Adda realized several things when she awoke next to one of the tiny fires in the Shifter's safe camp. The first was that she had passed out after their shared passions and slept. Truly slept.
It couldn't have been for too long, the night was still a looming black blanket, but it was enough that she felt fully alert for the first time in days.
She was alone, too, sort of. Kiskan sat on the opposite side of the little fire, a distance away, meticulously sharpening the business end of her spear. She was dressed, though she didn't remember getting that way, but she was grateful for the fact.
She sat and stretched muscles sore from laying on the hard ground, and from the evening's activity. The memory of the act pulled a soft smile from her lips, and she allowed her mind to play through it again. She bit back a groan of pleasure the thought of it brought and tilted her head, listening to the small sounds of the crackling fire. Most of the Shifter's around were asleep, Adda could see their lumpy forms gathered around the other fires, or against the canyon walls in groups. The night was quiet, only interrupted by the soft tones of Scet's voice nearby. She turned to find him. He was a distance away, toward the entrance path, speaking in hushed tones with one of the warriors.
The whole scene was oddly quiet and peaceful, considering all that had happened. It took her a long moment to figure out why it was so strange. Nex was still gone.
And that wasn't worry she felt for the demon, either.
She frowned at her thoughts and turned back to the fire. Lying to one’s self was not overly effective. She was worried, but she shouldn't be, and now that worried her, too. Ugh, she needed to get that orb.
She closed her eyes and pulled forth the memory of the painting, still clear in her mind, almost as if it stood before her. The more she considered it, the more certain she became that it was the orb in the center.
She sighed a shuddering breath. What was she to do now? She needed that orb, to be free of Nex, to save her life, but if Nex wanted the orb, too...that couldn't be good.
She shook her head, not wanting to deal with the answers to that question. It wouldn't matter, either, if she couldn't interpret the painting and find the orb's location. She tried not to feel hopeless.
Instead, she traced the trees and patterns from the painting into the soft layer of dirt at her feet. Maybe seeing it someplace other than in her head would help.
She had just finished when a warm body joined her. Scet's arms surrounded her, gathering her too him. It felt so good, so right, that just for a moment she let herself relax into his hold. He nuzzled against her neck, stirring the tingling ends of awareness, the spot most Shifter's chose when making the mating permanent. He favored the spot for a few moments before speaking.
“I never thanked you,” he muttered. “You led that woman away and it saved my life. Saved a lot of lives.”
Adda frowned. “She sicced her creatures on the pack.”
“Creatures that I've dealt with before. Ones that we defeated, or at least escaped from. That woman is something else, something more, she was intelligent, and commanding, almost like their general. I have a feeling we would not have been so lucky had we faced her.”
Adda flinched. A general, indeed. Powerful enough creatures that someone, and she assumed it was their ancestors, had sealed them away in crystals for a thousand years.
Not for the first time, she pondered why they hadn't been simply destroyed, and she worried that it was because they couldn't be destroyed.
“It was you, wasn't it? Not...,” he hesitated and Adda knew he didn't want to bring up Nex.
“It was me, but Nex played a part.”
“...Nex”
“His name. The woman is Vou and the Dragon is Morakamouth...what?” Adda was watching him as she spoke, her head turned to the side and craned upward. His expression had gone from grateful, or at least neutral, to slightly horrified.
“I don't know what's worse, that they have names, or that you know them.”
Adda grunted. Wasn't that the truth?
“There are eight glyphs, prisons of some sort. There was one in the cavern and it was...awake somehow, calling. That was what the woman wanted from you.”
“I wasn't even aware of its existence.”
“I believe that was the old coward's plan, for you to pay for his secrets.”
Across the fire, from her silent place, Kiskan twitched. So, she was listening was she? Adda frowned. How much had she heard? Did she have to worry about Kiskan claiming her life now, too? She lowered her voice.
“I lost the crystal, so we have to assume that whichever Quatori lay within it might have found a host by now.”
“But how did you know about it? Or the cave for that matter?” Scet eyed her suspiciously.
“Nex,” she admitted. “He showed me how to follow you, at least with my consciousness, the night the Alpha took you. I guess he sensed the crystal while we were there.”
“It communicates with you?” Scet asked warily
“In my head, yeah.”
“Is it speaking to you right now?”
“No, he's unconscious, I think.”
“Adda you are on a dangerous path.”
“You think?” she couldn't help the bitterness that slipped out.
“I don't just mean your possession. I mean listening to the creature, at all, letting it guide you. Evil isn't always abrasive, the worst evil won't force your hand, it seduces. You call it by name, you've given it a presence.”
Adda sighed. Scet might be right, but she was beginning to think there was more to Nex than that. “I'm not even sure he is evil.”
“It is Quatori.”
“Yeah, but...”
A sharp bark, that of the wolf form cut into their soft whispers. One of the sentries.
