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“And what does that have to do with the two of us standing down in the bowels of Pyros in the pitch black?” Bastian growled, making me flinch slightly as his hand landed on my shoulder. “Everything. At least, I think it does,”
I parted my lips to reply but then another memory pushed its way into my mind, one I wasn’t entirely sure I had summoned of my own accord. Of an entity of darkness itself devouring the guilty at Never Keep.
Moya had told me the dark was calling my name and here I was standing before it, unable to understand what it wanted from me.
“I think…it’s made up of ether. Raw ether which should be roaming wild through every living thing in the land yet somehow has been trapped in this tide of motion,”
“It’s all trapped here because of this spike.”
“Why? How can an iron spike stop ether from passing through the world t...
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“Because this river is supposed to flow uninhibited across The Waning Lands but the spike is acting like a dam and funnelling it somewhere else instead,” I said, not knowing what any of that meant, but it was clear before me. The stone was a mar...
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“There are routes across the world known as ley lines,”
“They’re roads of energy in its purest form, the simplest and most effective method of movement which ether follows. They connect everything in direct and enormously powerful currents of energy and are marked with keystones - which must be what this is. They’re what allow the world to keep producing new life, what gives nature its rawest source of energy and in death the energy which all life has borrowed is given back to the flow of ether once more. It’s a part of the rite of passage from this plane to the next and yet somehow, someone is diverting that energy away from this place, taking the
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“I can’t see how anyone could possibly wield it,” I replied. “Ether is so potent in its raw and wild form that even those of us well practiced in commanding it can only do so for short periods of time and with only a drop of energy at our beck and call. The weight of power I felt in that river would crush anyone foolish enough to try and force it to bend to their will.”
“This would disrupt the natural balance,” I said finally. “The lack of power flowing in that direction might hurt whatever lies at the far end of the river. So perhaps the other end of this ley line is in one of the other lands and the intention is to hurt them by blocking it?”
“Are you going to do anything about it now that you’ve come careening down here or are you going to leave whatever nefarious plans are taking shape here to mature?”
A scream tore from my throat as the rush of power slammed into me with a force so potent it was blinding, the weight of the magic blazing into my flesh as my palms blistered where I’d taken hold of the iron.
“Your hands,” Bastian breathed. Though I feared looking at them, I dropped my eyes to my palms and gasped as I found the flesh there healed entirely, every inch of them whole once more.
“We should leave,” I said, my voice stilted, but I couldn’t help but smile at the lingering tingling in my skin where the ether had blessed me in thanks for its freedom.
Bastian made no complaints about that, hauling me to my feet as he stood though he did turn me around and take hold of my wrists, inspecting my hands for himself and running his thumbs down the centre of my palms. I swallowed roughly, his touch far too intimate for what we were, the intensity in his expression damning me for what would come next for us. But our paths were already set.
But for some reason it was very difficult to align Bastian with Cayde in my mind. They were very different beasts indeed.
“I lost a lot of things while chained up in that cavern,” he called back. “But never my mind.”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever told Everest how grateful I was to have her in my life. In a world of darkness, we’d always cast light for each other.
The Fury rose from the hole I’d tried to contain him in, his eyes an impassive darkness that told a story of an empty soul.
He was no ordinary Fae. Furies were rare enough, but I’d heard the talk at Never Keep about this creature. A heartless monster, raised on the teat of The Matriarch and shaped in her image. He’d
“Your life was pledged to the order of the Reapers, Harlon Brook,”
“Return to them and do not waste your time seeking her. Everest Arcadia belongs to Pyros now. And if you breathe a word of this fight to the Reapers, I will ensure she slits her own throat. If they ever come knocking at my door, I promise it will equal her death.”
“Not what I was after, spectre, but if you want to offer again later you might tempt me.”
“There! That’s her – that’s the Sky Witch! She isn’t dead at all!”
“Big headed little thing, aren’t you?”
“Everything’s been complicated since we came to Never Keep and he became a Reaper.” “Condolences.” “Why do you say that?” “He’s as good as dead to ya now.” “No he’s not,” I balked. “Not yet maybe. But soon. He’ll become blind to everything but the ‘greater calling.’”
“The Reapers are pawns in a greater thing than you or I can understand.” “What do you mean ‘pawns?’”
“The Reapers are just a way to keep the war fuelled, I reckon. What happens when you take all multi-elementals and Seers away from the pool of warriors?”
“You create balance, lass. Ensure it, in fact. You keep the four lands on equal footing. No one has an advantage, except the Reapers. And that’s true power, ain’t it? A clever, clever creature came up with that, I think.”
