Promises to the damned, p.10
Promises to the Damned, page 10
Nasna turned and looked at him, her wrappings still covering her face. "Does this cavern lead to the Lightless area?”
He shook his head. "No, that’s not why we’re here. But it can help us get there.”
“How?”
“You see over there?” He pointed to the area of dense crystal. “Over there is a deposit of yellow-crystal, a rare crystal with a high price point.”
Nasna crossed her arms. "So, now you want to mine?”
Tsuran grinned. "A little.”
“I know the value of yellow-crystal, but how’s it help us here?”
“Because of how the Warden runs this prison. He wants to motivate prisoners to bring him crystal, so he allows them to purchase ‘privileges’ with any crystal they find. People buy clothes, food, more equipment, things like that. But with yellow-crystal”—Tsuran’s grin broke into a wide smile—“we can buy our way onto the furnace team.”
Nasna placed a hand under her chin and nodded. "Furnace team? Yes, that’d be good. We’d be out of the mines, able to attain better intel, even find a way to the Lightless entrance… this might work.”
She walked further into the cavern, her head bobbing around as though she tried to take in every inch of information. Tsuran leaned against the wall, watching her. Sure, he’d been with her since she’d arrived, but now she was like a different person. Well, probably because she was. She was an ordîn and not a human, and that was just the start. He didn’t know how long this team-up would have to last, but it wouldn’t be boring, at least.
He looked at her wingless back, and a hand drifted to his armless shoulder. A clipped ordîn. There was a story there. Perhaps someday she’d tell him, but if she was anything like him he’d never hear it. He dropped his hand. No need to hurry to find out. With all the work to do in this cavern and the furnace team, they’d have plenty of time to get to that if they ever did. Well, that was if she didn’t change her mind and kill him outright. Not the worst of options, but not so soon. Best he got on her good side and stayed there.
“Hey,” he said and Nasna turned toward him. "No one else ever comes to this cavern, so we’ll be safe from other prisoners here. No one else will know what we’re doing or about your secret while we’re here.”
“Good.” She nodded and turned away. Not the reaction he’d been hoping for. Seemed being indirect with her wouldn’t work. Tsuran cleared his throat. She turned back. “Yes?”
Tsuran rubbed the back of his neck. "I was trying to say you don’t have to wear those wrappings here. I mean, if you don’t want to.”
She didn’t move. She stared toward him, her expression hidden.
“Why do you want me to take off my wrappings?”
“I didn’t say you had to. Just can’t imagine it’s comfortable to wear. I was just offering.”
“Why do you care if I’m comfortable or not?”
Tsuran fought the urge to roll his eyes. Why would he care if she was comfortable? He’d already seen her face, it wasn’t as if he were trying to trick her into revealing it. It was just a nice sentiment, a consideration.
She stared at him for a long time—damn ordîns and their excessive deliberation times— and then reached for her wrappings. She stopped midway.
“How long do you think we’ll be in this cavern?”
“Days. Weeks. It depends.”
She kept her hands in midair. It didn’t look like she would move and Tsuran feared he’d have to wait a half hour or more before she decided what to do. But after less than a minute, she moved.
Whatever war she waged in her mind, one side won and she took the wrappings off. Besides the crimson red skin and short white hair, her face wasn’t what he expected. No stern expression, hollow cheeks, or even furrowed brows. No marring, affiliation tattoos, or broken nose. She looked nothing like what an assassin should look like. She looked like… well, a normal person.
Her eyes, though, gave him pause. One was a light gray, typical for an ordîn, but the other was split top to bottom with one half being dark blue and the other a deep green. Now that was something he’d never seen. Though maybe it was a common ordîn trait, and he’d just never noticed before. But if it was, why? They already had their color-changing skin, did ordîn need more color in their—
Those split colored eyes met his.
“Should I put these back on?” she asked and Tsuran averted his eyes. He must’ve been staring.
“Sorry, I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.”
“It’s a family trait. It signifies my lineage.”
“What lineage is that?”
She paused and, for a flash of a moment, she looked sad. She cleared her throat and took off the wrappings from her arms. "I don’t know the lineage. I left my homeland before anyone told me.”
“You’re taking them all off?” he said, looking at her arms. Time to change the subject.
“I haven’t been able to examine my arms since yesterday.”
Tsuran waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. However, he didn’t need her to. She took off the wrappings and revealed arms with cuts running up and down them as though someone had taken a knife and sliced her open.
“What happened to you?” he asked, taking a step closer to look at them.
“This is the price I paid to not die yesterday.”
He glanced up at her and back at her arms. This must’ve come from whatever she’d done to clear the cave-in.
“Will you be alright?”
She nodded. "It’ll hurt for a while. I hadn’t taken in… well, I’m not as injured as I might have been.”
“If you say so.”
Nasna folded her wrappings into small squares and laid them near the entranceway. “I can’t do any heavy lifting until these heal more”—her gaze darted between him and the heavy sack of tools he’d thrown at her earlier—“but I’ll do my part. Where’s the yellow-crystal?”
“This way.”
