I might not be able to raise my daughter, but ultimately, she would be safe and close, and there were always loopholes to Fate’s bargains. I just needed to find them. They were puzzles and, like my father, I loved puzzles. I’d find the loophole and protect Elyria from the machinations of the gods.
The artifacts in my pack vibrated in agreement with my thoughts.
Part One
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
Chapter 1
The Girl
The sun rose over the Valley, painting everything in hues of soft gold and bright pink. This was the girl’s favorite time of day—when the sun woke to greet her, and she watched the darkness give way to the light. The sunrise was always too short, in her opinion, and it wasn’t long before the entire Valley was bathed in the golden radiance emanating from above. The muted colors quickly changed to brighter hues, causing the girl to squint to watch the last of the cold night give way to a warm morning.
And a warm morning it would be.
She could already feel the sweat beading on her neck, clinging to her unnaturally bright-white hair and tanned skin as it slowly rolled down her spine. It wouldn’t be long before her kaftan clung to her. She’d have to wash it again once the sun set and the moon rose. She only had two, as did every other female in the village, and like all the other women and girls, she rotated them every day. While she often argued with her mother over the benefits of a third kaftan, their community was one of little waste.
Sure, she’d read about and catalogued some of the faraway places across Elyria where people had rooms—rooms! —filled with all types of clothes, some she had never heard of and had needed the Matriarch to draw for her. She had saved those drawings, stowed them away in the little sack she wasallowed for personal items, and took them out before bed each night, dreaming of faraway places.
Dreaming of leaving this community.
Dreaming of adventure.
But leaving for adventure would certainly mean that she would have to leave her family, and that was something she couldn’t do.
The girl’s great-grandmother was the Matriarch, the Keeper of Memories, and the girl’s future was all but set. The role of Matriarch passed from mother to daughter, and eventually, it would be the girl’s burden to bear. Even if she’d have to waitagesbefore that happened. Her great-grandmother would eventually die, her soul joining their goddess, Solace, and the girl would take her place.
Even though she had eons before it was her turn to lead her people, her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had an endless list of tasks for her to complete each day, which grew increasingly more time-consuming and difficult, much to the girl’s annoyance. Just as she would see success with one of the tasks set to her, like finding Solace during meditation, one of the Matriarchs would assign her another one. Now, instead of just finding Solace, she had tostaythere. Without falling asleep. Andthatwas hard to do.
Many of the other girls in the village were assigned tasks by their mothers and grandmothers, but they were less complex. And their tasks got more menial as they got older. The girl’s great-grandmother said that it was because they only had a fraction of the ability that she would eventually possess, and that caused her training to be much, much longer.
The girl was thankful, albeit slightly, that she was able to focus on the tasks given to her rather than focusing on producing more girls—the more valued gender in the village due to Solace’s favoritism. At least for now. Eventually, that would inevitably be required of her, but her mother said that she had time—she had to at least complete the basic set of tasks, and the girl had no idea how close she was to that. At the very least, she wouldn’t be making babies until after her first bleed, like all of the other girls in her village. One of the girls her age, Layla, had just had her first bleed less than a year ago. The Keeper of Memories matched her with an eligible boy—Mota was two years older than her and was very handsome, according to Layla—and Layla was already pregnant.
The girl scrunched her nose at the thought. Babies were demanding, and they cried all the time.Shestill cried all the time, though she was a rather emotional girl. Plus, she had no interest in boys, they were rather dull and annoying. When the girl had told her mother that, she had simply laughed and said that she wouldn’t always think that way. The girl begged to differ.
The girl huffed and started trekking up the hill on the south side of the Valley. The view was better from here and would help her reach Solace faster—the place built by their goddess of the same name, just for her descendants, the Keepers. The girl always felt more connected to the goddess up on the knoll, and there were very few restrictions on where she could go while she was completing a task. She used that small bit of freedom to her advantage and always fled the village when she could. The girl was not the first to visit this spot to find Solace, there was a large worn circle in the earth, a permanent addition to the grassy hill that was inevitably generations old. Her mother never said anything, but always hid a small smile whenever the girl said she would be going to find Solace. The girl liked the thought that her mother, and her mother before that, and her mother before that, had all found Solace in the same spot.
Her calves burned with the ache of the climb as the kaftan clung to the sweat beading heavily down her back. Finally, after what felt like hours, the girl reached the worn patch of ground on the pinnacle of the knoll. Slowing, the girl pushed air noisily through her nose and out her mouth in a desperate bid to catch her breath. Decorum was demanded by the Matriarch inside the village, but up here, alone, the girl could breathe as loudly and labored as she wanted.
The girl drew up to her full height and shielded her eyes from the sun, gazing at the village and Valley below. It was situated like a bowl, with grassy knolls and ridges on all sides, except for the mountains to the east. It provided a natural barrier from wind and most elements, though the lack of wind and pretty much all other vegetation made for extremely hot and humid days. It could be absolutely stifling down below, and up here, the girl could breathe better. More freely. No one seemed to be as affected by the temperature and dense air as much as she was, and it always made the girl feel like she was defective and different. It’s a feeling she actively had to work on tamping down.
I’m certain that will be my next task, she thought glumly.
The girl cast her gaze across her village, focusing on the land beyond the knolls. There was always some sort of wild animal—a family of deer or the occasional elk moving toward the forest at the base of the mountains—but there were none today.
Odd, the girl thought, but paid it no real attention. She needed to focus on finding, and staying in, Solace.
With a sigh, the girl sat on the ground with athump. She settled on her butt, folding her legs comfortably to her left side while closing her eyes and letting her hands fall into her lap. It wasn’t a conventional pose for meditation, most of her village knelt and folded their chests to meet their knees, prostrating themselves completely, with palms flat on the ground. But she had never felt comfortable that way and felt more in tune with the goddess when she could feel the sun on her face.
She took deep, purposeful, measured breaths as she allowed her mind to drift. Slowly, the girl sank into a sense of peace, where her soul seemed to separate from her body and her mind fell into Solace.
Chapter 2
The Girl
Solace was an infinitely long, completely white hallway with innumerable doors lining both the left and right sides of the space. There was no sound, no windows, and no breeze. And while there was no light, natural or otherwise, the hallway and doors were still illuminated and easy to see. Many times the girl visited Solace and tried to open the doors, but they were locked. It seemed to the girl that something needed to happen to unlock each door, but she hadn’t yet found the key. Solace vibrated with an expectant kind of energy today, it was different than the girl had ever felt, and the thought unnerved her and made her anxious.
She peered around as she walked quickly down the hallway; the girl was unsure what she was heading toward, but something drew her feet forward. The girl passed door after door, the scenery blending together to the point that the girl wasn’t even sure she was moving forward. It wasn’t until she saw an open door farther ahead on her right, that the girl understood that she was actually moving in this space.
