Ch 48 – Sometimes status has its uses, at least when managing an airheaded vyxa.

No matter how much time I spent trying to convince her, the annoying young vyxa refused to see reason. I’d wanted to have this finished quickly at first. Were it not for the high priestess’s insistence on doing this safely, perhaps it would have been. Once it became clear that Ruby would be given a choice yet had no intention of coming to our realm, I began stalling things rather than High Priestess Hetkala.

After several days of it, I was running out of time, both for putting off the portal ritual and for convincing that stubborn vyxa not to go through with her plan to face the demon. My poor antennae were becoming frayed at the ends from it all.

Were I being honest, her plan for defeating the newly summoned demon wasn’t all bad. I’d seen everything she was putting together. Assuming it was all set up correctly, it stood a good chance of working. That all depended heavily on who that idiot boy Melkar had invited over from our realm, however. The demons who made tethers and accepted such summons were either desperate or among the dregs of society. But that didn’t mean they were all weaklings.

Over the past several days I’d attempted to convince Ruby to stop her foolishness, all the while trying to come up with some way to also convince her to go into the portal when it appeared. I was having no luck with either.

When it became clear that she was finally making her move against the human boy, I decided it was time to just get on with things. I could stall until she was truly desperate, as annoyed as it would make the local high priestess. Perhaps it was even the wisest thing to do—wait until she was beaten down and desperate.

But that could take anywhere from an hour to a year or more from now, and I didn’t think I had the willpower to wait that long. Not when I would have to watch and wait through the whole thing, agonizing over whatever torture she endured at the hands of humans until she finally broke. I feared it would break me as well.

If I were stronger, perhaps I’d choose differently.

But we all had to make our choices. Ruby would make hers, and I would just have to accept it.

“I’m ready,” I stated, standing tall before High Priestess Hetkala as she lounged in her chair.

While it was late night where Ruby was in her realm, here it was still early morning.

“Praise the spirits,” she trilled, her voice laced with sarcasm. “I was beginning to believe that you were planning to call the whole thing off.”

She was a Kh’aithri like myself, though her antennae were shorter, with far thinner feathers, and her overall plumage was a pale brown with a swirling, bark-like pattern. A not-uncommon appearance among our kind.

Her two primary eyes were almost entirely black in the bright light of the room, only the thinnest slit of white pupils staring back into my own. Those unfamiliar with our kind would likely say she appeared wide-eyed, with eerie all-seeing eyes that never blinked and never tired. To me, she just looked weary. The slight droop in her antennae gave it away.

“If you dragged your feet any longer, I was going to call it off entirely. Those of the Temple have better things to do than sitting around waiting for you to make a decision,” she continued.

I ignored her blatant disrespect—something I’d had to get used to after my flight from home. “How long will it take before the ritual is complete?”

“I imagine we can do it in the next day or so.” One of her hands waved vaguely through the air.

All four of my eyes widened. “Next day or so? I thought we’d already finished with all the preparations for it?”

“Did I not just tell you that we have many other duties that need doing? We cannot cater to your every whim, Flauri’el. Do you think that just because you are—”

I let out a near-silent hiss, silencing her. “I have asked you not to use my title. The walls have ears even here, I’m sure.”

“I was going to say ‘entitled brat,’” she insisted. “Besides, do you truly think a simple change of name and appearance is enough for your clan to fail to locate you? I would suspect they already know exactly where you are.”

My gaze narrowed. She’d gone too far.

“I have not changed my looks simply to escape the eyes of my family. It was something I’d begun altering long before I’d left them, in fact. And I don’t appreciate any insinuations otherwise.”

She ought to know just how much time and effort such a thing took. It wasn’t the sort of thing done on a whim.

The high priestess sighed. “I had not meant it as a slight.”

I noted the non-apology, but decided not to press it. “As of yet, they have made no move to collect me, and I do not wish to tempt fate. I was hoping to get this finished sometime today.”

“Well, that is unfortunate, because unless you plan to fully leverage the authority of your clan, I cannot accommodate you.”

“Can not or will not?”

She shrugged all four arms like a rippling wave. “Both?”

I stared her down as I pondered my options. Most would feel bothered by such an unblinking gaze. As another Kh’aithri, it affected her not one bit.

“Fine,” I bit back tersely. “We’ll do things your way then. Send for me when you’re ready.”

With that final remark, I stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me.

She was right about one thing. There was a decent chance my family had already located me. If they had, the one reason they hadn’t confronted me was because they knew what I was up to and were waiting to see whether I succeeded. They would probably want nothing more than for me to get a vyxa of my own. I could already hear the relentless taunts over how I’d finally come to my senses over them. It was something I would have to deal with later, I was sure.

For now, I just had to hope that something during the incident with Melkar would make Ruby reconsider. And that nothing went wrong in the meantime.

An hour later, after finally finding out what demon that pesky human had summoned over, I found myself storming back into Hetkala’s office.

“I’ve changed my mind. We’re doing this now.” She raised a brow at my dramatic entrance, and I continued, “Regardless of the consequences. Contact my mother, or whatever it is you need to do. We’re out of time.”

Waiting had been a mistake. Now I had to hope I wouldn’t be too late.