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“Be easy, Alem,” Sohvi said. “There may be a way I can help her, but I must examine her first. It will not take long.”
Alem stared at the meridian, and Verve could not remember a time when anyone had argued for her safety as he’d done. At last he said, “You have two minutes.”
Sohvi nodded and looked back at Verve. Show me what happened, Sohvi said in Verve’s mind. Show me what happened when Celidon died.
Only some of that made sense. Verve frowned up at the meridian, trying to recall. “Legion came…”
Save your voice, Sohvi said to Verve, the words still echoing softly in Verve’s mind. She pressed the fingers of one hand to her temple. Think over the memory, and I will see.
Recalling the encounter with Legion was almost worse than experiencing it. But Sohvi sat calmly through Verve’s remembrance, somehow, and when it was done, the meridian exhaled and sat back on her heels.
Hasina came over, her steps silent despite her multitude of weapons. “Well?”
“As I suspected,” Sohvi said. “Celidon passed his Fae spirit to the assassin.”
“She has a name,” Alem ground out.
Sohvi nodded absently, her gaze on Verve once more. “It’s not supposed to be this way,” she said bitterly. “Becoming one of us is an honor, a privilege, one that takes years of training to even begin to understand. And now it’s been thrust upon her with no warning.”
Alem had not let Verve’s hands go, but at this, he went still. “Wait… You’re saying Verve is a meridian now?”
“So it seems.” Sohvi looked at Verve. “That voice you’re hearing, that unfamiliar presence you feel… their name is Space-Between-Stars. It is this Fae’s soul that Celidon joined with yours.”
Space-Between-Stars. Well, Verve had heard weirder names. But she refused to entertain any thoughts about her—their—situation beyond…
I don’t want it, Verve managed to reply. Take it back.
“It will take some time to acclimate,” Sohvi said aloud. “But you are a meridian now, Vervaine.”
A ripple of dark humor echoed in Verve’s mind as Space-Between-Stars laughed. Sohvi took too long to find us. You and I are now bonded until your death. As far as you’re concerned, our bond is forever.
* * *
Verve could not recall being helpless like this, not in many years. Over the next few days, she watched the sky a lot, for Alem and Hasina had placed her onto the Zhee trader’s wagon that Alem had hired. And once they’d left the wagon behind, Verve stared up at the brilliant blue sky as the world drifted past the new, larger canoe Alem had acquired. No one spoke to her much, which made sense, for she faded in and out of consciousness. The trip back to Lotis might have been a dream, if not for the searing pain that returned whenever Alem’s magic wore off.
Throughout the entire journey, Verve could sense Space-Between-Stars’s disgust at their new host, like the bitter tang of bile in the back of her throat.
Later, she woke in the dead of night, wrapped in shadows, confined in an unfamiliar place. Disoriented, Verve cried out in Sufa.
Then Ivet was beside her, pressing Verve to her chest, murmuring soothing words in their shared tongue. “Easy now, vidahem. Be easy. You’re safe. You’re home.”
Love flowed from Ivet’s bright spirit — there was no mistaking the feeling. Love like Verve had not known since that horrific day almost two decades ago; a mother’s love for her lost child. Tears sprang to Verve’s eyes and she was too weak to stop them from soaking the older woman’s tunic.
But Ivet only held her close, stroking her hair. “You’re safe, Verve. You’re home.”
Sunlight poured into the room when Verve surfaced again. At first she could only stare at the wooden beams of Ivet’s cottage, where tiny rainbows danced, cast by the crystal hung in the window.
As she watched the rainbows, a memory surfaced. She was one among a group of supplicants, kneeling in prayer inside a cavernous temple overlooking a city she’d never seen before. Voices rose in unison all around her.
“The One is life, and life’s mysteries are boundless. Mortals such as we cannot hope to fathom the true nature of the One, but there is always harmony in the One’s creations. As a shaft of sunlight pierces a crystal to create a multitude of colors, so did the One provide us with our gods, who are present in our daily lives, who watch over us and protect us when we have the greatest need.”
The Promise of the One. An ancient prayer, set down by the first settlers of Aredia, over a thousand years ago. And while Verve didn’t think of the other gods very much, the understanding that worship of the One had once been widely practiced brought a sense of comfort, like a warm blanket wrapped around her shoulders. This memory was older than her, perhaps even older than the Sundering.
Where the memory itself had come from, she could not say.
She hurt all over, but the pain was languid, and when she lifted her arm to examine her once-broken fingers, they flexed and moved with only a dull ache.
Dead. She should be dead, but for Alem.
