NIGHTAL 22, THE YEAR OF DEEP WATER DRIFTING (1480 DR)
Jinn sat quietly in the pale light filtering through the cracks of the hidden sewer entrance. The stone floor was cold but thankfully dry, one of the few spots free of the city's sludge, if not its stench. He stared at his hands as if he'd never seen them before, their pale, ivory skin and the deep black whorls that reached across his wrist from beneath the sleeves of his coat. His palms bore few of the creases he had witnessed in others, only a few prominent lines crossing from finger to thumb, the marks of a short life in a body forged by mystic forces he might never understand. The prints of his fingertips were like none he'd seen-save one-and seemed too false, a manufactured show-a god's estimate of flesh that had no understanding of mortality or suffering or the scars of a long life.
Night black hair, the match of his skin's designs, fell into his golden eyes as he pondered the hands that had worked so hard for so long to do what was right.
He blinked, not turning as a pained gasp echoed through the tunnel behind him. Tight, leather straps creaked in the shadows as muscles flexed, knotting as an old man applied the gentle pressure of the torturous art to the flesh of Lucian Dregg. Something wet slapped to the floor, near the edge of the thick sewage, cast aside as Briarbones worked. Dregg whimpered.
Jinn stared into the dark at the indiscernible lump of meat, the shape of it providing no clues as to its origins or purpose, though its future was certain. The deva could hear rats gathering to the south, drawn to the scent of blood. Tiny wisps of steam rose from the flesh, cooling as the work behind Jinn continued.
'Who am I?' he said under his breath, studying his hands and trying to see the immortal spirit beneath them, the celestial soul he had stained while working for the greater good.
'You are yourself, I assume,' Briarbones replied absently, muttering as he worked. Dregg was eerily quiet. 'I have heard of devas driven mad, unable to recollect the details of a current incarnation and lost in a veritable eternity of identities, all only half remembered. But such cases, I do believe, are rare. You appear to be quite lucid, so I doubt you are so afflicted.'
'And are you aware of devas who have lost their way? Turned to evil?' Jinn asked, knowing the answer in his blood but needing to hear it said out loud, confirmed by someone other than the doubting voice in the back of his mind.
'Demons. Rakshasas. Foul spirits, trapped in infinite existences and cut off from whatever wellspring of power kept them in the world. Damned,' Briar replied, and Jinn nodded, exhaling as the words were spoken and letting them echo in his thoughts, something to remember as he walked the fine line between light and dark, something to remind him of his lost Variel. 'I believe he is ready to speak now. I must admit, he resisted far more than I had predicted.'
'Hate and ignorance can make a man strong,' Jinn said as he stood. 'But only for a short time.'
He approached the human, strapped to a wooden table, bleeding slowly, a testament to the precise skill of Briarbones. Each breath came as a desperate gulp. Dregg was a murderer and a conspirator to murders, the very antithesis of everything Allek Marson stood for, yet Jinn found he could not help but pity the man-and in that moment, he valued his pity. Leaning close, he kept the wide eyes of Dregg focused on him.
'Tell me about the archmage,' he said, an edge in his voice suggesting he would not hesitate to punish the human for lying.
'Tallus… g-gives them power. The circle of skulls,' Dregg stammered, his pained gaze fierce and unwavering. 'He helps them to kill… only certain families. Like the Marsons.'
'Why did you help him?' Jinn asked.
'He promised me power… and wealth,' the human spat. 'I was to assist Rorden Marson, keep the killings quiet, until Allek grew nervous, started looking for answers in the wrong places.'
'So they removed him, making way for you,' Jinn supplied, careful to keep his hands at his sides, lest he choke the human. 'What else? Tell me what I want to hear, and your pain will end.'
'My pain will end?' Dregg asked, incredulous, chuckling and coughing on his own blood, flecks of it spattering on his chin. 'Say what you mean, deva. You will kill me.'
