by K. A. Linde
“You’re not a vision?”
Cyrene shook her head.
“Then, who are you?”
“My name is Cyrene Strohm. I’m an Affiliate from Byern. I came to Eleysia with Prince Dean.”
Both women recoiled.
“That can’t be.”
“An Affiliate?”
“No, there hasn’t been one in years.”
“Certainly not one like her.”
“Um,” Cyrene said, “excuse me?”
“Don’t mind my sister. She’s always been a little hotheaded,” the first woman said.
“And you’re as cold as ice,” she spat back.
“Don’t even start with me, or I’ll make you wish your flames could withstand an ice storm.”
“Excuse me!” Cyrene said louder, halting their fast speech. “You wouldn’t happen to know anyone by the names of Matilde and Vera, would you?” Her heart leaped with hope that, perhaps through all of this horrible mess, something good would come of it.
“Where did you learn those names, child?”
“Basille Selby sent me here to find two women named Matilde and Vera. You’re them, aren’t you?”
“Basille Selby,” they said in unison.
“Yes. He gave me a book,” Cyrene said. She felt her body weakening and slumped forward. “I’m sorry. I…everything hurts.”
The second woman walked forward. She reached her hand out and touched Cyrene’s face. She took a deep breath, her eyes widening. “How much did you use?” She turned back to the other woman. “You’re going to need to do this.”
Her sister stepped forward until she was eye level with Cyrene. She cupped Cyrene’s face in her hands and closed her eyes. After a pregnant pause, Cyrene felt ice ripping through her body. Her teeth chattered, and she arced away from the woman’s touch, but she held on tightly.
Then, suddenly, it was over, and Cyrene was left with a lingering chill in her bones. But everything else was gone. She was completely healed. Her headache was gone. Every ache and pain in her body was removed. Her body naturally healed quickly, but this was more.
This was magic.
“I am Vera,” the woman whispered. “And this is my sister, Matilde. Though we do not go by those names at court in this generation. You can call me Mari, and Mati goes by Kathrine.”
Cyrene nearly sobbed. “I have been looking for you everywhere.”
“I assure you, Cyrene, we have been looking for you for much longer.”
Matilde and Vera. Kathrine and Mari.
Whatever they chose to be called, it didn’t matter to Cyrene. All that mattered was that they were real.
They were real. They were here. And, as much as she hated to admit it, Basille Selby was right. They had found her.
Running footsteps pattered on the ground behind them. Cyrene stood hastily and turned to face whoever was coming their way. She almost put herself in front of Matilde and Vera to shield them from the intruders, but then she realized how ridiculous that would be. Two Master Domas who had managed to evade notice for two millennia had to be infinitely more powerful than she was, and surely, they needed no protecting.
Avoca rounded the corner. “Cyrene! You’re alive! Oh Creator! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you.” She looked between Cyrene and the two women at her sides and frowned. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
Matilde purposely tottered forward. “Well, if you aren’t the spitting image of your mother.”
Vera shook her head. “Grandmother, I’d wager, Kathrine.”
Avoca frowned. “What?”
“We have been gone from Eleysia for too long, it seems,” Vera continued.
“Absolutely too long,” Matilde said.
Avoca’s eyes were as big as saucers. “Cyrene, who are these people?”
Ahlvie and Orden appeared around the corner. They both doubled over with their hands resting on their knees.
“Creator, Avoca!” Ahlvie cried. “Warn me before you go running off like that.”
Orden seemed to assess what was going on and straightened up. His chest was still heaving from exertion. “What’s going on?”
Matilde raised an eyebrow at Cyrene. “Friends of yours?”
“Yes,” Cyrene confirmed. “This is Avoca, Ahlvie, and Orden.”
“And who are you?” Ahlvie asked.
“Manners on that one,” Vera chided.
Ahlvie flashed her a smile.
“He means,” Orden said, “who the hell are you and what are you doing to Cyrene?”
