"Talking to her how? She's here?"
"Complicated. I've not been able to get hold of them for almost two weeks now. They went to battle four days ago." Ocealia, Lynna, and I can communicate when we're apart via a system set up by the gods a long time ago. It's rarely used, but it comes into its own at times like these.
"Oh, fuck," she whispers eyes wide. "When did you last try?"
"Last night."
"Did they fight a joint war with Espan?"
"Yes." I take her hand once we are in private, walking down a spiralled staircase into the cellars. With an iron key, I unlock all four battered iron locks on an old warped wooden door and illuminate the sconces that hang from the cracked stone walls. The room is flooded with warm light, the flames reflecting on the water in the centre of the room. "Ooh. That's pretty! Can I touch it? What is that—“
She skips on over to the sacred pool that has remained untouched by anyone without a bloodline from the gods for over a thousand years, moving to stick her hands in it. She'stryingto give me a heart attack, I swear. "Don't touch it!" I shout.
She jumps, pulling her hand back just in time. "Why?"
"It was put there by the gods," I tell her, joining her at the marble bowl of water. It stands atop a gold plinth, the dark blue water glowing a little. Golden sand lies beneath the surface. "It's ancient seawater."
I take Renna's hand, my other one lowering down into the water. It's strange, this physical intimacy that isn't just a means to end in sex. This is so new to me, and despite being eight hundred years old, I don't know what I'm doing. I want her to like me as much as I like her.
"Don't touch that either!" I snap, as she goes to poke the edge of the bowl. "It's like having my son as a toddler again, Renna. I had to hold both his hands half the time so he didn't touch everything. He was always trying to jump and touch the spears on the walls."
"Is he like you?"
"He is like I was before my burns."
"Do youeverspeak to him?"
I frown. "Of course. You think I'm not close with him?"
"I don't know...I just assumed...I don't know."
She's the millionth person to suggest I don't seem like a father who'd be close with his son, and it has to be one of the very few things people say that can ever offend me. "He's my son, Renna. We write to each other often."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. You're just so...cold."
"Ocealia," I say, changing the subject, frustrated. I hate that I come across as a bad father. Silence greets me. She is not here.
I wait in the quiet for another moment. "Ocealia."
"Rexxan," comes her voice, a little later, and Renna jumps about five feet in the air and screams.
Startled orange eyes meet mine. "Rexxan! I swear to all that's holy, if you don't tell me what thefuckis going on—“
"Is that Commander Renna?" Asks Ocealia, and Renna screams again.
I cannot remember anything ever being this funny.
My chest shakes with laughter as the ruthless Commander who has killed men with her bare hands runs around the room looking for Ocealia. "Is sheinthe bowl? How is she in there?” Hisses Renna, looking like she might faint. I probably should've given her a little summary of this before I did it. I could see it might be a little confusing if you've never seen it.
"Yes, it's Renna here with me," I say, through my hysteria. I'm going to die of laughter. My girl is anidiot.
"Rexxan, you sound so happy. I've never heard you laugh, ever," says Ocealia, and I can hear she is smiling. She is fishing for more details, and I roll my eyes. Another nosy woman in my life.
But I don't do small talk. "You had me worried, Ocealia. The war?"
A weary sigh fills the air, laden with exhaustion. "Victorious, though it doesn't feel that way, at all. We struggled. Two thousand dead across mine and Espan's army."
I whistle through my teeth. "A pyrrhic victory, then?"
