sixteen
. . .
Aten
Fear.
Ice cold and more potent than I’ve ever felt before, it strikes as I watch Ever sink to her knees. Every part of my body screams at me to rush forward, to help, but as I step, my father’s hand grips my shoulder, hard and powerful.
“No.”
I can’t even remember the last time he touched me.
“What’s happening to her?”
“That isn’t your concern. This is her Transference,” he snaps.
“Bullshit. I’ve never seen someone in pain. Not from this. Not like this.” I shrug out of his hold and step forward, assessing everyone around me, looking for an answer, a solution.
I told her it would be okay. That it was nothing to fear.And now this?
Murmurs and whispers pick up around the crowd, and I look for the faces I recognise, scanning for any sliver of informationthey might have as to what is going on. This isn’t what happens during a Transference.
Rowan, Kamari, Darien, and even Aurelia all look concerned, their usually plain and emotionless expressions slipping.
“Make… it… stop!” Ever pleads as she holds her head in her hands, enduring whatever pain or punishment that Aslendrix has chosen to deliver. “Please, someone… make it stop!”
I can’t stand and watch. Even Lyle, her Advocate, hasn’t moved to help, leaving her to endure this alone.
Iwon’tstand and watch.
I break the informal circle we formed around the plinth and step towards Ever.
“No. Do not intervene,”the Maker’s voice booms inside my head.
“She’s in pain,”I shout back through that weird connection that forms in my mind when she chooses.
“That is not your concern. She is a Fifth and will bear all of Aslendrix’s power, as is her role.”
The word Fifth echoes in my head.
There isn’t a Fifth alive in Kirrasia.
Only rumours and stories still exist of them and their power.
But the knowledge doesn’t stop me from moving to help Ever. I rush forward until I slam into an invisible shield, rippling with energy, rippling with malice. It stops me from ascending onto that slab of stone.
“Ever!” I shout, hoping to get through to her, but something oily slithers under my skin, pushing into my mind—a sense of something, and I can feel it pull away the fear and panic as if smoothing my feelings.
The drive to tear down whatever is around me—containing me—ebbs away, and my muscles sag, relaxing, as I take a deep breath.
As I step back, I watch and see Ever’s breathing even out and see her fingers loosen their grip on her head. She tilts to the side and collapses as the clearing is plunged into darkness. Aslendrix, concealed behind a front of clouds, which temporarily blocks her light and power.
The murmurs turn into full-blown questions, asking what happened, questioning why there is no pillar of light from Aslendrix indicating Ever’s new Order. That’s what happens during the Transference, at least, it’s what occurred for everyone present here.
After mine, a purple glow radiated around me, indicating I was now a member of my mother’s Order, smoke and mist curling at my feet before I collected the cuff, now on my wrist, from the Maker.
It wasn’t the red glow I had always imagined, nor what I witnessed for my friends. But this, this darkness…