“This,” Cyrene said with a dramatic pause, “is Matilde and Vera.”
All three of her friend’s mouths dropped open at the same time. Cyrene wasn’t sure if they had even believed that Matilde and Vera could be found. They had been away from home for so long, searching and searching with such little information.
Cyrene would be the first to admit that she had been losing hope, but everything had changed. All it had taken was for her to lose control of her powers and cause a massive explosion—the very thing she had been avoiding since she got here.
“Thank you for the introductions,” Vera said politely. “However, in the palace, I go by Mari, and my sister goes by Kathrine.”
Avoca reverently ambled forward. “It is an honor to meet you both.” She pressed the tips of her fingers to her lips in a sign of deference.
“Oh, I have missed Leif manners,” Vera said with a smile.
“You know about…Leifs?” Avoca asked.
Matilde snort-laughed. “Know about them? You have much to learn.”
“Perhaps they should not learn it while out here, in the middle of a tunnel,” Vera suggested.
“Yes, of course, Mari. I was just getting to that.”
“Shall we depart then?”
“Yes, I think so.”
Matilde and Vera walked forward at a rapid pace. Cyrene jogged to keep up with them. She had no idea where they were walking to, but she knew that she desperately needed their teachings. Her friends followed in her wake.
“I suppose we’ll have to get her out of the country,” Vera said.
“I think Ika Roa would be perfect this time of year,” Matilde said.
“Yes. I do hate that we have to leave so soon after the Eos. I would have preferred to show more respect to the gods with the elements so near.”
“I believe the gods just gave us a blessing.”
Vera glanced over at Cyrene. “Yes. Ika Roa then.”
“That way, we can start from scratch. She has the power and something else I’m not sure about,” Matilde continued, as if Cyrene wasn’t standing right next to them. “Something powerful though.”
Vera nodded. “I feel it, too. We’ll have to discover what that means at a later date.”
“Yes. We should bring the Leif girl. She’s young, but they always look that way.”
“What exactly are you talking about?” Cyrene asked in confusion. “Ika Roa?”
“We need to leave the country immediately,” Vera said as they rounded another corner.
“What?” Cyrene gasped. Why?”
The women looked at each other and then proceeded up a flight of stairs without answering. They took their time climbing to the top. Matilde griped under her breath about flying, and Cyrene just stared at her in confusion.
“Don’t mind Kathrine. She misses the sky.”
Cyrene nodded, having no idea what that meant.
Vera took a deep breath when they reached the top of the stairs. “Ika Roa seems like the perfect place to begin your training. And you must be trained, or you’ll be a danger to everyone and everything.”
“At the rate you’re going, you’ll burn yourself out,” Matilde warily told her.
Cyrene shuddered at that thought. She couldn’t lose her magic, and she didn’t want to harm anyone. But leave the country?
She was about to say something, but Matilde turned her attention to Avoca.
“Shira is still Queen in Eldora, isn�
�t she? I heard she took the throne after Eve’a fell in battle.”
Avoca’s eyes widened again. Matilde and Vera were talking about something that had happened two thousand years ago.
“Yes,” Avoca peeped.
“Perhaps we should go there,” Matilde said dreamily. “We haven’t been in Eldora in so long, Mari. Just think about the woods…”
“But if she’s anything like Sera, then it will be water first. The rivers aren’t enough. We’ll need all of the Lakonia.”
Cyrene’s head was spinning. “You have to take me out of Eleysia to train me?”
“Yes, and we should move with haste,” Matilde said irritably. “Are the boys coming with us?”
Vera cast her gaze over Ahlvie and then Orden. “They might as well. They already know too much.”
“Wait!” Cyrene cried, silencing their endless tirade. “I can’t leave Eleysia. Why can’t we train here?”
“Just like Sera,” Matilde mumbled under her breath.
“Let me guess…something to do with this Prince Dean you mentioned?” Vera said.
