by Elise Kova
“I think it was originally intended to be the minister’s quarters. But I’ve never known a minister to use them since the lower chambers are much larger.” Egmun shrugged. “Will this do?”
“Nicely.”
“Excellent, I’ll have Tower members start setting it up for you immediately. While they do, perhaps we can discuss our business further?”
“There is nothing more to discuss until you show me you can provide the prince.”
“Tomorrow morning then,” he said definitively. “Meet me in my office just before dawn, and you will meet Prince Aldrik.”
“Most excellent.” Vi smiled, as though the statement didn’t curdle her stomach. She’d taken this young man’s mother. Now, she’d lead him down a path that would result in extreme hardship.
“See you bright and early, Miss Vivian.” Egmun spun on his heel and started down the Tower.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chapter Four
Deneya was true to her word. Vi found her in the second pub she checked with only the faintest flush to her cheeks. Her wits were still about her, and Vi filled her in on what had transpired with Egmun over a flagon of her own.
Night had fallen when she made her way back to the Tower. Vi strode with confidence up the main, spiraling walkway. The names engraved on silver nameplates and set on the doors to her left caught her eye.
She stopped, staring at one.
Friznangle Chareem.
Vi ran her fingers over the carefully engraved letters. Her other hand touched the watch around her neck lightly, remembering Fritz’s original gift ages ago. How old was he now? Ten? Twelve? Vi didn’t know. But this man was the one who had always given the watch to every new Vi. This was the current shade of the man who had given her Taavin a world ago.
She was still very much at the beginning of her journey. Yet Vi felt like she was catching a glimpse of the end.
Footsteps echoed up from below and Vi hastily stepped away from the door, starting up the tower once more. She kept her head down and her pace swift all the way back to her room, lighting the braziers once more on entry.
This time, the light didn’t fall on a storeroom in disarray. Egmun hadn’t lied about getting the Tower students to set up the room quickly. Where once there were crates, now a narrow bed stood beside a desk with a single chair. The shelves had also been emptied and dusted.
She locked the door behind her and uttered, “Narro hath hoolo.”
Taavin appeared, inspecting the room as he usually did whenever she summoned him in a new place.
“You’re in the Tower?”
Vi brought him up to speed. By the time she finished, she had completed several laps around the furniture and was now perched on the top of one of the low bookcases in front of the window.
“Then everything is going according to plan,” Taavin said after a long stretch of silence.
Vi gave a nod. “This will give me enough time to look for the crown.”
“And Egmun will be the one to take Aldrik to the Caverns to fulfill fate’s needs, ensuring we continue toward the birth of the next Champion.”
“Yes. I’ll need to ask Deneya to continue working on the sword we’ll illusion to fool Egmun. That way he doesn’t get his hands on the actual crystal weapon.” She went to pace, but Taavin grabbed her forearm. He pulled her a step closer to him, resting both hands on her shoulders.
“If everything is going well, why do you seem so restless?”
“It’s hard to explain.” Vi glanced askance. “I know what I’m doing. I know what the path I’ve chosen means: that people will suffer because of my actions. That instead of trying to stop that suffering, I will play into it, hoping it leads to success. And if we are successful, everything will have meaning.”
“Or the world will be rebuilt and their suffering is lost.”
“Yes, or that.” Vi retrieved the unassuming, shimmering crystal that held all the power of the Sword of Jadar from the depths of an inner pocket on the long, threadbare coat she wore. She turned it over in her fingertips, watching the magic shift and swirl with each pass. The magic clung to her, begging her to absorb its power and use it to shape the world to her will. With a thought, she could make it grow into the sword if she so desired. “I was thinking about the weapons.”
“All right?”
“When Yargen sealed Raspian away, she split herself into three—one part to the Caverns, one part to the staff of the Champion that would later become the crystal weapons, and one part to the flame of Risen.”
“Yes?”
She could hear the confusion in his voice. This was something they’d been over countless times. Vi shook her head, trying to remain focused. A thought was taking shape.
“The flame in Risen… I keep thinking about it. When the world was rebuilt—when my body was rebuilt by Yargen’s hand—it was because of the power stored in the flame. We unleashed it.”
“Yes.” This time, the word took on a heavier meaning. Taavin already knew what she had pieced together—she could hear it in his voice. Vi met his eyes, not allowing him to hide from her.
“You know what I’m about to say, don’t you?”
“If my suspicions are correct.”
“And you’re so rarely wrong.” It suddenly felt as though someone had punched her in the gut. She tensed every muscle and braced herself. “Tell me what happened to the other Vi’s, after a new Champion was born? If I’m the ninety-third Vi, what happened to the ninety-second, after she failed at her mission?”
“She gave her power back to the flame.”
“I’m a part of Yargen, now,” Vi said softly. “My body isn’t really my own.” She’d known it wasn’t from the first time she’d set foot in this world. She’d known it down in her marrow as keenly as she knew Yargen’s magic was there. “If we succeed, my body will return to her as well.”
“You don’t know that.” He took a step closer.
“How else could it happen?”