They took the path toward the high concentration of crystal Tsuran scanning the room as they walked. There was one problem with the place he hadn’t mentioned to her yet, but he’d be sure to before they left. For the time being, he didn’t see any of those complications. A stroke of luck.
“Is the water safe to drink?” Nasna asked.
“It was the last time I was here.”
She looked up. "When was that?”
“Something like a year ago. I got yellow-crystal from here to buy my way onto the hunting team back then.”
“Ah, so that’s how you know this will work.”
He nodded. "I do wish we could get onto the hunting team, though. I miss taking down a beast.”
“As soon as we’re done with my task, you’ll be hunting beasts to your heart’s content.”
Something in her voice made him glance over at her. Now able to see her face, what he found surprised him. Her eyes were downcast and her lips formed a slight frown. Even her steps slowed for a moment before she caught his gaze and straightened her back and face.
He shouldn’t pry. It’d be best to let it drop.
But he couldn’t help himself.
“So, tell me more about this assassination of yours. What’d they do?”
Nasna stopped in her tracks, but her gaze remained fixed on the crystal in front of them.
“No need for you to know any of that.”
“Why not?”
She turned to him. "Because it’s not your contract.”
“But I’m helping you with it.”
“Doesn’t mean you need to know anything about my work.”
Tsuran grinned. "Would knowing mean you’d have to kill me or something?”
Her fists clenched, her jaw tightened, but this tension didn’t reach her eyes. She almost looked to be on the verge of tears. She looked away from him.
“Maybe,” she said. Tsuran’s grin faded. That wasn’t a threat. It was something else. Resignation, perhaps. This couldn’t be helping his position with her, so he needed to just shut his mouth for the time being.
But his mouth kept moving.
“So, why did you keep me alive? It looked like you’d kill me, so why didn’t you?”
Nasna’s body tensed. Possibly stopped breathing too. She swallowed. “I can change my mind if you don’t enjoy living.”
“I thought ordîns didn’t do that? ‘A decision made is a decision followed’ or something?”
Her eyes closed, and she took in slow breaths. “My Path decided you were worth more to me alive than dead. That’s all.”
She marched forward and Tsuran frowned. “Right. Your Path. Of course. Makes sense. Though I have one follow-up question: what does that mean?”
Nasna glanced over her shoulder but didn’t stop. “What?”
“Your Path. What is that, your assassin code?”
“Oh. No, nothing like that.” She walked on, no longer looking at him. Though, this only intrigued him more and he hurried up beside her, giving the most expectant look he could muster. After a moment, she spoke, though tentatively. “When an ordîn dies, their soul does not leave into a world beyond. Their soul travels throughout the heavens until they find an ordîn child to live in. This child becomes their host and they intertwine themselves with the child’s soul. It’s their job, their duty, to guide and direct this child in how to live and act. Thus my people called these wayward souls ‘Paths’.”
“Sorry, stop. What?” Tsuran had heard strange things, unbelievable things, throughout his life. This was… well, it wasn’t the most unbelievable thing out there, but given how little ordîns shared about themselves, this was among the least expected. “You’re telling me that your kids get possessed?”
“No, no. It’s not possession.” Nasna pursed her lips. “It’s like you have a distant relative coming to stay with you. They live in your home and can talk to you and share stories and wisdom. But it’s still your home and you decide how to decorate or what to eat.”
“So, you have a dead ordîn living in you, but they don’t control you?”
She slowed, her eyes dropping. “For most. Things are… more complicated when you’re clipped.” Her voice shuddered at her next words, “Some relatives are more demanding than others.”
She walked toward the crystal again, faster this time, and Tsuran didn’t press any further. The crystal deposits on the ground came up to Tsuran’s knees, begging for someone to harvest them. But he was after the bigger prize and led Nasna around the crystal to the wall where the vein of yellow-crystal broke through the stone.
True to its name, this crystal was a deep yellow color, but unlike most other crystal it was opaque. It emitted little light, so no one used it like lightstone. However, it was the most durable of all the crystals, only red-crystal had any chance of even cracking it. It remained the only crystal able to cut through any spirit or take the full brunt of a Colossal beast attack again and again without strain. It had once saved his life while defending a village in Rajalend. Now, it would save him from the mines for a second time.
Nasna went to the stone and examined it. “How much is here?”
“Hard to say, but I’d imagine a lot. At least enough for the two of us.”
“How do you expect us to break it, though? It’s yellow-crystal.”
He gestured back to the entranceway. "Near the exit, I’ve hidden a gad I used last time. The tip is made of red-crystal. It’ll take a couple of precise strikes, but it’ll do the job.”
She cocked a brow, turning to him. "Where’d you get that?”
“From my old cell-mate. No idea where he got it though. Stolen or handed down from someone who stole it.”
She let out a breath and nodded. "Well, if that’s the case, let’s get started.”
The cavern echoed with a moan and the two froze. The moan grew louder and a few more joined. Tsuran turned around. Several spirits moved out of the walls from the other side of the lake and headed toward the two of them.
“This could be a bad time to bring this up,” Tsuran said. “But the main reason most don’t know about this cavern is because of spirits being here.”
