by Kristen Pham
Henry pushed the door open, and he had a plate of pancakes in his hand. It only made Valerie cry harder, but for some reason, it hurt a little less.
“I bet they taste better than Dad’s,” she managed to say.
“They couldn’t be any worse,” Henry said, and she managed a watery smile for the brother who had set aside his loss to help her through hers.
They padded into the kitchen. Through the window, she saw that Gideon was outside, practicing his martial art forms in the rising sun.
“Did he stay all night?” she asked as she bit into her brother’s pancakes.
“He’s here for good, I think,” Henry replied. “Didn’t bother to ask either of us if that’s what we wanted, either.”
But Henry didn’t sound mad. He sounded tired and grateful that someone had come to watch over them.
“Azra came last night, too, but Summer wouldn’t let her stay until you woke up,” Henry added.
Valerie guessed that Azra’s presence was the reason why she’d been able to sleep at all.
“Is she still doing okay?” Valerie asked.
“She’s going to drop her foal soon, but yes. She wants you to come and visit her,” Henry said.
“Let’s go together. I’d like to see a new life born into the world, instead of another one leaving it,” Valerie said.
Henry didn’t say anything, but she could sense that his feelings mirrored her own. An unlikely burst of gratitude made her swallow a lump in her throat. She was an orphan again, but she was not alone.
Henry paused and then glanced behind him. “Someone’s here to see you. She’s at the door.”
Sure enough, when Valerie opened the door, she found Sibyl fluttering a few feet off the ground.
“I heard of your loss. My heart is with yours,” Sibyl said, and in her eyes, Valerie saw an echo of her own pain and knew that Sibyl was remembering losing her own mother not so long ago.
“Does it get better?” she asked, sitting on the steps and staring at her father’s garden.
“You learn to live your life around the pain. It will always be in your heart, but, if you let it, it can live next to your love for others and joy in life,” Sibyl said. Valerie wondered if all Oracles were so gifted with words.
“Gideon said that your input into which battle strategies would work best was invaluable,” Valerie said, unable to talk about Oberon any longer without crying.
“Though it was in service to pursue a path of light, it was difficult for us to advise on tactics of war,” Sibyl said. “It is not the way of the Oracles to solve problems with violence.”
“Now that the Fractus are scattered, we could try to recover the Roaming City for you and your friends,” Valerie said, though the amount of effort that would be required made her want to crawl back into bed.
“The time is not yet right,” Sibyl replied, to Valerie’s relief. “I came here today for another purpose. Not as an Oracle, but as a friend, which I hope I am.”
“Yes,” Valerie said, meeting Sibyl’s eyes and absorbing the warmth there. “You are.”
“As an Oracle, I am bound to keep prophecies secret, but I am not in the Roaming City now. As your friend, I would break that rule today,” Sibyl said. Mystified, Valerie watched as Sibyl’s wings fluttered nervously for a moment. “I received a prophecy for your friend, Cyrus. It led to the path of light, and I was duty-bound to deliver it to him, though I knew it would hurt him very much.”
Valerie couldn’t take her eyes from Sibyl’s face as she tried to imagine why Cyrus had never spoken of the prophecy. He’d had chances to tell her.
“How can a prophecy that hurts someone lead to the path of light?” she asked. Though it wasn’t fair, anger rose in her at the thought of anyone causing Cyrus pain.
“He had to make a choice that no one else could make for him,” Sibyl replied. “My prophecy told him the truth about why Thai didn’t come to the Globe. It was up to Cyrus to decide what to do with the knowledge. He would be the only one to ever know the reason, unless he decided to share it, and Thai would remain ignorant of Reaper’s lie.”
Sibyl’s words were so unexpected that Valerie’s brain almost couldn’t process it.
“You’re saying… Cyrus told Thai that Chern was Reaper, which is how he figured out that the prophecy that kept him from coming to the Globe was false?” Valerie asked.
