Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

38 Truths

Maeyune hated the pattern of waking, then losing consciousness, only to wake again. She thought sleep would have alleviated her nausea, but her headache told her: it hadn't.

As she stirred, she heard herself utter a groan. It was quiet in the room, and she still felt the frigid cold of the shackles that held her prisoner inside the alien machine. Nothing had changed.

So when she expected to be alone, she was surprised to feel something tugging at her hair. She cracked open her eyes, and she met a gaze that was as blue as the cloudless sky.

Jaysek was rubbing a lock of her hair in between his fingers, studying it like he would study the texture of a fine silk. He had unbound her hair from its usual high ponytail. Alarmed, she jerked her head back and pulled her hair from his fingers.

"Don't touch me," she snapped. The wind celestial merely dropped his hand, unperturbed.

"Where is Aerylis?" she demanded. Her eyes were so fierce she would have liked burning a hole into his head.

"I'm sorry, Maeyune," was all he said.

A quiet laugh started in the pit of her stomach and hummed its way to her lips. "Release me," she murmured, "and I will accept your apology in the form of your death."

Jaysek gave a disappointed twist of his lips, and for a long second, she could not believe she had been fooled by such a handsome face.

"Why?" she asked, trying not to sound beseeching. "How could you do this?"

"I did it for the human race," he answered. He scanned her face, pausing for a long moment on her lips. "I did it because without the Wobeck, we would never achieve our fullest potential."

Maeyune took in a slow, tired breath. "I suppose Ristoff has influenced you with his Iron Prophet teachings?"

She held his eyes, her insides boiling with enmity. She reached out to his mind, but before the machine's runes could hinder her power, she found nothing that hinted at treachery.

Confused, she asked, "How can I not see your deceit?"

Jaysek shook his head. "You can't. Telepath or not, Maeyune, you never would have been able to see the truth."

"No one can hide their thoughts from me," she said, the words sounding circumspect.

"Reo can, by default," Jaysek corrected. "Did you forget Ristoff, too?"

With that, Maeyune fell quiet. He was right. Ristoff had once managed to speak to her in her dream when she had been unconscious.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

Jaysek tried to grab her hair again, but she moved her head aside. He clucked his tongue. "Who do you think taught me how to hide my secrets from the beautiful Moon God incarnate?"