by Kova, Elise
So she lingered at the edge of the city, leaning in a doorway, watching as he walked up the rise to the gateway of the kingdom. The moment Fallor passed through the swirling, fog-like magic, Vi sprinted up behind him.
“Champion, would you—” Ruie attempted to say as she passed. The young woman was on guard duty for the night.
“No time.” Vi gave her a short wave and plunged herself into the haze that surrounded the Twilight Kingdom.
She pushed magic out around her in a quick pulse. It cocooned and stabilized her in the between space. Another pulse of magic, and Vi felt her powers running like a bridge between the city where she had been, and the forest where she was headed. With a third pulse, Vi pushed herself along the pathway.
Reemerging in the real world outside of the Twilight Kingdom left her off-balance. Pinwheeling her arms, Vi grabbed onto a tree. It wasn’t exactly a smooth landing, but it worked.
It worked.
A grin spread across her face as she sprinted through the trees. When the muscles of her legs began to grow tired, she felt a barely-perceptible shift. Yargen’s magic was in her bones. It was her flesh. The essence of the goddess was woven within her just as the power of the scythe was.
The trees were a blur and Vi was hardly breathless. She focused solely on heading to the southwest ridge as Deneya described. Vi skidded to a stop before she lurched through the treeline just east of Toris. Pressing herself against one of the tall trees, she crouched low, the leaves of the forest floor settling around her.
Vi squinted into the setting sun, focusing on the woman and young man speaking at the crest of one of the rolling hills that cascaded down to the humble fishing town. The woman sat on a rock, talking as much with her hands as her mouth, though Vi couldn’t make out the words. The sun glistened off the jewelry she wore, sparking in the light. Two large hoops pulled down her pointed ears. They were no doubt communication tokens, if the Adela of this world was anything like the Adela of Vi’s. The woman removed an earring and passed it to Fallor.
Vi scanned the surrounding hills.
The lone woman was high up—visible for a wide distance. Others were watching her, they had to be. But wherever her fellow pirates were hiding, Vi couldn’t see them.
Fallor talked with her for about an hour. At the end of their conversation, he tried to pass the token back to the pirate, but she refused with a sickeningly sweet smile. Anger flashed across Vi’s chest, bouncing between her ribs, making her breath hot. But she promptly squelched the feeling. This wasn’t her fight. She wasn’t here to help him.
She was here to get to Adela.
Yet… Vi saw someone else in Fallor. A young Jayme, impressionable and filled with hurt that Adela would fan into rage.
Fallor took to the skies with a pulse of magic. The woman watched the eagle, ignorant that someone else was watching her. Vi slid up the tree in tandem.
The pirate wasn’t a morphi, which meant she had to walk back to Adela. That meant there was a skiff somewhere nearby. Vi stepped from the trees and at the same time said, “Loft dorh.”
Immobilize.
The glyph that sparked at the tip of her pointed finger was no longer the bright white-yellow it had been. Now it was tinted with blue on the edges, glowing nearly the same color as crystals. Vi felt a surge of magic at her left. She could almost hear the inhale of a man emerging from his hiding place.
“Juth mariy.” An audible crack filled the air as she destroyed the Lightspinner’s magic. There was one other pirate, at least. Vi began running toward the woman she had under her command.
She remembered holding Fallor with loft dorh. It had been a nearly impossible act. She’d keenly felt his every struggle against her magic tethers. But her grip now was so tight, the only thing Vi could feel was the woman’s panicked heartbeat under her grip.
A pulse of magic shot across the field.
The first pirate was a Lightspinner. The other was a morphi. Adela was nothing if not prepared.
Vi stopped her forward momentum, bracing herself as the morphi’s magic disruption washed over her. She focused on her glyphs. They wavered; the woman moved for a second as Vi’s control flickered. The pirate collapsed with a cry, but was then held in stasis again as Vi’s glyph sustained the shift.
