Tallah [Book 3 Complete]

The ember startled awake.

That was odd, for she was incapable of sleep. She never slept. Not anymore.

For a brief moment she was completely ignorant of who she was, what she was, and where she was. Oblivion suited her. It was peaceful, and that was something she knew she hadn't felt in a long, long time.

Then the spool of memory returned. Its threads were not kind as they reasserted their dominance on Rhine. She screamed under the weight of it. No matter how much she burned, she couldn't be cleansed of the memories—

"Shut up." The Jailer kicked her. Rhine crumpled to the floor, gasping quietly, eager to obey the boot. "Shut up and rest," the boot demanded, pushing her away. "We're not done yet."

The jailer had been riding her. Now she remembered why she'd felt asleep. When the jailer rode, she faded, like the ember she was. More of her was reduced to ash, never to burn again.

Why, then, did she not fade away entirely? No matter how much she faded, there was always more of her to keep on burning. And it only hurt.

Rhine let out a whimper and tried to forget again. To forget what she had been before, and to forget what she was forced to be now.

But she couldn't.

The Jailer sighed as she paced Rhine's cell. She'd been trying to force Rhine past the fire, but it hadn't worked this time. The flames had been tall and hot, the will behind them iron-hard, and the path twisted and thorny. The Jailer had demanded all of Rhine and she'd obeyed. She was good. She obeyed. But she couldn't cross the fire.

Not that fire. Tallah rejected her.

Tears streamed down Rhine's face and she crawled away from the Jailer's boots. She didn't have far to go. Her cage was small. It had gotten even smaller, now that there was less of her to hold.

More memories slithered into her, unbidden and unwelcome. These were from now, not before. These were from the Jailer's journeys, meaningless fragments about meaningless places. She allowed herself be consumed by them, only to forget the now and deep ache of rejection.

"Don't burn her out," a new voice commanded.

The Lady!

Rhine cowered in her cage, smaller than a mouse, quieter than a flea. The Lady visited seldom, but the Lady brought such pain when she did. Such pain! Such suffering! Rhine willed herself to silence, to be as nothing, be nothing.

The Lady's attention settled on her bones and ripped her apart.

I've done all that was demanded. I've been good. I've been quiet. I've done as demanded!

Naturally, she didn't speak her mind. It was forbidden. It was punished. So Rhine kept her mouth shut and tried to cease existing.

"And yet you stride in here and frighten the wits out of her. How many times, Cat, must I remind you to keep away?" the Jailer snapped at the Lady.

Rhine whimpered, the sound wet and thick in her throat. It escaped before she could swallow it back down. Nobody spoke that way to the Lady. It was forbidden!

"And now she's likely to go catatonic. She's hard enough to use on a good day. Why, for the love of my bones, are you even in here, Cat?"

The Lady let out a low sigh and then the light of her attention passed from Rhine. "I'm resting. Wanted to make sure we still have something worth bargaining away to that maniac."

The Jailer laughed, long and shrill, as if the Lady's words were the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. It took a long time for her to calm.

"Are you quite done?" the Lady asked, her temper setting the room ablaze. Rhine had her eyes closed and her hands over her ears, and she was small, small, small.

"You want to bargain with her?!" Again, the Jailer hiccuped with laughter. "Oh, that's going to go wonderfully. I can't wait to see how she wipes her arse with your pleas. I expect she'll spit in your eye, for good measure. With that one I wouldn't be surprise if she spat acid."

The Lady sucked in breath through her teeth, the voice of her displeasure a long, unpleasant whistle.

"Take that with you and set up a proper audience room. I need a plan."

The Lady, for some unfathomable reason, sounded tired. That was impossible. The Lady never got tired. No matter how long she hurt Rhine, the Lady never got tired.

"Who's flying you?" The Jailer reached into Rhine's cell, grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, and yanked her out. Like a dog ripped from its litter. "Or have you actually stopped?"

"I'm hovering," the Lady answered. "Left Myrrin in control. I've a storm ahead of me. Should pass soon."

The dark shifted and suddenly Rhine was being dragged past endless holes where others like her cowered and hid and tried to be nothing. Some were nothing, reduced to vague sensations, husks of husks.

She envied the lucky ones, those the Jailer had used to destruction. They had received the sweet gift of oblivion. For Rhine, hard as she served, it was always teased and always denied.

Were they taking her to the fire again? She'd just returned from the fire! She wanted to scream and thrash and reject the demand, but that would only hurt her more. Reaching out to her sister's denial hurt, but the Jailer's light could hurt far worse.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

So she remained rigid and silent, unsure of what more was demanded. This wasn't needed. She understood that much. If the Jailer wanted it, they would be anywhere else without a blink of an eye. Through the spasm of fear, Rhine understood that she was being reminded of her place, of her roots, of her chains.

Tallah rejected her. There was nowhere to be but here, in her place.

Rhine understood the reminder and remained as quiet as a mouse, as weightless as nothing.

The Lady was first to speak again. "Why do you say she won't bargain? Everyone bargains."

"The woman's served you for decades, and you must ask?" The Jailer laughed again as she dropped Rhine. "She hates you with a depth that you can't begin to comprehend. I see fire in your future, Cat, and it will not be pleasant."

"Lovely as always, Iliaya. Lovely as always."

The new place did not have a hole for Rhine to crawl in and pretend to not be there. It had a table and two chairs around it. So she crawled under the table and compacted herself into a ball of meekness, and shivered while the Jailer's boots rested on one end of the table, and the Lady's on the other.

Cups clinked on the table above, porcelain on porcelain like the sound of knives being sharpened against bones. Rhine remembered a lot of knives and the feeling of a lot of edges scoring her ribs.

