Her eyes widen just slightly from behind Maireth. And for the first time, Elyssara thinks she might sense fear. Desperation. Something human. But before she can press, ask another question, push a little further for a reaction?—
“I have no need nor desire to bluff. Bluffing is for weak men who believe it will lead to control. I prefer to control outright—absolute dominion. See the difference?” Maireth says it like a prayer. Like a creed. Like the only truth worth living by. The words land with the terrible certainty of something she believes more deeply than love. More deeply than mercy.Than anything.
Kael’s wrath is barely leashed.
Elyssara can feel the force of it building behind the wall of the tether.
He snarls, a starved beast waiting to gorge.
“Tell me what you want,” Elyssara hisses, dropping lower still in her crouch.
“I’d like you to scurry off to claim your throne from Thalmyr while your lover stays with me,” she states, cold and indifferent.
There it is—the real shape of the trap.The rules of the game.
But Elyssara’s mind reels.
Take the throne from Maireth’s ally? What in the Stars?
“And why the fuck would I do that?” Elyssara growls, her words pure animal.
Maireth’s mouth tips up in a small smile. A victor’s smile. “Because I need you to break the spell on the dragons, Elyssara. And because staying will mean both of you will rot here—that doesn’t help me. That’s the thing with Starbounds; they are the makingandbreaking of each other. Especially easy to command when I have one in my possession,” she states coolly.
Simple. Efficient. Sadistic.
A tactic.
A strategy to command her.
To weaken her.
To take Zerynthia.
And Dravara.
To claim the dragons.
Total world rule.
She said it:absolute dominion.
“Where are Dravara’s Orbs? Where is our history?” Elyssara demands, her voice echoing through the vaults like a warning worth repeating.
Kael steps forward, a killer in motion. “I will string you up by the ankles until the truth falls out of you by fucking gravity,” he threatens, the words growling from his lips in a low rumble.
But Maireth doesn’t react. Just absorbs the threat like a woman beyond such things. Like a woman who has built an empire where threats cannot reach.
She simply gives a small nod, and without hesitation, her soldiers press closer, moving in on Kael, threading between Elyssara and her Starbound so only Maireth, Marin, and Elyssara remain outside of their encroaching wall.
“No!” Elyssara screams, her voice a wrenching cry from the depths of her.
But Kael doesn’t notice. Doesn’t wait. Shadows woven with silver crackle at his fingertips. He lashes out toward the closest guard, magic snapping like fatal whips. But the soldier holds up the shields, bracing at the force of Kael’s magic.
Onyx-silver shadows collide with the shield and?—
It absorbs the force.
Blue light flares on impact.
