Consciousness came to Iliana in a flash of panic.

Opening her eyes did little to lessen the black world surrounding her. Instead, it only seemed to deepen the darkness. Her breathing grew ragged as unreasonable fear overtook her senses. Her lungs ached. Her neck burned.

Suffocating pain clutched her chest. It strangled her senses and drove a stake of fear through her aching body. Her hands scrambled for something that would help her place her surroundings and found only cold stone.

She couldn't catch her breath. Her fingers flew to her throat, clutching the ache as if it could ease the sharp intakes of breath that came quicker and quicker by the second.

The tower. Somehow, that single thought made it past the mounting panic, easing some of the confusion buried within her fear. She was in the black tower.

Iliana's breathing slowed even as the fear settled deeper and heavier into the pit of her stomach. It bound her chest like chains as she shifted her hands over her head and pulled it down to her knees.

Slow. In. Out. Breathe.

She was in the tower. Zuher had bit her and at some point after, they must have tossed her back in her cell. One hand dropped from her hair to feel her neck. Dried blood caked her skin, as well as a concerning amount of stickiness. Was she still bleeding? How long had she been out? Should she be worried?

Was Del here?

"Del?"

Silence coated the darkness and she almost fell into panic again. It took everything Iliana had to reign in her frantic senses and slow her breathing to a normal pace.

She was alone. That was fine. It gave her time to think.

What had happened in the ballroom? How had a simple piano song enchanted a crowd?

It wasn't as if Iliana had meant it to, and there had been no hint of a siren song in what Inna gave her. The melody had been simple, harmless even. So how had she lost control?

She dug her fingers into her hair and some ended up brushing the feathers at her neck. It sent a chill down her spine as Eumelia's words clutched her mind in a vice. 'The second feather, the Song of Desire, enchants every person that can hear it. The cost, if I remember correctly, was the siren's ability to control their song.'

In the mess that had followed the mountains, the cost of Iliana's choice had completely escaped her concerns. Now, however, she realized how desperate of a situation it might have placed her in.

Why she wasn't like the other sirens on the island, with her speech as alluring as the hum of melody, she wasn't certain. What was clear, however, was that she had pulled the feather. And her music had enchanted everyone without conscious effort.

She needed answers--and to escape the dark. Iliana dropped her hand to the fox charm around her chest. With an unavoidable edge of desperation, she called his name. "Koun."

The second her free fingers brushed the anklet, the tower cell was gone. The white shocked her senses, and for several seconds she was blinking away the fuzziness in her vision, but it also eased the remaining panic from her chest.

If nothing else, she had this escape from the darkness. It was dangerous in its own way--as being unaware of her surroundings was never good--but, in the end, it would keep her from falling into a pit of fear and madness.

"I want to talk to you."

For a moment, she thought he wouldn't respond. But then, within the breath of a second, Koun was there. He studied her with those unsettling, godly eyes, and as always, she felt as if he were seeing more than just her.

"How rare," he mused after an unsettling stretch of silence. "I don't believe you've asked for my attention even once before."

"Yeah, well, I haven't accidentally bewitched a room full of nobles before, either. Seems todays a first day for everything," she retorted.

Koun's gaze sharpened as a frown took his expression. His eyes slipped past hers, settling on the crook of her neck. Iliana grimaced, her hand flicking up to cover the wound. It was unsettling to discover that blood caked her skin even here. Shouldn't her soul, at least, be free of Zuher's marks?

"It seems I have missed a lot in not watching you today," Koun said. "Tell me."

It shouldn't have been odd to hear that Koun wasn't paying attention to her. He was a god. Obviously he had better things to do than watch some random siren--even one he seemed to favor as much as Iliana. Still, it stung. Shouldn't the gods be all knowing?

As if reading her mind, Koun shrugged.

"There is much going on tonight, little one. Decades of planning has gone into placing a house of cards that will collapse within the hour. Only the fates know if they will land where we wish. So, tell me what I need to know before I miss the fall."

His dismissal stung, but the ache was nearly instantly eased by the attention in his gaze. If he was so entranced by something else, there had been no need for him to respond to her. But he had.

"I played the piano tonight and it drew everyone to me," Iliana explained. "Like a song. But it wasn't meant to be one."

Koun tilted his head, eyes skimming Iliana from tip to toe. He shifted his hand from his pocket, carding it through his hair as he seemed to weigh something within his mind.

"One month."

"What?"

"It was only a month," Koun explained and his hand fell away from his hair. "No siren is meant to pull their feathers in a month. There is no reason for it. Your kind are not created outside of the cove--and there is supposed to be no exceptional danger to sirens within the island. There are nightmares, certainly, but they pose no threat to someone who can frighten them with their voice. By the time one would wish to leave that protection their feathers would have fully grown and their songs developed.

"Yours were not given that chance. And our magic--god magic--does unpredictable things when handled in ways it was not meant to be twisted."

"So it was the feather," Iliana confirmed.

Koun shrugged. "It is likely. There is no way to know for certain without further testing, but you cannot charm someone in this realm, and I cannot easily view you outside of it as things are."

Iliana's mind spun and another detail escaped the tangled mess of her thoughts. "But, I thought--I haven't lost my memories. If I were facing the cost of the feather, shouldn't I have lost the memories it required as well?"

She couldn't recall what Eumelia had said it would cost her, but she knew it had been something important. Koun pursed his lips, shoving his hand back in the pocket of his trousers.

"There is a chance you lost nothing at all. The feather was immature, and so perhaps the price you paid was as well. But, it is also possible that what you have lost, you simply do not know," he explained. "How are you to recognize what you've lost, when you cannot recall that you ever had it to begin with?"

His words made an unsettling degree of sense.

