Amli chuckled. “So we can’t be Circlians. Therefore we must be Pentadrians.”
“Fareeh used to say you could tell a Sennon from a southerner because while Sennons tolerate other religions, they still like to pretend they don’t exist.”
“Not all Sennons are like that.”
“Which ones aren’t?”
Amli smiled. “The Sennonian Dreamweavers. And the Sennonian Pentadrians.” Amli refilled Ranaan’s mug. “We both know what it is like to be persecuted for our beliefs.”
“But you’re not persecuted in your own land.”
Amli smiled. “No.”
Amli handed Ranaan the refilled mug. “When we first came here, jealous traders put about the rumor that we were Pentadrians so that people wouldn’t buy from us. It convinced us we were right in claiming we were from Sennon.” He shook his head. “That is nothing to what they do to Dreamweavers. The Circlians are an evil lot.”
“And Pentadrians aren’t? Isn’t invading another country an evil thing to do?”
“Yes,” Amli agreed. He looked away and sighed. “It was wrong. Our gods had seen the evils of the Circlians and ordered us to stop them. We assumed war was the most effective way to achieve that, but we only ended up killing those we wished to save. And we paid the price for it with our own deaths.”
He looked terribly sad. Ranaan’s thoughts turned to Fareeh and he felt his heart wrench painfully. His teacher hadn’t been killed by Pentadrians, just thugs. Circlian thugs. Truly the Circlians were an evil lot.
“Tell me more about the Pentadrians. What are your gods like?”
Amli looked up and his gaze cleared. He smiled.
“What would you like to know?”
The roots Auraya was peeling were dyeing her skin orange. Jade hadn’t asked Auraya to do the task, she had simply handed her the roots and said “peel” in the tone of one who expected obedience. Auraya could see no point refusing; it kept her hands occupied while she tried to discover how to shield her mind.
At least Jade was willing to explain what the root was for. It was both a dye and a treatment for scalp disorders, though the latter worked best when the juice was applied fresh rather than as a powder mixed with water.
Other “cures” that Jade had prepared included a potion to liven a lazy heart made from insect poison, bark which produced a stimulant similar to but more powerful than those Leiard had once taught Auraya about, and mushrooms that Jade admitted were useful only for “recreational purposes.”
It was strangely logical to find that Mirar’s friend was as learned in cures and healing as he was. Preparing the different substances brought back memories of Auraya’s childhood, of helping and learning from Leiard. She felt a pang of regret. Things had been so much simpler then.
“Do you realize how much time you spend dwelling on regrets and worries?” Jade said suddenly. “I don’t know whether you’re chewing over leaving the White, agonizing over offending the gods or getting sentimental over your great lost love - or all three - but you certainly do a lot of it.”
Auraya looked up and managed a wry smile. Jade was constantly telling Auraya what she was feeling in order to let her know her attempts at hiding her mind were failing. “There’s not much else to do while peeling roots.”
“I must admit, self-pity wasn’t something I expected to sense so much of from a former White.”
“No? What were you expecting?”
The woman pursed her lips. “Arrogance. A self-righteous god-loving young woman with puffed-up notions of her own worth.”
“And that’s not what you found?”
“No. I could have lived with that. Instead I get to put up with ingratitude and self-pity.”
Auraya blinked in surprise. “Ingratitude?”
“Yes. I can sense your emotions, remember. There’s been little gratitude.”
“Gratitude can’t be forced. And it’s hard to maintain when your teacher is trying to be as unpleasant a companion as possible.”
“You haven’t done much to endear yourself to me so far either,” Jade retorted.
“Just proves your expectations were wrong. Though I think one was correct.”
“Oh?”
“I do love the gods.”
Jade stopped working and stared at Auraya, her expression unreadable.
“So I was wrong. Nice of you to point that out.” Her voice was flat, but Auraya could hear the suppressed anger and fear behind it.
“And you hate them,” she stated. “Why?”
Jade scowled and the cuts of her knife became more aggressive. “I could spend the whole day listing the reasons. I’ve had a thousand years to tally them up. But what point would there be in telling you? You won’t believe me, and even if you did, you would still love the gods. Love is blind, whether it be for a lover, family or the gods.”
“I know there was much to hate about the gods in the Age of the Many. That’s why the Circle fought the rest. You must have been pleased when so many were killed.”
Jade shrugged. “Mostly. Not all the gods were bad, though.”
“The Circle?”
“Baddest of them all.”
“Before or after the war?”
“Both.”
“What did they do after the war that was bad?”
“They executed Mirar.”
“Is that all?”
“No.” Jade’s expression darkened. “They killed other immortals. They persecuted Dreamweavers.”
“Does knowing that Mirar survived diminish your hatred at all?”
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “No. They ordered him killed. That they failed doesn’t change that. In fact, it makes it worse knowing the torment he went through afterward, as he recovered.”
Auraya nodded. “Why do you think they ordered him, and the other Wilds, killed?”
Looking at her knife, Jade ran her finger along the blade. “Mirar actively worked against their control of mortals, as did some other immortals. The rest of us... they knew we hated them. We know what they were like before the war. If we told the world of their true natures, mortals might not be so willing to follow them.”
“What did the gods do that was so terrible?”
Jade stared at the cutting board, her eyes focused far beyond it.
“Enslaved people and nations, or wiped them out completely in revenge for a small slight in the distant past. They made whores out of their followers and sacrificed children. They changed mortals into monsters just to see if they could make them fly or breathe fire or grow to abnormal sizes.”
Auraya felt a shock. “The Siyee? But they willingly allowed themselves to be changed by Huan.”
“Huan took advantage of them,” Jade said. “She took the most gullible of her followers, those willing to do anything for her, to work on. They could not have known what it was going to do to them.” She made a noise of disgust. “But when it came to seducing innocents, Chaia was the most gifted. He would select beautiful young women to be his lovers, and when they grew too old or they no longer adored him utterly, he would cast them aside. It was said the pleasure he gave them ruined them, as no mortal man could match it.”
Auraya stared at Jade.
Jade was watching her closely. Auraya made herself nod. “You’re right; I do find it hard to believe you.”
