“She asks if you know what you are,” Vorn said. “She thinks you need to understand what you are before it does something about you.” He stood to the side. “There's a difference.”
I looked at Thiece. “Tell her I know what I carry.”
He translated. She listened. Then spoke again.
“She says that's not the same thing.”
It wasn't, and I knew that. I'd always known that. “Tell her I'm aware of the difference.”
Vorn did, and Thiece's expression didn't change, her eyes changed as she watched me, the adjustment of someone recalibrating their assessment. She spoke again, longer this time.
“She says she's met three others like you,” Vorn told me. “In her lifetime. All carrying, none of them declared as Chosen. All convinced that silence was its own protection.”
“And was it?” I asked, knowing that it wouldn’t be. Knowing that now Vorn had information about me, and he would never unknow it.
He translated. Thiece's answer was short.
“In time, no, not for them,” he said. “Or for the land.”
I held her gaze. She held mine. The fire between us breathed quietly.
“Ask her what happened to them?” I told him.
Vorn translated. Thiece looked at me for a long moment before answering.
“Two of them found their way to the institutions eventually,” Vorn said. “The third…” He paused. “The third didn't.”
I didn't ask what that meant because it didn’t really need further translation.
Thiece spoke again, and this time, her voice had a different quality — more direct. Like she wanted to let me know she was serious, even though I couldn’t understand her.
“She says you shouldn’t have what you have,” Vorn said. “It was never yours alone. It belongs to something older than you, older than the institutions, older than the kingdoms.” He paused. “She says hiding it isn’t saving you. It’s hurting you and those around you.”
He looked at me, a flicker of accusation in his gaze, and I remembered that Vorn wasn’t a fan of the Verei Kahn, and even though I wasn’t one, I also wasn’tnormaleither.
I thought about what he said earlier, about water behind a dam. And that water finds another way through.
“And if I…” I swallowed back my nerves. “If I went to the institutions?—”
Thiece interrupted before Vorn could finish translating the question. Her answer was flat and certain.
Vorn was quiet for a moment. “She says the institutions won’t help. Not you. Not the land.” He looked at me sideways. “She doesn't recommend that.”
Well, that made no sense at all. “What does she recommend?”
Thiece answered immediately. Vorn translated slowly, choosing words. “She says what you carry needs to be known. Not declared. Not owned. Known. By you, first. Before anyone else decides what to call it.” He paused. “She says you've been so busy hiding it that you haven't looked at it clearly since you were a child.”
I said nothing.
Because she was right, and I had no argument for things that were simply true.
Thiece spoke again, softer now.
“She says you need to go back,” Vorn said. “To the place you know. To where it answered you.” He looked at me. “What does that mean?” he asked me.
She meant Iskaeld. But I already knew that. I'd known it since the moment we walked away.
“And what will I find there?” I asked her directly.
