Season 2: Episode 3 – The Acceptable Cost

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

>Begin Porta Cor imprint.<

Today, I got to bathe Bryn in her jail cell.

It allowed me to examine some of her wounds from her interrogation sessions and put salve on them so they would heal.

Purple bruises climbed across her ribs. Her left shoulder still bore the burn from whatever device they used.

We used our Porta Cor to speak, hoping they could not detect the signals. We knew they would hear spoken words outside the door.

“Dahlfia, I am so grateful you are here with me. I felt so alone. I don’t understand why they didn’t kill me. They were supposed to kill me.”

“They would never kill you, Bryn. That would make a martyr out of you. I’m sorry, I don’t have a plan to get us out. It’s so complex here, and there are eyes everywhere. I don’t think I can do it by myself. My schedule says I’m supposed to be on vacation next week. I don’t know what that means, but if I can get away from the palace, I will try to send a message to Kerrih.”

“No, Kerrih has a job to do. She cannot do it if she’s off rescuing me. You get out of here and go back home and help her.” Bryn insisted.

“No, I will never leave you.”

I just finished dressing her when the guards opened the door without knocking or warning and yelled to me, “You’re taking too long. Hurry up.”

I helped her sit down and then moved over to the door. “I’m done.” Our eyes met briefly one last time, and my heart ached for her. But I left the room with the guards and heard the door slam hard behind me and lock.

I took the cloth I had dried her with and brought it back to my squalid room. Then I curled up with it to sleep. Now I’m awake in the middle of the night, so I will finish recording what happened to Kylah in Che’el de Velg’lan.

For the most part, the next few days passed quietly.

Kylah did listen to Bryn’s advice and remained close to us, but she grew more irritated with each passing day.

One evening, she slammed her door so hard the hallway rattled. After that, she barely spoke to anyone.

When she came out, she only made brief eye contact with me, never with Bryn.

That third day, when she came out of her room, I could tell she was about to implode.

Instead, I did the craziest thing. I sprang to my feet and said, “Kylah, let’s go visit Oswalt, and then we can check this place out more together. I hear they serve the best pies in the market area in the center of this level. I want a slice.”

Kylah blinked for a moment and then nodded. “Sure.”

I looked at Bryn, who was buried under stacks of papers, as usual. “Are you alright if I take Kylah out for a while?” I asked.

Bryn looked pensively at Kylah, then at me, and nodded, putting her papers down on the table. “Yes, perhaps that is best.”

We strode out the door, past our guards, and into the hallway of seemingly never-ending doors.

The hallway was wide enough for Kylah and me to walk side by side.

I noticed some of the doors had guards outside, like ours, and counselor names on the room nameplates.

However, many of the doors had no markings on them whatsoever. I remember it was so easy to get lost in this place last time I was here.

We got to Oswalt’s door, but his guards informed us he was not in right now. “No worries, we’ll stop by on the way back,” I told them.

We weaved in and out of the winding hallways until we reached a more open, central, and crowded area—the market area of this floor. A few Velg’lans stared openly at Kylah as we passed.

I tried to guide her attention elsewhere. “Look! There’s the pie place.” I moved forward more quickly, with her keeping pace at my side.

We stepped inside, and I greeted the male Croenddu behind the counter with a respectful nod. “I hear you have the best pies.” I declared. The vendor’s gaze lingered on Kylah for a moment. Then he turned to me and nodded, “We do indeed. What flavor will you have?”

I looked at Kylah, “What are you in the mood for today? I was thinking afal.”

Kylah shrugged at me, “That’s okay with me.”

I looked back at the vendor, “Two afal pies, please.”

His lips parted, ready to speak, and I lifted both my eyebrows at him to stave off his comment. He cleared his throat and then got two pies ready and handed them both to me.

They were warm, handheld pies crimped all around the edges so the gooey middles would not fall out. “Oh, these look wonderful,” I told Kylah. I got a couple of square cloth napkins for us, then moved her back out of the shop into the open area.

I pointed to an unoccupied bench away from anyone else, “Let’s go have a seat and eat.” She didn’t answer, but she followed me, looking down at her pie as she walked.

We sat down and began to eat our pies. I noticed two locals whispering to each other as we sat and ate. Across from us, I saw a few councilors huddling together, staring at us. Kylah’s gaze dropped from them back to her pie.

At that moment, I realized I had made a terrible miscalculation.

Before I could suggest we stand up to return to Oswalt’s again, I heard someone a few benches away whisper, not nearly quietly enough, “That’s her.”

Kylah looked down at her pie again.

Another voice answered, “The one who killed them?”

Kylah stopped chewing.

“Them?” Kylah repeated softly.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“Councilor Bryn Tal’s family,” someone else answered.

“The Velg’lan let her walk around here.”

