Anais Eternal

by Paige Graffunder

"Ok," I said, and with that, I began to throw together a motley dinner from the supplies we had, occasionally holding up ingredients for Etachs to inspect to make sure I wasn't going to inadvertently kill them with my cooking.

  Oracle

  Tatiana was awoken in the night to the sounds of mayhem from below her. She bolted upright in her bed, her senses on edge. Her preternatural hearing picked up the sounds of breaking glass, splintering wood, and shouts. She threw her bed clothes aside and stood, whispering her magic into wakefulness. Before she could fully call upon it, the sound of rushing footsteps towards her room caught her attention. She shifted into a defensive pose and raised her hands, balled into fists. Her mother, Annalisa, slid the door open and snaked inside, her eyes wide and full of an emotion that she had never seen on her mother's face before: fear. Her mother crossed the room to her on near-silent feet, placing her hand on Tatiana's face. "Don't call your magic, they can sense it. You must go, but there are things you must know before you do." Her mother whispered frantically. Tatiana made to ask her what things, but her mother silenced her with one elegant finger pressed against her lips. "I don't have time to explain, but you must flee, you must take your sister and get as far away from this place as possible."

  She pulled the satchel that Tatiana had not noticed she wore until now off her shoulder and pressed it into Tatiana's arms, her eyes despairing. "Take this, it holds all that you need to know. You must go get your sister and leave now. Run and don't stop until you have reached the Glenn of Patience." Annalisa stooped and reached under Tatiana's bed, pulling a pack and a bedroll. Befuddled, Tatiana wondered how long that had been there outside of her notice. "Take this too, my child, so that you might live. There is precious little in it, but it should last you and Anais for a few days. There is another under Anais' bed, take it too." Tatiana felt the hot betrayal of her tears fill her eyes. She was nearly 100, she was too old for tears, but when her mother's eyes found hers, she saw that Annalisa, her fearless, proud, and composed mother was also crying. They stared at each other for a moment, then Annalisa grabbed Tatiana and held her close, the bag squished between them. Her mother's hand curled around the back of Tatiana's head, caressing her hair for a horribly short moment before releasing her. "I love you, Tati, take your sister and escape!"

  A crash rang out through the lower level and an agonizing scream of pain rang out. Tatiana knew the voice connected to that scream, but her addled brain couldn't process it. Her mother grabbed her roughly. "You must not be caught, Tati, and if you are, you must ensure Anais escapes." Her tearful eyes shot back to the door. "Go now, I will buy you as much time as I can." With that, she stood and fled the room without a backward glance. Tatiana looked down at the bag in her arms, debating for just a moment before sliding her bare feet into boots. She crossed the room hurriedly, snagging her coat off the back of her door before exiting the room into a nightmare.

  The lower floor of the manor was in flames. She caught a glimpse of her mother disappearing down the stairs, her dress and hair whipping about her as though a windstorm was playing its music for only her. Annalisa’s voice called out calm and commanding, made deeper by the magic amplification that occurred when a Fae tapped into the deep and ancient magic. Tatiana heard her mother curse the invaders, binding them to her magic with merciless cruelty. "This betrayal will never be forgotten; you will pay for this treachery with oceans of blood!" As the last words left her lips, a concussive blast shook the manor to its foundation in a horrifying display of her mother's command of the ancient and ruthless magic of the Fae Folk. Tatiana crossed the hall to Anais' room quickly, afraid the house would shake down around them if she did not hurry. She found her sister awake in her bed. Anais let out a choked sob at the sight of Tatiana, the sound catching in her throat. Tatiana stumbled into the room and yanked Anais out of bed, "Shoes, now!" Tatiana hissed at her sister, bending quickly to snag the pack under her bed, smaller and lighter than her own, but with a bedroll secured to it. Anais stumbled as she was flung out of bed and began to put on her slippers. "No!" hissed Tatiana, "not those! Your boots!" Anais began to cry in earnest and turned to her boots, slipping her feet into them. Tatiana grabbed her coat off the stand in the corner of the room and tossed it to Anais who made no move to catch it in her distress. The coat struck her tiny chest, and tumbled to the floor, Anais looking at her now boot-clad feet with wide-eyed terror, her sobbing escalating by the second with her fear.

