“There have been a lot of secrets and rumours circulating recently,” Ella's eyes moved slowly over the crowd as she spoke, gauging expressions.
While her expression remained neutral, Corabelle could see the bead of sweat she smelled form at the edge of her hairline. Though Ella brushed it away subtly, as though removing a rogue hair from her eyes.
“I readily admit much of the fault falls on me for the recent stress, and I apologize," She said. “I handled things poorly, but I’ve called you all here to hopefully begin to set things right.”
“So you've decided to send the Demons back then?” Lark brazenly drawled, to the distress of the compatriots standing near her.
Their eyes flashed to Corabelle as though they expected some retribution for her tongue.
Ella shook her head, “No,” She replied calmly. “Though I haven't shared this information with many of you, Cora has been incredibly helpful. Much of the information she’s given us has been both accurate and incredibly helpful.” She glanced at Corabelle momentarily as she flashed the hint of a smile.
“What information?” A shorter man to the side of Shale questioned.
Ella stood up more straight, her smile turning more serious, “You may have noticed your return routes have changed, especially from Pearl’s Keep, this was to avoid the surveillance routes of other Faedemons. We have been being watched for months and most were given orders to report their findings without engaging. We don’t know what the Fae’s final plan was, but Cora has helped us keep our secrets.”
“How do you know any of this was true?” a woman covered in ink questioned softly.
“We saw them,” A new woman with a God’s Eye Bind blending well into the shadows of her dark curls muttered without making eye contact with the questioner nor Ella. “We didn‘t know why we were told to watch certain rooftops… but they were there.
Ella gave a soft nod, “If I had told you where I learned this, would you have looked?”
The woman did not answer.
“Regardless,” Ella continued. “I’ve decided to no longer keep any secrets. I have brought you all here, as well as Cora, to talk; to ask questions. Of either of us.” She stepped aside, no longer blocking Corabelle from view.
For a good moment the room was silent before someone finally dared to talk.
Corabelle had expected Lark or one of the other more verbally indignant residents to begin the interrogation, but instead it was Shale. Her voice was low but, surprisingly, not fearful as she spoke, “Why are you helping us?”
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Corabelle was surprised to find herself relieved by this question. It was an easy answer and one she’d given a good many times since her arrival.
“Becasue I remember my human life and I have no loyalty to the Fae other than what was physically forced upon me,” She kept her answer calm and concise as she noticed other flinch as she opened her mouth.
Lark scoffed, a smile of dry humour crossing her face, but she didn’t speak up.
“I would let any of you read my thoughts right now if I could,” Corabelle said honestly. “But for a few more hours, my mind is shielded from any mental intrusion.”
“Shielded by what?” Shale’s eyes lit up with the curiosity of a student mage.
“A Dewsilver compound,” Corabelle replied. “The same way it hides your power from the Fae; it hides my mind from them too, but when I leave these walls, I need to inject it into veins.”
“Dewsilver is toxic,” a man with a good deal of it coating his clothing commented.
Corabelle nodded, “It’s painful and it does affect my spells that aren’t Runebound, but it certainly beats the alternative.”
“What’s wrong with the other one?” The question that Corabelle was hoping no one would ask, sprung forth harshly from Lark, interrupting whatever the silvered man was going to ask next.
The question was directed toward Ella, thankfully, and she was quick to respond. “He was a friend of Cora's before the war, but he was taken and something terrible was done to him. At the moment, that’s all we know, but I’m confident he too will be an ally.”
“An ally?” A voice came from the crowd, though Corabelle couldn’t tell exactly who said it as murmurs rose among the group.
Ella began to pace, “I know,” she said to no one in particular. “There is no repairing everything Faedemons have done, but carrying out the will of the Fae was not their choice. They’re soldiers without the ability to resist. But this one is trying. We have a unique privilege in these walls; protect them,” she stopped tuning her intense gaze on the crowd. “Can you sincerely tell me you’ve held perfect morality through these years? “
The murmurers quieted as eyes turned away from her.
After letting them stew in their reverie for a moment, she continued, “I doubt not one person in this room isn’t a killer. Whatever your justification, is it better than hers? Theirs? The way I see it, Faedemons are refugees the same as any of us.”
“They are not the same as us!” Lark barked “I couldn’t kill everyone in this room without breaking a sweat.”
“She’s right,” Corabelle spoke up, turning her attention to Ella. “Not every Faedemon is like us. A Faedemon killed me and nearly killed him,” she held Zaramir tighter. “Not because he had orders to, because he wanted to. some Faedemons are exactly the monsters you fear. Some are beyond help.”
Lark’s face melted into light shock.
“But,” Corabelle continued. “There are plenty of us who want nothing more than to be anyone, anything else. I was charged with a fresh Faedemon turned when she wasn’t much older than you,” she looked to Shale, as a knot formed in her chest. “She doesn’t remember her life like me, and yet she doesn’t want to kill. I wish I could have brought her here so she wouldn’t have to.”
Ella looked at her with a strange pride in her eyes before turning back to the crowd, “These Faedemons are our kin, even if they don’t remember and if this means there’s a chance our brothers and sisters, our friends… our children haven’t become monsters, are you willing to fight for them? Because I am.”
