We pick back up later that same night, with Dayne knocking on Aelin’s door.
Dayne:
“Aelin.”
Aelin quickly redresses herself, covering her arm but leaving her hood & mask off, and walks towards the door.
Aelin (from inside):
“What do you want?”
Dayne:
“Well… we could start with maybe opening the door? Why the hostility?”
Aelin:
“It’s the middle of the night.”
Dayne:
“Cmon. You can make some time.”
Aelin opens the door and lets him in.
Dayne (surprised):
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with your mask off before.”
Aelin literally just goes 😐
Dayne traces his fingers across her nightstand, where he’d previously seen the metal scraps and her vial of perfume.
Dayne:
“I was in your room earlier.”
Aelin:
“So that was you. I should’ve known, you’re the… least stealthy of all of us. You made yourself quite obvious.”
Dayne:
“Well, I don’t exactly hide my intentions. I’m actually pretty loud about them. So I’ll make my intentions obvious here. Are you one of them? Is this some kind of… covert operation? I saw your arm. I know what it is.”
Aelin:
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Dayne:
“Cut the bullshit, Aelin. Your arm is manaforged. You are manaforged. Is that a lie?”
Aelin swallows and looks at him.
Dayne:
“I didn’t think so. I saw it when we were fighting. I don’t know how many others saw it — but when I came into this room and saw those scraps of metal, I knew my eyes didn’t deceive me. So go ahead and explain yourself.”
Aelin:
“I don’t feel like this is any of your business to know.”
Dayne:
“Oh yes it fucking is. It became my business when we fought side by side. It became my business when… you showed me that there’s probably more to you than just some greedy, heartless rogue.”
Aelin:
“What do you mean?”
Dayne:
“I saw your reaction, Aelin. In the library. With the dragon. When I held out that egg, not even your mask could hide what was on your face. I saw the way that you reacted to it. There’s something there. Nobody acts that way towards some dragon. Your reaction — it made people care. You care. Why?”
Aelin (clearly flustered):
“…I- I was just as upset as any of you guys. It- it was a child. The dragon was a child. We saw it die in front of our eyes. You’re telling me you weren’t upset about that?”
Dayne:
“Of course I was upset. That’s why I pulled out that egg — to avoid pulling the lever to kill it. But that’s different, Aelin. I’m very obvious about the rules and standards I hold myself to. My code — I live by it. But you don’t. I don’t know what code you live by, or anything about you. And you are hiding something. I’m not here to try and uncover all of your secrets — but that arm, I know about that. I have come from that. That involves me. That I will know about.”
Aelin looks away from him, crossing her arms and clearly on high defense.
Dayne:
“Silent treatment? Really, Aelin?”
Aelin:
“Look, Dayne. You want to know why I have this arm?”
Dayne:
“I do.”
Aelin (speaking very carefully):
“…When I was 12 I was taken away from my family. My parents and my baby sister. She was just 2 at the time. And I was the one who was providing for them. I was taken, and I was trained to be a killer. By… the manaforged. And since I was one of their “top recruits” that they’d found, they gave me — they forced me — to become manaforged as well. Because whatever helped me helped them in turn, right? …Later, I’d found out that my parents had died in one of the riots, and my baby sister…… Listen, Dayne, I didn’t lie to you before. Whenever I’d said that “someone I knew well” had died at the hands of the manaforged — you remember that, yes?”
Dayne:
“I do.”
Aelin:
“That person was me. My old self. She’s dead — and I became exactly what they wanted me to be. A killer. Are you happy?”
Dayne (drawing a breath and gripping his fist):
“Perhaps I am happy. You and I, we come from similar backgrounds. I’m sorry, Aelin. Maybe in time you can understand why I was so aggressive in questioning you. But you didn’t become what they wanted you to be. They wanted you to be a tool — of your own initiative, carving your own path… maybe you were made to be a killer. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you kill on your own terms. And that’s what I am. I was made a weapon too, by them. I was given these skills by them. Yet… it seems like we both slipped through the cracks.”
Aelin (laughing coldly, looking down):
“Right.”
Dayne:
“The academy that I come from. Well, my last name is Scaith. My full name is Dayne Scaith. My father, he… he owned a mining company before this whole manaforged business caught on. And it just so happens that one of the materials needed was in those mines, and overnight he was rich beyond his imagining. But he knew that those materials were only valuable if there were people who were intelligent enough to use it. So, he invested and helped fund Silverhold College. But there’s more to that college — it’s more than some education. It’s a factory for tools. It’s a place where they groom and breed new workers to create some… awful new inventions. But the worst of it lies at the heart of it — and that’s where I found myself. Within the Cinderclasp.”
Aelin:
“When you stepped in for your brother.”
Dayne:
“Indeed. My uncle — he was magically inclined. He was of the “old ways”, you might say. And when this business with my father happened, he stood up against him. They came to some sort of… agreement. I don’t know what they talked about, but my uncle tried to combine magic and the new manaforged business. That’s what started the Cinderclasp. They used… rituals. To speak beyond the planes. To get ideas from other places, other worlds. And that’s what we were trained for. To go there. To dive into the mine, to let that influence in. To find those ideas — and to have the willpower to not be burned from the inside out. These marks — these scars you see on my arms, the very runes of the ritual are carved into my body. So… I empathize with your situation, Aelin. I lost someone too. I didn’t escape of my own ability — someone… she stayed behind. She got me out, and she didn’t make it. And that’s why I’m here. So. Perhaps we’ve both had people left behind. But, I feel like… perhaps we could be more than just mercenaries. I’ve never met anyone else who escaped their grasp. Especially with power that they intended to be used as their own. It’s now ours. That means something. That means something to me. Does it mean something to you? Are you truly just here for coin, or is there some greater purpose that you’re here for?”
Aelin (smiling just slightly):
“Don’t you remember, Dayne? I’m here to make friends.”
Dayne:
“Ha. Yeah, I do remember. Well, what do you say, then, Aelin. Do you want to be friends?”
Aelin (sticking her right hand out):
“Friends.”
Dayne (shaking her hand):
“Very well, then. I’ve got your back. I’m sure there will be many more conversations between the two of us. Perhaps on… better terms.”
Aelin:
“Perhaps not in the middle of the night?”
Dayne:
“Hm. No. I think I prefer that. Less interruptions. Less… ears.”
Aelin opens the door and waits for him to leave.
Dayne:
“Goodnight, Aelin.”
Aelin:
“Goodnight, Dayne.”
The next morning, Sylvaeus is outside of the party’s rooms, waiting for them with letters in his hands. There’s one for each of the party members; Sylvaeus says he found them on the war strategy room table earlier that morning.
The envelope is an elegant crimson, with each of their names written across the back in gold calligraphy.
Aelin:
“You have no way of knowing who delivered this?”
Sylvaeus:
“Not without opening it. I felt it not best to open your mail, regardless of where it came from.”
Olwynn discovers that the letters were sent in with some kind of teleportation magic.
The group opens their letters, which each read: “I would like to invite the five of you to dinner. Meet me in the Silverhold palace. Whenever you’re ready, rub the letter with your thumb and you’ll arrive. Wear your best formal attire. Signed, Your Advisor.”
A set of perfectly tailored formal clothes appear in front of each of them, accustomed to their exact personal style.
After discussing, the party is extremely skeptical, but eventually decides to go with it. It’s clear that whoever sent this knows enough about them to show up there and kill them anyways — and the only way to find out what’s going on is to show up there and find out.
The group all changes and prepares for the dinner.
FIT CHECK!!