She sees it then. The slight slant to Kael’s eyes that match Kiva’s. The golden hue to his skin that is more than warmth granted by the sun.
Then, it hits her. “She was from Caeloria.” Her eyes snap to Kael’s. “Youare from Caeloria.”
Kael, Laryn, and Kiva offer sad nods. As if the grief of losing her still bleeds. As if home is lost to them.
“From the Outside?” Elyssara asks, still trying to piece it all together.
“No,” Kiva says, more firmly this time. “We were a family of nobility. Of pride. Of power. Yvesha and I were ladies-in-waiting for Her Majesty Queen Maireth.” Kiva’s words taper off into bitterness.
“That was until King Aurius of The Shadow Wastes walked through the walls of Azhareth Castle and did not have eyes for Queen Maireth as her Royal Highness had planned, but Yvesha instead,” Kiva explains, allowing the words to hang in the air.
Elyssara’s eyes snap up. “She cast you out because a foreign king loved your sister?” she asks, her incredulity suffocating the room.
Laryn barks a humorless laugh. “Oh, she said it hadnothingto do with that. But slowly, over time, Kiva was pushed out and trade to The Wastes slowed and when Maldrak took over, it stopped completely.”
Elyssara’s gut roils.
Maireth made it personal. Ruined lives for her own rejection.
“What did The Wastes used to trade with Caeloria?”
Kael drags an uneven chair across the wooden floor, and settles into it like the chair itself can absorb his pain. “Long ago, they traded fabrics, herbs, spices, building materials, in exchange for our military alliance, threvenar, zarethite forweapons. Then, it was reduced to threvenar in exchange for building materials. And finally, nothing at all.”
Kiva sinks into the chair beside Laryn. “It was punishment. We all knew it.” She shakes her head, sadness creeping into her expression. “It was fickleness and rejection dressed as policy.”
Laryn growls under his breath. “Policies she fuckin’ created!”
Kiva strokes his arm, soothing him with her touch. As if they’ve been over this thousands of times, and still, the ache does not lessen—it echoes like a scream in an endless void.
He pushes forward, sitting at the edge of his chair. “Kiva was pushed further and further from Azhareth Castle. But when her father passed, Maireth had free reign to remove her altogether until she was barely at the fringes of the Outside. No one spoke of it. Maireth never addressed it. Just slowly, systematically, eradicated the family—socially, politically, economically.Gone.”
Holy fucking Stars.
“So she just erases whatever doesn’t align with her will?” Elyssara snaps, appalled.
Kiva smiles softly—a wistful look of nostalgia. “My word, you are so much like her.”
Kael’s eyes turn glassy, but he shoves down the emotion and furrows his brow, intent on strategizing a plan.
“Maireth’s still engineering the realms to her will, Kiva. She’s monopolized memory—history. We believe she’s holding Dravara’s Memory Orbs in Azhareth’s vault,” Kael says, voice tightening into fury and precision. “From everything we can track, Thalmyr pays handsomely for her to protect them.”
Kiva growls. “Whatever you’re planning, Kael—stop. Stopnow. We’ve lost too much to that woman already.”
But Kael doesn’t stop. He doesn’t knowhowto stop. Kael knows force and power and strategy far more than he knows restraint.
“We need to get into the city proper without detection.” He pauses for a moment, letting the request sink in. “And we need a map of the castle.”
Laryn sucks his teeth. “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath.
“You’d have better luck escaping the guillotine, Kael,” Kiva snaps, teeth bared, tendons protruding from her neck.
But Kael is unfazed. “Regardless, we need those Orbs. Dravaramustremember. Elyssaramusttake back her throne.”
His aunt stares him down with the staunchness of a woman who could only come from Kael’s bloodline. Stubborn—unflinching in the face of the impossible.
In the face of systems that make tyrants look reasonable.
Because if there’s one thing Elyssara knows without a single doubt, it’s that Kael does not balk—not at kings, queens, or gods.He bows for no one but her.