Immediately, the camp was silent, no soft movements or whispers, nothing except the light crackle of the small fires. Even that seemed subdued in the warning.
Scet twisted out from under her. Picking up his spear from where it had lain next to them, he took a defensive posture, ready to fight, ready to defend this pack.
All around, warriors were doing the same, silently rising, like ghosts from their graves. Serious and determined, lifting their spears, almost in unison, it left her with an eerie feeling, watching it.
A second bark, and then a low growl announced a figure that strode into camp. A figure, not a creature, not Vou or her Dragon.
For the second time that night relief poured through her. The intruder was no Quatori, but a man, broad, and blond. Strale.
“You two realize you have acquired a pack, right?” he commented jovially, undaunted by his nudity, or the pack of Shifters surrounding him holding their spears toward him as though they might skewer him at any time.
Scet grunted his displeasure, though not loud enough for the Lord to hear this time. Maybe even he was relieved that the Lord had returned safely.
“Yes, we are aware.”
Strale smiled a charming smile at Adda and raised his brows. “Fast work,” he winked.
Before Scet could loose the growl she sensed building in him, Strale had turned to Kiskan and grinned at her, too.
She scowled back at him from a distance, sliding away and toward the other pack members, holder her spear before her as though she was deeply considering using it.
“Where have you been, Dragon Lord?” Scet demanded.
Strale met his challenging stare calmly.
“Following that beast. You have obviously missed me so much it has addled your mind,” the blond head nodded, “understandable.”
“If you were following the Dragon, then why did he end up here? Where were you then, when we could have used a Lord?”
And worse, if Strale had found the camp, then any one of their enemies could find them, as well. She didn't think it had even been a particular challenge for him.
“Investigating,” Strale answered. “Any reason you can think of that the master and his creatures hate human women?....or white robes maybe?”
Scet frowned. “They attacked another group?”
Strale picked at something under one of his fingernails. “Two groups, decimated without mercy.”
Adda flinched, remembering the camp they had come upon. Why were Vou and Morakamouth targeting humans? A particular group of humans, if Strale's information was correct.
Strale's attention moved from his fingernails to the dirt at her feet. His head cocked thoughtfully.
“I recognize that valley, is it where we are going?”
Confusion swarmed her until she looked down. The painting she had drawn in the dirt.
She gnawed at her bottom lip. From up here, it did look like a valley, the trees and trunks not trees at all, but lines of relief. Was that the key, the negative of the image was what was important? Strale would have recognized it easier because he had likely flown over the area.
Adda glanced up to find Scet's eyes on her.
“It is where the temple is,” she told him.
“Explain,” he demanded, not lover now, but Alpha, and in command.
“Nex seeks this temple, an old Quatori worship site. And I believe that is where the orb is.”
“Who is Nex?” Strale questioned.
Adda looked at the Dragon Lord and sighed. Maybe it was time to get everything out in the open. She braced for his reaction and explained her position, well, everything she felt was prudent.
“You want to find what?” Strale blinked at her, his eyebrows pinched into a point on his forehead. Odd that he would question her plan for moving forward, but not the fact that she was possessed at all. In fact, he seemed to accept that tidbit as though it was one that he had already been aware of. Her estimation of his observation skills and intelligence went up. He definitely played the cocky fool, but there was obviously an intelligence behind his overconfident facade.
“A Quatori temple,” Scet frowned.
“I'm sorry. I'm having a difficult time believing that Quatori even have voices...that would denote intelligence.”
Scet tilted his head. “I think that there's enough evidence to prove that.”
“The Dragon wasn't very convincing. I flew circles around him, pecking holes in those wings and he didn't turn once to fight me.”
“Yet he is still whole enough to incinerate Shifters and entire sections of forest,” Adda reminded.
“Yes, well, I wasn't getting anywhere close to the pointy end. The forest would be a much poorer place were I to end up looking like that.”
Adda rethought her assessment of Strale's intelligence.
“But even if we agree that Quatori might have intelligence...and temples, why would we seek one? Unless we're going to destroy it...are we going to destroy it?” Strale's voice turned hopeful.
“I don't think so,” Adda shook her head. “He wants something within it, something more important than that symbol, and I want to get it first.”
“I'm not sure it's worth the risk. Whatever the demon wants cannot be good for the fate of the world. I think we should concentrate on finding a way to recapture the Quatori, or simply to remove him from you altogether,” Scet mused.
“That's the problem. I think Nex and I are after the same thing.”
Scet peered away from the fire, meeting her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Even Strale seemed lost by the turn of the conversation.