"How bad is it?" the Lady asked. "No hyperbole. Give me actionable intel."

The Jailer's boots crossed beneath the table. "She's grown about as powerful as she's likely to with the soul siphon still shackling her. I don't expect that situation's going to last much longer. The moment she frees herself, you'll be living on borrowed time."

Treasonous words! Why didn't the Lady strike the Jailer?! Why wasn't this one punished as Rhine was for even crying.

"That is not hyperbole, Cat. Don't look at me like that. If I were still alive, I'd be afraid of facing that Cythra creature Cinder's bonded with. That one's almost as integrated as I am to you, and they've been bonded for far less than the two of us."

"What of the other two? Can we get either of them on our side?"

"Vel and that Theala monster?" The Jailer sipped something and barely suppressed a laugh. "Forget it. Theala's currently trying to kill one of the undying. I expect she'll succeed."

"I should've—"

"Listened to me when you had a chance? A touch late for regretting critical mistakes, Cat."

"Why do you think Cinder's ready to break the siphon?"

"She's been growing at an exponential rate ever since she's come out of that city. She and Cythra have been cycling illum between them at a rate that should've gone nuclear from the very first attempt. Instead, they're refining it at a preposterous rate."

"Cythra, then? She's the mastermind?"

Rhine's ears pricked. Had they forgotten her? Was she… meant to listen? Why?

"A mastermind. Let's not repeat past mistakes, Cat. Cinder is spectacular in her own right. It's why you wanted her in here with me. Are you growing forgetful in your old age?"

"I'm not in the mood." The Lady's tone turned cold for a moment and Rhine cringed, expecting a blow that would strip the skin off her and the meat off her bones.

The Jailer scoffed. "Cythra and Cinder have achieved synergy. Vel and Theala are well on their way towards that. Last I managed to glimpse before Cythra kicked me out was her figuring out the sympathetic connection." The air turned electric for a moment and the Jailer's words buzzed. "It's a matter of time before she figures how to follow the connection backwards. Are you ready for a visit from Cinder in here, Cat?"

Silence.

It was the kind of charged silence that made Rhine's skin prickle and her heart race. She didn't have a heart anymore. She knew that. She'd seen it brought out of her chest, veins cut, blood spurting to the stone floor. But she still felt it thumping in her chest, mad with terror, always racing.

"And here's another bit for you to dread," the Jailer said after a clink of porcelain. "They do have their fifth one ready to be assimilated."

"The mad… girl." The Lady's tone twisted mid-word, from dismissive to worried. "The Egia."

"The unshackled Egia, if you remember my observations. Once that one comes into play, I am completely certain Cinder will break the soul siphon. After that, you'll have one more goddess ready to skin you alive. Tick-tock, Cat." Something slammed on the table and made everything on it rattle. Warm coffee spilled over the edges as Rhine dared a look. "How much worse must things get, Catharina, before you act?"

"I am acting!" The Lady was uncertain. Her words lacked the bite they usually held. "We are so close, Iliaya."

"Close to what, precisely?" The Jailer sneered the words and she slammed the table again. "I've been cautioning you for decades now. You always had everything under control. Ort imprisoned. The eidolon eating out of your palm." A kick slammed into Rhine's side and cracked her frail ribs. "This one harvested for her potential. How's all that worked out?"

Rhine gasped in pain, then in horror of her noise. But nobody paid attention to her. The Jailer's boots were standing now and the woman herself was gripping the edge of the table, knuckles white.

"Ort's playing us for fools. Falor's going native. And Cinder's going to skin you alive when she finally does what you don't dare."

"I can't ascend. Not yet." Now the Lady stood and the air buzzed with power. Her words came out in an angry torrent. "Who will lead once we open the gate? What if I become like the others? What if I can't control the hunger? What then? All of our work turned to dust! The last thing we need is another parasite like Ort with my face on it."

"That's why you've made Falor. Where's he now?" The scorn dripped off the table and pooled on the ground like the imaginary coffee. "Oh, he's off in the wild somewhere. You wanted him human. Congratulations! Your weapon's grown a conscience." Again a fist slammed the table. "Every time you ignore my counsel. Every single time it all gets worse. I gave up my bones for you. I gave you everything I was or could ever be. Listen to me at least once! Ascend, Cat, or all we've done will have been for nothing."

Again the silence descended. Rhine waited. Neither woman moved. They both breathed hard, the rasp of their breath the only sound aside from the drip of the spilled drink.

A thought wormed its way into Rhine's fear-addled mind, something she'd never considered before. It was, after all, an impossible thing.

But even as she was, reduced to near nothing, she couldn't deny the truth of what she'd seen.

The Lady and the Jailer were afraid.

Of her sister.

"If she doesn't listen to reason, I will do what needs doing." The Lady spoke with cold firmness, her temper again under control. "Keep me appraised of everything. I'm two days away from contact. Help me be ready for her."

"If I keep pushing the wretch, she will break. There's not much more use I'll get out of her."

"Do what you can, Ilia. I can ask for nothing more." Fingers uncurled from the table's edge and trembled for a heartbeat before the steel was back in them. "Let's see this done. We either get Cinder under control, or we put her down." The Lady's voice was quiet and commanding again.

But it was too late. Rhine had seen the masks crack and she'd seen the fear bubbling beneath. After all, she knew fear. It was all she knew anymore.

Tallah should know—No! She squashed the thought down, pushed it into the pit of her stomach and wrapped herself around it. No. She didn't dare think what she wanted to think. Thoughts could be heard.

Intentions could not. It was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her existence, to keep the smile off her lips.