This was enough. I stood up abruptly and looped my arm through Kylah’s, bringing her to her feet. “Let’s go see Oswalt, now. I bet he’s back.”

I saw the horror in her expression as she looked around at the faces watching us. I couldn’t get us out of there fast enough.

Down the hall, I finally exhaled and started breathing normally again. Kylah was staring at her pie again, not talking or eating, bits of it crumbling as she squeezed.

We got to Oswalt’s door, and the guards said he had returned. I knocked and then smiled as Oswalt’s sweet, round face appeared in the doorway. “Hey, Oswalt! We’re here for a visit!” Without waiting for him, I gently shoved Kylah through the door and then myself.

I looked around his little suite. Kylah looked at him and said, “Hey, Oswalt.” I didn’t hear him respond to her. He had a desk with piles of paper organized in neat little buckets and folders everywhere. He held a couple of reports in his hand. “Anything exciting going on?” I asked him, pointing to the reports.

He looked at me, dumbfounded, for a moment, and then to Kylah, uncertainly, and then back to me. “Uh, n-nnno. Nothing exciting.” He stammered. “J-just tidying up a bit.” He hurried to put the papers into a folder and close it.

I was confused by the way he fumbled and stuttered, his hand trembling slightly. Then I followed his gaze to Kylah, and she was looking back at him, frozen.

Oh hell. I sucked in a breath, “Well, we just thought we’d pop in after getting some pies. Bryn is probably waiting for us, so we’ll be off now.”

I turned Kylah and steered her back out the door, and without another word, we went down the hall to our suite. It was the longest walk back I’d ever known.

Kylah went to her room and never came back out for the rest of that day. Bryn brought her a tray of food and knocked on the door, but Kylah just responded with, “Not hungry.”

The untouched tray was still outside the door the following morning.

Bryn and I were at the dining table with papers spread over it, working on how elections in the various communities would work for electing councilors to our new council, which we had named Cygnor y Doeth, or more commonly, the Council of the Wise. We decided not to rely on simply being an elder at this point. We wanted the name to indicate the type of person their communities should be voting for to represent them.

Bryn commented, “Strange that we haven’t seen Awyr at all yet today. She was going to stop by and check in with us.”

“They have their own matters to attend to,” I added.

Last night, I had a brief Porta Cor transmission from Awyr saying the Che’el de Velg’lan council called a meeting for this morning about the reports on Kylah. I didn’t want to worry Bryn, so I didn’t say anything. It gave me time to think about the inevitable next steps without adding stress to her.

An hour later, that now familiar sharp knock came to the door. I stood up, opened it, and let Awyr enter.

She looked at me intently, and I knew already. However, Bryn needed to hear the words. Bryn stood up and came over to where we were standing inside the door I had closed.

Awyr looked from me to Bryn, “Our Council met this morning. The reports on Kylah are threatening to destabilize not only your new government, but our own community walls. We cannot allow this liability to continue. Kylah must be removed in whatever way you see fit. I will return in an hour with guards to carry out whatever decision you have made.”

She bowed her head respectfully to Bryn and then turned to me to do the same. I repeated the gesture back to her, and she let herself out of our suite.

Bryn looked at me with an expression that ripped through my soul. I ushered her to the couch and sat down next to her.

“Look, I had a feeling this was coming and thought it through last night.” I turned my body to face hers and took her hands into mine. “This won’t be easy for me to tell you, so I ask you to be patient and listen to me all the way through.” Bryn squeezed my hands gently and nodded.

“We will be forced to exile Kylah, and I think it’s best to send her to the Plains of Du’Roi.” I let the statement sit there in the room with us.

Bryn’s eyes flew open wide, and her mouth started to open in protest.

“I asked you to be patient.” She closed her mouth and nodded, still holding my hands. I took a steadying breath because I had never shared this story with another living being. Awyr and the Velg’lans knew it, I’m sure. But I never spoke it to anyone.

“Bryn, you’ve known me all my life.” I paused. “I remember you coming to visit my mother when I was a little girl and sneaking me lemon cakes.” She smiled a little at the sweet memories. “I have loved you all my life, first like a role model, then like a best friend, and now maybe something more I cannot define. But you do not know my origins like you think you do.”

Her smile faded, and she looked curious now. “Melys Tawel, your best friend, was not my biological mother.”

“My father did not die. My father, Montvie, went to see an opera that came through Teithia. After the concert, he met the star performer, whom you may remember as she was quite famous, Conwyr.” Bryn nodded her memory of the name.

“They fell in love instantly and conceived me that very night.” Shock was there in her face now as I continued. “My mother found out about their affair a few months later and reported it to the authorities. My father and Conwyr were both found guilty of social crimes and exiled to the Plains of Du’Roi, pending my birth. Once I was born, Melys agreed to raise me as her own, and those two were sent off to their supposed death.” I paused again, “but they didn’t die.”