“Someone is. Someone as smart as a whip and as powerful as a damn star, I’d say. Could be him. Could be someone else.
“I think you’re right about the Reapers,” I said and he released a line of smoke from his lips, intrigue colouring his expression. “I saw things at Never Keep. They’re up to something. And I don’t think it’s for the greater calling.”
“Be careful what you wish for lass, gilded dreams don’t always glitter so prettily up close.”
“I’m meant for greatness, destined for it by Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer,” I said fiercely. “There’s a third option in war. Become outstanding. Be venerated by the people of Cascada and see this war done. I will be there when victory becomes ours. I’ll stand on the hill of our final battlefield and be hailed for my part in our triumph. They’ll call me their kysharna. Their saviour.”
“It ain’t you I’m laughing at, doll. It’s how deep it goes. How all the lies have sunk so easily into your brainless minds. It was too simple to make you all hate each other, now look at ya. Ready to die for the cause.”
“Every warrior on every battlefield believes the strike of their blade is the one guided by gleaming starlight. What makes you different from a warrior of Avanis swinging their sword in the opposing direction? Not a dot. It’s genius really. Eternal bloodshed…”
“What are you talking about?” I hissed. “The Stonebreakers are monstrous rogues who have murdered thousands of Cascadians and-” “And Cascada is so pious, is it? So clean of sin?” I bared my...
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“Oh I have cause, lass. True cause. Greater than war. Greater than tit for tats. I am a pursuer of power in ways you cannot even begin to fathom. I have ventured these lands and I know its secrets like they’re stitched into me soul. I know how to bend the earth, how to answer the call of the wind, how to stir the oceans and tinker with the truth of the flames. I know the power of all four and I understand why dividing them might cause a disruption in these here Waning Lands that could crack open the sky itself.”
“You’re just a puppet in all this, lass. One day soon, you’ll fight your last battle and your blood will mix with that of your enemies on a field of mud. It’ll seep into the ground and all that’s left of ya will be abandoned there to rot. That’s ya true purpose, it’s what they make ya for. They’ll have ya believing it’s more than that, but I know better. You’re cannon fodder, nothing more. It started when you were a babe and it’ll end with your blood staining the ground. All they had to do was convince ya that ya death would be worthwhile for the ‘cause.’ But this war is eternal, lass. The
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“Ask yourself this, lass. Who benefits from an endless war?”
“Lowly Fae go to war to pay, and in the long grass, there they lay – I read that once, carved into the arm of a dead man floating in a few inches of bloody water.”
“I promise ya this, when you’re fighting ya battles, seeking the glory you’ve been chasing the tail of since society told you you’d never catch it, you’ll discover that out there on those hellish battlefields there ain’t nothin’ but blood to claim. So go and seek your crown but when you find it rusted to the core, remember there’s a place for ya here. When you see beyond the veil of society’s carefully constructed lies, I’ll be here alongside freedom. We’ll both be waiting for ya. So tell me, lass, before you charge into a battle you’ve been moulded for, do you want to see the truth of war?”
Before my captivity, I’d owned an entire cavern filled with jewels and riches where I used to bathe amongst my prized possessions and fill my magic to the brim. Though I supposed that was the least of what I’d lost since falling prey to the magic of my captors.
She was probably the only Fae I’d ever known who truly didn’t fear me. I supposed her desire for death made her immune to feeling terror over the idea of it but it still surprised me that she was willing to risk the wrath of a Dragon so casually.
I shifted slightly, my body pressed to hers so firmly that it was impossible not to think of how close I had held her in Zayad’s chambers, how soft her skin had felt beneath my fingers and how her rough exhales had made me ache to hear her panting in ecstasy beneath me.
“If I was interested in that then I could have it with far less effort involved than hiding in some cupboard,” she drawled. “Besides, you’re too afraid to follow through on that promise, aren’t you Dragon? Don’t want to risk ruining yourself on the likes of me.”
“Oh I don’t know,” I disagreed. “I’m starting to think I like you best when I have you cornered.”
“Tell me whose blood you carry in that vial,” I breathed, not even sure why I cared to know but she was like a puzzle missing half its pieces and it had been so long since I’d had anyone to puzzle over that I found myself wanting to put her back together again.
“They were my sisters in arms. They were all I had and my own pathetic need for something more blinded me to the monster in our midst. He took them from me and I’ll reap my vengeance on him before I offer you my part of our bargain.”
It was hard to concentrate on anything aside from the feeling of her body pressed to mine, my eyes on her mouth as I wondered what a kiss from her might taste like and how far I might wander down the path to damnation if I ever found out.