  Tatiana crossed to her, pulling the coat off the floor and stuffing Anais into it roughly. "We need to go, now!" she hissed, and thrust the pack into Anais' hands. "Put that on, quickly," she said a little more gently. Anais did as she was told, her sobbing breath hitching in her chest. She fixed her eyes on Tatiana as though she were a life raft in a roiling sea constructed of every fear she had ever had. The look scared Tatiana badly, she didn’t want to think about what that look meant. That Anais knew that their Pod was dead or dying, and that all they had was each other. Tatiana didn’t want to think about that. There is no way that their Pod could fall, not with her parents, not with Trom and Sustina, and their grandmother, Elena. Each one exceptionally powerful, even for Fae. Once the pack was on, Tatiana took Anais’ hand and pulled her to the window, sliding it open with as much stealth as she could. As she ducked through the opening, her boot clad foot planting itself on the roof, she heard a scream of rage and pain and felt another concussive blast shake the house, but it was cut short, as was the scream. Tatiana pulled Anais through the window, knowing in her heart and mind, both their parents were dead.

  ◆◆◆

  The tugging of Ayesha's mind on my own woke me. She was perched on a bunch of boxes above my head, her head cocked to the side, but her body otherwise relaxed. Her mind spoke to mine. It said, "The strange one is awake, you should be awake now too." I opened my eyes to slits, and found Etachs sitting on their bedroll, staring at their hand, the other tracing the bronze scales, their eyes wide and transfixed. Their brow was furrowed in concentration, their inverted knees tucked up behind their armpits, their raven hair secured behind their elongated reptilian ears with small pins that I recognized as my own. I watched them for a while, as they traced over the places I had healed them. But that wasn't right. It wasn't me who had healed them. Not really. My magic had done it. It had asked my permission, yes, but I did not make it so.

  Ayesha squawked as Tatiana dropped into the space from the entrance above us, a string of rabbits slung over her shoulder. Etachs started and dropped their hands, as their eyes turned up to look at Tatiana. I stretched and yawned and sat up.

  "Good morning," I said as I rubbed my eyes. I felt Etachs' gaze upon me and realized this was the first time they had seen me without my glamour. Tatiana grumbled and dropped the rabbits in front of me.

  "I suppose you want me to clean those?" I looked up at her smiling sweetly. She gave a curt nod and bent to rummage through her bag. I stood and stretched again, getting the blood back into my limbs; the night had been cold. Before stooping to snag the rabbits, I turned to look behind me at Etachs, "Do you want to come with me?" I asked, pushing my glamour into place as I spoke. The softening of my face, the blunting of my teeth, and the dulling of my hair had Etach's transfixed.

  "What are you going to do?" they asked haltingly, their eyes roving along my now Human-appearing form.

  "Clean and prepare these rabbits so we can eat them," I said. "Come if you want to, or stay in here with Tati, it makes no difference to me." I started up the stairs.

  “If I leave here with you, will you be able to kill me? You kept saying ‘until we leave this place’ last night…” Etachs trailed off looking a little embarrassed to be questioning me. I raised my eyebrows and Tatiana and I exchanged a look. Fae often use words to trick others into trapping themselves, even the Humans knew that. Even those who knew that, rarely picked up on the nuance of speech, but this alien, who had probably never encountered a Fae that wasn’t dead or dying had identified one such loophole. I turned my gaze back t
o Etachs.

  “No,” I said cooly. “You’re right to ask the question, Fae words can be tricky, but in this instance, it means until we remove ourselves from residence, not physically leave it’s shelter.” I turned, continuing my ascent to the surface, unable to stop myself from grinning. After a moment’s hesitation I heard Etachs mount the stairs behind me. If I was them, I would have asked the same questions. I wouldn't have wanted to stay down there with my hostile sister either. Etachs watched me with fascination as I cleaned and skinned the rabbits, preparing the meat to be cooked, and the skins to be used. They didn't make any comments, but they occasionally looked from the corpses of the animals to my face, then back again. Once the rabbits were cleaned, and the skins scraped and ready to be treated, I stood. I regarded Etachs, noticing the perplexed expression on their face.

