Page 37 of Destinies of Diamond
Frowning to myself, I left the guards and went deeper into the temple. I knew it wasn’t a coincidence, not exactly, but I wasn’t sure why.
Tanya Renard had to have the answer. If she had collaborated with The Grand Judiciary on an experiment like I believed, she’d be able to tell us more about Selene’s current condition. But would she agree to do it?
Probably not, so I had to wriggle the answers out of her through a different method.
I couldn’t force Tanya’s hand or hurt her. Selene would never forgive me. Tanya was among our few supposed allies and I didn’t have a lot of proof for my claims. She wouldn’t talk to me civilly, since she hated me for what I’d done to her daughter. That left me with a single option, continuing to spy. I had no idea how long that would take, but there was no other way.
I needn’t have worried, not about this, at least. The sound of a familiar voice drew my attention and I followed it, pleased that I’d had some good fortune today.
Tanya was talking to another woman, a priestess I recognized as the famous Sister Yolanda. Hidden outside her office, I eavesdropped on their conversation.
“Are you sure about this, Tanya?” Yolanda asked. “Maybe we should just tell The Grand Judiciary.”
“Absolutely not. I forbid it. They can’t be trusted, you know that.”
“They’re the ones who encouraged her conception in the first place.”
“That doesn’t matter right now. Not anymore.”
“Tanya, be reasonable. Even if you hate The Grand Judiciary, you have to admit we can no longer control this situation. I know you love Selene, but at this rate…”
“Selene is my daughter. She can still be saved. I’m sure of it.”
“She’s carrying the child of a Sun-Blessed and she’s losing her mind! I understand your pain, but our duty is first and foremost to Gaia.”
“I thought that too, at first, but I realize now that it’s wrong to look at the problem from that perspective. Gaia is a mother as well. I think she would understand my point of view.”
“Even if that point of view involves killing your daughter’s baby?”
The sharp question chased away all the photons in my bloodstream and froze me in my tracks. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’d expected Tanya to be hiding a messy secret, but this kind of plan? Never.
Tanya showed no regret or hesitance regarding her decision. “It’s a pregnancy that was forced on her and she’s not well enough to decide to keep it,” she told her friend. “It’s my duty as a mother to make sure that thing she’s carrying doesn’t destroy her life.”
When she put it that way, I couldn’t exactly disagree. I had forced this pregnancy onto Selene. But on the other hand, I’d never pushed her into keeping it. The Great Mother believed our child would be important, but even so, I couldn’t have brought myself to steal more of Selene’s freedom than I already had.
I would never be able to convince the High Priestess of that and if I did try, I might make matters worse. No, I’d heard quite enough for now. I needed to warn Selene about what her mother had done, and not just because I wanted to protect my child.
If I wasn’t mistaken, she’d mentioned her mother had given her something to help her control her powers. The herbs in questions were likely meant to induce a miscarriage. And while Tanya might be powerful on Terra, she had no idea how the biology of a Heliad actually worked.
The pregnancy would have been taxing on Selene even under normal circumstances. With intervention from outside factors, it could kill her.
Struggling not to panic, I retraced my steps and made my way out of the temple. Several times, I came very close to being discovered, but my luck held and I escaped without being spotted.
Now, to deal with my immediate problem. I had no way to contact Selene from Terra. I didn’t have time to worry about myself or about staying under the radar.
As soon as I was outside New Washington, I focused on the one thing I had left, on the one power that had never disappointed me. “Helios, please. Take me to her. Help me speak to her.”
I burst into flames, every cell in my body turning into photons. At the back of my mind, I could feel the power of the Spire urging me on.
The second part of my plan was even more dangerous. I’d always known I could rely on Helios, but my patron deity couldn’t help with everything. My hopes now lay with an old friendship, one that might not survive the lie I’d been forced to tell.
I felt the moment I entered the artificial atmosphere of Tartarus. The shields around the asteroid were still present, if not as powerful as before. In my incorporeal form, I couldn’t distinguish much else. The sensors around the base would have normally been able to sense me, but the recent damage to the generators would have short-circuited at least some of them. Or so I hoped.
I was relying on something very vague, but I didn’t have any other choice. Selene’s life was at risk. If I was caught in Tartarus, so be it. I didn’t look forward to the torture and experimentation The Grand Judiciary would put me through, but it would be worth it for her sake.
The next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes in the familiar cockpit of a certain chimera. Even without being connected to her, I felt her shock and apprehension. It was only for a second, and then, her voice echoed in the cockpit through the barely lit displays.
“Jared,” Zephyrus said. “I’d say it’s a surprise, but it isn’t, not really.”
