Nyte said, “This isn’t the only instrument that might help bring her back for a while. Music in many forms lingers strong in her mind.”
“Thank you,” Gweneth said, embracing her mother, whose head tucked under her daughter’s chin.
The look she bore on Nyte filled my chest warmly. Nyte would always harbor the capacity to be the realm’s nightmare; that would never change, and I didn’t want him to. But it was the light in Gweneth’s eyes as she looked at him now that proved Nyte could heal as much as he could hurt.
Gweneth left happily with her mother. Nyte wrapped an arm around me as we watched them leave.
“You didn’t tell me you could play,” I said, my voice choked and shallow.
“This place was in operation for a while when I lived here. I was only a novice at the violin. It’s the instrument I was most drawn to.”
“Why did you stop playing?”
A muscle in his jaw worked. Nyte sat, letting his legs dance over the ledge and the violin rest on his lap. I dropped down beside him, looking over the expanses of seats over both levels.
Nyte said, “The first person I ever let in—considered a friend despite me being an immortal child and him an elderly human man—was the lead violinist who played on that stage every second day. I was so taken by the music, by his instrument in particular, that I had forgotten to erase myself from his mind, and he caught me where I shouldn’t be. He wasn’t mad; he didn’t even ask why I was there. All he did was hand me his violin, and from that day I kept coming back. He taught me a couple of songs, and I learned a few of my own, but I was nowhere close to his masterful skill with it. Anyone can learn a sequence of notes, but there’s a unique tone to every player.”
Tears were already gathering in my eyes, as I knew there was no happy ending to this tale.
Nyte’s voice reduced a little more to continue. “One night I came and the theatre was shut off. Vampires warded outside, and I learned the entire orchestra had been slaughtered. From then on, the theatre was declared closed indefinitely. My father never confronted me about my time here, but I knew he had ordered the massacre.”
I didn’t think there was anything monstrous I could learn about Nyte’s father that would shock me, but this was at the top of the worst. Taking away a token of freedom Nyte had found in music. Shattering an innocent dream before it had the chance to become a mastered passion. Robbing him of something precious that saved him within while the world tore him apart.
Sitting here as the focus of an imaginary audience that filled the empty seats in my mind, Cassia’s spirit came back to me in one of the last memories we shared together.
I like to dance,I’d said to Cassia.I don’t think I’ve ever told you.
I can’t wait to see you dance,she’d replied. So confident and sure even though she knew she was dying and I’d been so oblivious to that dark countdown.On a stage someday.
“How magnificent you would look,” Nyte said quietly, catching the edge of my thoughts I left open to him.
“Never thought I’d see one of those in your hands again.” Drystan’s voice echoed to us from the top level. Nyte set the violin aside. “We’ve wasted enough time. I’ve called Athebyne back and Eltanin came too.”
“It wasn’t wasted time,” I said.
Nyte slipped off the stage and braced his hands on my waist to help me down too. He gave me a squeeze, knowing I meant that our time spent here was worth getting to help Gweneth’s mother and secure an alliance with Astrinus, which was willing to fight on our side if it came to that.
I told Drystan, “We have the true name of the Goddess of Dawn.”
34Nyte
It was strange to see right through the borders of Althenia. The Sterling Mountains had always acted as a sentry before one would cross the border at the other side onto the celestial territory. Not so long ago we wouldn’t have been able to see Althenia even from high atop these mountains, but the tall veil of starlight that kept the celestials protected from outsiders for centuries had shattered when I walked through it in my rage of vengeance after the Golden Guard were killed.
Standing here, I felt more connected to the heavens than the land, watching the pockets of life stretch vastly and endlessly while the rivers wove like threads of silver silk. Althenia was nothing short of a breathtaking masterpiece, with the water breaking the land like a six-pointed star. Yet even the most ethereal and peaceful part of Solanis was tainted by war now. The bloodshed had been blanketed by snow and the ruins of the Nova province were unseen from here.
“This is going to be difficult,” Drystan called over.
We’d been scouring the mountain fringes for hours, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the next temple, when Drystan’s map indicated it should be right here.
I found him and Astraea by the edge of a large body of water. They were staring down into it, and then I understood.
“How deep?” I asked.
“Far too deep for any of us to go that long without air,” Astraea said, crossing her arms and calculating.
“It might even be a fake piece. We should collect the ones we can, then meet back up with the others to see if we’re still missing one,” Drystan suggested.
I stared into the faintly rippling water…