  "Your people don't eat meat, do they?" I asked.

  "We do," they replied slowly. "But not like this. The meat they consume is grown in a vat. It would be unsustainable to keep herds the size that would be necessary to keep the fleet fed aboard ships."

  "They?" I raised my eyebrows.

  Etachs shrugged, "They are not my people. I am from them, but not a part of them. A lot of things happened yesterday, a lot of things I don't understand, but one thing I understand perfectly clearly, is I am not them." I mulled this over, and Etachs inspected an insect making its humble way up the trunk of the willow. After a moment, I offered the hand not holding the bag of rabbits and furs out to them. They raised their eyes to me and after a momentary hesitation, they took my hand with their own claw-tipped one. I pulled them to their feet, and they nodded their gratitude.

  I inclined my head towards Etachs a smirk curling the corner of my mouth, “My hair clips look good in your hair.” Etachs blushed their cheeks flooding with purple and lifted their hands to pull the clips from their hair, muttering an apology. I laughed, and waved my hand, “No, no! Don’t take them out, I meant it as a compliment. I left them here ages ago, I have loads, I make them you see?” I plunged my hand into my pocket and pulled out a handful of similar pins. Etachs plucked the clips free despite my protestation, their raven hair swinging down around their face.

  “I am not a thief,” They said simply. “I only meant to borrow them; I am sorry I did not ask.” They held their hand out to me and I chuckled, pushing their hand back to them.

  “A gift then, from me to you.” I smiled and started the descent back into the ground where Tatiana and Ayesha waited before Etachs could protest further.

  "What else do your sensors pick up?" asked Tatiana around a mouthful of rabbit stew. We had been eating in silence for several minutes and Etachs jumped at the sound of Tatiana's voice.

  "How do you mean? We have discussed this previously," Etachs replied, lowering their spoon back into their bowl and regarding Tatiana with those curious purple eyes.

  "They sense our magic, but what else? You couldn't just have wanted them to find Fae since you said you have no interest in harming us. So, what else do they do?" Etachs shifted. Because of their inverted hips and knees, sitting on the ground for them was more of what I would have called a squat, but within a moment they were sitting with their legs crossed beneath and behind them, in some strange reversal of tailor style. Tatiana watched this without comment, but with her brows raised in an expectant way that left no question she was waiting for an answer.

  "They sense proximity, which makes it harder for people and beasts to sneak up on us, though it is a relatively short range. They sense temperature and precipitation, Fae magic, Fae language, and position relative to the stars. Also, they monitor some of my internal systems and can help me avoid things that are poisonous to me. For example, if you had put..." they paused for a moment, trying to remember the word we had used for it, "lavender into this stew, it would alert me that something potentially toxic was within proximity to me. They also allow me to pair with weapons. Himlani weapons require pairing to one’s specific implants, that way it is impossible for those who are not Himlani to turn them against..." Etachs trailed off, and their resistance to saying us was not lost on Tatiana or myself. "Other Himlani. Without my sensors or my implants, I would not be able to operate one. You need both. They also serve as an interface to our habitats and ships. One cannot, walk from room to room through doors without the proper implants, and the authorizations programmed to them." Tatiana's brows furrowed at this response, but she made no further attempt to question.

  "Tati?" I said after we had all finished our meal and cleaned our bowls and spoons. Tatiana turned to face me; her blue eyes met my own. "You said you might know the answer as to why Etachs," I nodded my head in the direction of the Himlani, "might not be able to see my magic." Tatiana sighed and nodded, twisting around to reach into her bag.

  "I had hoped to wait a while longer before we had to have this conversation, and I will admit I don't have all the answers. A lot of this I don't understand," she said as she removed a small drawstring bag from inside of her larger backpack. She shot a look to Etachs. "Are you sure you want to talk about this in front of them? They could still betray us." Etachs lowered their head, their hair sweeping to cover their cheeks like a curtain. Before Etachs could speak I spoke up.

