Raehla is leading me and some guards back down to the cells. Upstairs she had asked me not to speak about this other heroine with anyone. The look of panic in her normally stoic eyes was something I'd never seen before.
Perhaps it is another Gli woman but with political ties? When I sensed her, she felt very... intense.
"No, this might actually be good" mutters Raehla to herself. She glances at me. "Jak, I have some important question for her and your unexpected presence might help."
It is strange. Now that I am aware of this sense ability, I can roughly feel the distances and directions to every wand heroine in the building. Yet I feel nothing from Raehla, her adjutants nor guards. I can't explain how I do this, but as we pass underneath Kona and Meila I can easily distinguish them as if the stone wasn't there.
We arrive quickly, and the two guards from before begin the arduous task of silently removing the locks from the fourth cell door. I'm pensive because behind this door is the Heroine of the Abyss.
Unusually, Raehla has brought four extra guards with us. Three remained in the tunnel and one has stepped forward to quietly peer through the extra-thin viewslot of the fourth door.
The original two guards are now turning keys simultaneously, and the door glides open without announcement. Raehla pulls me in, and the door is quickly sealed behind us.
Scrambling off the bed and huddling herself into the far corner is a thin pale girl with long white hair. She squats holding her knees and her jittery grey-blue eyes peer though fine hair at us. I notice her arms and legs show signs of beatings. Her wrists, ankles and neck are cuffed and linked back to the bunk with long fine chain.
"It's okay," reassures Raehla in a slightly annoyed way.
The girl steals glances at us over her knees. I wave kindly because she seems to be afraid.
Raehla begins, "Prisoner, this is-"
"Hello, Jak." the girl interrupts, with no trace of fear in her clear, resonant voice. Those few words drip with a chilling intelligence. "Raehla won't have told you, but my name is Zyna. I am a convicted sabateour. And the daughter of Lord-Bishop Karten."
I process this brutal self-introduction as her darting eyes study us. How can the Lord-Bishop's daughter be here? And a criminal?
"Of course," she stands quickly, "I have pride in only one of those labels." She seats herself quickly on the bed. I realise that while squatting she had been holding a long loop of concealed chain.
"Prisoner," begins Raehla anew, but the girl interrupts her again.
"You want me to appraise the Gli wand heroine next door," she says, shuffling up onto her pillow, her eyes dancing between the walls and us.
Raehla's mouth opens. "How-"
"Because I can smell her, and because you are easy to read. And you," she looks all over me, "are very lucky. Because I like you. You are not a real churchman, and I am physically attracted to you." Zyna opens her bruise-covered legs and, disturbingly, for the first time, her eyes fix upon mine without moving.
"Zyna!" Raehla reacts to Zyna's blatant breach of taboo.
Zyna turns abruptly to address Raehla, "Before I help you, you will do something for me. Bringing the wand bearer here was nice but it is simply not enough."
END OF PART 1
| Jak
)( Kona
O Meila
x Zyna
∇ Kiq'ra
Y Lissa