The Council’s Bargain

"She is a Hybrid," the Elder sneered. "Abomination. But useful. Her blood is compatible with the siphon."

Samira backed away, shaking her head. "I didn't know... Kaelen, I swear, I didn't know."

Kaelen stared at her. The connection they had built in the silence of the Archives—the trust, the shared solitude—shattered. He saw her now through the lens of his training. She wasn't the quiet librarian. She was a creature of smokeless fire. A variable. A threat.

"You’re one of them," he said.

"I am *me*," she pleaded.

"Drop the weapon, Warden," the Elder commanded. "Walk away. Go back to the Capital. Report that the leak was sealed. We will give you the town's tithe for the next ten years. Just leave the girl."

Kaelen looked from the Elders to Samira. He looked at the dying Jinn in the glass.

For a moment, Samira thought he would fight for her. She saw his hand tighten on the grip of his gun.

"No," Kaelen said.

The crossbows twanged.

Kaelen moved, but not to shoot. He dove for cover behind a stack of crates.

A bolt struck Samira in the shoulder.

It wasn't steel. It was silver. The pain was absolute. It felt like white-hot ice spreading through her veins. She screamed, falling to her knees.

Two burly miners rushed from the shadows, grabbing her arms. They dragged her toward an empty glass cylinder next to her father’s.

"Kaelen!" she screamed.

From behind the crates, Kaelen popped up, firing two shots. One miner fell. But three more swarmed him, clubbing him down with the stocks of their rifles.

They didn't kill him. They just neutralized him.

They dragged Samira to the machine. They forced her wrist onto a metal plate. A needle, thick and rusted, descended.

She looked at her father. His eyes were dimming. *Let go,* he whispered in her mind. *Do not hold it back, Little Flame. Burn.*

Samira looked at Kaelen, who was bleeding on the floor, restrained by two men. He was looking at her with horror. Not concern. Horror. He was afraid of what she was about to become.

* Fine,* she thought. *Let them be afraid.*