  "I'm sure," I said, definitively. I reached out a hand and placed it on Etachs' shoulder. They glanced up at me, with a grateful expression. Tatiana regarded the gesture with a flat expression before raising her eyebrows and pulling open the bag.

  "Mother gave this to me on the night of the Devastation. When we escaped out of the window, do you remember?" I nodded that I remembered, but really, I only had hazy impressions of that night, something about shoes and fire, and screaming. I remembered that I had been crying too hard to stop. I remembered Tatiana's shaking hands stuffing my arms into the sleeves of my coat and lifting me out onto the ledge outside my window.

  "I have read it several times since then, but again not all of it I understand..." Tatiana trailed off, her brow furrowed, as she chewed her lip. She turned her eyes to mine and she said, "You've always been different, Anais, they knew it even when you were a youngling. I remember using my magic to listen to them speak about you. Before you could even really walk or talk, they knew you were different. They argued about what to do about it for years and, eventually, our grandmother won out. They took you someplace. I wasn't allowed to know where, I wasn't yet mature, but I remember the way our grandmother spoke her name." Tatiana looked down at the bag clutched in her hands. "She said her name like she was afraid of her."

  My magic burbled to life inside me and began to whisper in my ear. It cooed and purred the same name over and over. The name was one I had never heard before, but it felt familiar too. Like my magic knew this person when I did not. Before I could stop myself, the name tumbled from my lips. "Nysthrani."

  Tati's eyes shot up to mine, her face pale and shocked, "What did you just say?"

  I blinked and shook my head to clear it, the whispering of my magic fading back into the core of me where it slept. "I don't know. When you started talking, my magic whispered it to me. What is it?"Tatiana's face remained shocked, her eyes glued to mine.

  "That is the name of the one they took you too. The name of The Oracle."

  Communion

  Etachs sat with their back to the wall of their cell. Their body ached from the tests they had endured that day. The bowl of watered-down nutrition paste sat untouched by the door. They had lost count of the days or months they had been in this place, but their hair had regrown long enough to touch their shoulders. Etachs thought perhaps they should be grateful that they had not been forced to endure its removal again. While in general an expression of vanity to the Himlani, it also had a deep cultural significance to them, and to have it shaved was the most sincere statement of disownment. Not that anyone claimed Etachs now, hair or no hair. They sat in the darkness, clawed fingers loosely laced together in front of them, their legs tucked up to their sides. Etachs took two steadying breaths and rolled t
heir neck forward, trying to ease the tension from fighting against restraints all day. They just wanted to hear the voice through the wall. They didn't even know the other one's name, but the sound of their voice was always a great comfort to Etachs.

  At last, the screeching of the hatch on the other side of the wall reached Etachs’ ears, the sick scraping sound of scales flesh being dragged across the polished concrete floor, and the softer, almost liquid sound of the enforcers dropping a body without care, as one would drop a bag of garbage into a waste bin. Etachs winced at the sound. They didn't walk in, they had been dragged. What had been done to them? Etachs listened as the hatch was closed and the footsteps of the guards disappeared into the ethereal realm beyond the door. Etachs turned their head to the side and spoke quietly, "Are you ok?"

  Nothing for a long moment.

  "No." came the muttered reply, almost too choked with despondent sorrow to be heard.

  "What happened?" Etachs shifted to press their ear to the wall.

  "Friend, I can't talk tonight. I'm sorry," came again the watery, sad voice of Etach's only companion.

  "Ok," said Etachs, pressing a hand against the wall, wishing they could pass through the wall and put their arms around the stranger they felt so deeply for. "I'm sorry for whatever they did..." they added before closing their eyes, resolved to spend the rest of the night listening to the wall to make sure their friend was still breathing.

  "Thank you, friend," came the soft reply.

  After a long silence, hours at least, Etachs still had their ear pressed to the wall, they heard the scraping of the other's body against the floor. It was the first time they had moved at all since they had been brought back. Etachs could hear them dragging themselves to the wall they shared.

  "Are you on the wall, friend?" Came the weary, disconsolate voice.