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“Prince Zalith, I want to apologize to you for all of this. I hope that what I’ve done tonight doesn’t make you think less of other humans.”
Zalith looks down at me and smiles. “You stopped yourself,” he answers. “It wasn’t easy, but you did it. You haven’t made me think less of humans. You haven’t made me think less of you.”
With that, he turns back to Slyth. “It’s settled then. As far as anyone knows, this never happened.”
“Wait, what?” I reply in astonishment. “You mean that? Really?”
He cracks a smile. “Well, you’re not going to do it again, are you?”
“No,” I say. “No, of course not. But… but I threatened you. I was just a few moments away from –”
“But you didn’t,” Zalith interrupts. “And I choose to let that matter. You deserve the same mercy that you gave me.”
I stand up. His kindness is starting a new wave of tears. “I can’t thank you for this enough.”
“Then don’t try. Go with Slyth. The two of you should have some time together.”
I look at Slyth, who has also stood up. He smiles at me, and the fact that after all that, he can still give me that smile sets me bawling again. He wraps an arm around my shoulder, and together, we walk back to his room.
I collapse onto the bed, and he lies next to me. He’s quiet, letting me have space to cry and try to process everything that’s just happened.
“He really means it, right?” I ask, even though I know Zalith well enough to know the answer. “It isn’t going to be a trick, is it? He’s really going to forgive me?”
“Zalith doesn’t say anything unless he means it.” He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close to him. “Though take that bit about not telling anyone seriously. I can’t make any promises about what Rory would do if she found out you threatened her man.”
That makes me laugh, which is a good sign. I’m glad that there are things that seem funny to me.
“Well, I couldn’t be too mad at her for that. I’d be pretty mad if she tried to kill you.”
“You’re comparing you and me to Rory and the Prince?”
I blush slightly. “I guess maybe I am.”
“Good,” he says. “We should be as happy as they are.”
Slowly, the tears begin to dry up. The whole thing feels miles away as if it was a totally different person who stood in that office and conjured that fireball.
“I’ve never told you my story,” I say suddenly. “You know some of the big points. But not the whole thing.”
“I’d love to hear as much as you want to tell me.”
So I tell him everything, from the beginning. It all pours out at once, full of painful little details I didn’t even know I still remembered. I tell him about growing up with my parents, who were barely making ends meet every month. I tell him about my father being taken away for the Andakyas when I was thirteen, and what it felt like to be there in the room, watching them lead him through the door and not be able to do anything. I tell him about moving to Jalma and how we thought we’d be safe there until we heard how they talked about humans with magic. I talk about the secret magic lessons in the darkness, when we were sure no one could see us, and how my mother would rush over every time my fire burned a little too bright or went too high. I tell her about our landlady betraying us to the soldiers and running away while my mother fought with them… until she stopped.
He listens intently the whole time. Occasionally, he asks a clarifying question or asks me to repeat something, but mostly he simply listens and nods. When I finally get to the end of it, he hugs me tight.
He thinks for a while before speaking. “That’s more than any child should bear. And you did better at it than anyone could have asked.”
“It’s not an excuse for anything I did,” I say. “I don’t want you to pity me. I just want you to know.”
“You’re anything but pitiable,” he tells me. “And like the Prince said, you didn’t do anything. You thought about it, but you chose not to. And that’s what matters. Not what you thought about. What you did.”
If I hadn’t cried for so long already, that would have started me sobbing again. “Why are you so kind?”
“This is what you deserve. The better question is why other people were so mean.”
I’m not sure what to say to that. It touches a very delicate, deeply buried part of myself.
“Do you really think that he can do it? Do you think that the Prince can turn things around in Lodra?”