“How does she manage to both rewind time and begin a new world? Even we don’t fully understand the ways of the divine.” Taavin rested his hand on the crystal, wrapping his fingers around hers. The motion was meant to take her hand. But the moment his fingers met the stone, he became that much more real. His touch was firmer, warmer. The faint glow that had emanated from him vanished entirely.
Vi twisted, careful to keep him as close as possible. Releasing the crystal into his palm, Vi ran her hands up his tunic and twirled her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. As long as the crystal touched him, he was as good as real.
She brushed her lips against his. Taavin ducked his head, leaning forward for another, longer kiss. She wanted to linger there forever, in ignorant bliss for him.
“Don’t worry yourself so much about these things,” he spoke against her mouth. “There is much that must come to pass before it’s even a concern. Each event more unlikely than the last.”
“Are you trying to make me ignore my responsibility as Champion?”
“At least for tonight,” he said with a sultry note. Vi felt him grin against her mouth and it prompted her to mirror the action. Sometimes, there was simply too much to worry over.
Troubling herself with what would happen when all of Yargen’s power was collected was pointless until she actually collected that power. First, she needed to worry about getting the crystal weapons and figuring out where the crown was hidden. But even before all that… she’d worry about the man before her.
She pushed him gently, allowing the back of his knees to meet the bed frame. Taavin sat heavily. The bed groaned under his weight—the ropes supporting the mattress tightened—and the sound jostled her from the trance his touch could put her under.
Vi blinked at him. His hands were on her hips as she straddled him, one still clutching the stone. Taavin looked up at her from underneath heavy lids lined with long lashes. His lips were already begging for hers again.
But all she
could do was stare, running her fingertips down his cheek.
“What is it?” Taavin whispered.
“When you touch this, you’re real. As real as you were in the Crystal Caverns,” Vi mused gingerly. “I think if I linked your consciousness to the crystal, I wouldn’t need to maintain narro hath and you would be here with me.”
“Vi…” His free hand tapped at the watch around her neck. “I am always here for you. Isn’t that enough?”
It should be. Some didn’t get half as lucky. But she was needy. And there was some streak of selfish princess in her when it came to this man where Vi would never learn to leave well enough alone.
She wanted him. All of him.
“You are always enough.” Vi kissed the tip of his nose lightly. “I just want all of you.”
“You have all I am.”
“I still want to try linking your form with the crystal,” she persisted.
“You might have successfully managed the sword. But this is different. And the last thing you want to do is ruin the magic of the watch. Meddle with that incorrectly, and you really will lose me, along with your and your future selves’ chances to save this world by benefiting from my collected memories.”
“I know I can,” she insisted. “Let me try.”
“No, we must be cautious.” A note of finality in his tone made Vi relent.
She sighed and pressed her forehead against his. “I want you like this.” She wanted to feel warmth from him. To breathe in his scent. To feel his smooth skin and silky hair under her fingers.
“Do you think I don’t want it?” He caught her lips again, planting a firm kiss as he pulled her closer to him and further away from the idea.
“I want to roll over and find you in the night. I want to come back and see you here, waiting to greet me,” Vi whispered between short, sweet kisses.
Taavin leaned back, pulling her with him. He twisted, and Vi found herself beneath him. Their weight made the mattress sink further into the ropes as he continued to clutch the stone in his palm.
With narro hath he was real to her.
With the power of Yargen, he could be real to the world.
“I want to go about my day and run into you,” he murmured, kissing her cheeks. “I want to catch your eyes from across a square, or a hall, or a library, and share a smile that only we would know. A smile to assure you that by night you will find your way into my arms once more.” His lips moved down her neck and Vi let out a soft sigh.
I need you to give me a place to hide from the world when I need, Vi wanted to say. She had no reprieve, not really… not since she had fallen in love with him only to end his mortal form. The arms that had become her home were taken from her, just like everything else.
“It’s a beautiful dream,” Vi whispered.
“Indulge in that beautiful dream, tonight.” Taavin brought his lips back to hers. Vi kissed him so firmly that when he pulled away, he was breathless. “Indulge in us, because that’s all we have.”
His words were like honey warmed in sunlight, bright, sweet, and oh so tempting. She found herself stuck in them as much as she was stuck in place, helpless beneath his wandering hands. It had been fourteen years since she had a room to herself, and the ground of the Crystal Caverns was far too cold and hard.
“I can’t,” Vi whispered.
“You can’t?” He slowly pulled away and sat up on the bed.
“I need to start looking for some leads on the crown,” Vi murmured, standing. She also had some research she wanted to do.
“Now?”
“No time like the present.” Vi hooked his chin with her finger and pulled his lips to her for one more firm kiss. When they pulled apart, she gave him a beaming smile. “Perhaps I’ll let you be the one to keep me up all night soon.” Vi held out her hand expectantly.
“Don’t tempt me.” Taavin passed the stone back to her.
She leaned away and released her focus on narro hath. Taavin vanished.
