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She had a body; she could feel it wrapped around her like a cage, but no amount of effort or determination could make it move.
Remembered that she’d been placed there as a prisoner, kept preserved, but someday, someone would come for her.
She had to endure. To stay alert. That way she would be ready. She had to stay ready. She would not let herself fade away.
“That doesn’t explain the lack of records for this one,” said the woman. “Seems odd.”
vivimancer. Necromancy’s inverse twin, wielded on the living rather than the dead.
“This is elaborate, beautiful, professional work. A vivimancer manually rewiring the human consciousness.”
By its nature, lumithium bound the four elements of air, water, earth, and fire together, and in that binding, resonance was created.
Usually, resonance was channelled into the alchemy of metals and inorganic compounds, allowing for transmutation or alchemisation. However, in a defective soul which rebelled against Sol’s natural laws, the resonance could be corrupted, enabling vivimancy—like what the woman had used on Helena—and the necromancy used to create necrothralls.
All she knew was that as long as those manacles remained locked in place, she wasn’t an alchemist at all.
High Reeve’s
White marble steps led up to the vast Tower doors. Helena’s memory instantly superimposed the wave of blood and gore and bodies that had covered it when she’d seen it last. She looked away. She had to focus on the present.
“You’re not a homunculus, are you?” She felt ridiculous asking the question. Artificial humans were considered as mythical as chimaeras or philosopher stones. One of the many ideas attributed to Cetus in the prescientific era. Of the three, homunculi were a particularly enduring concept. The idea was that by placing a man’s seed in a cucurbit with the proper environment of stable warmth, it could come to life on its own. After being fed distilled blood, it could grow into a human of limitless alchemical potential and utterly without flaws because it was unspoiled by the inferior environment
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The smirk faded, but he kept looking at her, and his eyes grew darker than she’d ever seen them.
She realised then that she was lying on a bed beneath him. Heat flooded under her skin, and her spine prickled as she sat up quickly, folding her arms.
“I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the Eternal Flame. That isn’t a threat. It is a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast’s. If you die, I will kill every single one of them.”
Lila was going to die unless someone cheated death, and fast.
“You could be a healer,” she finally said as he removed the block on her nerves. She flexed her hand, opening and closing. It was still sore, and fragile as though hairline-fractured. “You have a natural talent for it.” “That’s one of the most ironic things anyone has ever said to me,” he said quietly.
“Don’t ever go on another mission,” he said without looking up, her hand trapped in his.
“You are not expendable. You don’t get to push everyone away so that they’ll feel comfortable using you and letting you die.”
“You are not replaceable,” he said, his hands trembling against her shoulders. “You are not required to make your death convenient. You are allowed to be important to people. The reason I’m here—the reason I’m doing any of this—is to keep you alive. To keep you safe. That was the deal.” He searched her face. “They didn’t tell you.”
She shook her head, giving a broken sob and—before she let herself think—she kissed him.
He touched her cheek, tilting her face up and kissing her. “Use the ring, call me, if you ever need anything.”
“Helena.” Kaine’s lips brushed across her cheek and temple, his breath ragged. “You get to have this. You’re allowed to feel good things. Don’t be alone. Have this with me.”
should have known—the moment I looked into your eyes, I should have known I would never win against you.”
“You’re mine. You swore yourself to me. Now and after the war. I’m going to take care of you. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. You don’t have to be lonely. Because you’re mine.”
She was locked in the dangerous embrace of Kaine Ferron, and it felt like home.
The ring burned again and again and again.
If Kaine found her, he’d understand. She could wait. Hold on. You promised you wouldn’t break.
“I was trying to find you.”
“You looked for me?” Her voice cracked.
“When you killed Morrough, what did you think about?” Helena asked. Lila’s mouth snapped shut, and she looked away, her face growing anguished. “Luc. I was thinking of everything he did to Luc.”
As Lila and Pol rode away, Enid sat on the cliff, holding Cobalt and crying.
So am I. Gosh.
“Why do you have holes in your wrists?” Enid asked. “No one else has holes like that.”
Her stomach flipped. “So, what do we do now?” The corner of his mouth curved into a smile that had only ever been for her. “Anything. Whatever you want.”
“Someday…someone should set the record straight,” she said quietly.
“But—” Enid’s jaw trembled. “—she doesn’t deserve to be forgotten like this. She shouldn’t be a footnote. This shouldn’t be the only entry she even has. She deserves her own chapter. She deserves a whole damned book of her own.” Her voice quavered. “And the things they say about Dad—like he wanted it all, that he asked to have it done to him—” She scrubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and drew a deep breath. “Sorry. I always think I can handle this, and then I get so mad I feel like I’m going to be sick.”
Agreed Enid. 10000% She didn't deserve to be forgotten
She was a non-active member of the Order of the Eternal Flame and did not fight.
Youre actually kidding.
