Season 2: Episode 9 – The Gathering Storm

This series contains mature themes and is intended for adult listeners.

>Begin Porta Cor imprint. <

I’m restrained against the wall of my cell.

There are people here other than guards. Some of them have more insignia than others. They wheel in a machine they have used on me before. I wish this were over. I am so tired.

One of the human males approaches me calmly. “You understand why you’re here.”

He doesn’t ask, so I don’t answer.

He paces back and forth slowly in front of me as though thinking his words through before he speaks them.

“When you told Kerrinne to burn Teithia, what were you telling her to hide?”

I don’t answer. He continues walking without looking at me.

“You didn’t think she would get out of the city alive with our troops all around it, did you?”

Again, I keep my eyes cast down and don’t answer.

He stops in front of me and catches my downward gaze. “You know we killed her, right? And your little silver friend, Kylah, the one with the purple eyes? She sang like a canary. They always do.”

I don’t look up.

He pauses, “You didn’t trust the right people, Bryn.”

“Bryn Tal,” I whispered the correction.

He slaps me. Hard. It stings, and my eyes tear up.

He nods to the others, and the burning device is brought up against my other shoulder this time. In between my cries of pain, I smell my own burning flesh.

Suddenly, they pack up. The officer says, “Thank you for your cooperation.” The guards unstrap me from the wall, and I fall to the floor.

The next thing I can hear…“Bryn. Bryn.”

I feel myself being lifted onto my cot. “I’m right here, Bryn.”

I feel it now more than ever; I need to finish this. I may not be able to.

I won’t let them take these memories from me.

I remember the day Kylah returned to Che’el de Velg’lan after her exile.

The spotters came in and told us she was only an hour out. Dahlfia, Oswalt, Awyr, the council, and everyone clamored up to the surface to wait for her arrival.

The name Kylah buzzed on every lip, but it was very different this time than it was when she left. Almost reverent. That frightened me. What was coming back to us?

I decided I would not wait for her to enter the gates and make her way down here, so I started walking down the street to the south gates. Oddly, I looked behind, and everyone followed me.

Dahlfia whispered, “Where are you going?”

“To the gate.” Honestly, I was nervous and needed to move.

We approached the gates, and they opened for us just as Kylah’s capsule came into view in the distance. I stopped in the now-open gateway along with everyone else. The gate guards looked a little confused, but since Awyr and the council were there, they said nothing.

Kylah’s capsule finally reached us and came to a stop. She stepped out, garbed in sand colored clothes with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She had a curved knife in its sheath at her side. She looked like Kylah. Just different.

The guards tensed at the sight of her. She ignored them and walked right past them to us. No, not to us. To Awyr. She withdrew her blade, and I felt a collective intake of breath.

Awyr didn’t bat an eyelash or flinch.

Kylah noticed our unease but gave no expression. She turned the blade sideways into her hand as if presenting it to Awyr. “This is the only weapon I have on me. I ask it to remain with me.”

Awyr looked at the blade, then at Kylah, not speaking for a moment. “We have rules here, Kylah.” She said plainly. “But I can see that it is a ceremonial blade.” She looked around. No one challenged her declaration. So, she looked back at Kylah, “You may keep it on you.”

She kept looking at her, assessing. Those gold eyes missed nothing. “I’ve beaten you in tournaments many times, Kylah. You look…different.”

Kylah stared back at her hard and answered, “Next time, you won’t.”

Awyr’s lips just slightly went upward, “I look forward to that.”

Dahlfia stepped forward and looked Kylah over. She seemed more tense than usual.

“You’ve made it back,” Dahlfia said evenly.

“In some ways,” Kylah answered carefully.

My heart pounded, and I almost couldn’t take the tension any longer. I stepped forward and faced Kylah now. My lips parted to speak, but I couldn’t yet.

She turned to face me, and those brilliant violet eyes met me. I swallowed. Does she forgive me? I felt so much guilt. So much doubt over my decision. So much weight on me.

Kylah nodded to me a little formally. I felt the disappointment and swallowed it. Then she said, “Bryn.”

And my heart overflowed. I needed to touch her. I reached for her, unsure if she’d let me, and she did lean into me as I hugged her gently. I whispered in her ear, “Kylah. I’m…”

I never got the word out, and I was crying. She let me hold her for a moment more. Then her arms dropped from me.