With the stone in her pocket, Vi wandered down to the Tower library—a smaller and more private collection, separate from the Imperial Library. It was late, but she doubted she’d be able to sleep tonight. Her mind was far too full.
The library was dark and icy cold. Vi pushed her spark to burn beneath her skin, warming her as her breath fogged the air. There was a hearth on the far side of the circular room, but Vi didn’t light it. She didn’t want to draw attention from any other late-night wanderers.
A mote of fire appeared at her side, just enough to see by. The gold embossing on the spines that lined the shelves winked at her as Vi explored the library. She flipped the stone over and over in her pocket, her thoughts centering around it.
If she could manipulate the crystals to make weapons, she could manipulate them into the shape of a body. Crystals were Yargen’s magic given physical form. Her presence in this world was proof of that. The body Yargen gave Vi between time, when the world was remade, was a result of Yargen’s magic making a physical form.
Furthermore, if Taavin’s consciousness could be anchored in a watch, it could be placed in a hypothetical body. It was all theory, yes. But she had facts to back up that theory.
Still, she knew no matter what she said, Taavin wasn’t going to let her experiment… at least not until she could offer him some assurances that she would succeed.
Vi came to a stop by a back section of worn, tucked-away books. Most of the titles had flaked off their spines. Still, one volume caught her eye. She knew she should be looking for clues to the crown, but Vi couldn’t stop herself. She hooked her finger on the book, sliding it from its place.
“The Windwalkers of the East,” she murmured and flipped open the first page. It was a record, put together by none other than the current Imperial Librarian, Mohned Topperen. Topperen. The name was familiar to her—beyond the stories her mother told—but Vi couldn’t place how or why.
The manuscript was an account of the Burning Times through interviews with one of the last surviving Windwalkers. Vi scanned the pages, which covered everything from magical theory to terrible experiments involving human sacrifice meant to unlock the true power of the crystals. Fiera had learned how to manipulate crystals by reading accounts from the Burning Times. Perhaps, if Vi did her own research, she could find something that would give her the additional evidence she needed to convince Taavin to let her experiment.
A pair of footsteps approached and Vi snuffed her flame on instinct. She hastily shut the book and returned it to the shelf. But she hadn’t been fast enough.
“Who’s there?” a male voice called into the darkness.
“Durroe watt radia,” Vi whispered under her breath, stepping back against the wall.
“I’ll give you one more chance. Show yourself.”
Fire burst into life in the hearth. It cast long, shifting shadows on each of the bookcases. Vi could see its light shining through the tops of the books between the shelves from where she stood.
She saw the orange glow falling on a young man who needed no introduction. Her heart began to race.
Vi had wondered what she’d feel when she first laid eyes on Aldrik Solaris. The man who, in another world, had been her father. The man whose mother she’d taken from him.
There were too many emotions within her now to count, blending together into something impossible to name.
His dark hair went past his shoulders, unbound in a style Vi had never seen her father wear before. He was awkwardly tall, mostly legs and gangly arms—a body half grown and still trying to fill itself out. Vi recognized that phase. She’d been there herself.
This is not your father, Vi reminded herself. Yet her eyes, her heart, tried to tell her otherwise. The magic glyph around her wrist trembled with her hands.
He walked down the rows of shelves, searching. “I could’ve sworn…” Aldrik mumbled. Vi remained stone still, and the young prince eventually shook his head and rubbed his eyes. It was late, and he no doubt wrote off her faint light
as a trick of his mind.
The prince set out purposefully for another section of the library. She watched him over the tops of the books. Every muscle was tense; she wouldn’t have been able to move if she’d tried.
What is it you’re looking for? Vi silently asked as Aldrik scanned the shelves with intent.
He slid a book from the shelf, his dark eyes almost meeting Vi’s as she stared at him, entranced.
“Groundbreakers and their fortifications in Shaldan,” he muttered to himself, scanning the first few pages. “Sky fortresses… impenetrable magic walls…” He stopped, eyes on a page. Aldrik snapped the book shut and started back down the row and out the library.
The fire in the hearth extinguished, leaving darkness in his wake.
Vi stepped out from her hiding place, listening carefully to the fading steps before relaxing her glyph.
“Groundbreakers, hmm?” Vi murmured. The prince was reading about the North when no one was looking. He was trying to hide his interest and Vi knew the reason why.
The Emperor was beginning to make moves against Shaldan.
And that meant she had less time than she thought to find out what happened to the crown of the first Solaris king, and get out of the capital.
Chapter Five
“Ah, punctual I see,” Egmun said as they met in the hallway outside his office door.
“I wouldn’t want to be late after all you’ve promised me.”
“What I promised, and will deliver.” He ran a hand over the doorknob and the ice that blocked the lock withdrew into his fingertips. “Please, come in.”
As they entered the office, the Minister went right for the cabinets in the back of the room. From the uppermost, he retrieved an unassuming box. Egmun set it on his desk reverently and Vi approached with apprehension. Engraved on it was Western writing, worn with time, and Vi knew what was inside before he opened the lid. The minister lifted a shimmering crystal from within.
“They’re magnificent, no?”