Jinn stood back, narrowing his eyes. 'All right,' he said at length. 'I will kill you, but before you die, tell me who you would like to join you? Who failed you such that you have fallen to this place?'
Dregg's breathing slowed as he was taken aback by the question.
'Tallus,' he said quickly. 'He used me, lied to me. And he uses her…'
'Who?' Jinn asked, leaning close again, though he suspected the answer.
'Rilyana-Rilyana Saerfynn,' the human answered, sighing in between heaving breaths. 'He lusts after her, though he knows she is mine, and he forces her to choose. She chooses those to be taken by the skulls, marks them for possession. If she had refused, Tallus would have slain her brother. All I could do was make sure she was never investigated, but then Rorden Marson started to get too close…'
Jinn removed the bound letters from his coat, the discourse between Rilyana and Allek that stood in stark contrast to all he had witnessed. He wondered how close Dregg and Rilyana had been, wondered if the man's desire had crafted a relationship that didn't truly exist except within his own arrogance-but then, Jinn had seen them together. It seemed that if Rilyana had been too frightened to resist, she might have sought help from Allek, and if they had somehow fallen in love
…
'You requested Allek's death, didn't you?' Jinn asked.
'Marson had gone too far,' Dregg growled, his eyes rolling back. 'He spoke against my promotion countless times, said I was too angry to lead. I enjoyed watching him squirm, looking for killers that had never really existed, but then he wanted Rilyana. Never!'
Dregg's tirade devolved into a choking cough, his chest rising and falling violently, little streams of blood becoming rivers from his wounds as he thrashed against his bonds. Jinn waited for him to spend his strength, stood by as the convulsions slowed before continuing.
'Who else is helping Tallus?' he asked.
'I don't know. He never told me,' the human answered weakly. 'But Rilyana's brother, Callak, was never in any danger. He and the wizard had some kind of an agreement.'
Dregg's voice trailed off, his head lolled from side to side, delirious and either dying from his wounds or driven to madness by the pain of them. Jinn grabbed his shoulders and shook him roughly.
'The angel, Dregg!' he shouted. 'What about the angel!'
'Voices… wings… he kept asking for the souls…,' the human slurred and muttered, falling deeper into a feverish dementia. 'A circle of souls… Tallus betrays them all for loose fingers, hidden souls, and immortality. Kill me, deva. Go and let them use you too, so I can see you soon…'
'Gods have mercy,' Quessahn whispered, standing in the doorway and staring at the rorden as he managed a weak laugh, rusty stains between his teeth as he began to bleed out, his life pouring onto the floor of Briarbones's chamber. The eladrin turned away, pushing past Mara as the hag entered the room and regarded the dying human.
'I was wondering when you would get your hands dirty,' Mara remarked with a sly grin. She pulled forth a small, red gem from beneath her cloak. She approached the rorden with a hungry gleam in her eye. 'No sense letting him to go to waste.'
'No,' Jinn said, grabbing her wrist and meeting the crimson glare that flashed beneath her illusory eyes. He ignored her anger, disgusted by her greed for souls and by himself for tolerating it for so long. 'Let this one go.'
'You overstep your bounds, deva. We have an agreement,' she snarled, ivory teeth wavering, revealing the lioness fangs hidden behind her human lips. 'What makes this soul special? Why protect it?'
'Because I haven't yet lost my own,' he replied, forcing her hand away as gently as possible. His gold eyes gleamed in the candlelight. 'I believe there will be dark souls aplenty for your gems in the days to come, do you not agree?'
'Very well,' Mara answered curtly, putting the ruby away. 'I suppose we all need something every now and then to help us sleep at night, eh?' She gestured at the rorden's broken body. 'I trust your tender mercies did not keep you from questioning the poor dear?'
'Do you have the book?' he asked, ignoring her taunts.
'Of course,' she answered, a suspicious glint in her eye as she stepped away from him, one hand hidden beneath her cloak. 'It is quite fascinating so far, though parts are difficult to decipher-'