Bryn shifted in her seat, disturbed. “They made it to the desert city of Alltud and are now esteemed members there. I have visited them several times and keep in touch with them. To protect me, Melys never told a soul about this in her whole life, not even to her best friend.”

I lifted Bryn’s hands in mine and squeezed them reassuringly again. “She didn’t want me to be shunned because of what happened.”

I could tell by the shock on her face that I wrecked her world. Of course, she knew of Alltud, but, like most Anturians, she saw it as just a fictional place where fictional Anturians went. Now it was real. I needed to bring her back.

“Now, here’s where this comes into play. I can help stack the odds so Kylah can survive and make it to Alltud. The road will still be hard, and she could still die. But given her own fortitude, I believe she has a better chance of survival there than anywhere else. Furthermore, if she survives the exile and Alltud, she will be able to come back to us as every member of Anturia will respect someone who could survive that and return, even if these reports are not yet dispelled.” I paused and let her think for a moment. “Do you understand?”

I saw tears in her eyes for Kylah, for me, and for the truth she had just learned. I let go of her hands and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Do you agree?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again, and nodded at me without a word. “Our decisions are never easy, are they? Why didn’t we get better jobs?” She laughed and cried at the same time.

Just then, the sharp knock came back to the door, and I stood up, went to the door, and opened it to Awyr standing there, not wanting to enter this time. “Your decision?” She asked.

“We are exiling her to the Plains of Du’Roi,” I stated.

Awyr looked me over pensively for a moment and nodded, “Acceptable. I will wait here with the guards to escort Kylah out. We have a capsule waiting, and I will inform them of her destination.”

I nodded and closed the door, then, as Bryn stood up, I said, “Let’s get Kylah, and I will tell her.”

Bryn lifted her hand, “No, I need to tell her.” Her eyes were all puffy and red now from crying, but I could see the resolve in her eyes.

I nodded, “Okay.” I moved to Kylah’s door and knocked. “Kylah, Bryn, and I need to speak to you. It is urgent.”

We stood there, waiting, and heard booted feet moving toward the door. The door unlocked, and Kylah stood in the doorway looking at me, and then she saw Bryn’s face, and her own fell.

I stepped aside so Bryn could be more face-to-face with her, and Bryn began, “Kylah, as I know you have realized, there are some unfortunate effects that these reports about you are having. They are quite destabilizing. We are forced to make a choice, and it was not an easy one.”

She stopped and swallowed hard, using that moment to gather herself back together, she lifted her shoulders. Her voice almost breaking at meeting Kylah’s violet eyes, she said, “We are exiling you to the Plains of Du’Roi. Awyr and her guards are waiting outside to escort you out.”

I wanted to hold Bryn, but instead I stood tall beside her, close enough she knew my strength was there.

Kylah looked from Bryn to me and then back to Bryn. She opened her mouth to speak and then stopped. Then she tried again. Finally, she said, “You…” She looked around suddenly, in desperation. “I…”

Her eyes fell on mine, and we locked together as I tried to help her keep it together. She exhaled after a couple of tense moments, her eyes still on mine, then she looked at Bryn with a cold, angry stare, “Yes.”

We brought her to the door and opened it to Awyr and the guards waiting. They were going to bind her hands, but I looked at Awyr as I stepped in between the guards and Kylah, “Really?” I asked her impatiently.

Awyr clicked softly, and the guards lowered the bindings. The guards took their places on either side of Kylah. Bryn and I fell in line behind her with Awyr in the front, and we began to walk down the hallways toward the lifts.

I began to chant softly, “May the air around you be clean and plentiful.”

Bryn turned her head to me curiously, and Awyr looked back with a knowing glance.

We moved further down the hallway, and doors began to open with people staring out of them as we passed by.

I continued the litany a little louder, “May the sand beneath your feet never slide.”

Councilors peering through doors looked confused. The Velg’lan guards cast each other glances.

All of us entered the lift to take us up to the surface, and I continued, “May the sun cast shadows that you might be sheltered.”

Kylah lowered her head.

The lift brought us back to the surface, and the doors opened. I continued, “May the waters refresh you from death.”

Some of the Velg’lan guards looked up at me, and one of them even smirked in recognition.

We stepped outside the unmarked building, and a dry wind from the southwest blew strongly. An invitation? Or a challenge?          

It whipped through her silver hair, blocking her face from view.

I went on, “May your heart be at one with your mind.”

A capsule hovered above the ground, its door open and guards inside. I watched as they guided her into the capsule and strapped her in.

For a moment, I said nothing.

Finally, just as the door closed, I delivered the last line, “And may your soul bind to Anturia for the benefit of all.”

She looked up at Bryn and me as we stood there, and then quietly, without any ceremony, Kylah Marie was carried away from us to the desert.

“May we be forgiven,” Bryn said softly.

>End Porta Cor imprint.<