Strange New Eyes

Chapter Seventeen - Traitor

The room went silent but for the crackling of the fire. It was Dunyasha who broke that silence, her voice low and pleading.

"Uncle, we have all been hurt," she said quietly. "You lost your son, your wife, your brother, your friends at the hands of Letters. I've lost people too. I feel that pain. They were my family too. But can't you see this will just end in more death?"

"And what do you suggest instead?" Ystervo said wearily. "More talking? More negotiations that end with blood slicing through our ambassador's throat? It doesn't work."

"It does," Aysel said, finding her voice. "I'm proof. When I first met her, I hated Dunyasha, and feared her too. I had been convinced she was a monster. But she's not." From the floor, she looked over at her. Her short mane was wild around her face and her skin glowed bronze in the firelight. Her eyes were pools of rage and justice and liquid gold. "She's my friend. More than a friend."

Dunyasha looked down at her in shock.

"I was wrong to lie about my feelings for you," Aysel continued. She was aware of the danger of the situation, but it was because of it, not in spite of it, that she felt she needed to confess. She may not get another chance. "I felt as though I was betraying my reasons for coming by letting myself fall for you. But I'm not. So if I die tonight, which is becoming increasingly likely, I just want you to know." Tears had sprung up in her eyes. "Dunyasha, you're beautiful and strong and terrifying and kind. And when we almost kissed, it wasn't because I was tired. It was because I wanted to kiss you. I still do."

Dunyasha stared at her, one clawed hand over her wide lips, her foreign yet familiar yellow eyes glistening, perhaps with tears. "Aysel, I--"

She was cut off by a laugh. "This is your plan? Seduce the Letters and they'll stop killing us?" Ystervo boomed. "I always knew you had a soft spot for Letters, but not like this! No wonder you can't see that killing them is the only way for us to survive!"

"But it's not," Dunyasha replied. She wiped away her tears. "More death will only result in more death."

"And talking will result in nothing!" he snapped. "So you convinced one not to hate you. Can you convince ten more? A hundred? A thousand?"

"I..." her voice faltered. "I have to hope that I can. It's the only way to stop this endless war."

"But Dunyasha," he said softly. "Don't you see? There is an end." He held out the bag. "Just a few breaths. Just a few moments, and all the Letters go to sleep. Quiet. Peaceful. And the People no longer have to fear, because the circle is broken."

Dunyasha shook her head. "No. It isn't right."

"But it will save our people. It will save our children from having their hearts stopped at the hands of some unnatural blood mage. No father will ever have to lose another son," he said, his voice full of pain again. "And it's going to happen, whether or not you help me."

She opened her mouth, then stopped. She blinked, and her eyes were cool and musing as a distant god's. She looked back up to her uncle... and nodded.

Aysel's world fell out from under her with that one small movement. But it must be a trick; it had to be a trick; there was no way Dunyasha would ever think that. Or would she? The look of old pain was written clearly across her face for Aysel to see.

"Dunya, no!" Enrick shouted. "Are you insane?"

She held up a finger. "They just... they all just go to sleep?"

Ystervo smiled. "Without any fear or pain. And once they are gone, we can live without fear."

"The circle will be broken," she muttered. "The war over at last."