Next, she turned to Oswalt. His sweet, round face looked up at her like a puppy caught doing something bad but hoping for forgiveness. She stared at him hard for a moment and then lightly and playfully punched him in the shoulder. “Oswalt.”

He smiled, “Welcome back, Kylah.”

We all moved inside, and the Council and the guards left us. Awyr was going to leave us as we got to our suite, but Kylah asked her to remain.

We all sat down, and Kylah remained standing.

“I’ll give you an update,” I said to Kylah.

“The communities not under Mallaidh’s control already had elections, and new councilors were voted into office. The other communities will follow once we regain them. I am the interim leader of the council, even though my own community has not voted me into office, since Teithia is still occupied.”

I shrugged, still not sure why I deserved this position, “But enough of them believed in me to make a stand.”

 “We are amassing all the councilors and the armies on our side in Graywood. We will take Teithia from the south as soon as everyone’s assembled. Oswalt is headed there now.”

Kylah shifted her stance. “You need to move now.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Mallaidh’s split her army in half. Half are moving here already. Two days? Maybe less.”

Awyr looked at Dahlfia and me because, just the day before, she had told us reports that Mallaidh’s army seemed smaller in Teithia, and they were trying to figure out where the rest were.

“Your source for this?” Awyr asked logically.

Kylah looked at Awyr, “You’re not the only one with spies.”

Dahlfia grinned, and I felt lost. What was going on here?

Awyr nodded, “You’re connected to them now, aren’t you? Alltud.”

Kylah didn’t answer her, and I still didn’t understand.

Awyr looked at Dahlfia, then back to Kylah. “Then you’ll connect us too.”

Without missing a breath, Kylah responded, “I already have.”

I don’t know Awyr as well as Dahlfia, but I could tell in that moment she looked impressed by whatever just happened between them. I also know that it takes a great deal to impress Awyr.

I heard a strange rumbling sound from a distance. It sounded like thunder.

I was about to elbow Dahlfia and ask her what was going on when something shook the entire building around us.

Awyr jumped up and looked upward.

Kylah pulled her knife out. “They’re here already.”

Dahlfia looked grim and determined. The building shook again, and Awyr was running out the door, making strange clicking sounds and occasionally calling out words that made no sense to me.

We followed her out into the hallway, and her soldiers were all clamoring into the lifts and running up the stairs fully armed.

We followed her to a private lift that apparently moved faster than the main one, because I felt my knees buckle when it started, and my ears began to pop with how fast we were ascending.

Awyr looked at Dahlfia in the lift, “My guards have your weapons on the surface and will give them back to you.” She then turned to me, “Oswalt’s capsule left safely before we arrived in your suite. He was the last, other than the three of you, to leave. I will remain behind with my people to fight.”

The lift doors opened to a hidden alcove, and once Awyr threw open the doors, there was absolute chaos on the surface.

Velg’lan and Mallaidh’s army were clashing everywhere in combat. Heavy exploding objects were hitting surface buildings and demolishing them. Awyr sliced down four enemies before we even stepped out of the lift behind her. Two of her personal guards slid a case over to Dahlfia with all the weapons they confiscated from us when we arrived. I got my own knives, Dahlfia got hers, and Kylah picked up a few of her things, but she kept her new knife in her left hand.

Once armed, we stepped out into the street and found ourselves thrown into the fighting just by being there, trying to stay alive.

Another explosion shook the ground, and I steadied myself before delivering a killing blow.

I saw Kylah take down four of her own with that blade. There was something unique about the way it moved in her hands, as though they were one.

Dahlfia killed one female guard who charged me from behind, and I spun around to see Awyr slice another one who appeared in front of me while I was looking back.

Awyr grabbed Kylah, “If you stay, you all die.”

She shoved Kylah away, “Go.”

Kylah nodded and looked to Dahlfia and me. “Let’s go.”  And she shoved us toward the last capsule still around that had not yet been blown up.

She hurried us inside and slammed the door shut, taking over the controls, and she sped us right out of the streets, away from the fake smithy. Away from the burning thatched-roof houses. Out of the huge wood and metal gates and past the high walls.

The roar of battle lessened as we grew more distant. At once, the three of us looked out the back window.

Smoke rose over the high walls, black and oily. Che’el de Velg’lan burned.

>End Porta Cor imprint. <