Twenty-Eight: Chimia

Funny I should find myself in this predicament twice in about a month.

There I was, laying in a bed injured, after a strained encounter with Malfizan. Before I could register anything about my whereabouts, I felt *him*. The cord that held us together was thin and strained, and I knew I could block him out if I needed to. I also knew he likely thought I already had. In my unconscious state and his frenzied anxiety, there must have been so little energy pulsing to him from my side that he hadn't even realized I'd been hurt. For some reason, this made me angrier than I already was with him, but I swallowed the feeling and held it in my raw and dry throat. It was too loud of a feeling and if I leaned into it before searching our connection for information, he'd notice me and come looking.

And I had no idea how quickly I could leave this place--whatever it was.

When I did tap into our shared energy, I learned very little. Mostly, I felt an overwhelm of anxiety and guilt. Not for what his dishonesty had done to me but for some other betrayal I didn't know about. Then an irritation that I'd felt from him before. His mother must be in Echelon. As soon as I discovered this, I pulled away and blocked all access to our tie--both ways. If Bia was here, it was only a matter of time before I was found, and I did not want to be found. I had a plan. It included finding Hades, figuring out what happened to Fen, and then appealing to Zeus for a new betrayal, the immediate dethroning of my mother, and the banishment of Malfizan from my city. I knew now that my initial instinct had been all too correct - the demon God was a thorn in my side and in Echelon's. Powerful, maybe. But a useless, irritating hindrance to me and my people? Absolutely. With him around, I was certain to lose the war.

"Ah, the traveler awakes." The voice was unfamiliar, but I recognized the romantic yellow dress as belonging to the woman I'd seen before I was attacked. She was frail and malnourished, and it was not possible she'd been the one to issue the blow, but that didn't mean she was free from suspicion. We were in small quarters. The smell of sex and musk told me it was likely a brothel, the sounds bounding through our door from down the hall confirmed it. Wincing with pain I didn't feel, I sat up slowly. Next to me on a table was a bowl of herbal water and a rag. Someone had been tending to a wound I did not have. "Feeling better?"

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"Battle-worn, then? Relax, little one. I'm Vasha, the madame here. I don't normally put up out-of-towners but rumor has it the jewels the thief stole from you were rare and many, and I figured I had to at least hear your story first. Now you." I started to answer her but was stunned into silence as a man holding a lantern entered the room. The green light from it illuminated her skin, and I recognized the starlight swimming there, her power on full display atop cerulean skin.

"You're an enchanter," I murmured before I could think. Vasha grinned and took a seat next to me.

"Ah, so you really aren't from here." She held her arm out to me to show me a scar like a diamond made of knotted rope. It had been made with hellfire. She looked at me, expectantly, as if I should know what that meant. When she realized that I didn't, something in her demeanor changed entirely. "You come from the mortal realm," she whispered. The man who brought the lantern set it on the dresser and came closer to his. They both gave me the same harrowing look.

"Yes." I wasn't sure what the right answer was, but I was hoping for some answers, and she already seemed pretty set that she was correct.

Her eyes, like emeralds, flickered toward the man, then back to me for a moment. "This is Duo, my brother. Apomeinária is the historical name of our little neighborhood that you stumbled upon. The kids just call it Apo these days, though. Most of us were born here, but we're all enchanters give or take a lowborn elf or two. I hadn't realized that the golden sons and daughters of the mortal realm were still silent about us, after all this time. Our neighborhood is the place Echelon was built around. We're on the outskirts, now, but it wasn't always like that. A long time ago, the Gods grew fearful of enchanters acting in a group after rumors that one of them--they called themselves Lytrotís--killing a group of daemons. There was a war. Survivors were stripped of the majority of our powers and exiled here. When the war was over, were largely forgotten about, so we stayed. We lived. We had children. We built a small but proud kingdom."

"Then one of our kind from Earth fell pregnant with a child of Hades." Her brother was speaking now. His voice was low, deep, and intentional. His bright blue eyes bore into me as if he could see through my very flesh and into my essence. "He built her this place to keep her quiet. When it was her daughter's turn to reign, she pushed us here. To the outskirts. Into poverty, so that we might never leave, band together, and return to usurp her throne."

Vasha nodded solemnly. "Just like her father, she was afraid of us. So we stay here. Echelon is filled with enchanters. Our marks, which were burned onto us and born onto our children, keep us from leaving. If the Queen catches you, she'll mark you, surely. How did you get here? It is probably best you leave now."

My head was spinning, and I suddenly felt the injury that should have been healed as if it had just happened. My stomach coiled into knots, I grew nauseous, and then everything was black once more.