"Can't you tell? You're a god."

"Not the god of thought and bonds," Koun retorted. "That is Aion's job. When he visits again, ask him then. He'll have more answers than I."

'When he visits again?' It was somewhat unsettling that it was a probable statement, not just a potential end. When had she gotten used to being visited by gods?

"Speaking of Aion..." A golden glow coated his fingers as he plucked at invisible strings. Koun sighed. "I believe he might be upset that I left. We will have to talk later. On a night not as important as this."

"What's happening?" Iliana asked.

Koun studied her for a moment. "History."

And with that vague answer, he vanished. Iliana swore.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Time flickered and skipped, but no amount of irritated expletives made Koun return. Eventually, Iliana's attention turned to the strings.

Whatever was going on with the gods, it meant they wouldn't be watching her today. And she had no intentions of returning to the dark until required. Her fingers played with the threads, weighing the foreign flashes of emotion that swept through her.

For the triskele it was irritation and concern. The feather felt like fear, frustration, and apprehension. The silence charm was anger and worry.

Then, the serpent. More than anything else, it was burning affection. While the other charms held her attention for varying reasons, it was Kain's that captured her. She'd noticed it before, but what she kept catching from him felt familiar, yet foreign. Which held her curiosity like nothing else.

She grasped his thread and followed it.

As Koun had said, the true answers to her worries wouldn't come until she could meet Aion. So, for now at least, she would push the concerns from her mind, and instead focus on Kain.

Once she reached the silhouette and reality flickered, Iliana found herself in an almost familiar setting: a large, open ballroom.

It was of an obviously different style from Zuher's--the balconies were on the first floor, with instead just a railed walkway above their heads; there were no curtained rooms, and so forth--but still unsettlingly close given the events of the night. Iliana shuddered and forced herself to focus. Where was Kain?

There. Stepping up the curved entry steps, Melitta on his arm, was Kain. Tension eased from Iliana's chest. She had known he was okay from the emotions flicking through the charms, but it was a relief to see it.

The sallow edge to his skin had disappeared in the months since the pass. He looked better. Healthier. Happy, even. The rich clothing he wore spoke volumes for the situation he was in. The knowledge settled oddly in her chest. It was a warm, yet twisted emotion that she vehemently wished she could discard.

It was good that Kain was happy.

But, why did he get to be happy, here, while she was where she was?

It was selfish and stupid. Unreasonable, even. But, he had chased after her and some part of Iliana, as quiet as it had been, had hoped that he was still searching. That perhaps all her schemes were pointless, because Kain would find a way past the mountains and into Chuteros. That was who he was.

Kain had been, and always would be, a hero in Iliana's mind.

But, this palace wasn't Zuher's.

Actually--whose was it?

Even as the tug of the charm forced her towards the entrance, Iliana turned her attention to the ballroom. Most of the nobles were human, unlike in Zuher's court. And out of those that weren't, Iliana only spotted two out that held a black aura.

More importantly, not everyone was speaking Empor. Many of the voices around her spoke a different, yet still familiar language. It wasn't one she knew, but she could place it. Loen--the native speech of Eol.

Was this some Eolisan noble's castle, then? She had always heard those in Eol erred on the dangerous side of expensive pride, and what little she could see matched the rumors.

Kain and Melitta disappeared into the hall, leaving Iliana no choice but to follow them out of the ballroom as something unseen forced her forward. Not that she cared to linger anyways. With the matter of their surroundings dealt with, her attention had instantly switched back to Kain and the emotions that had drawn her to pick his charm. Satisfying her curiosity over the matter would be a good distraction from the unjust feelings twisting her gut.

Just as she'd reached them, Kain stopped walking. His free hand curled into a fist as a soft swear left his lips.

"Tomorrow, Kain," Melitta murmured, tugging him forward. "You just need to wait that long. I've heard that the truthsayer will arrive by morning."

Confused by the warning in the mermaid's voice, Iliana stepped past Kain, staring down the side-hall that had caught his attention. Reality seemed to shudder as Iliana found her answer.

Standing towards the end, head bowed as a figure directly from Iliana's nightmares scolded her with whispered words was Mara. She was older, thinner, but there was no mistaking the duchess for anyone but who she was.

Mara. Her sister.

An impossible mix of emotion flooded Iliana in that second.

Confusion. Why are they here?

Fear. Does Kain know who they are? Is that why Melitta had to pull him away?

Longing. Gods, it's been so long since I've seen her.

Relief. She survived without me.

Anger. She's still with him.

Regret.

Mara doesn't look well.

And as the charm threatened to pull her away from the scene just as Melitta had done Kain, Kyril seized her sister's arm. He shoved her forward, forcing her to start walking towards whatever destination he had in mind. Ice flooded her veins as they disappeared through a doorway at the end of the hall.

Iliana should have known that her leaving would have changed nothing about his rage. Just the target.

She forced a step forward, then hit something unseen. It sent her stumbling a step back, then another as the invisible barrier drew closer. Her heart raced.

She couldn't follow them because Kain hadn't. "Gods dammit."

The realization burned, but did nothing to stop her from lashing out. However, no amount of hitting, or frankly, pleading seemed to make it disappear, or stop moving as Kain and Melitta stepped further, and further away. Both her hands wrapped around the charm at her neck as a final resort flashed into her mind.

"Please." Her voice cracked. Emotion unrecognizable in its twisted, heavy weight, seized her mind, strangling any thoughts of following Kain. "Please. I'll do whatever it is you want in return. Just--"

She needed to see her again. Needed to hear her voice.

"Please."

She was so close.

'Go.'

Before Aion's wordless voice finished, unseen hands sent her stumbling through the barrier. Iliana didn't pause to think it over.

She ran after Mara.