Chapter: 41: The Extraction

“What object did you guys choose?” I asked when my body finally stopped shaking.

I was holding the queen’s old mirror in my hands, and none of them seemed to have noticed it. I needed something to distract me—anything.

“The rose,” Piper admitted, blushing so hard her cheeks became deep blue. “I’ve never been able to resist a rose. It’s my favorite flower.”

I smiled when she started fiddling with the corner of my blanket as if she hoped I wouldn’t see her cheeks burn.

Then I noticed her hands were empty. She wasn’t carrying the rose. It wasn’t even lying beside her on the wooden bench we were sitting on.

I bit my lip when I looked up and realized I was the only one with an artifact still in my hands, clinging to it as if it were my property. I would probably have to let go of it eventually.

The mirror didn’t belong to me, no matter how much I wished for it to.

“I chose the dragon’s egg,” Calla said, pulling me back to my senses.

“A dragon’s egg,” I said, cocking my brow as I released the pressure around the artifact. “I didn’t see a dragon’s egg.”

Hadn’t we all been given the same artifacts to choose between?

Calla nodded. “We’ve noticed that once the same artifact has been selected an unnamed number of times, one of the artifacts would be replaced.”

“Unnamed?” I said, not sure I understood what she was trying to say.

Piper moved closer. “It was occasionally swapped after an artifact had been picked twice; other times, it was switched after an artifact had been chosen four times.

“We haven’t discovered a pattern yet, but the rose, the dagger, and the mirror were the only artifacts that were never exchanged.”

Piper pointed at the queen’s mirror.

I squeezed the artifact a little tighter.

“I thought dragons were extinct,” I said, shaking my head as I tried to make sense of this senseless trial. “Is the dragon egg real?”

What was the point of offering us four options when they weren’t even the same? And what about the Faceless Shifter?

“It was a fossil, turned to stone by time,” Calla explained, shrugging.

“My mother used to tell me stories of great dragons and the legends claiming that the few that still exist remain hidden in the Wandering Mountains or deep beneath the surface of the vast ocean.

“However, not the Templars nor the trench divers have found any evidence that they are still alive, so they remain what they always have been—a legend.”

Dad used to tell Tristan and me numerous stories about the majestic dragons and how we used to coexist with them.

However, because of their terrifying abilities, humans eventually forced them into hiding. People had been hunting them in fear, and no one had seen a dragon since the Grand Escape.

The probability that some of them may still be hiding seemed unlikely to me after so many centuries.

“Where are your artifacts?”

The words were out before I could stop them.

Calla fluttered her eyes before she looked down to see me squeezing the mirror.

“We didn’t bring them with us,” she whispered, smiling faintly. “I think you’re the only one who did, Will.”

So, we hadn’t been supposed to bring the artifacts with us… ~Why didn’t Caiden take it from me, then?~

“I-I didn’t know,” I stuttered, easing my grip. “Am I supposed to give it back? And to whom?”

I sincerely hoped they wouldn’t say Prince Atlas or King Alaric. I couldn’t bring myself to look at either of them again so soon after their reactions to my safety.

The Faceless Shifter had filled my mind with new, inappropriate thoughts and concerns that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

And Caiden’s touch… The burning sensation that didn’t make sense…

He was a Water Iridis—a healer. His touch shouldn’t be able to burn like that.

Then Piper shrugged, and a wave of relief washed over me. “Just hold on to it,” she suggested, tugging the blanket closer to my ears. “Someone will probably come for it when they need it.”

She paused and sucked in her cheeks. She was clearly holding back a question because she was too shy to ask it.

“What is it, Piper?” I asked to rid myself of the feeling that she was lingering to ask me something unpleasant.

Caiden may have claimed that sound wasn’t part of the live recordings, but I couldn’t help it. I was terrified that they may have heard what the Faceless Shifter had been saying to me about Caiden.

“Why would you choose that old mirror?” Piper finally asked, relieving me of the crushing pressure of uncertainty.

“No one chose that. It’s ancient and not very appealing. Calla and I were almost convinced that you would choose the rose as I did.”

It wasn’t the question I’d feared, but I didn’t have an answer for her either. I could barely remember the thoughts that had roamed my mind when I chose the mirror.

“Well, I-I thought I was going to choose the rose, but something was drawing me toward the mirror. I don’t think I can explain it. My mind was foggy after the encounter with the Faceless Shifter—”

“Right! The Raeewh!” Piper exclaimed, seemingly forgetting all about her initial question.

