Traitor's Moon

Kicking off his boots, he stretched out beside Seregil, pulling him close through the blankets. Seregil muttered something and slept on.
    Alec opened his eyes, surprised to find the room nearly dark and the other half of the bed empty. He sat up in alarm, then heard a familiar chuckle from the shadows near the hearth. A long form uncurled itself from one of the armchairs there and lit a candle from the coals.
    â€œI didn’t have the heart to wake you,” Seregil said, coming to sit on the bed. He was dressed in the russet coat and breeches, and to Alec’s relief, he was smiling. It was a real smile, fond and reassuring. “You’ve taken this harder than I have, talí,” he said, ruffling Alec’s hair.
    â€œIs this what you had in mind when you decided to come back?” Alec asked, sitting up to search his friend’s face for some sign of madness. How could he be so calm?
    â€œActually, I think things may have turned out better than I’d hoped, now that I’ve had a chance to consider. You heard what they said. I’m an outlander now.”
    â€œAnd that doesn’t upset you?”
    Seregil shrugged. “I haven’t really been Aurënfaie for a long time. The Iia’sidra and the rhui’auros—they made me ya’shel khi when they sent me away so young. It was just something I clung to all those years. Remember when I finally got around to telling you that you were half ’faie and you said you didn’t know who you were? Do you remember what I told you then?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI told you that you were the same person you’d always been.”
    â€œAnd you’ve always been ya’shel khi?”
    â€œMaybe. I never quite fit here.”
    â€œThen you don’t mind not being able to come back?”
    â€œAh, but don’t you see? I’m not exiled anymore. Brythir changed all that. I’m one of you now, and can go wherever you go.”
    â€œThen if they do open Gedre—?”
    â€œExactly. And whenever they get around to lifting the Edict, which I have no doubt they will, I can go anywhere. I’m free, Alec. My name is my own to make and no one can call me Exile anymore.”
    Alec regarded him skeptically. “And you knew all this would happen, back there in the mountains?”
    Seregil’s smile tilted into a crooked grin. “Not a bit of it.”
    Seregil had a harder time swaying the others. Klia and Adzriel wept. Mydri retreated into sullen silence. Deep in his own heart, he still harbored doubts, but the words of the rhui’auros stayed with him:
Dance the dance
.
    Fortunately, he had little time to dwell on it. There was still the matter of the vote, this time with Korathan heading the negotiations. Seregil was barred from the Iia’sidra chamber, but Alec and Thero kept him apprised of the progress over the next two days, or rather the lack of it.
    â€œIt’s as if nothing changed,” Alec groused as they sat down to a late supper. “The same arguments go round and round. You’re not missing a thing.”
    Sitting home with Klia through the rest of that week, Seregil grew increasingly unsettled. The initial hope the rhui’auros had given him was wearing thin. For all his trouble, his part in the workings of power was over for now.
    Or so he thought.
    On the fifth day of negotiations, a young boy arrived at the door asking for Seregil. The lad wore no sen’gai and gave no name, simply handed him a folded square of parchment and walked away.
    There was no one else around just then except the two Urgazhi standing guard on the steps below. As soon as he’d unfolded the packet, Seregil was glad of it. Inside he found the words “Cup of Aura tonight, alone, at moon’s zenith” written in an elegant, familiar hand. There was also a token: a small tassel of red-and-blue silk.Seregil examined it more closely, and smiled to himself when he found a few telltale darker threads among the red.
    Alec was less pleased when Seregil showed it to him that evening. “What does Ulan want with you?” he wondered suspiciously.
    â€œI don’t know, but I’m betting it’s in Klia’s best interests if I find out.”
    â€œI don’t like this ‘alone’ business.”
    Seregil chuckled. “I cleared the man’s name. He’s not going to murder me now. And not after putting this in my hands.”
    â€œAre