Cyrene’s cheeks heated, but she couldn’t deny it. She didn’t want to leave Dean. She wanted to see what could be with him. At the moment, he felt essential to her magic. Maybe it was selfish to want this…him. But she had walked away from Edric without even a backward glance. Her heart couldn’t do the same to Dean.
“Yes.”
“Oh, how history always finds a way of repeating itself,” Matilde said. She shook her head and looked at Vera, as if to say, You reason with her.
“Especially when they erase it and have no hope of learning from their mistakes,” Vera said in response. She shrugged her shoulders at Matilde. “I philosophize; you implement, Kathrine. So…implement.”
Matilde grumbled under her breath and tossed her wild hair to one side. “Must we stay in Eleysia? Is this Dean so important?”
Cyrene nodded. He had become so important to her in such a short period of time, but he was very important to her. She had to see this through.
“Can you still train me here?” Cyrene asked.
Matilde huffed in protest and looked to Vera. They seemed to be speaking their own language for a moment.
“We have to,” Vera said to Matilde.
“Always making things difficult.” Matilde wrenched a door open. “In, all of you, before I change my mind.”
“Should I go find Maelia?” Ahlvie asked Cyrene.
“There are more of you?” Matilde asked. “How many people actually know about your powers?”
Cyrene bit her lip. “Um…more than one.”
“Gods!” Matilde cried, walking away. “We’re nearing a two-millennia ban on magic and the Circadian Prophecy’s potential conclusion. And the first magical wielder we’ve seen with any strength in hundreds of years is running around with a Leif, proclaiming herself to anyone who knows what to look for. If we felt that disaster, Mari, then you know we weren’t the only ones!”
“Do you mind sealing the room before you start going off on philosophical diatribes?” Vera asked, pursing her lips.
“That’s normally your area of expertise,” Matilde said.
Matilde dramatically waved her hand in the air. Avoca’s eyes widened again. Even Cyrene, who had practically no knowledge of magical properties, could sense that what she had done was powerful magic. And she had wielded it effortlessly.
Vera smiled at her sister and then sank into a chair. Cyrene looked around and saw that they were in a quaint sitting room. There weren’t any rugs down. Only a few wooden chairs rested against the wall before a low table. A few cushions were tossed in front of the table. And there were old, really old, paintings on the walls.
“Please have a seat,” Vera said.
Avoca immediately dropped onto a cushion, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Ahlvie took the one next to her, but he looked significantly less comfortable sitting on the floor. Orden leaned back against the wall, crossed his arms, and stared around at the lot of them. Cyrene dropped into one of the chairs, but Matilde remained standing, pacing back and forth across the room. She didn’t seem to be able to stand still.
“So, by my estimation, you have a long way to go,” Matilde said, walking to one end of the room and then back. “What exactly were you doing in that hallway anyway? The amount of energy you used could have had disastrous consequences.”
“I…was locked inside,” Cyrene said.
Vera tilted her head. “Why?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. Dean’s sister, Alise, and one of his soldiers, Robard, locked me in there. I don’t know what their motive was or what they were doing. At first, I thought it was because Alise hated me and didn’t want Dean to be with me, but I think that’s such an extreme. The reasoning doesn’t make sense.”
“We can get to the bottom of the issue later,” Matilde said. “All I’m gathering is that you used a very powerful energy blast to unlock a door?”
“Um…yes,” she whispered.
“That’s child’s play. I can give you five hundred different ways to use the energy you possess to open a door without destroying half of the palace.”
“Well, I don’t know any of those,” Cyrene said. “I had to get out of there, and that was all I knew how to do. At least, I didn’t black out.”
“You’ve been having blackouts?” Vera asked softly, her voice serious and concerned.