Piper grabbed my hand, pulled me up from my seat, and dragged me across the floor of that noisy room.

“How did you manage to stay so calm and ignore it like that?” she asked, placing us on a curved sofa where we could follow the remaining suitors through a large screen.

“I would have been terrified!” she whispered and moved closer. “What did it say?”

I squeezed the mirror again as I recalled a brief glimpse of the Faceless Shifter’s leathery, desiccated skin and its voice mimicking mine.

“I don’t remember,” I lied, plucking one of my broken nails. “Everything happened so fast.”

Piper pressed her lips together, probably to suppress the heavy sigh of disappointment.

I knew my answer left her and Calla with a lot of unanswered questions and sleepless nights. I just couldn’t tell them what the creature had said to me because I didn’t quite understand what it meant.

Unsure how to carry on the conversation from the awkward silence, I turned to the TV.

The room was much brighter than I remembered from my memories.

I only recalled the light from the torches, but the screen made it look like there could have been light spilling from the ceiling too.

Kihone backed away when the deformed creature stepped into the light. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, and it most likely scared the living soul out of anyone who hadn’t encountered a Faceless Shifter before.

Kihone was a Water Iridis like Caiden and Piper—the Tide Academy’s representative.

She’d never struck me as particularly brave in the short time I’d known her.

Despite managing her interview with Arawn like an expert in royal etiquette, she excelled in making herself invisible during our afternoons in the parlor.

Revelation struck me like lightning when Kihone confidently stepped forward, summoning an enormous wave that washed the Faceless Shifter aside.

Kihone had been at the top of her academy for a reason. She was a strategist.

She made no friends by remaining unseen, but she made no enemies either. She was saving her secrets for when we were expected to perform.

Then she started running toward the door granting her access to the room with the artifacts.

She’d made it without breaking a sweat, but it puzzled me why the Faceless Shifter hadn’t turned her attack against her like it had with me. Was it because she’d been stronger than me?

“Why didn’t it do anything?” I whispered to Piper. “Why didn’t it shift and attack?”

Piper grabbed my hand and squeezed it before she answered. “It didn’t do that to any of us,” she explained, her eyes shifting between mine.

“It didn’t attack us. It mirrored some of us, but you were the only one it attacked.”

~What in the name of the five realms did she mean by that?~

I was about to confront Piper about her claim when Kihone stepped closer to the artifacts.

Confusion tugged my chest forward.

There weren’t four artifacts on the table anymore. They hadn’t replaced the mirror I was clinging to, leaving Kihone with only three artifacts to choose between.

Kihone didn’t take her time examining the artifacts like I had. She barely even glanced at them before she pointed at the tiara and waited until the invisible door appeared.

The next girl through the black doors was the Earth Iridis Devika.

Her face wasn’t visible to us, but it was as if I could feel the bouncing of her skin as the first torch ignited. The Faceless Shifter would find her soon enough.

And it did.

Caiden had been right. We couldn’t hear anything as Devika screamed her lungs empty when the Faceless Shifter showed itself.

The creature mirrored her, and Devika shook her head, trying to shut out whatever the Faceless Shifter was yelling at her.

Then she began crying, covering her ears and crouching on the floor as if she hoped someone would come to save her.

Worry gnawed away part of my soul as I saw the creature feed on Devika’s fear while the rest of the world watched.

“We have to help her,” I said, standing up to head for the door behind which Caiden and the king were hiding.

“Wait, Will!” Piper shouted, grabbing my blanket. “Just…watch.”

I looked at the screen again just as a bright light emerged from the ceiling, forcing the Faceless Shifter to retreat to the only shadow left.

Then Caiden came running to Devika’s side from another door hidden in the walls.

Devika was completely paralyzed by fear as Caiden picked her up to carry her out of the room safely.

“That’s the second suitor I’ve seen lose their sanity to the bloodcurdling whispers of the Raeewh,” Piper whispered, massaging her hands.

“We thought they were going to save you, too,” Calla added in my other ear.

I pulled back to look at her. “Why didn’t they, then?” I asked, careful not to speak too loudly in the mourning room.

They just shrugged, unable to give me the answers we all sought.

Caiden and the king had given me far more time to compose myself in front of the creature than they had allowed Devika.

Why?