Page 74 of The Cerulean Sister
Crixa.
I do not need to turn to know it is her; I can feel it.
"Begin," she whispers, her voice like a quick strike, sending Lord Hollis forward until he faces me.
He tsks, squatting down to catch my eyes. "Such exquisite light comes from these." He runs his bony palms across my restrained hands.
I clench my jaw to keep from groaning in agony at the contact and to keep the bile at bay from his touch.
He pauses for just a brief moment, his fingertips hovering over my knuckles before he grabs my hand and, with a crunch, forces the fingers back into their joints.
The breath is taken from me, my scream so loud my own ears ring.
"You have spent . . . countless time with the Viathans’ technology. What do you think of it?" he asks as if he did not just harm me further.
I gulp on the stale air, a new sting in my knuckles taking root in the tendons.
His question looms, so odd that I think I may have misheard.
"Answer or I will pull them out. They won't go back in as easily a second time."
When he reaches for me, I quickly answer. "I . . . Most of it is unnecessary," I say, doing my best not to give any extra information.
"Did you use any of it?"
He is trying to see how much I have assimilated into their society.
"With great regret." I sigh intentionally, to pad the lie. "First Mother forgive me."
"I pray she judges you harshly."
He sounds ridiculous. I do not love every technology offered on Viathan, but there is no doubt in my mind at how, in small amounts, it can be used for good.
"Did you come into contact with any followers of the most wicked one, First Son?" He leans in.
"No."
"Do you believe that First Son is the greatest threat to the three worlds?"
"Yes," I pant.
"Do you believe that our way of life on Cosima is the only true way, the purest form of devotion to First Mother."
"I do."
"Do you believe in the teachings of First Son and his followers? Do you pray for First Mother's perpetual slumber so that her Son, the most wicked of her children, can roam free and decimate the three worlds?"
I look up at him, shocked at the line of questioning. I am being interrogated to see if I have turned against First Mother entirely. To see if I have fallen so far from previous beliefs that I have taken up with the opposition to fill the space in my heart First Mother once did.
A terrible voice cracks into the space to answer the question I cannot. "Yes. Yes, First Son deliver us. Spread yourself across the worlds. They are your domain!"
Lord Hollis straightens, his furious eyes fixed on the deranged man in the cell across from me. I hear guards briskly walking toward us and the creak of his cell opening.
The man screams as they corner and restrain him, the tattered fabric of his clothes pulling into strings and ripping as they force him out.
"Answer the question," Lord Hollis commands.
"I do not believe in the teachings of First Son."
