The underground tunnel to the Juqus 4 cells is neither short nor dry. We reach a wide room containing the cell doors: four in a row. Two regular guards are seated at a table in the niche opposite. They stand and salute Raehla as she approaches to talk to them.
The first two cell doors are wide open. I see the first is empty except for a bare single bed, and the second is being used as a storeroom filled with what seems to be antique furniture and rolls of thick grey fabric. The third and fourth doors are closed and locked. The fourth door has extra reinforcing with imposing crossbars and locks. We're led to the third door.
One guard slides open the inspection panel, peers in then nods to Raehla. Raehla peers in too and says "Hello there. Would you mind if we visit?". The guard closes the panel, unlocks and opens the door.
The smell of fresh hay is suddenly in the air. Raehla bids us to enter and I go in first.
Sitting on the edge of the bed in prisoner fatigues is a short, bronze-skinned woman. She removes the tip of her little finger from her mouth and stares at me. Her gentle face is framed by stylish shoulder-length black hair and fixed upon me are her intense orange-brown eyes.
I can't look away. I become mildly aware that everyone else is entering behind me, yet we keep staring at each other. I am consumed by a feeling of.. ? I can't quite tell. She is so.. present... I feel-
"Kiq'ra?" asks Raelha, breaking the moment. Raehla turns to look into my face, puzzled.
The woman on the bunk stands up blushing, looks away and lifts her hand to her collarbone as if to steady herself. "Jinah - I am sorry," Her accent betrays the rich and dangerous thickness of a native Drift speaker. She is breathing heavily. I note with alarm that I am breathing the same way.
"Hmm, this is interesting," ponders Raehla looking back and forth at us.
"This man, who..?" asks the woman, trying not to look directly at me. I also start looking away. It is probably the wisest thing to do.
"Ah." says Raehla. "Kiq'ra, this is Jak fal ztul. Jak, this is Kiq'ra nebin ztul, which means Kiq'ra the Soul Heroine."
"Fal ztul?" The Gli maiden looks at me with wonder, and I look back, but this time there is no repeat of that previous strong sensation. Just the memory of that moment. I sense it is because we are both now guarding ourselves. Her eyes and face resolve. I feel that she understands this, too.
"How do you do?" I start to make the formal greeting, bowing and touching my two fingers to my breast. Then I am suddenly over-aware of myself and freeze halfway into the start. I straighten up uncomfortably and look at my friends in the doorway. They are all staring at us.
Kiq'ra smiles and makes a graceful curtsy that I've never seen before. She then rises into the Gli standing hands-clasped position. Even that motion was... special? I have to calm down.
Raehla introduces the rest of the party to Kiq'ra and I study the Gli prisoner as this happens. My first observation is that Kiq'ra's posture is very elegant. She neither slouches nor enthuses, she keeps her hands together, gracefully turning her whole body to face her introductions. She is not very tall, and there is a strange wildness in her beautiful eyes.
Like all Gli she possesses the black skinflame, but it is barely noticeable. I look carefully in the light to confirm it. I also look for horn buds under her forelocks. Instead, I find what appear to be the juvenile lumps that have yet to break. She must be younger than she looks.
"Kiq'ra, would you tell us what you asked me before?" encourages Raehla. But Kiq'ra looks puzzled. "I mean, tell us what do you want to do." prompts Raehla, and Kiq'ra understands.
"Ah, I want to help you. This war is bad. Sour taste. We can end war. Then I go home in peace."
I look aside to the squad in the doorway. Kona is warmly smiling, Meila is poker-faced and Lissa is scowling.
Rhaela begins the re-interrogation. Kiq'ra recounts how and why she escaped from the Gli wand group. It seems one of the Gli warrior clans has discovered a way to temporarily turn a man into a wand bearer but it always involves the death of a maiden. After watching other girls die, Kiq'ra with some inside assistance quietly escaped, taking on a scout role with the intent to defect.
*
I am speaking with Raehla alone in her exam room. She is quizzing me on what I experienced when first meeting Kiq'ra. I give her my honest recollections while she takes notes in her journal.
Raehla pauses for a moment then asks me if I can sense Kiq'ra's presence even now. I know she is somewhere in a cell below us, so I close my eyes and imagine where she is. I visualise the layout of the stairs and tunnels and where her cell may be.
I idly recall the strange sensation when we met. And then, like a window opening out to let the warm air in-
"I can -"
Kiq'ra is lying alone in the cool, hay-lined cellar room. The light slots are dim and in the silence she was searching for me, too. She is now aware that I am above her, seeing me sitting across from Raehla in the equipment-strewn exam room. We are both astonished at this. I see her eyes! She sees my eyes, our eyes?! Someone is calling-
"Jak!" Raehla slaps me.
"What?"
"You weren't responding. What happened?"
But this time, it felt very personal and I hesitate to say. However, more importantly, I had just felt something even more astonishing than Kiq'ra.
"There is another heroine," I say. "In the cell next to Kiq'ra."
Raehla's face pales and she puts her journal down.