“He did. He made Thai swear that he would never reveal his role in bringing him to the Globe, but he did not ask me to promise. I thought you would want to know,” Sibyl said, her wings stilling now that she had told Valerie everything. “Cyrus could have chosen to keep the lie alive, and Thai would have remained on Earth for the rest of his days. No one would have known why he never came to the Globe. Instead Cyrus gave you the choice to decide who to be with for yourself.”
Her hand was pressed against her heart as she remembered her last few conversations with Cyrus before Thai had come to the Globe. He’d told Thai the truth even though he thought he would lose her.
“In telling Thai, he chose the path of light,” Sibyl said. “I believe that is why I received his prophecy.”
“I never would have guessed the truth. Thank you, Sibyl. As close as we are, I didn’t know Cyrus as well as I thought I did,” Valerie admitted. She’d underestimated him—again.
“It goes against my nature to see such selflessness go unnoticed,” Sibyl said. “Only you can decide who is your other half, but I thought you would want to know all the facts before you decided.”
“I don’t understand why Reaper would go out of his way to lie to Thai,” Valerie said, her foot tapping against the step.
“Putrefus delivered a prophecy to Chern the day that he visited the Roaming City with you, Henry, and Gideon,” Sibyl said.
“What did it say?” Valerie asked, stunned. She had a dim memory of Chern pulling Putrefus aside to scold him, but he must have been seeking a prophecy of his own, from an Oracle who could help him toward a path of war.
“All prophecies are recorded, but Putrefus barred those who followed the path of light from visiting the hall of records,” Sibyl said, regret in her eyes.
Valerie nodded mutely, and her perspective shifted at that moment, more than it ever had under Reaper’s spell.
Henry and Valerie spent the day preparing to visit Azra and letting their friends know that they’d be gone for a few days. They had decided to visit her alone, and everyone understood. It was unspoken, but they needed to be away from the rest of the world to grieve. They would go at dawn the next day.
That night, Valerie couldn’t sleep. Instead, her feet led her to The Horseshoe. Arden’s guilds seemed otherworldly in the moonlight, and it brought her comfort to think of Skye’s words and know that in an important way, the battle hadn’t been for nothing.
She saw a figure sitting on the fountain in the center of The Horseshoe, and even in the dim light from the stars, she knew the silhouette.
“Kind of makes the view from my tent look pathetic, doesn’t it?” Thai asked, staring up at the stars as she approached.
“I don’t know. There was a lot to be said for that view. I happened to love it,” she said.
“Me, too. I wish my family could see this one, though,” Thai said, homesickness thick in his voice.
Valerie was struck by the thought that Thai had come to the Globe for her, only to discover that she had found someone else.
“Are you sorry you came?” she asked him.
He turned his head, and even in the dark, the intensity in his eyes made her heart beat faster.
“Never. This is a world of magic and possibility. There is a lot of good we can do here and on Earth once the battle with the Fractus is over, and I can help so much more if I’m on this side,” Thai said.
His thoughts mirrored her own.
“But even if it weren’t for that, I would always choose to be where you are,” Thai said.
Valerie wished she could touch his hair and press her face int
o the side of his neck. She remembered exactly what that felt like, and how much comfort it brought her. But she would never betray Cyrus, in word or deed.
“It’s more than I deserve,” Valerie said, staring at the ground.
“Tan found me yesterday,” Thai said, changing the subject as if he could sense her discomfort.
“Did he try to hurt you?” Valerie asked, alarmed.
“He seemed different from how you described him. Lost. Reaper gave him what he wanted in exchange for spying on you, and now he doesn’t know where to focus his energy,” Thai said.
“What do you mean? What did Reaper give him?”
“Venu, of course. Tan killed him,” Thai said, his voice bleak. “And murdering someone changes you, even if you think they deserve it. He’d never admit it, but I think he regrets taking Reaper’s deal.”