“Yes, nearly every time I use my magic in any significant capacity. You can be upset with me for how I got through that door, but I’m not trained. The only training I’ve had is with Avoca in the woods, and she has Leif magic, which is different than Domas.” Cyrene sprang to her feet. “Neither of you knows the difficulties I’ve already gone through to find you so that you can train me. I did the best I could, and that got me here. I think the very fact that I’m still alive—despite half of the Byern and Aurumian armies, three Braj, and a pack of Indres tried to capture or kill me—is pretty impressive.”
Vera and Matilde looked at each other, and then huge smiles spread across their faces.
“Good, they said.
“Good?” Cyrene asked.
“We wanted to make sure you were ready,” Vera said.
“How did you get that I was ready to train out of that?”
“You faced adversity and came ahead, all on your own. Most Doma who go untrained don’t last past seventeen. None of your strength,” Matilde informed her.
“So?”
“So, you’re ready,” Vera said. “We’ll train you.”
“When do we start?” Cyrene asked, clapping her hands together.
“Now,” Matilde told her.
“Now?” Cyrene blurted out.
Vera stood. “Yes, I think now sounds perfect.”
Cyrene followed in Vera’s wake as they exited the castle a short while later and hurried out to the docks. This wasn’t exactly how she had pictured celebrating the Eos holiday, but she couldn’t have been more excited.
Matilde had left at once to begin preparations for whatever was to come. Meanwhile, Cyrene had sent her friends off to tie up loose ends. Orden had rushed to find Maelia and let her know what had happened. Avoca had gone to collect the Book of the Doma and Cyrene’s Presenting letter from her rooms. While it had been up to Ahlvie to find Dean and let him know what had happened. Cyrene had really preferred to do that one herself, but once everything was underway, Vera had bustled her along to collect the things she needed. It seemed that Vera was as anxious to get started as Cyrene was.
With book and letter in a leather pouch, Cyrene and Vera met Matilde siting in a gondola on the water. There was no gondolier in sight.
“All right. In you go,” Vera said, prodding her forward.
Cyrene carefully eased herself into the boat and dropped her bag onto the floorboard. Vera followed in behind her, taking the seat next to Matilde.
Matilde smirked at her. “Are you ready for your first lesson?”
�
��Absolutely.”
“Row our boat to the Third Harbor. We have a lot of work to do, and we’d like to get started as soon as possible.”
Cyrene skeptically eyed them both and then glanced at the oar. “You’re serious?”
“Very,” Matilde said.
Vera nodded her head.
“I’ve never rowed a boat in my life. Well,” she said, “just once in my life, and that was because I feared it was life or death.”
“Then, fear this is life or death,” Matilde told her.
Cyrene saw that they weren’t going to budge on this, and she shakily stood. She walked to the stern of the boat and reached for the paddle. She wanted to tell them how ridiculous this exercise was going to be. She had no idea what she was doing, it was the middle of the night, they were going to lose the entire night for training. A gondola wasn’t like the little dinghy she had used to navigate the underground waterways in the Byern castle. But she steeled herself and decided she would give it a try before giving up.
Taking the paddle in her hand, she pushed off from the dock and rowed out onto the open lake. She rowed it about halfway across the lake before her arms were aching, and her breathing was heavy. With every stroke that she pushed, she appreciated what the gondoliers did. They must have the most powerful arm muscles in the world to get across the water so effortlessly all the time. And back muscles. They were going to hurt in the morning. She just knew it.
“Is there a point to this?” she asked as she finally approached the gate to exit the lake.
“We were just seeing how long it would take for you to realize that you should use your magic for this,” Matilde said dryly.
Cyrene froze. “But I thought you were going to train me to do that.”
They glanced at each other, as if they were reading each other’s minds, and then up at Cyrene.
“We are,” Vera said simply.
“I’m dangerous though. I could destroy the island if I tried to move the boat.”
“We would never let that happen,” Matilde told her. “But you must start somewhere, and this is where we’ll begin. Now, grasp for your powers.”
“Gently,” Vera amended. “Like a lover’s caress.”
Cyrene reached for her powers, and they came all too readily to her fingertips. It was euphoric.