Auryn’s breath caught. The thought pressed against something tender, aching.
“Why did you come to the rift?”
Thessia tied off the braid, her fingers brushing Auryn’s nape. She rested her palm there, warm. “Because I had to. Because watching you fall felt like watching something…important break. I didn’t understand it. I still don’t. I only knew I couldn’t bear it.”
Auryn turned fully, bare feet brushing canvas, braid sliding over her shoulder. She touched Thessia’s wrist. The warrior flinched—then smoothed her expression, as she’d done a thousand times before.
“Do you not want to ask me about my magic? How I did what I did?”
Thessia’s storm-gray eyes held hers. “I think I’m past that. You’re you. Isn’t that what you told me before?”
Auryn nodded.
“So why should anything else matter?”
Auryn turned her hand, twining their fingers. “Your heart sings,” she whispered. “But I won’t listen until you tell me to.”
Thessia closed her eyes. Just for a breath.
20
The Kelvasari Divided
The world was pitch black, endless, and cold. Over the last few days, the Cycle of Dark had swallowed the sun whole. Not even the promise of dawn lingered on the horizon. Auryn couldn’t even see the clouds above. Just the stars, when they chose to shine through the merciless fog.
Only the Resh’Agar had the knowledge, wisdom, and experience to lead the Kelvasari and the Riven Blades through the heartless night. Having traversed this land many times, he knew its dips and ridges, knew the stars better than most astronomers could claim. But navigating by the stars meant sleeping during the day, and the company still reeled from the shift in schedule.
Torrents of rain slicked the ridges of the camp, dripping in steady rivulets, turning the ground beneath Auryn’s boots into viscous mud. Taking even one step was a chore, as the ground clung to her feet like molasses. The wind pierced through even the warmest of furs, cutting to the quick, unrelenting as it stole one’s breath.
Yet Auryn pressed on.
Kailorien hadn’t approved, but she’d requested to come inspect the wards the past few nights since she’d shown him and Thessia the workaround with copper. Now she stood before the eastern Anchor, her hand hovering over its ley lines. The glow inside was weak, its humfaltering, broken in places like a singer losing breath. Auryn tilted her head, listening, silver eyes half-lidded as though the sound spoke only to her.
They’ve removed it.Just as the thought crossed her mind, the mud behind her squelched beneath multiple sets of booted feet.
“Look, she’s here again.”
The voice cut sharply through the storm. Auryn did not turn, but the sounds of the mud told her they were closing in. Three Riftwardens, cloaks drawn against the rain, faces shadowed but their eyes glittering with suspicion. She turned to face them, just as she had the past few days when they’d come to ask about her origins.
“You never did answer us properly yesterday,” one with black hair and green eyes demanded. His tone was not curious. It simmered with frustration.
Another stepped closer, holding a dowsing rod and a crimson leather satchel. “What Line trained you? If you are a mage of any worth, you would present yourself.”
The third, a slight man with narrow shoulders, sneered. “She doesn’t present because she has no qualifications.”
“She is not from Krystopolis,” the first one said. “No Krystopolitan would suffer such…frailty.” His gaze swept her small frame.
The third sneered. “And yet she walks among us. Speaks to the Resh’Agar as though she has the right.”
Auryn took a breath and sighed. Weary of their rambling. She turned back to the Anchor, fingers brushing the curve of the rune, steady as ever. “Why do you need to train, when all you must do is listen?” she said. “The world sings—in memory and in magic both.”
A rough laugh answered her. The third Warden elbowed his companion. “I told you. She’s a witch. Aheretic.”
And then he saidanother word, one that didn’t belong to the common tongue. Old, barbed, a curse from before memory. Auryn didn’t know its meaning, but its syllables cut like glass, and the air recoiled from it.
The others flinched but said nothing.
Auryn’s hand stilled. She met the man’s gaze.