“Maybe he can find his way back to the path of light,” Valerie said, though she wasn’t sure if that was possible.
“I’m going to try to guide him,” Thai said.
“We’ll try together. We won’t lose him,” Valerie said fiercely, and for the first time since Oberon’s death, a little of her fighting spirit returned to her. She wouldn’t let Thai suffer through loss like she had if she could prevent it.
“I wanted to be the one to comfort you after Oberon’s death, but I wasn’t sure it would be right,” Thai said. “I was trying to decide whether to climb through your window tonight, but instead you found me.”
“I wish things could be different,” Valerie admitted, not elaborating to Thai or herself what she meant, and Thai didn’t ask.
“I’m here for you however you need me,” Thai said. “I can’t shake the idea that the storm will get worse before it gets better, and you’ll never be fighting it alone.”
Valerie had to physically turn away from Thai to keep herself from touching him then.
“I hope someday I’ll find the words to tell you what that means to me,” she said, and then she left, knowing a piece of her heart was safe with Thai.
Dawn was beginning to light the trees the next morning when Henry and Valerie walked to the Lake of Knowledge. It was easy to find the silver path Azra had told them would lead to her location in Messina. It shone in the growing light, and Valerie made sure that no one was near before she stepped onto it.
“You’re sure she’ll want to see me, too?” Henry asked.
“I know she will,” Valerie said.
They walked silently down the path. With every step, Valerie’s pain was more distant, as if she was leaving it behind in Arden. Through her connection with Henry, she knew that he was relaxing as well. It was a welcome peace, and neither of them said a word, afraid they might break the spell.
It wasn’t long before the forest changed. Instead of bark brushed with glimmering gold or green, the trees looked like regular pine trees on Earth. In Arden, Valerie caught the occasional glimpse of a fairy child on the periphery of her vision, but now there were only birds and small animals chasing each other about.
“We’re in Messina,” Valerie said. “Can you sense it?”
“It’s like magic is laced in the air we breathe in Arden, but here, it’s pure. Kind of refreshing,” Henry said.
“Maybe it’s just a different kind of magic,” Valerie said, hardly daring to breathe as she caught sight of a tiny unicorn struggling to stand on wobbly feet in a clearing a few yards away from where they stood.
Azra’s little foal was pure white, and her mane was iridescent, like her mother’s. But her eyes seemed much bigger, and instead of black, they were a startling blue that reflected the sky and mirrored the color of her little horn.
“She’s beautiful,” Henry whispered, and he reached out his hand to grasp Valerie’s.
“Perfect,” Valerie agreed.
At the sound of her voice, the foal trotted over, her earlier shakiness barely visible. Valerie dropped to the ground, and the tiny unicorn came straight into her arms and nuzzled her head against Valerie’s cheek. Her face was softer than anything Valerie had ever touched.
Gently, Valerie stroked her mane, and in her mind, she heard a soft cooing. It was both similar to and entirely different from hearing Azra in her mind. It was the touch of something so innocent that anything it encountered was instantly made pure, too.
Valerie’s grief, pain, and guilt welled up in her, but with the little foal in her arms, all of the negativity drained away, leaving only an unpolluted love and gratitude for her life. Beside her, Henry gently stroked the unicorn’s flank.
Meet Clarabelle.
In Valerie’s mind, Azra’s voice sounded more tired and happy than she had ever heard it. Valerie turned and saw her friend for the first time since she’d arrived, and almost didn’t recognize her. Azra’s mane had turned a lustrous shade of silver, and her coat seemed duller than it had before. But her eyes were lit with a depth of love that Valerie knew she’d never be able to completely fathom unless she had a child of her own. A few yards away, Summer rested in a patch of grass, sound asleep.
“I knew your baby would be special, but I had no idea how special,” Valerie said.
Clarabelle returned to Azra and nestled into her mother’s side. She blinked twice and then fell asleep. She occasionally made sounds that pinged Valerie’s mind with sweetness.
