time he had met with them.
Jenner seemed to sense Michael's confusion. 'You know the laws and how they are to be applied. If you feel it necessary to your sister's safety to keep him alive, so be it. You wouldn't have been chosen as ruler had we not had faith in your judgment. The sole reason we conveyed our disapproval of your last judgment was because you made a call out of unfounded theory. Revelation of your sister's powers is something not to be taken lightly.'
'I need to speak with Garren.' Michael started to rise when Jenner stopped him.
'You believe him to have been privy to this vision as well?'
Michael looked past the windows. 'I don't know what I believe anymore.' He rose to his feet, stretching his wings. They were sore and felt heavy. He rubbed his shoulder and peeked at the bandage on his arm. His leg was wrapped, making it awkward to move. He reached for his shirt and pulled it over his head, maneuvering his wings painfully as he finished dressing.
Jenner headed toward the door before addressing Michael again. 'I will see you when we meet with the council, assuming the world does not fall to pieces before then.'
Jenner smirked and for a moment the tension was lessoned. Michael sighed. 'The way things have been going, it very well might.'
Michael grabbed his cloak. He never thought he'd see the day that he desperately needed to speak with Garren and it was this thought that ran through his head as he limped down several corridors. When he was around the corner from Garren's cell, he heard raised voices.
'Michael will see you when he feels it necessary,' the guard's words were clipped and teeming with disgust.
'Please, you don't understand the weight of… I must speak with him.'
The guard seemed to have heard enough of Garren. As Michael walked into the hall, he saw the Adorian lean into the door, pressing his face to the bars. Judging by the hatred in his expression, he was about to say something rather nasty when, unfortunately for him, he discovered that some of his shirt fabric was exposed through the railing, just enough for Garren to grab hold of.
'Believe me,' Garren hissed, 'he'll feel it…'
Michael stepped up before Garren could finish his sentence. 'Let him go. I believe I know what urgent matter you're referring to.' Garren released the guard.
'My Lord, I'm sorry. I should've summoned you.' The guard knelt down.
'Rise. I respect your intentions to honor me.' Michael tapped him on the shoulder, motioning for him to stand. 'Garren and I need to speak in private. I'll come for you once we're finished.' The guard bowed again, then pulled a silver key from his pocket and handed it to Michael.
Left alone, Michael turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Garren had reclaimed his seat.
'You were there,' Michael rasped.
Sweat poured down Garren's face as he nodded. 'Did you see anything before I reached you?'
Michael shook his head. 'Do you know anything of my sister? Words again came from your lips that weren't Adorian.'
'I knelt when I saw her, but heard nothing.'
Michael believed him. 'Then you didn't hear Ciara address you?'
'No.'
'She said, 'You are too late. She is mine.' Do you have any idea where such a vision would have come from, or for what purpose?'
'I can't begin to imagine. No Ereubinian or anyone else living aside from the Laionai themselves has had an audience with her, though it appears the tide is changing.'
Michael almost didn't say anything, but he felt his gut urging him to. 'I can assure you that's not true.'
Garren looked up. 'What?'
'Ariana. The day you released her from Palingard. Ciara approached her in Arcadia. She was trying to persuade Ariana against going any further, which would keep her from crossing over into our borders. She appeared to her as a child.'
Garren stood up from his bed and started to circle the room.
Michael thought for a moment that it was odd that he didn't feel the urge to pace himself. 'I'm unsure what your place is in all of this is. You speak our language when it's never been taught to you, and in a vision you speak in a tongue that only you and Ariana posses. I can't ignore that.' Michael knew his next sentence wouldn't be anticipated. 'I'm requesting that you appear before the elders. The council may have questions for you that I want to give you a fair chance to answer. Perhaps if they see the difference in you, as I have seen, it will steer the course of things to come.'
Garren turned his gaze to the ground. Michael could almost reach out and touch his remorse. It couldn't have been an easy choice to make — walking away from everything he'd ever believed. Michael had been wrong, Garren hadn't chosen Adoria based on her leniency, he couldn't have. He'd never known mercy.
'I don't know if in the pace of the last two days that I've thanked you for saving Ariana's life.' Michael dipped his head to catch Garren's eye. 'You don't know what it's done to change mine. And dream or not, you saved my life when you thought the threat was real. I felt the blood rushing through my veins at the same pace that it must have yours. While I cannot forget the wrongs that have been done to my people, I can personally forgive you for them. It's easy to be honorable and just when you've always been so. It's clearly another matter when it's against all that you've been taught to believe.'
Garren's breathing quickened. 'I don't deserve your forgiveness. All this time, I assumed my father's blessings upon my actions and I have done nothing but shame him.'
Michael shook his head. How many times had he told Ariana that darkness flowed through the veins of all of Eidolon and here he was retracting that statement to his sworn enemy? Maybe the world had fallen to pieces. 'You are everything that I would have been, had I been raised in your world, Garren. While our ideals and methods have been drastically different, our dedication to our beliefs is the same. That's why I want you to meet with the council. I want them to hear your words — see what I have seen.'
Garren swallowed hard. 'I would still be that being had I not found Ariana. Her presence, just the simple touch of my hand on her cheek, irrevocably changed everything for me.'
Michael remembered what Ariana had told him about their conversation. 'I have been relayed a very different version of your feelings for my sister.'
Garren sat down on the floor. 'Ariana dreamt when she was in Eidolon that your father came to her and told her that you would be there soon and I remember well her calling out for you several times in her suffering. My feelings for her are stronger than anything I've ever known. But I am at death's door and have no intention of leaving her with resentment toward you for what must be done. Selfishly, I want her by my side in my last hours. But because I love her, I cannot allow it.'
Michael was speechless. He'd taken Garren for many things, none of which was selfless. 'Then what changes have been wrought in you are not false. What I have witnessed is truth.'
'Michael, you must listen to me. Merely being in close proximity with her, near her in any fashion, awakens emotions and experiences that I've never known. It's as if I've lived two lives, one of righteousness, one of depravity. But it may be a persuasion of one whom you cannot afford to trust, The Laionai or the Goddess herself. Do what you know to be right, and let fate be what it may. It was my introduction into her life that brought all of this on, so perhaps when I'm no longer breathing, it will cease.'
Michael looked at the floor. Garren's words had truth behind them, but to what extent? He'd have to trust that he'd know what to decide when the time came. He had no other choice.
'We'll see. You haven't eaten anything. If you are ill, then I will send for our healer. If not, then give your body what it needs. Your judgment in our realm doesn't include your suffering needlessly.' He gave Garren as much of a smile as he could given the circumstances. 'I will send another plate of hot food and a blanket. If you change your mind, let the guard know, and he will summon Aulora.'
Michael left the cell and stood in the hall for a moment with his back against the wall. He concentrated only on his breathing — everything else was far too overwhelming.
