It hadn’t seemed so complicated when he’d been Secundus.
(When Brannal had been in charge?)
Cormal handed the reports over to Molun, who tucked them tightly under his arm and then made his way cautiously out of the room, the limp pronounced.
It hurt to watch him, and Cormal had to wonder if being Secunduswasactually a role Molun would be able to maintain. Was his leg going to heal enough that he could fight again? It didn’t seem likely that he was going to be able to go up against lesser demons, and Mage Warriors needed to be fast against wraiths and nightmares, too. Carnalions were their own horror, but physical speed wasn’t necessarily an advantage. If only Cormal had worked everything out earlier. If Perian hadn’t had the chance to seduce so many people, could this all have been avoided? Would Molun be whole and healthy right now?
But here they were, in this reality that Cormal hadn’t wanted but needed to do his best in anyway. He would keep an eye on Molun and make sure he couldn’t harm himself. He’d always been impetuous, but Arvus was usually good at ensuring hedidn’t behave too foolishly. If they stayed in the castle through the winter, perhaps everything would look better in the spring.
Cormal could be the one to do the winter inspection, even if he hated inspecting in the cold weather. He’d make sure to assign Molun duties that he could physically handle, but he wouldn’t say that was what he was doing. That way, he wouldn’t offend Molun’s pride. Cormaldidunderstand how frustrating it was to have people treat you like there was something wrong with you.
It was rare but not unheard of for a Mage Warrior to remain on castle duty when they were older or injured. It was far more likely that they would retire, settle somewhere on their own or head off to the Great Library to work there as a Mage.
But Cormal knew without asking that if that happened, they would lose Arvus, too, and the last thing the castle needed right now was to losemoreMage Warriors.
“Weceasedto be friends the moment you kidnapped the man I love from outside my room in the middle of the night.”
Almost twenty years of friendship, and Brannal had thrown it away for ademon. What did that say about his relationship with Cormal, about how much Brannal had valued him?
Cormal drew a deep breath, swallowed around a thick throat, and resolutely opened his eyes. He rose from his desk and reminded himself that those feelings couldn’t matter. Brannal had abandoned him, but nothing was more important than ensuring that everyone at the castle was protected.
Cormal would go and inspect the Mage Warriors and see how training was going. No matter what else happened, they always needed to train.
If the last two months had taught Cormal anything, it was that they needed to be ready for anything.
Chapter Two
Trill
Trill’s mother had always told him that he was too curious. This was probably true; Trill was curious about everything. He thought the world was such an interesting place, and his mother had never seemed to understand that. She had, in fact, always seemed to view the world as though it were a dark anddismal place, like it was designed to push her down and thwart her, to make her unhappy.
Trill was sure the world didn’t work that way, but she’d gotten angry if he tried to explain his own viewpoint. She’d told him that he was a child and didn’t understand the way the world really worked.
“When you’re old enough, you’ll be as angry as I am. People take advantage of one another, and you need to take advantage before someone else gets you first!”
Trill had always tried to show her how beautiful the world actually was. He’d brought her flowers from the wild, he’d shown her animals and clouds, pretty colors, a happy family, a dancing couple… But none of these things seemed to make her happy. In fact, they sometimes made herunhappy, which he understood even less.
He’d slowly come to understand that her unhappiness had soaked into her whole life, had filled her up with anger and bitterness until that was all she could see. And so she hadn’t understood Trill at all.
Sometimes, she’d seemed to blame him for his father abandoning them just the way her father had done when she was young. Sometimes, she’d clung to him and made him promise that he wouldn’t abandon her like everyone else.
“You don’t think I’m worthless, do you?” she’d ask.
“No, Momma, of course not,” he would tell her.
How could someone be worthless?
But then she would tell him thathewas worthless, that if he hadn’t been there, then she wouldn’t be alone because his father would have stayed and everything would be different.
He’d been sad when she died, but he’d been… confused, more than anything, by the terrible world she described. He’d lived through his own terrible events when he was fifteen, but then his father had come, and he’d sent Trill to Yannoma. (Trill didn’tthink they’d go so far as to call one another friends, but it was surely something like that.)
No one could ever accuse Yannoma of being particularly parental, but even though she had reason to be bitter and angry, she faced the world better than his family had.
Was it a poison, he sometimes wondered, or an illness that infected someone and spread? Had it started with his grandfather, who’d infected his grandmother, who’d infected his mother? But Trill was somehow immune? He was special, he knew that; his father had explained a little, and Yannoma had explained a lot more. He’d often wondered if his mother had lived long enough, if he might have been able to help her. Yannoma had shaken her head and told him that what was in people’s minds, their emotions, couldn’t be healed by him. Trill would probably still have tried.
Trill liked to try things. No, they didn’t all work out, but so many of them did! There were beautiful flowers and fluffy clouds and pretty people. Wouldn’t you be happier overall if you focused on the good things?
So Trill had decided he wanted to meet his uncle. Yes, he might be as terrible as the rest of his family—but he mightnotbe.
