Elowen Cask's Arc

Chapter 10 of 10

Elowen stood inside the fae lord's court with the dry contract in her fist. She had made it through the flood. But the court was hot. Torches lined the walls, and the air pressed thick and close. The waxed flowers she had wrapped the contract in began to soften. A bead of green wax slid down her wrist. The petals had done their work in the cold water. Now the heat was undoing them. She peeled back a torn petal to check the ink. The signature still held, but a smear darkened one corner. Warm wax had touched the page. If she waited for the fae lord to arrive on his own time, the ink would run before she could present it. Her leverage was melting in her hand. A figure stepped from the shadowed edge of the court. Silver hair, charcoal wool worn thin by centuries. It was Aldric Lorne, the immortal witness who had carved the fae lord's debt into his own wrist and broken his oath to give her the signature. She had not known he would come. He never met her eyes. "You followed me," she said. "I witness debts," Aldric said. "This one is mine to close." "The ink is running. The wax is melting." She held out the softening bundle. "I have no time." Aldric took the contract from her. His scarred hand did not shake. He pressed his thumb against the wet corner, then held the page near a torch, close but not touching. The heat that ruined the wax now dried the ink. He turned the page slow, letting warmth pull the moisture out before it could spread. The smear stopped where it was. The signature set, black and fixed. "It will not run now," he said. He handed it back. "Present it before it cools." She understood. The wax had trapped the ink. Dried fast, it would hold forever. She stripped the last melted petals away and let them drop. The contract was bare paper again, but the signature was locked. At the far end of the court, a tall door opened. Cold light spilled out. The fae lord who had stolen her mother's name twenty years ago was coming to meet her. She had crossed drowning water and a melting seal to reach this moment. "Say his debt out loud when you show it," Aldric said. "A witness must hear it named." He stepped back into the dark. "I will hear." Elowen closed her hand around the dry page. The heat could no longer touch it. She turned toward the opening door and the figure moving through it, and walked to meet the lord who owed her mother a name.