“Well,” I began, “is there anyone your people trust?”
“I personally believe that they trust me with all their hearts,” the old Unseelie said with pompous grandeur. “Although most are a bit divided. There are some that favor your… reaper. I’d venture to say most are looking to the General.”
“The General?” Myrcedes questioned. “You banished Kalian.”
“Oh, not him,” Oli repeated his expression of disgust. “No, his replacement. General Bahz. He’s been wonderful at lifting the hearts of the people and voicing their concerns. Some have suggested making him King, but, well, I don’t believe the people would be truly satisfied, and he may not even want the position! It’s a tough job, you know. It should be done by someone truly qualified, truly passionate!”
Myrcedes’ voice drifted into my mind. Let’s begin. I returned a thought in agreement.
“So Oli,” I began, “I’d like to hear just a bit more about the council members. What makes you specifically more qualified than the rest of them individually?”
As he began to ramble off an answer, Myrcedes and I set off on our task. She was to enter his mind and cause a distraction as much as necessary. It didn’t hurt that he was already consumed with his own words, but she would pick and pull at things to make sure he stayed distracted. Meanwhile, I began to dig through his memory. It was almost impossible to do that without the person becoming aware of what was happening on some level, but hopefully, with his self-obsessed story and the assistance of Myrcedes, we could pull it off.
I waded through his memories as they came up, waiting for the perfect moment. He compared one of his fellow council members to all the worst qualities of Minerva, and I smiled and nodded. That was it. Once Minerva had entered his thoughts, even in name only, I could explore other memories that would seem more natural. I climbed through memories of meetings, thoughts of fear and obligation to her, and dreams of taking her place. Through all of it, I followed a string to a memory of her threatening Oli.
“You know not to say anything, right?”
“Y-yes, my Queen,” the pale man quivered as he spoke. “I don’t remember anything…”
“I know you don’t,” she sneered. “But if you do, ever, you will do what you have to do to keep those memories from being found.” As she spoke, she set a gold dagger with foreign writing on the handle on the table between them and slid it across to him. “Understood?”
He stared at the dagger for a long time before finally answering. “Understood.” He took the dagger and pocketed it. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t exactly place where I’d seen this weapon before. It was distinct, with etching on the blade in Seelie-style decoration. I quickly tore my focus from the weapon and onto the rest of his memories. I tried to dig into those memories immediately preceding that conversation, as that must have been when she suppressed them after all, but unfortunately, she was good at that.
The only thing that stood out to me was a single image, not even a full memory, of a small house of human architecture. It was white with a gray roof, had a messy yard with overgrown bushes and children’s toys, and a laundry line on the side of the house where clothes and sheets hung. In this snapshot of a memory, there was a woman at the laundry line. The woman had golden hair and silver eyes - eyes I’d only seen twice before, in the only two people I had ever loved.
This must have been an accident. I dug, but there was nothing outside that second, that image of a memory. Either he had held onto it for a reason, or Minerva had just been reckless and missed a single second when blocking his memory from him.
Suddenly, Oli paused. He had realized the memory had bubbled up in his mind, though he didn’t know why. Guilt began to set into his thoughts and fear at being discovered began to cloud the image. That confirmed it. He was at least partially responsible for this.
What’s happening? Myrcedes’ voice called within my mind. I paused before forwarding the memory as I had seen it to her mind, causing her to stop like Oli had, only for vastly different reasons.
The Unseelie before us stood and cleared his throat. “I’m so sorry to cut things short, but I’m feeling a bit unwell. I’ve been under such stress lately, as I’m sure you can imagine. It was lovely to meet with you, and I hope both of you will drop by once again when you can. No rush, I’m sure you’re very busy! King and Queen of the Underworld and all that.”
Myrcedes stood, and I followed suit, but neither of us made a move to leave. I watched the small woman, trying to discern what she was about to do. Without a second thought, she reached over the shelves on the wall displaying the Unseelie’s trinkets and grabbed the dagger Minerva had given to him - so that was where I’d seen it - and flew at Oli, who wasted no time screaming and falling to the ground in fear. Just before she could harm him, I grabbed the Unseelie, and the two of us fell into darkness.
11
Myrcedes
The dagger hit the wall where Oli had been standing, and I fell against the chair. Shit! I immediately began to search for Daath and prepared to jump to wherever he was. In less than a minute, I was in the basement of the House of Stars. I hadn’t been down here before, as there hadn’t been a reason. The walls were cement, and the whole area
