Page 61 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
“Whatever I want to know?” The agent’s answer caught her by surprise. In her mind, it was going to be easy to get him to start grandstanding like a stereotypical movie villain, then she would just have to avoid being poisoned by his propaganda while she waited for her friends.
“Of course, as the guest, you get to dictate the conversation.” The agent’s reply was casual as he leaned up against a pillar once more in a movement so practiced that Nora would have laughed if she weren’t somehow horrified by the gesture.
“Why did you fake your own death?”
“Oh, that stunt at the gala? I just knew that you would jump to sacrifice yourself once it was clear that people were going to die if you didn’t do something, and it was fun to watch you be so self-sacrificial for somebody you didn’t even like. So terribly in character. I’d have to be an idiot to not suspect a move like that from you, Nora.”
“You know me?”
“Of course I know you.” The agent sounded as if he was explaining something very simple to a small child. “How could I not know you? I’ve been after you for a long time.”
Nora worked to put the puzzle together in her mind. “Right, since the Shadow poisoned me, you’ve been drawn to me.”
The agent let out a sharp bark of laughter that made Nora physically recoil.
“Oh, that’s the tale they fed you, is it? I’ll give them points for creativity.”
“Why else would you attack me?” Nora started to ask before catching herself. “They aren’t lying to me. You’re just trying to turn me against them.”
“Suit yourself.” The agent began inspecting his unnervingly uniform fingernails as he asked, “Tell me, how did they convince you to let them train you as a Warrior? It seems like a lot of work for you to volunteer for.”
“It was practical. I could gain important historical knowledge, and if I learned to defend myself, I wouldn’t have to have a guard follow me around forever.”
“They weren’t completely wrong. You do need to be able to defend yourself.” The agent tilted his head thoughtfully. “Although, scaring you into thinking you need to become a weapon for them is rich, considering how they preach to fight against fear.”
“They aren’t using me as a weapon, they are teaching me to defend myself so I can be safe from the likes of you,” Nora spat back.
“Oh, you’re right.” The agent shot her a pitying look. “They aren’t using you as a weapon, they are using you as bait.”
Nora spluttered in indignation at how he was turning her every argument against her. “I was not used as bait. I volunteered because I care about them.”
“Let me guess… You think they care about you too?” The agent’s perfect face contorted itself into some semblance of sympathy.
Nora ground her heels in stubbornly. “I know they care about me.”
“Adam gives you one little kiss and you’ve convinced yourself that he has feelings for you. Funny that he’s known you for months, but it wasn’t until he was sending you to your death that he decided to really show his interest. If it had been the desperate kiss of not wanting to lose you, you would have expected him to be a bit more passionate about it, don’t you think?”
Nora frowned. “He said he meant to kiss me at the gala, but he ended up having to leave. And he was being a gentleman about it.”
“Oh right, he was going to kiss you at the gala, but he ran off to plan how to best send you into danger as soon as you gave him what he wanted by volunteering. And as for it being so long since his last kiss, I wonder why that is? He’s been around for thousands of years, and he’s only had the one wife. He’s an attractive and smart man. Surely, it’s not for lack of opportunity, so it must be due to lack of desire. You can’t really think that you are enough to inspire him to end his self-chosen dry spell? In the thousands of years he’s walked the earth, he has to have seen the most beautiful and most intelligent women the world has to offer, and you are nothing in comparison.”
The agent was really picking up steam now, and Nora could only shake her head and splutter. “How would you know all of this? It’s not true.”
“Oh, but you know it’s true—that’s how I know it all.” The agent cracked a smile now. “I can read the doubts right out of your head. I’m just telling you the very things you are afraid to admit in your conscious mind. You aren’t special enough to interest an immortal sorcerer who has seen the world; he’s just using you. Why do you think he even talked to you in the first place? Coincidence isn’t real. It’s because you had something he wanted.”
Nora grabbed on to that thought, knowing she could refute it. “You’re wrong. He didn’t want the weapons at all. I asked him if he wanted them back and he told me I could keep them, that he liked them in the museum.”
The agent’s smile got wider, revealing stark white canines that were too long to fit with the rest of his teeth.
“Oh, it’s not the weapons he wanted from you. It’s your abilities. It’s been hundreds of years since the Eteria has found somebody capable of wielding the Light, but they found you. They tracked you down and lied to you so they could mold you into the perfect weapon to fight for them without you even knowing it. And they’re so set on lying to you about the fact that they know of your abilities that they didn’t even teach you to use them before sending you to face your foe.”
Nora’s heart hammered in her chest. By now, the agent was looming over her so intently that he eclipsed the entirety of her vision.
“But… I can’t. I can’t use the Light. That’s totally impossible. People haven’t been born with a connection to the Light since the Defeat.”
“Then why can I feel the Light within you? If it wasn’t burning inside you, you wouldn’t have been able to survive my touch at all. And I guarantee you that your friends at the Eteria can feel it too.” He spat out the word friends as if it were a vile curse. “They want you for the same reason I do; I’m just being honest about it. It’s because your ability makes you powerful. Why else would a society that has kept themselves secluded for millenia so willingly accept you into their fold? Adam may have made you think he was interested, but after years of putting on different faces, he is a master of manipulation. He knows that your affections were the key to getting you to stick around.”
Nora’s head spun so fast her vision nearly blurred. Adam wouldn’t use her like that, would he? He was so earnest—or at least he seemed to be, but after thousands of years of lying about his identity, he could probably act however he wanted. She struggled to hang on to her convictions.
