“A miracle never before seen, and never since replicated,” stated Aurelia. “As well as a moot point. None of my siblings nor I predicted what would happen when Daephinia’s power split the crown, but the Shattering is long since past. And with only half of it here, half its powerheld, I am at a loss for how this”—she gestured to Cedric—“is possible.”
Not particularly caring for being spoken about as if he were not present, Cedric cleared his throat. “It’s been nearly two centuries since you and your siblings created the Arcane Crucible, since you locked this piece of the crown away in your Sanctum. You have admitted twice now that there are things beyond the knowledge of even your celestial family. Is it truly so impossible to think that the crown—even just half of it, as you say—might have been changed by this place?”
“He has a point,” said Elyria.
“High praise,” responded Cedric, and humor sparked in those green eyes.
“It makes a certain sort of sense, don’t you think? The blood of many lost lives poured from the dagger after the”—Elyria glanced at Cedric, jaw tight, eyes no longer sparkling—“sacrifice was made. Is there a chance that the magic of all those lost within these walls went to the crown?”
Aurelia pursed her star-kissed lips, seeming to contemplate this. “It is...possible,” she conceded after a few moments. “And I would confer with my siblings to determine as much but, alas, I remain unable to do so.”
“Answers would be nice,” Elyria said, inspecting the piece of the crown in her hands like it was the first time she was really looking at it. “But either way, it seems as though whatever magic this thing may or may not have been holding onto has been spent. Feels empty. Sorry about that.”
She tossed the crown up in the air, let it spin, and then caught it between her nimble fingers. Cedric could’ve sworn he saw Aurelia flinch. He also knew that Elyria wasn’t sorry at all, and the thought had the fire in his chest flaring with an absolutely inappropriate sense of pride.
“Wait, why are you unable to confer with your siblings?” Cedric asked, eyes darting back to the celestial.
“Oh, right. You were dead during that part,” Elyria said, the solemnity in her eyes belying the flippancy of her tone. “Evidently, despite our conquering of the Crucible, our fair Arbiter here is not yet free. She needs the crown to be united in order to escape from this place.”
Aurelia nodded. “A shattered crown shall be united, a sundered land re?—”
“Yes, yes, we get it,” Elyria interrupted. She was acting more and more like her old self with each passing moment, and Cedric couldn’t have been more thrilled to see it. “Until the One True Crown is claimed, blah, blah, blah. No freedom for you, no filling the Chasms for us. We understand.”
“All right then,” said Cedric, suppressing the laugh that threatened to bubble up from his gut. “If this is but one half of the crown, dare I ask what happened to the other?”
With a sigh, Aurelia made a sweeping gesture with both arms. “If only I knew. It was given to the mixedborn princess.”
Cedric frowned. “Princess Selenae? But Daephinia’s daughter was killed in the same assassination attempt that took the king’s life. You must be mistaken.”
“I am not.” The chorus of Aurelia’s voice took on a dark quality. “Do not take my admission of lacking total omniscience to mean I do not know the truths of this world, boy.”
Shame burned in Cedric’s cheeks. Perhaps he was letting Elyria rub off on him. He’d forgotten that, for all her faults and mistakes, even if her power was diminished, he was still in the presence of a celestial. The Guardian of Balance. One of the Five. A goddess of starlight and ruin.
“But surely if Selenae had survived, the queen would not have sundered the realm as she did,” Elyria said, voice sharp. She clearly had no such qualms about continuing to disrespect the star god before them. “I do not understand.”
Aurelia’s eyes narrowed. “The queen believed her daughter had been killed, yes.”
Elyria and Cedric waited for her to continue.
The celestial’s cosmic gaze softened, a brief flash of something like regret passing across her starlit face. “Malakar’s purpose in enacting the Great Betrayal was to wipe out the royal family so he could take control of the crown. His strike against his king was as swift as it was brutal. And in the chaos that followed, the princess could not be found. The destruction had been so great, you see. It was easy to think that Selenae, no more than eighteen winters old?—”
“Meaning she was just a child,” Elyria said to Cedric. He nodded, suppressing the shiver that ran across his skin as she whispered herexplanation in his ear. His knowledge of mixedborns was limited, to be sure, but he was aware that they fell somewhere between their two heritages when it came to their growth. Meaning Selenae could have been the equivalent human age of anywhere from six to sixteen, depending on how much she took after her mother.
A child either way.
“—had perished alongside her father,” Aurelia finished. “And yes, she would have been but a child. A mix of her mother’s fae blood and her father’s humanity, Selenae was to be the embodiment of the peoples of Arcanis coming together as one. Born to rule over a united Arcanis.” She paused. “A balanced Arcanis. But that dream died when her father did, buried like so many things, under the weight of Queen Daephinia’s grief.”
A heavy ball of guilt settled in his stomach, and he tried not to think of what he knew happened to mixedborn children in Havensreach.
Elyria sucked in a breath. “So, if Selenae didn’t die alongside the king, then...”
“She was taken from the castle. Spirited away by one charged with her protection, a well-meaning soul who thought to save her from the fate that befell her father. Who knew how far Malakar would go to wipe out the one for whom the crown had been forged? Better to let him—let everyone—think she was dead. Only...”
“Only the queen’s grief was too great,” Elyria said. “Her actions too severe. And by the time it might have been revealed that her daughter was still alive, Daephinia had already ripped Arcanis apart.”
“Why would whoever took Selenae not reveal the truth to the queen?” Cedric asked, aghast. To think that this all might have been avoided had Daephinia only known the truth.
“The one who took her likely believed it necessary to keep her safe.” Aurelia drew a slow breath. “Surely, they feared what would happen if Malakar got his hands on her. Perhaps they meant to return the princess to her mother after Malakar’s defeat. But they could not have foreseen how deep the queen’s grief would run. Could not have imagined the madness of her actions.”
