The young men among the Petryans were called up to fight. Any lad over the age of sixteen would be going to war. Only those training to be elementalists were excluded. Sendak, Shani's nephew, would be sixteen in a month. Shani's brother knew he himself would be fighting, but both he and his sister knew they had to get Sendak enrolled swiftly.
Shani had saved plenty of gilden; she had little to spend her money on, and had been putting coins aside from her stipend for ten years. She visited the lender she had her funds with, and shaking his head he'd told her what he was evidently telling all his customers: Shani's money had been confiscated by the High Lord for the war chest.
When Shani told her brother, he had seemed surprisingly calm, given that without gilden, Sendak's dream of becoming an elementalist would be thwarted, and the boy would soon be called up to fight Alturan bladesingers and Halrana constructs.
The truth was, Shani's brother had his own source of income: he was making money selling Alturan-made goods on the grey market. The importation of nightlamps, heatplates, pathfinders and the like was banned by the High Lord, and the man who risked the High Lord's wrath could name his price.
Shani kept this part of the story short. Someone betrayed her brother; she never found out who it was. The High Lord put Shani's brother, his wife, and Shani's nephew in a cage, and they slowly lowered the cage into the boiling water of Lake Halapusa.
They'd nearly taken Shani too, but her brethren elementalists had vouched for her. Instead, along with the other residents of their neighbourhood, she was forced to watch, and endure the screams and cries of her only family as the flesh was taken from their bones.
As she looked on, despair came over Shani and she could take no more. With her jaw clenched tight and her fists held out in front of her, the fireball appeared between her cuffs before she even knew she'd made a sound. With a flick of her wrists, Shani threw the fireball at the cage, ending the cries in an instant.
They'd pursued her, but Shani was good, and no warrior could touch her. Only another elementalist could take her down, and none could be summoned before Shani forced the ferrymen guiding the Halapusa Ferry to take her across. All alone, she made her way over the Elmas to Altura, fleeing to the very people she was supposed to hate.
"And you know what? You Alturans aren't so bad," Shani finished.
Ella's eyes were red, but her mouth was set in a grim line, her forehead creased with determination. "Don't stop, Shani," Ella said. "Don't stop until your people are free. It isn't much, but I'll do everything in my power to help you."
Shani shrugged. "There are decent Petryans and there are bad Petryans, just like anywhere else. But I've made my stand, and any who fights at the High Lord's side is on the wrong side. I'm sure I'm not the only one among my people ready for change."
Ella told Shani about her own childhood, and about her confused relationship with Brandon, the man who had raised her and Miro. No matter what the circumstances were, he had loved the two children, and many times now Ella had visited his grave, each time laying down bunches of summerglens and starflowers. Ella spoke about the lessons she'd learned while studying at the Academy of Enchanters, for the first time able to talk about them with a steady voice and a clear mind.
"There's more," Shani said. She pushed her dark hair out of her eyes and leaned forward to touch the pendant Ella wore at her neck.
Ella hadn't even realised she was holding it as she spoke.
"Who is he?" Shani asked.
"His name is Killian. He was a thief, from Aynar, working for the Primate. He has a strange ability, it's difficult to explain, but he used his ability and the fact that I was… fond… of him to steal the Alturan Lexicon. We tracked him down. I… found him. Or, I suppose, he found me. He had a change of heart."
"It sounds to me like you're having difficulty explaining." Shani grinned.
Ella blushed. "Nothing happened. Well, we did kiss, but that was back in Sarostar."
Shani whistled. "You really feel something for this thief, don't you?"
"He's not a thief."
"You just said he was." Shani's grin broadened.
"He had a difficult life, that's all. He grew up in an orphanage and then on the streets of Salvation, with no family and no home. Stealing was the only thing he knew. He always wanted to be something else. He even spent some time working as an acrobat."
Ella remembered Killian's sad story. The only family he ever knew was killed by the Emperor's men, their tents and wagons burned to the ground. No wonder he had turned to the Primate.
"You love him?" Shani asked.
Ella looked down at the pendant in her fingers. "I don't know. I don't even know if I'll ever see him again."