the Enlightening by Rachel Rener

Author:Rachel Rener
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, magic, cult, contemporary, series, magical realism, series romance, ya fantasy, new adult, 5 elements
Publisher: Rachel Rener

Chapter 21

A few minutes later, Eileen was shaking her head crossly at me from the screen of my phone as I sprawled across the motel room bed to talk to her. “I really like you, Aspen, but between the naked video call from last night and the three-a.m. wake-up call this morning, you’re gonna get me in big trouble with Sophia.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said again, feeling like an idiot. “I’ll just call you later today—”

“No, no – it’s okay. I’m awake. Hey,” she started, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She was wearing green plaid pajamas, sitting cross-legged on a couch in a dark room. “Didn’t your bed used to be burnt to a crisp?”

“I’m in a different motel… I’ll get to that in just a minute.”

Eileen gave me a funny look. “You look… exhausted. You told me earlier you needed a favor. What’s going on?”

I hesitated. “Before I talk to you about that, I have to give you a bit of a disclaimer first. And I completely understand if you won’t want to talk to me anymore after I tell you.”

Eileen’s right eyebrow arched scandalously. “Oh? After everything you told me last night, only now there’s a disclaimer?”

I bit my lip nervously. “Earlier tonight… Aiden and I broke into a Pyromantic Containment Center… and released all the prisoners inside.”

Eileen’s eyes looked as if they might pop out of her face. “You… what?”

“I can explain,” I started, not totally confident that I could. I inhaled deeply, then blurted everything out in one big breath: “Aiden found out that his sister didn’t run away and secretly elope years ago, which is the story his parents told him. She was thrown in an Asterian prison for speaking out against certain high-level… practices.”

Certain unethical high-level practices that may have been linked to my mother, I thought, feeling my stomach turn.

“What do you mean, ‘prison’?” Eileen asked, her eyes widening.

“I mean, well… prison. The facility she was kept in was in the middle of nowhere, inside of a gouged-out, repurposed high security prison that used to be for violent non-Elemental felons. The Elementalists being held there are locked in cages. There are Hydromantic guards everywhere, who are trained to restrain and even kill the people who are kept there if they resist.”

Eileen rubbed her creased forehead warily. “But… I was always under the impression that Containment Centers are really comfortable facilities – despite the fact that they’re reserved only for violent, unrepentant Elementalists who can’t be rehabilitated safely back into society. My parents told me that, my first Terramancy tutor told me that… It’s common knowledge within the Community.”

“It might be true that genuine criminals get sent to these places too… But they’re by no means comfortable, and when I looked at the roster, every single person in the high-security Tulsa Containment Center had been imprisoned in there for minor, non-violent offenses, like speaking out against the Order’s policies or revealing their powers to non-Elementalists. And most of the inmates appeared to have no chance of parole or release, according to the documents.

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