Now, it was Vi’s heart that was racing. Her left hand burned with power from the glyph. Her bones singed against her muscles. She could feel Yargen within her, seeking release, seeking to be whole again, as Vi drew on the goddess’s essence.
“Get away from her!” a man shouted.
Vi didn’t give him a chance to say anything else, levying another “Juth mariy” in reply. There was another pulse of magic, and Vi’s glyphs nearly flickered out of existence. But they held enough for her to make it to the kneeling woman.
Ruthlessly, Vi grabbed the woman’s hooped ear and jerked her face forward. Loft dorh faded. The woman was held in total shock of Vi standing over her. To the pirate’s eyes, Vi was a human who wielded Lightspinning that couldn’t be broken by the shift.
“Narro hath,” Vi uttered, almost with a sinister note.
She felt the magic spring to life, her suspicions confirmed. All their waiting and watching had paid off. Vi had finally tracked down the elusive pirate Adela.
No, more than that, she had initiated a direct communication with her.
“Adela,” Vi said sweetly, feeling the magic pull taut. “I have your crew. And while I know you don’t care all that much for their lives, I will tell you that I have something much, much better. Something that will make you rich beyond compare. Something that will ensure your name is uttered in fear and wonder by every child for thousands of years to come.
“Let me on Stormfrost to parlay with you, and you’ll know what it is.”
Silence. Vi didn’t even hear the wind moving over the grasses or the other pirates readying their next attacks as she waited.
“And who are you?” Adela’s chilling voice was recognizable anywhere. Vi hated that it was as known to her as her own mother’s.
“Yargen’s Champion.” Vi smirked. “The one who broke your magic in Oparium.” Another pause. The other pirates stilled, some form of communication happening on the side. “Well? Don’t test my patience, pirate queen.”
“You intrigue me, Champion. Come aboard, if you dare.”
Vi released the woman’s face and her glyph vanished. The pirate collapsed at her feet, gasping for air and scrambling away. Vi looked down at her, magic surging from a font that would never run dry. It filled her to the point of being overwhelming.
“Take me to Adela, and you may live.”
Chapter Twenty
A surreal sense of familiarity crept up on Vi as she stepped foot on the Stormfrost for a second time that felt like the hundredth. Much like the first time in her own world, the crew had gathered on the main deck. Adela was among them, identical to how Vi had first seen her, down to her icy cane.
Vi stood, motionless. The crew around her rigidly maintained their positions. They were the string of an invisible bow that Adela held in her frigid grip. One word, and they would lunge to strike clean through her heart.
Adela, for her part, wore a slightly amused smile. She stared at Vi and Vi at her. They waited each other out in the stillness, waited to see who gave first.
Vi knew it wouldn’t be her. Time was one of the many things she had on her side. Time had made her very patient.
“You claim to be the one who broke my magic in Oparium.” Adela’s tone and look told Vi that she sincerely doubted that fact. “I thought the claim insanity. Perhaps just as much as your claim of being Yargen’s Champion returned. Or maybe the real insanity is you willingly coming to the Stormfrost like a sheep to slaughter.”
Adela smirked and the flash of blades being drawn caught Vi’s eye. The crew looked at her like a prime cut of meat.
“I did not come here for slaughter,” Vi said calmly. “I came to strike a deal with you.”
“Yes, so
you claim. Get to the striking, girl.”
Vi was discovering one of the greatest annoyances of her current state was perpetually looking like she was eighteen. “Not among your crew.”
“Any deal you strike with me can be done here and now,” Adela insisted. Vi slowly shook her head. “Then I will let them kill you.”
“It’d be a shame for me to raze everything you’ve built and kill every man and woman on this ship simply because you are stubborn.”
“You think you can kill us?” a pirate broke rank and shouted.
“Do you doubt me?” Vi looked to the man and watched as he took a step backward. She turned her eyes back to Adela. “I will not speak among the rabble. This is your last chance. Parlay in private and have everything you desire. Or meet your end. I care not. The vortex continues with or without you.”