“I hope it’s okay that I came, too,” Henry said, sitting next to Valerie and the unicorns on the grass.
I hoped you would both come. My baby is blessed to have you for her first visitors.
Valerie couldn’t find the words to express how much the honor was hers, but she didn’t need to. Azra’s gentle eyes took in first Valerie’s and then Henry’s faces, and she seemed to know.
“Oberon’s gone,” Valerie said, and though the words opened a yawning, infinite sadness inside her, the bitterness had disappeared.
I sensed his power being released into the universe just as Clarabelle entered it.
“I’m glad something good came into the world that day,” Henry said.
“It gives me hope that something so beautiful exists,” Valerie added.
Azra’s next words were in Valerie’s mind alone. It already existed before my daughter was born. I see it every time I look at you. You are light, and love, and a world reborn.
Valerie hugged Azra, and her mane smelled like it always did, of lilies, even though its color had changed.
“Only you could see me that way,” she whispered in the unicorn’s ear.
Today, that may be true. But soon, the whole world will see.
Valerie let herself fall backward into the grass next to Henry, Azra, and Clarabelle. She breathed in the sweet smells around her and stared up at the blue sky, thinking of how her father had been the one to build the Globe’s atmosphere and weather patterns, and, in a way, the sky was his creation.
Then she turned her thoughts to the future, to possibilities beyond the next battle, to a world as beautiful as the new life burrowing in the grass next to her.
Epilogue
Henry didn’t know why he was drawn outside that night to walk alone in the woods by his house. He didn’t question the impulse. Sometimes, it seemed like only constant movement kept his pain and rage from burning him up inside.
The night air was cool, and Henry moved faster to stay warm. His mind was so occupied that he almost didn’t notice the strange distortion in the air ahead of him until he was almost upon it. He recognized it for what it was—one of Reaper’s portals. He almost turned and ran to wake up Valerie and Gideon, but something made him look inside, and after that first glimpse, he stepped through the portal.
“It’s exactly what you’re afraid it is,” Reaper’s voice grated against Henry’s ears.
Henry didn’t even think of raising the knife he had tucked into his belt to defend himself. Instead, he ran to the side of a stone statue standing in the middle of the throne room in the Black Castle. It was an exact replica of Kanti.
“What is this? Some kind of
awful voo-doo doll?” Henry asked, and his magic simmered just beneath the surface. He would blast the statue into smithereens, even if Reaper killed him.
“Did you know that among my powers, I can alter cells? The laws of physics don’t apply to me,” Reaper said.
Henry’s jaw clenched as he listened to Reaper brag.
“I can even turn human cells to stone,” Reaper continued. “Luckily for you, I can also turn the stone back into flesh.”
The realization of what he was seeing hit Henry like a truck. He reached out to touch the statue with his mind and hand at the same time, and then drew back as if he’d been shocked. Kanti was inside there. Some part of her mind slept inside the stone, unreachable.
“What did you do? Change her back!” Henry shouted.
It took all of his control not to lash out at Reaper with everything he had and kill him once and for all. Only the knowledge that Reaper was probably the only one who could change Kanti back to living, breathing flesh kept him in check.
“Whether she remains in this state or another is up to you,” Reaper said. “I think you know now that when I make promises, I keep them.”
The memory of his father’s face in his last moments flashed through Henry’s mind. He forced it aside, knowing that letting it in had the power to unman him completely, and he needed his wits about him.
“What are you promising, exactly?” Henry asked, scrutinizing Reaper.
He tried to turn off his emotions the best he could so he could concentrate. He knew that this might be one of the most important conversations of his life.
“For you to imbue my army with some new powers that I’ve selected,” Reaper said.
Henry narrowed his eyes. “How many people? I want a number, after which you set Kanti free. Otherwise this could go on forever.”
“Agreed,” Reaper said.
“There’s something else I want,” Henry said, and a cold, angry hatred slithered over his heart.