Suddenly I was very, very confused.
“Sorry, when did I say I wanted to leave?”
“Last night,” he said. “You told me that you didn’t apply for design jobs after uni because it would have meant moving away.”
The memory hit me right as he reminded me. Of course. My heart sank as I realised what he must be thinking. That me telling him this was my way of saying I wasn’t interested. I could have cried with relief; that was the whole point of the conversation we needed to have, right?
“That was years ago, Jack,” I said, putting out a hand to touch his forearm. “The town is bigger now. And there are other towns nearby. Hell, I didn’t even go to uni here, but I lived here.”
But he went rigid beneath my fingers, so I pulled them back and folded my hands in my lap instead. The wall had gone up.
He looked back up at me, his jaw set but his eyes searching. He didn’t soften, or speak. He just sat there, staring at me. I remembered the first time I’d seen his jaw set like this. Whenhehad rejectedme. Was that what was happening now? He’d been the one to set that boundary to begin with, I supposed.
But then, why did he care so much if I left? I couldn’t sit here and guess anymore. I couldn’t read him when he made himself so unknowable like this. It wasn’t fair to me, and I wasn’t going to let him feel entitled to certain intimations if he was going to play his own cards so close to the chest.
“But Jack,” I said, sitting up a bit straighter, a new sense of daring coursing through me. I tried to pull all emotion out of my voice. “Even if I did want to leave…”
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and I locked my gaze with his as I asked him what we’d both come here to ask, really.
“What’s it to you?”
He sighed, and I could see how his eyes glazed over that I’d lost him once and for all. But I couldn’t bring myself to care.
He wanted to put up walls? He wanted to push me away every chance I got? Fine. Two could play at that game.
Chapter26
Captain Morgana Silversword
Taking refuge at the Bards College had been a stroke of genius on Yorick’s part. Not only was Clover able to get the party there fairly easily – all they’d had to do was hide in barrels and pose as a shipment of wine – but they also suddenly had access to a vast library of knowledge.
It was there that Thrormir and Morgana’s teamwork began to shine. Within days, they’d uncovered almost everything they might need to know about the Supremacy Sphere. It had been forged by a lich, an ultra-powerful undead wizard, seeking – of course – world domination. If activated, which required sacrificing an unwilling creature under a full moon, the Sphere would release an aura that would bend the will of anyone nearby to the wielder. It required a very complex attunement ritual to wield, but once it was activated, it would remain in effect indefinitely.
“Well shit,” Calamity said as Morgana relayed this knowledge to the group in their chambers one night. “Human sacrificeandmind control? Kinky.”
“Delightful,” Yorick said, rolling his eyes. “And how do we destroy this apocalyptically dangerous artefact?”
“That’s the catch,” Thrormir said, exchanging glances with Morgana.
“An unwilling sacrifice activates it,” Morgana said. “But a willing sacrifice destroys it.”
The group blinked back at her.
Calamity sighed. “Can’t we just bury it?”
“That’s what they tried to do before,” Gorlag said. “That’s why we spent days wandering around those catacombs.”
“Then let’s have someone good wield it! Someone who won’t do evil shit with it!”
Thrormir shook his head. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“And besides,” Morgana said, “good or not, people would still be under their control. They’d have no agency in the situation. That’s still wrong.”
“Well fuck that,” Calamity said. “I don’t intend to lose my life for this thing. And if that makes me a bad person, so be it.”
“Well, you are half demon,” Yorick muttered, and Calamity slapped him on the back of the head. “Hey!”
“Enough,” Thrormir said firmly. “Helpfully, there are a lot of people wiser and more equipped to handle this decision than we are.”