Adela narrowed her eyes slightly. “Very well, come to my cabin.”
The crew parted for their captain. Vi could feel their eyes gouging at her throat, making up for what their weapons could not do. But they made no motion against her. As long as Adela tolerated her, so would they.
Adela led her back to an entrance underneath the quarterdeck. It opened into a large cabin with windows lining the stern of the vessel. Ice stretched between beams of wood in place of glass, the world beyond blurred through the frost. A large desk was opposite a bed. Shelves lined the wall to her left, the books and scrolls held in by narrow rails. Two seats were positioned in front of the windows.
“Please, sit.” Adela motioned to one of the leather chairs. “If it’s not too cold for you.” She smiled thinly.
“I’m not one you need to worry about.” Dredging her spark to the surface, the air around Vi crackled, shimmering with heat. As she sat down, the thin layer of frost covering the leather evaporated into steam. She could feel Adela’s magic pushing in against hers, trying to cover the chair once more. But Vi held the ice at bay with minimal effort, winning their first tug-of-war as Adela sat across form her.
“You’re human, a Lightspinner, and you also know the elemental magics of the Dark Isle.” Adela tapped her cane, punctuating each item. “You’re like me.”
“In some ways,” Vi admitted. “I will not stop until I get what I want. I am not afraid to be ruthless. And I did grow up once, long ago, on the Dark Isle, just as you did.”
“Is there elfin in your parentage as well?” Vi shook her head. “Pity, you’ll be dead soon enough, then.”
“I am timeless.”
“Yes, this Champion business.” Adela lifted her icy hand off her cane, waving it through the air as though the notion was nothing more than a fleeting thought. “Tell me what it is you want. And why I should let you leave my ship alive.”
“What do you know of the crystal weapons of Yargen?” Vi asked, ignoring the opportunity to reiterate that there were only two options: Adela working with her, or everyone dying.
“Crystal weapons? Very little.”
“I suspected as much, or you would’ve never left the crown of Solaris unprotected.”
“It wasn’t entirely unprotected,” Adela said gruffly. “My magic was powerful.”
“For one such as yourself, yes.”
“Tell me about these crystal weapons,” she demanded, tapping her cane on the ground.
“I’ll tell you that these weapons are worth little to you and everything to me. If I do not get them, it will spell the end of the world.” Vi looked out the windows. Adela—at least the Adela of her time—didn’t care about the world ending. It was an intangible concept to a woman who only valued things she could put her hands on. “I need your help in getting them to where they need to go. Specifically, I need the Stormfrost.”
“I am the pirate queen, not a ferryman at your beck and call.”
“You are a mercenary by another name who will take jobs from the highest bidder regardless of who or what they are.” Vi gave her a hard look. Surprisingly, Adela didn’t look offended. She smiled wider, or perhaps it was a sneer. “I am the highest bidder.”
“All right, put your gold where your mouth is, then. What is sailing on the Stormfrost worth to you?”
“I can give you access to the treasury of Solaris.”
Adela threw her head back and laughed. “I had access to the treasury of Solaris when I wasn’t even twenty-five. I took all I wanted and that treasure ended up being worth so little to me, I couldn’t be bothered to go back for it. Do better.” Vi had expected this reaction. But she couldn’t be blamed for starting low in her negotiations.
“The Archives of Yargen.” That got Adela sitting straighter. She wasn’t laughing now. “I know pathways in and through them. I will give you access to those pathways.”
“And get the Swords of Light away from the Archives?”
“You’d have to promise me more than the use of the Stormfrost to get me to do that.” Vi wasn’t even sure if she could do that. But she wanted Adela to think she could.
“What will the use of the Stormfrost entail?”
“I need you to deliver me to a few places, pick me up in a few others. Perhaps some comrades of mine as well. Nothing too difficult for the great pirate queen.”
“That’s a rather open-ended request. I have my own empire to run here on the seas. I need to know how much of my time you’ll take to determine if what you’re promising is worth it.”
