Page 39 of Gilded Curses

“How did you know that?” Clive asked.

“I pay attention to what’s said… like servants do,” Sahira stared pointedly at Aurora when she said this.

Aurora’s eyes narrowed on her, but she didn’t speak.

“How much can they see and hear through those symbols?” Sahira asked.

“They can’t see anything, but they hear everything inside the buildings with symbols.”

Sahira struggled to keep from blushing as she recalled what she’d done with Orin and their conversations in some of those buildings. They’d been private conversations that were no one else’s business but were probably known to everyone in this realm.

Her fingers dug into her palms as her teeth scraped together while she kept her temper restrained. These monsters had done so many things to violate all of them, this was little compared to that, but it still infuriated her.

“They probably didn’t expect them to build other homes,” Sahira murmured, “and assumed they could eavesdrop on them all the time.”

“Probably not, and while they gave them enough to survive there, they didn’t expect the immortals to settle in and make it home either. Enough of them still traveled out to make it interesting for the Elites,” Alda said. “They bet on everything.”

Everything was a game to these immortals. The Cursed Realm and their suffering were nothing more than fun for the Elites of Epoch. She didn’t know what to think or how to process that.

“What about the scarog beetles? How do they only arrive once a year and have such a set time limit?” she asked.

“They celebrate that day here,” Alda said. “It’s called the Bloodletting. The Elites gather everyone in the realm to listen and watch as the scarogs descend on the town. Even though they designed the buildings to withstand an attack from them, we all know at least one immortal, and usually more, will perish. They take bets on who will die.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“Again with the bets,” Sahira muttered.

“There’s little else for them to do here,” Clive said. When Sahira shot him a look, he held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. “I’m not condoning it. I’m just saying it’s how they entertain themselves.”

“If the symbols are only for hearing, how do they watch?” Sahira inquired.

“The dagadon have some control over animals too. On the day of the Bloodletting, the Elites combine their powers to take control of the beetles. Through their eyes and ears, we can see and hear what happens to the unfortunate souls unable to evade them.”

She was almost one of those unfortunate souls, but thankfully, Orin saved her from such a fate.

“And when the Bloodletting ends, they send the scarogs back?” she asked.

“Yes. They far prefer the caves located miles away from Belda’s town. They remain there, hunting the smaller creatures who live in the caverns until the Elites get bored and decide to have another Bloodletting. They’d probably do it more than once a year if it wasn’t for the fact they’d lose too many immortals and make it more boring for them,” Aurora said.

“And Hecate forbid we have that,” Sahira said. “Is it the same with the spiders? Did they also watch us through the spiders?”

“Yes,” Clive said.

The more she learned, the more she hated the dagadon. “Did they somehow watch us on the geyser field?”

“No,” Alda said. “They had to wait and see if you made it to the next town.”

“Good.” Sahira shifted her attention to Clive. “So, they knew your brother was trying to find us. That means they know they have followers who aren’t happy with how they run things.”

“They’re not stupid; they know many of the servants are unhappy.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain. Arrogance goes a long way to making others blind to what they don’t want to see.”

The three of them exchanged an uneasy glance. “There’s nothing we can do about it, and they’ve done nothing different, so all we can do is continue as if everything is the same,” Clive said.

“So why are you telling me all this?” she inquired. “What do you expect to happen?”

“Originally, we intended to tell the dark fae,” Aurora said. “We felt his ability to move through the shadows might help us, but the stupid man never arrived, so we settled for you, as you seem to have some control over him.”