He looked over his shoulder. Nasna glared at him.
“And,” he said, “spirits are attracted to crystal and quite protective of it.”
“Stop talking, they’re getting closer.”
“Here.” Tsuran handed her the gad he’d held onto. “Hold this between you and them as we walk back to the entrance. Walk slowly.”
The two walked back as the spirits crowded the area with the yellow-crystal. A few stared at Tsuran and Nasna, and for a moment Tsuran worried he’d have to sing, but the spirits let them go.
“We’ll be safe near the entranceway,” he said. “That wall is heavy with iron so they stay away from there.”
“Why wasn’t this the first thing you mentioned?”
Tsuran shrugged. They were far enough for him to turn his back on the spirits, so he turned toward the entranceway. "It wouldn’t have changed anything. It’s a minor detail.”
They reached the entranceway, and both leaned against the wall.
“That’s not a minor detail,” she said. "That’s a big problem.”
“We’ll figure something out.” He gave her a grin. “We’re a team now. Right?”
She glanced at him and then looked back toward the spirits. "Right. A team.”
11
Mining Away
Change is difficult for me, Naresh, you know this. Change is hard for an ordîn in my cycle, and yet I change most unexpectedly. I fear saying much to you other than this: I have someone who is dear to me. And were we back in Oushwala, were we still true Luminars, I would die for this forbidden desire. But the Luminous have already abandoned us, and if I am already to dissolve in the four vortexes of hell, then why should I deny a moment of happiness? She helps me forget and even dream.
- Yavahush the Stargazer, in the 2951st Lunar Cycle
Six Common spirits and two Smalls roamed the cavern. Some on the ground, a few in the air. All in Nasna’s way.
The spirits stayed close to the crystal and away from the iron, so she surveyed the situation without them bothering her. She sat at the water’s edge close to the cavern’s entrance and studied the spirits. She watched their habits, their patterns, looked for anything that would be useful. The spirits came and went, being replaced by a different spirit every so often. They’d leave by either floating up through the ceiling or by drifting deeper into the cavern and out of view. The number fluctuated, their sizes moved between Small and Common, but there was always at least three spirits right next to the yellow-crystal.
They needed a method to keep the spirits back. Nasna had one idea, but there wasn’t any guarantee it’d work. With nothing else to try, she and Tsuran returned to the main gallery and collected various mining equipment. Gads, hammers, a pick or two, whatever iron they could get their hands on. She pilfered from other prisoners, and he tried seeing if the guards would give him some. After a few days, Nasna had gathered a sizeable pile and Tsuran had gotten a sack. So, for the rest of the week, she worked on gathering more iron and he hung back, never close enough to draw attention to her, but close enough Solitude didn’t settle in.
At the end of the week, a few prisoners grumbled about missing tools, and rumors about thieves started soon after, so she stopped. They had a fair amount, anyway. The two moved the stolen goods down to the cavern during the night, avoiding all unwanted stares and questions.
The next day, they were ready to act.
As soon as they entered the cavern, she went to the pile of iron tools and gathered some into her arms. “Alright, let’s see if this works.”
“Well, even if it doesn’t, we got a pretty collection building now.”
“Just grab some tools.”
They walked along the path to the spirits and the crystal. The spirits glanced over. She and Tsuran stopped. The spirits didn’t look away, but also didn’t attack. Nasna took a few steps forward. Still no movement from the spirits.
“Is it working?” she asked. “Spirits are aggressive, right?”
“I mean, not really. The only times I’ve ever seen them go into any kind of frenzy is when there’s a beast nearby or if there’s harm done to a crystal.”
They took a few more steps. One Small looked away and crawled through the wall. Nasna let out a breath and strode forward. The two came close to the crystal, and the spirits nearest them all moved away. They came closer to the yellow-crystal, yet the spirits kept moving back. Using all the stolen goods, the two created a tight circle around the yellow-crystal deposit, keeping only a set of tools for mining. And they waited and watched. Spirits came and went, changing in size and the number present, but all now avoided this circle of iron. Tsuran let out a sigh.
“I can’t believe that worked.”
“Will this hold?”
He shrugged. "I’ve never tried this before. But I imagine if they’re avoiding it now they’ll avoid it as long as nothing changes.”
“Until we mine the yellow-crystal you mean.”
He nodded. "We’re not in the clear. They’re still watching us. Like they’re waiting to see what we’ll do.”
A shiver ran down Nasna’s spine. The spirits seemed to keep their gaze fixed on the two of them. One disappeared through the ceiling, but its eyes were the last part to float through. One spirit, a Common looking to be half the size of a Large, came near, though it did not proceed past the iron. It stood perhaps ten feet away from the pair and Nasna stood straight, determined that her knees wouldn’t buckle.
“Is it safe enough to try mining?” she asked.
“Third rule,” he snorted. “As long as we’re in this cavern, ‘safe’ is not a word we get to use.”
“But we can mine?”
Tsuran sucked in a breath and looked over the yellow-crystal. "Well, there’s not enough exposed for us to take it right now. This much would buy one spot for us, but not two. We must uncover more of it first before we go for the crystal.”
