Eluvie wanted to call her a liar, wanted to demand an explanation for this ridiculous ruse. Instead, she composed herself and flew back down to the platform. Mirab was not lying. If she had reason enough to make up something so outlandish, Eluvie could have no hope of understanding her mind.

  "How do you know this?" Eluvie asked.

  "Everyone knows it," Mirab replied. "The lower class knows it only as ridiculous stories. We, rulers, know it for a fact. My mother came from the outside world." Mirab stared pensively at nothing. "She spent her whole life too miserable to even rule. If you spoke with her for even five minutes, the conversation somehow turned to what a miserable prison this world is and how much she missed living in civilization."

  Eluvie sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Why didn't she stay in civilization, then?"

  Mirab laughed as if that had been a joke. "I believe the situation was forced upon her."

  Eluvie began to climb back down the staircase because she needed time to think. She wanted to know more about Mirab's mother. She also wanted to know what this 'civilization' looked like. And she wanted to know what any of that information had to do with her.

  Her life was full of more questions than answers.

  Mirab caught up with her, and they walked side by side down the staircase.

  "And why was it necessary to show me this? What do you want me to do about it?"

  "Only Illrum can open the way back to the other world," Mirab said in a small voice. "You are the wardens in this prison."

  "And did you ask the others to do this? Before you killed them?" Eluvie could not keep the accusation from her words, and she did not want to.

  "We did," Mirab said. "Even as the ocean began destroying our land, putting entire species in danger, they refused. They never gave a good explanation for it. They claimed to be following 'rules'. Rules that would see us dead. I did not participate in the war but, truthfully, I believe it was destined from the moment those roles were put in place. To them, we were just prisoners, people who should be kept away from society. But look around. Every one of us was born here. Whatever their reasons for expelling my mother, I am no party to it."

  Her tone changed to a coaxing one. "You are no party to it, either. You were born here and given the task of guarding us, but you should not be a prisoner any more than we should be."

  Don't react, Eluvie told herself. Don't react. There's no need to point out the irony of this situation.

  "And how would I free you, if I wanted to?" Eluvie asked.

  She did not look at Mirab's face, but she sensed a hopeful shift in the woman's stance.

  "There is a door that can be made to open," Mirab said. "It is a bit further along. We could go and see it."

  "We can do that," Eluvie said. She had no desire to free any of them, but there would be a time to take such a stance. "But there's still so much to understand." They were now halfway down the staircase. "For example, it is odd that you couldn't find another Illrum to open the gate. There are so many here. Surely, one of them would have been reasonable."

  Mirab took a long time giving her answer, but it did not surprise Eluvie when she gave it. "All the Illrum must work together to open the gate," she said.

  "And once you began killing them," Eluvie said, "the remainder probably grew less amenable. You would have needed to kill them all, except one, and hopefully, you could endear yourself to the remaining one and gain her sympathy."

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  But then, Eluvie thought, why would they treat her so badly for so long? What had they done with her blood?

  Mirab replied, "As I said, I had no part in most of that, but I'm sure that is no comfort to you."

  Eluvie ignored the remark. *Let her remain uncertain. Have I fallen for her trap or will I open the gate?*

  Obviously, Eluvie could not open the gate. If all the Illrum were necessary, then she needed the boy's help. She was trapped. Refusing to open the gate would entice them to torture again, but attempting to do so would expose the boy's existence when she failed. Then, he would be forced to either help them or surrender to the same treatment she had endured.

  "Well," Eluvie said, stalling while she thought. "I don't want the world to drown, but I'm still concerned about this other world. We don't know much about it. For all we know, it is safer in here. Or they have the means to either kill us or send us back here. I don't like the idea of opening an unknown gate to an unknown place with an unknown situation. And that leaves aside the matter of how little I trust you. Before we even look at the gate, I need to know more. Your mother must have told you enough to give you confidence about the outside world."

  Mirab scoffed. "Between drunken episodes? I have told you almost everything she ever said on the subject. I'd think the alcohol damaged her memory, but it's possible that she was simply too spiteful to share any information. When she was sober, you could never drag any details out of her, and when she was drunk, she was barely coherent to do more than gripe. 'It wasn't my fault. This is so unfair. No one could have passed such a trial. Why should I be punished for something impossible?'"

  Eluvie stumbled. Mirab's mention of a trial was so sudden that she misjudged a step, leaned into thin air, and stumbled down several steps. She quickly righted herself with the help of her wings and made a show of being embarrassed.

  Please don't question it, she prayed, please don't question it.

  Mirab hurried to her side, eyes wide with concern, but Eluvie brushed off her seemingly worried questions.

  As they began to walk again, Eluvie attempted to conceal the reason for her stumbling by acting normally. "So, she didn't tell you anything about that place?" she asked. "About the punishment or the trial or anything else? Didn't you try to find out more?"

  "You misunderstand the depths of my mother's stubbornness. Drunk or sober, she never revealed a word more than that. We've researched reports of other exiles, but everyone else was long dead. They don't seem to be common, so we won't have as much information as we could want. But I don't think we have alternatives. The remaining islands are in more danger by the day. Just waiting for more information could doom us."

  Eluvie nodded. "I see."

  She let a silence stretch on for several minutes until they were off the staircase. Then, she spoke to Mirab and to the others gathered.

  "I think you are despicable people," she said. "More than thinking, I know it. And you must know that I'm not so stupid as we are pretending. I know I'm your prisoner. I know that you are keeping information from me, and I know the 'war' was not nearly as neat as Mirab has presented it."

  She wanted them to digest that information. They didn't rush to defend themselves. They simply waited. They still had hope.

  "But it seems that I have no choice but to open that gate. I won't punish every human for their rulers' transgressions. It is also only reasonable to learn what is on the other side of the door. If it is dangerous, well, that is what advance guards are for. And if you have lied about anything material, the truth is a solid foundation, but lies are known to give way under the weight of reality."

  Mirab smiled, and Eluvie finally learned what a genuine smile looked like on the woman's face.