed my eyes as I told him. “You look…terrible. You look as if you might fall asleep on our way…there.”

Elias started laughing. “That’s it? That’s all you were going to say? Gods, I thought it was something awful.”

“That would have been enough to get me killed as a Vessel,” I retorted dryly.

Elias peered at me. “You’re not a Vessel anymore.”

It’s not as if I’m much better off.

But no, despite his promise, I wouldn’t say that.

“In here” — I tapped the side of my temple— “I am.”

Elias’s expression grew thoughtful. He shook himself out of it and reassured me, “I’m capable of the journey. You won’t need to carry me back.”

I grimaced slightly.

How would I even carry you? You look as if you’d weigh five of me.

“Was it the ball?” I asked as we began to walk again.

Elias grunted in confirmation.

“What was that like?”

“Awful,” Elias replied.

Oh sure. Dancing, lavish costumes, food, and wine. Terrible.

“It was,” Elias insisted as he noticed my doubtful expression.

“It’s for the Courting Season?”

Wait, wait, this is strange, I’m making casual conversation with you, I should stop.

“Fucking joke,” Elias rolled his eyes again.

“Why do they still hold it then? Didn't they limit cross breeding between the Kingdoms several years ago?" The questions slipped out, despite my previous resolution to stop talking.

Wait… Asking him questions about Vasara's decrees, this is a bad idea, I—

But Elias only spat out, “Politics, alliances, money.” Each word festered with contempt.

I raised my eyebrows in quick flicker as if to say, That makes sense.

We continued onwards, back into the town centre and the Palace, the rest of the way in silence.

Elias approached some of the guards and returned to me.

“We’re taking a carriage, follow me.”

And so, minutes later, the two of us sat face to face inside a ruby decorated, golden, lavish carriage, drawn by two horses, and two coachmen.

It was cramped but spaced out enough our feet weren’t touching.

“What is it? That you suspected about it…the sword?” I decided to ask.

Elias, who had been looking out of the small window in the carriage, turned towards me slowly.

“That’s relevant, isn’t it?” I challenged him before he could try and tell me it wasn’t.

Not disagreeing, Elias faced out the window again as he replied, “My father wasn’t…well. He never had been. His moods were…erratic. He was prone to…Anyway, that’s why I wasn’t sure, after what happened with that blade, but…”

I waited patiently for him to finish. My fists clenched tightly on my thighs.

“After you got yourself arrested…”

Got myself arrested? Seriously? You think I went up to the guards and begged them to cuff me and throw me in a cell?

But Elias didn’t notice my irritation. “After that, they showed us the talisman on that guard’s body, and I recognised the mark. I’d never seen it at any other point, nothing like it. It made sense, even you didn’t recognise it as a cursed mark, not the way you did on that corpse we found.”

That was true, the mark on the talisman and on the corpse had been different. Although there were vague similarities, it was as if the mark on the talisman was a small fragment of a larger whole. The one on the talisman had almost looked decorative, floral, like a leaf vine.

Its design was undoubtedly a deliberate attempt to disguise its true purpose.

Elias faced me again, his eyes flickering with an inner frustration as he spoke.

“That mark. It was on my father’s sword.”