“I won’t call on you more than five times in the span of the next ten years.” In ten years, the Caverns would meet their end, one way or another; a new Vi would be born; and she would long know if her efforts to save the world had ultimately resulted in failure.
“Humans,” Adela said, as though her own parentage wasn’t part human. “Always thinking so narrow.”
“I’m attempting to strike you a fair deal.”
Adela hummed, looking out the windows at the sea drifting by. She caressed the top of her cane made of ice, smoothing away jagged shards as they grew around her fingers. Being part elfin explained her immense power, and her longevity.
“Access to the Archives of Yargen for five trips in the next ten years, whichever comes first,” Adela summarized before bringing her bright blue eyes back to Vi. “You have your deal, Champion.”
“One more thing.”
“You are not accustomed to how negotiations work, are you?” Adela narrowed her eyes. “One puts everything on the table foremost.”
“The boy, Fallor…” Her voice trailed off. The thought had vanished from between her fingers and Vi struggled to bring it back. Why had she brought up Fallor again?
Ah.
The memory of Arwin, soaking in the bath, staring at the ceiling, trapped in a bubble of pain and longing and what-ifs. The shade of Jayme on the boy. Fallor was nothing in relation to stopping the vortex, but she had made a promise to save the people she could, hadn’t she?
“You are to cut ties with him.”
“We have been working—”
“This isn’t negotiable,” Vi said firmly.
Adela pursed her lips. “Very well, we have other morphi we’ve been working on recruiting.” Adela shrugged. “Or are they off-limits too?”
“Recruit away.” Vi leaned back in the chair, folding her hands over her stomach and staring out at the ocean. Perhaps the Isle of Frost getting a shift was the stone in the river, and some other morphi would betray King Noct and his family. Perhaps she’d somehow made it worse. But for now Vi hoped that Arwin would have a few extra years of happiness. If she was lucky, regardless of what else came to pass in the world around her, she would have a hand to hold when the day was done.
She’d handle Jayme when her and Adela’s deal was up. By then, she would have even more power. The pirate queen would agree to anything just to avoid angering her.
“Where will we be delivering you first?” Adela asked, still somewhat begrudgingly.
“First, we’ll wait for my friends to join us. Then, to Norin.”
“And you will tell me of the way into the A
rchives?”
“I will tell you how to get into the Archives once our deal has concluded and you have taken me to my fifth and final place.”
“What assurance do I have until then?”
“I’m sure you’ll think of some way to make my life miserable if I don’t follow through.” Adela smiled knowingly at that. Vi held out her hand, a plain, silver ring on her left middle finger. “Narro hath.” The connection sprang to life with the glyph hovering around the ring. “It’s settled, come to the Stormfrost,” she said, short and simple, before closing the connection.
“Who are your friends?”
“Curious, aren’t you, for a woman who’s all business?”
“Keep your secrets.” Adela turned, looking out to sea. Vi couldn’t tell if she was bothered or not.
“One of them is an elfin from Risen. The other is another elfin but from much farther away… where I’m from.” More or less. Vi decided to answer Adela’s question anyway. She was never going to be friendly with the pirate queen. But the more cordial they could become, the better. “May I ask you something?”
“You may ask.” But Vi didn’t miss that Adela made no guarantees about giving an answer.
“Why Solaris?”
“Pardon?” Adela swept her icy gaze back to Vi. It would’ve made her shiver, once.
“Why do you hate Solaris? You stole the crown jewels. You worked with the Knights of Jadar. You’ll go out of your way to bring harm to Solaris, even offering discounts to people acting against the family.”
“Was it you who killed my man in Norin years ago?”
“Yes.” Vi would’ve expected Adela to be upset at that, but she only seemed amused.
“I was wondering when Janice informed me there was a Lightspinner…” Janice must’ve been the morphi that night. “I had bet it was one of Lumeria’s men.”