We both froze. Rod hesitated for a heartbeat before sitting up and crossing his arms. “We back at that again? Keepers said he died.”
“Keepers are wrong,” she snapped. “He can’t be dead.”
The pair of them were rounding up for another fight, and I wasn’t sure I could take the back and forth. I took a breath and barked out, “enough!” They turned to me. I met the eyes of Layla and then Rod, held them for a moment before looking back to Layla. “What, specifically, do you want to do?”
She hesitated. “...what?”
“What do you want to do?” I repeated. “You said Darius believed the translation of your sword could lead you to whoever killed your father. You claimed that it was your ultimate purpose of this journey. Rod has done that translation for you and revealed the next step. So. Do you want to find Darius, or do you want to find out who killed your father?”
“Darius,” she said instantly. “I need him.”
“Why?”
She shook her head. “I…I don’t…you don’t need to know.”
“Yes. We do.” I glanced at Rod before taking my weight off the door and taking a step forward. “At least I do. Rod is under no obligation to help any more than he has. The only thing he’s required to do right now is defend his own name from association with us. I am under some obligation; Darius asked me to keep you safe until we could meet back up. While I never officially agreed, and am therefore not bound, I took you on good faith and will do my best to follow what was asked of me. So. If you don’t want to tell us, that’s fine. But it means that Rod’s out, and I’m locking you up somewhere to wait for Darius. But either way you’re not going after him alone, and we’re not helping without more details.”
“Why do you care!?” she burst, arms and shoulders curling inward. “You’re not doing any of this for me, why should I do anything for you!?”
“Because you care about him,” I answered, keeping myself even. “Somehow, for some reason, you care more about Darius than yourself right now. And right now, we’re the best option for retrieving him.”
“You don’t know that,” she growled. “You don’t know what I can do!!”
“I know what they can do.” I took a deep breath. “You’ve seen what he can do. You’ve seen what I can do.” She glared, but I could see something making its way through. “Now I want you to remember that they had me under their thumb when we met. You think you can take them on your own? When he can silence you and I can haul you around like a sack of potatoes?”
“I–” she bit off her own words for a moment. Clenched her fists repeatedly and tossed her head from side to side, searching for a way out. “I…!” With another ground-shaking roar, she swung both fists at the edge of the counter and smashed it into slivers. She turned to me with an animal scream, body seeming to grow and heave as she fixed me in a nearly feral stare. I matched it with an even look, making everything appear to be unmoved by the threat display. She shuddered with a ragged gasp, eyes widening as she stumbled backward and shrank back to normal size. She thudded against the back wall and stared, horrified at the counter, at the ground, and at Rod stumbling to his feet.
Tears began to well at the edges of her eyes as she began to panic, clutching at the wall behind her so hard her knuckles began to turn white. I gave a half-nod of satisfaction, approaching her slowly. My voice calmer now, as soft and comforting as I could make it, I said, “tell us the truth, cubling. For your sake.”
She met my eyes now, tears rolling down her cheeks as she stumbled over the words. “He’s…he’s…” She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t.”
“Can’t control your shifts?” She nodded. “And Darius…he helped you.” Nodded again, squeezing her eyes shut. “It’s why you’re sure he’s not dead. Why you’re insisting. You need him. You don’t think you can control yourself without his help.”
She nodded again, shrinking and sliding down the wall. I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and waited a moment while she sniffled and hiccuped, wiping at her eyes and hiding behind her knees.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Wanna catch me up, here?”
I snorted. “I thought you knew everything.”
“I do. But I feel there’s a focus you can give me.”
I took a steadying breath and rubbed a hand along Layla’s shoulder, telling her I’d be two steps away when she was ready. Then I went behind the remains of the counter and lowered my voice.
“Half-bloods,” I muttered. “What do you know about them?”
“Half of one species, half of another,” Rod answered, lowering his voice to match mine. “There’s not much else to know.” I snorted, shooting him a look. He shrugged. “Not a whole lot of others to ask about it, really. The half-bloods I know are either hush hush on the subject or try to punch me in the face every other sentence.”
“There’s something unique to those mixed with Elewnai blood,” I started, watching her. “Not everyone we mix with can handle the more…instinctual side. It didn’t take long for the clans to see what damage a half-blood could do with those abilities, the shape-shifting in particular being a hard thing for them to grasp. It got so bad no one was allowed to cross races in good honor without a contingency; a sort of nursemaid if you will. It was someone the half-blood could trust, had to trust. They had to be fully Elewnai, and it was their honor-bound to teach the half-blood how to navigate all the ins and outs, test what they could do. The best way this was achieved was through Bonding.”
“Bonding like humans or bonding like…”
“The second one.”
His eyebrows went up. “Ah.”
I nodded. The Bonding we were talking about was an old clan ritual, where an Elewnai would bind themselves completely to someone or something else. This meant physically, mentally, emotionally…in every way. The Elewnai and the Bonded would feel everything the other felt. This could have been done to defend an area, as a consequence of lethal behavior, or, in this case, for instruction. Ideally, the Bonded pair would continue until they achieved a sort of balance, where they could influence the magic holding them so well it was as if they were free. Then an elder would assist in dissolving the Bond so that the two could live in real freedom.
To Bond with someone outside the Clans was dangerous. To do it away from home was even more dangerous, as Elemental magic was a large part of the ritual and the Bonding. To do it the way I was starting to think Darius had done it…
“So…we’re thinking what? Darius Bonded himself to her?”
I nodded. “Likely as a control mechanism. She seems to have…trouble. Stressing her out makes her start to shift, and her shifts are starting to look feral.” It had to be why she was so hyper-fixated on him. She didn’t have enough control without him. She was frightened.
“...Did you have someone like that?”
I shook my head, still watching her. “Yaiharaiki.” I thought for a moment. “Do you have a way of locating someone?”
“I can’t storm a Keeper fortress by myself.”
Liar. “I don’t want a retrieval, I just…want to know if he’s alive.”
He processed it for a minute, staring at her as he worked out a plan or two. Then he shook his head. “I’d have to get on-site to do a vitals check. And I don’t think I can manage that at the moment.”
It sounded true. But I doubted it. Either way, I wasn’t going to convince him to go if he didn’t want to. So I went to my next plan. “If I give you a list of ingredients could you snatch them before we get to the forge?” He nodded. “Good.”
I quickly gave him a short list, then walked over to get Layla up. I bargained for our next move, getting her to agree to an exchange; she goes to the forge with us, and we’d help her ‘find’ Darius. She agreed and made her way to the door, glad to be moving.
