Page 212 of Children of Fallen Gods

She had long ago sawed away the pieces of herself that fell victim to panic, but this — this is a struggle. She had always been certain that her visions were real. Now she realizes that the threat is breathing down their throat.

The inhuman man blinks, mumbling something slurred. Nura grabs a broomstick and strikes him over the head, hard enough to make him go still. The Threllian jumps away, startled. Nura is breathing hard.

A decision falls over her.

She has the opportunity now to prepare. To study her enemy. And more importantly, she may now have the opportunity to create something powerful enough to destroy them.

She will take this threat, and make it a gift.

She straightens. In a fractured mix of Aran and Thereni, she tells her Threllian man that this is to remain a secret, for her knowledge and hers alone.

That night, she writes a letter to someone she never wanted to speak to again — Vardir Israin, imprisoned in Ilyzath.

I never thought I would write these words,she wrote,but I will be needing your help.

* * *

Even though Nurais expecting his betrayal, she is furious to come home and find Zeryth with a crown on his head and his own war already in progress. He betrayed her before she could turn on him — smart of him, perhaps, but for the stupidest, most selfish reasons.

Nura’s loyalty pact means she cannot slit his throat in the night like she wants to. But at least his war is giving the Orders more power, albeit slowly. And she does not need to lift a finger against Zeryth in order to cull him. The thing he wants most and the thing that will destroy him are the same.

He has already started experimenting with deep, dark magic in order to craft the curse that holds Tisaanah’s life — how he managed to dothatall on his own, Nura will never know — and it is easy to coax him with more of it. He wants to win his war. He wants to win Ara’s crown. And most of all, he so, so desperately wants their respect.

All Nura gives him is exactly what he wants. Magic. Powerful, inhuman magic, pulled from her experimentations with Vardir. Even she does not understand why Tisaanah and Max, due to their exposure to Reshaye, are able to handle it so much better than most. But Zeryth is only human, not even modified as the Syrizen are to raise his tolerance. The more he tries to be something more powerful, the weaker he gets.

Nura hands him the power he craves, and watches him use it to slowly destroy himself.

The war goes on, and Zeryth withers, and Nura studies in the shadows, looking to the horizon, watching, waiting. Working.

And still, the visions grow more vivid, every night.

Until months pass, and the threat has arrived.

* * *

Strange,the paths that life takes.

Nura thinks this to herself as she stands in her office, a silver bowl in her hands, Max and Tisaanah staring at her expectantly.

She is out of time. The things she saw destroying Max’s home, ripping Syrizen apart, cement that. Her nightmares have arrived.

She is so, so afraid. She does not trust herself to weave words that convey all that she needs them to understand. They hate her. Of course they do. She has done unspeakable things. There are no sentences she can string together that would make any of that better.

And so all she can do is open herself up for them like a dissected animal, her insides pulled apart. Everything within her rails against it. But she has spent her entire life learning how to sew closed every single gap inside of her. Words will not be enough to tear it open. And she needs them to understand — she needs them to understand what is coming, and how much she needs their help. She needs them to understandwhy.

It is Max who approaches her first, looking at her with a wrinkle between his brows. She wonders if he knows he has worn that expression since he was a child.

Perhaps here, in her memories, he will find a shard of something familiar in her, too.

She offers them the spell, and with it, her thoughts, her dreams, her regrets. Her soul.

And prays it will be enough.

Chapter Seventy-Two

Max

Istaggered back.

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