no magic, or at least that’s what High Mage Grayson keeps telling me, and they believe my ability to sense and amplify magic is a gift from the Great Mother, our Goddess. Although, I haven’t told him that I’ve always been able to sense when someone uses magic, it’s just so much stronger since the blessing. Before then, I hadn’t realised the odd feeling I would get—the tingling, creeping sensation that would crawl over my skin—was magic. I’d just put it down to intuition. Since the blessing, however, I’ve learned that it was more than that. The fact I had been able to break this spell, one so strong it had contained an elf for that length of time, is hard to get my head around.
Until recently, I had been a slave, punished for an unknown crime I committed when I was eight years old.
In our culture, when we reach our twentieth birthday, we have to attend what is known as the choosing ceremony where we are blessed by the Great Mother. We believe that without this blessing, our souls are lost and we, in turn, become soulless monsters. No slave has ever reached the age of twenty, until me, always dying from exhaustion, injury, or illness before they could, so I hadn’t known that slaves are exempt from this blessing. Now I’ve learned slaves are forbidden to attend, and instead they’re executed.
I was rescued from this death sentence when Grayson, a high mage, had a vision directly from the Great Mother herself. In it, he learned I am vital to the outcome of the war, so I was given a fake identity and received the blessing.
The priests who guide our religion have a lot of power and sway, and many of our laws are dictated by them. Along with teaching about the Mother, they also determine punishments for those who have committed a crime. They were not pleased I escaped my execution, reluctantly agreeing to a new arrangement, but only if I continued to work for them. Part of that arrangement involved me labouring in the bowels of the castle, cleaning a secret underground room.
Except this was no ordinary room. This was a forge, and the blacksmith was an elf.
Vaeril.
The priests hoped that the elf would kill me like he had his other minders, but for some reason, he didn’t.
A deep, booming sound fills the air around us, startling me back to the present as the castle seems to shake around us. Yanking my hand away from the elf, I look up at the high ceiling, my heart pounding in my chest. Before I was dragged down here, the king murdered his wife, the queen, and ordered the mass slaughter of all slaves. As a result, a fight had broken out in the main courtyard. I assume the unrest has escalated, and that’s what is causing the trembling of the castle around us. No one other than the priests know I’m down here. If the ceiling collapses, I doubt they will come to find me.
Vaeril makes a noise, so I pull my weary gaze from the ceiling to look at him. He’s scanning the room, his eyes taking in every little detail, searching for threats as he drops into a defensive stance, eyeing the closed door between us and the guards who block our exit.
“They are going to kill us, you said so yourself,” he comments, his posture straightening as the noises quiet down and he realises that, for now, we are safe. “What’s your plan?”
He’s right, they’re going to kill us next, just like all those slaves who were massacred. Not to mention the queen. I can still see her face in my mind, her defiant expression before the king sliced her neck like a butcher would slaughter a pig. Her corpse untied and thrown to the floor with total disregard.
“I’m not sure.” I wish I sounded more confident, and I wish I had a plan, but all I have is the Mother’s guidance. I am so far out of my depth that I feel like I’m drowning, but She hasn’t let me down thus far, I just need to trust in her. Vaeril, however, doesn’t have the same reassurance. Narrowing his eyes, he takes a step towards me, and I instinctively move back with my heart in my throat as my mortal enemy stares down at me. Seeing my fear makes him pause, his frown deepening.
“When I said I would trust you, I thought you had a