Parapsychs had always existed in the margins of history, and yet, these fifteen were the only Maere we’d ever actually known. There were historical accounts of others, of course, of ancient predecessors, but that did not make much sense, when I really thought about it, since the Maere could not die.
Where had they all gone?
Ember’s laugh as she set down her mug on the stone bistrotable was irreverent, dry. “Ah, you’re puzzling it out, aren’t you?”
Lara rolled her eyes. “No one ever gives it much thought.”
Rhiannon pursed her full lips. “Don’t be so hard on them. They’ve been conditioned not to ask where our forebears skittered off to.” Though her tone was even, her words were sharp.
“So where are they?” I asked. “If there are others, where are they?” Both Rhiannon and Lara’s faces were carefully neutral. I turned to Ember. “Well?”
She shrugged, suddenly casual. “Who knows?”
Briony appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, her eyes glassy, as though she still slept. “There is an island. A land of hope.”
The kitchen went so silent I could hear the electricity running through the veins of the building. My heartbeat turned erratic, only for a moment, before correcting course.
Ember got up from her chair to place her arms on the girl’s shoulders. “Yes, love. That is what the lore tells us.”
I might not know much about the Maere’s origins, but I knew an obvious lie when I heard one.
Briony blinked a few times, her eyes clearing. “Was I sleepwalking?”
“Not exactly,” Ember said, in a tone so soothing it surprised me. The hard edges of her personality were gone.
On instinct, I glanced back at Lara Achilles. There was a soft look in her eyes that was mirrored in Rhiannon’s. Ember had been the first of them. She was the eldest, and if I understood timelines correctly, had been alone for what probably felt like a long while when she first ascended. They all had nearly a thousand years on me, and usually, with such long lives, these differences didn’t matter so much. After long enough, any age over a few hundred years just felt similar.
But now, given what we’d just discussed, I wondered what it had been like for Ember to be alone. To be without people like her. She’d grown up as a human, believing she would have ahuman life, and then one day, she ascended outside of the Aradios and Palladiere territories, where there were other Maere establishing their cohorts. She had been alone, hadn’t she?
“Were there Maere here when you ascended?” I asked. The question was impulsive, rather unlike me, but curiosity took over. “In Orphium?”
Ember glared at me. “This is not the time.”
Rhiannon’s attention flicked to Ember. The change in her countenance was small, but significant, as I’d come to expect very little variation in her outward emotional state.She was worried for her.
Briony frowned up at Ember. “Are you trying to hide something from me?”
Ember sighed. “No. We just…”
“Don’t talk about these things in front of civilians,” Lara finished for her—she too looked towards Ember with concern. Or some other emotion I couldn’t quite understand. The sense that the Maere were having some sort of interaction with one another outside what I could perceive strengthened.
Eryx snorted, breaking my train of thought. “Wearen’t exactly civilians.”
I held my hand out to Eryx, stopping him from speaking further. The three Maere had changed in the span of a breath. He was far too comfortable here, but I saw the shift. The way Lara Achilles set down her spatula and ignored the bacon burning. Rhiannon Brontë might look collected, but somehow she stood between us and Briony, while Ember shifted into a defensive stance.
They were ready for us to attack them. Whatever secrets they protected, not even our loose alliance here afforded us safety. Though only a moment had passed, it felt like an eternity. Eryx finally noticed what I did.
Slowly, he set his phone down and raised his palms. “I apologize for whatever offense I’ve caused,” he said, his deep voicesoft. He turned to Rhiannon, speaking to her directly. “This is not something we have to discuss. I promise, I won’t press further.”
She nodded once to him, and once to Ember, who glanced back at her, seeming to need Rhiannon’s confirmation before she could back down. For her part, Briony’s eyes contained a fierce light that I hadn’t noticed before. The Maere had told her what I’d sensed within her right away, and had been monitoring her closely. It was clear the girl felt more aligned with them than with us.
Briony had mentioned an island. I tucked that away for later. It would be too noticeable if I whipped out my notebook and started writing in it.
The scrape of Lara’s metal spatula broke the tension. “The bacon is fucked.”
Rhiannon picked up the wired house phone. “I’ll call down to Delicia’s for pastries.”
Only Ember did not return to her relaxed state. Instead, she perched uncomfortably in her chair, watching closely as Rhiannon made Briony tea. I wasn’t sure exactly what had just happened, but we’d tread too close to some essential secret of the Maere. My senses were heightened from the near miss we’d had with a true confrontation, and I heard the soft noise of the front door opening. Av had returned.