Adda frowned and bit her lip. “Nex has said a few things since he's been in here,” she tapped her head. “I didn't think much about them at the time, because I've been under attack since...well forever it seems, but the more I think about it, the more I believe he has contrived my entire journey from the start, that it was his idea to come west to begin with.” Her words sped up as she mused out loud, finally putting together pieces about Nex that had never sat well with her understanding. “He has said multiple times that he chose me because of my...well, basically for my stubborn attitude and unwillingness to give up or die.”
Scet snorted softly, but he tilted his head, listening.
“Yet, a passive host would have been easier, much easier, if all he wanted was a body like the others have acquired, someone who was already broken, or someone who could be broken with less effort.”
“So you are suggesting he is not trying to possess you?” Strale scratched at his head, sending locks of blond hair tumbling over his shoulder.
“I'm saying he's not trying hard, that there is something more...something worse that he wants.”
“What could be worse than possession?” Strale asked incredulously.
A twisting of doom filled her, she had a feeling it was the orb itself.
When Nex had chosen her, chosen to possess her, out of the selection of others that had been in that cage, she had just learned Harvok's secret...just learned about the orb. She had been certain, in her mind, that if it hadn't been a mad man's mutterings, that it could save her. He had been upset when she spoke of it to Illaise, too. Not only that, but Illaise had accepted the idea of an orb existing without question, which led credence to the possibility that it did, indeed, exist, and Harvok had not been muttering nonsense. Then, when Adda had used the shadows to spy on Scet, she had seen the representation of the great heroes, and they had been using circles of light, orbs. Some prediction of a tool, or a weapon, maybe. Something powerful and with the ability to affect the Quatori, and the creatures they were creating. Sadly, everyone seemed to know more about it than Adda did, but she had a feeling it was the answer to all of her problems.
“I think it is a weapon...or something,” Adda announced. “I think that Nex chose me because I had just learned about it, and he found the information in my mind.”
Although why he hadn't chosen Harvok, instead, was a question she couldn't answer. Maybe he had given Adda a partial truth, he chose her because she had knowledge of the orb, but also because he needed someone strong enough to survive the possession and the journey...or someone stupid enough that he could lead to exactly where he wanted to be.
“So my question remains, why are we going?” Strale interjected.
“We are looking for the orb. I'm sure it can cure my possession and I think it is in the temple. I think it might be what Nex has wanted all along.”
The fire popped as Scet tossed another branch on the coals, he regarded Adda through hooded lids. “I thought the orb was supposed to have some power over the Quatori in their original form. Does it have any power over the creatures they have been creating?”
“Breeding,” Strale announced. Was he participating in the conversation or simply daydreaming out loud?
“What?” Scet growled.
“It is what Lisrith figured. They aren't mutilating Shifters for no reason, they are breeding. It is how they make young of their kind.” He tilted his head Adda's direction, “At least in most cases.”
That wasn't surprising given the information that Nex had provided her. Not particularly surprising that Lis had figured it out, either. Great Six she wished her sister was here now, Lis would know exactly what to do. But all Adda had to rely on was herself, and, Gods willing, these two men.
“Before I was possessed, I was in a cage with a man, Harvok.”
Scet flinched and Adda remembered he had been the one to scold Illaise for her rash murder of the man. Now that she knew him better, she could tell that he felt responsible for the outcome.
“He muttered something in his sleep, just before the end, words about an orb, and that if he was bitten it would heal him, and his Alpha.”
“The old man?” Scet was listening intently.
“I assume so. Harvok was muttering about telling the Alpha the darkness had begun and he must use the orb to stop the plague, which must be the 'breeding' Strale was talking about. It spreads like a plague, an infection.” The more Adda thought about it, the more it made sense. And the orb was somehow key to it all. “I believe that is the information that tempted Nex to possess me, specifically. Then when he...we used the shadows to follow you and the Alpha into the cavern, he must have put together the paintings faster than I did. He knew they were about the orb, and one section in particular...,” Adda pointed to the drawing in the dirt, “this section, it is a map somehow, that should lead to the temple...and presumably the orb.”
Scet stared at her scratchings thoughtfully. “Did the creature show you anything other than this?”
“...no, just this 'map', and then he destroyed the cavern and used the symbol...he called it an imprisonment crystal...to lure his sister away.”
“Sister?” Strale exclaimed.
“The Quatori that possessed the human woman. Her name is Vou.”
Scet shook his head, disapproval lining his frown. She had given a second Quatori a name. Was it her fault she thought of them such when Nex was busy pushing thoughts into her head? Surely it was a small point in the tapestry of events.
Then again, wasn't it just hours ago that she was sympathizing with Nex after being trapped inside her own mind? A passenger behind someone else's actions and decisions? Maybe Scet was right and the little points in the tapestry counted.
“The demon never showed you what lay beyond your 'map'?”
“No...why?”
“Because that is where the prophecy truly starts, Adda, and I think it is about the orb, after all. If I am correct, according to the painter, the orb is a weapon, a dangerous weapon, and it kills whoever wields it.”