To the Shadowsinger | Azriel

Chapter 58: I took it

To Azriel's relief, Harani had returned within the hour. He listened to her talk as he watched her shadow slip away from her body and glide along the shadow of the baseboard until it was joining the shadows that swarmed around him and sang.

    The shadow sang of panic taking form, beating wings, the plucking strings of a lute, satisfaction, and fear. By the time he concluded that she had no ill-intent towards him or Rai, she had asked him a question.

    "I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?" He went back to scooping roasted potatoes onto a plate and placing them in front of Wylla at the dining table.

    "I asked what will happen if Rai doesn't make it out of the mirror. Do you think he'll return my son?"

    He wasn't sure why the Lady was asking him, she knew the king better than him. But then he picked it up, the hidden question: What if Wylla ends up killing Rai when she tries to pull her out of the mirror. Harani was worried that the king would take his anger out on all of them, including her son.

    "If Caius is honorable of his word," Azriel sat down and speared a potato chunk with his fork, "he'll have the boy returned if I arrive on time."

    "Honorable," Harani's laugh was bitter. "He promised me my lover wouldn't be harmed and then made me watch my husband shoot her through the heart."

    "That's so sad," Wylla said with a mouthful of potatoes.

    Harani made a disgusted face, "Didn't your parents teach you not to talk with your mouth full?"

    Wylla swallowed, "You're not supposed to say that to an orphan."

    Harani slapped her hand over her mouth, "I'm so sorry, I forgot."

    The little fae grumbled as she took another huge bite. Potatoes were her favorite food and Harani had them so Azriel cooked them up for her, hoping she would feel a bit better.

    Azriel practically inhaled his food. He was growing impatient by the second. Hours passed by of him sharpening his blade, hydrating, strategizing, checking in on Rai, looking for the mirror with his shadows, pacing, and reassuring himself.

    Wylla on the other hand had asked Harani for paper and something to write with. The little girl had laid down on the floor and sketched out a broken mirror with a monster lurking behind it. Azriel wasn't trying to be nosy, but he caught her writing notes along the border of the drawing.

    "You're such a good artist," Harani exclaimed over Wylla's shoulder. Azriel could tell the Lady was just as anxious as the rest of them, she just hid it better.

    "Thank you" Wylla held the drawing up for Azriel's approval, he gave her a nod of the head which made her smile. She went back to drawing as she talked, "I have a really good art tutor but we mostly paint so I'm not that good at drawing."

    "I think your sketch is excellent," Harani smiled down at the creepy drawing.

    Wylla's pen halted as a plotting smile came to her face and she looked up at Harani, "I do know someone that's really good at drawing faces. She's really pretty and funny too, her name is Mor, maybe she could sketch something for you one day."

    Despite the situation, Azriel found himself spewing out a laugh. It sounded like a tea kettle going off for a moment and had both faes giving him a concerned look. He wasn't sure what was funnier, that Mor was the furthest thing from a decent artist, or that Wylla was trying to set her up with someone. He'd have to tell Cassian about it.

    "Is that Bryaxis?"

    Azriel jumped at the sound of the voice, he had Truthteller in his hand before he even saw the lightsinger.

    "Don't scare them like that, Sinna," Harani scolded the lightsinger that had passed through the wall undetected.

The lightsinger turned to Azriel with her big transparent eyes, "I don't mean to be scary."

He sheathed his blade. I'm not scared.

Wylla looked from him to the lightsinger, who he assumed was named Sinna, then mouthed the question Lightsinger? He nodded.

"Lightsinger?" Sinna spun around and faced Wylla. "Here, they call me Sinna. And while I do associate with the light, I fear I am a horrible singer. Besides, I'm something much... let's say more elaborate."

"I can confirm this." Harani chugged half a glass of her wine before saying, "Can I have my son back?"

"Not at the moment," Sinna squatted to Wylla's level to get a closer look at the picture. "I would recognize Bryaxis anywhere."

Wylla looked up at the odd fae, "He should be here in the castle. Are you friends?"

The right side of Sinna's mouth quirked up, it almost made her look human. "I made Bryaxis. Darkness is born in the absence of light," she swallowed a lump in her throat. "He was once a high fae able to take the form of the brightest creature I had ever witnessed, his light was enough to shatter cities, create illusions, and even slow time. I took it from him; I took it all from him with hope that it would break the curse that keeps me tied to the rulers of this country. I stripped him of his light and left him with nothing but darkness."

"And then he made the mirror?" Azriel asked.

Sinna nodded, "He hoped the mirror would show his true self so that he could return to that form again, but mirrors only reflect light. There was no light left in him... there was nothing to reflect, the mirror was useless."

And with that said, Azriel tensed as the dinner bells rang.