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“He prays it will never come. He gives all his heart to his hopeless quest to restore some vestige of safety and dignity to a ruined land. But it will drain him dry. Now it is my turn to rescue him.”
“The First Prince,” Cassia realized.
“I was born with a rare disease that even the most powerful mages of the Empire could not heal. When I was five, my human family brought me to Orthros. I awoke in the Healing Sanctuary to two realizations. One, my mortal parents had returned to their important life in the Empire, relieved to be free of the ordeal of caring for a daughter who could never fulfill their ambitions for her. Two, I was not in pain. In that moment, I learned for the first time how it felt to not be in pain. Do you know who was sitting beside my bed?”
“He said he inherited both his affinities from Annassa Soteira. He would be a healer, too.”
“Long before he was Prince Regent of Orthros Abroad, long before he went errant, Ioustin completed his training with her in the Healing Sanctuary. I was his first patient after his initiation. He was the first person who ever made me feel I was not a burden. In the weeks he spent striving to defeat my illness, a bond grew between us. He doted on me as much as I adored him.
“When even he could not heal me, he sought her aid. The night she told him only the Gift could free me from my disease, he wept privately at his failure. But what a smile he gave me as the Queens of Orthros asked me if I would like to be his sister.”
To think, Konstantina and Ioustinianos had once loved each other as Zoe and Lio did. Centuries and politics had the power to change a bond that pure.
But not break it. Perhaps only make it stronger.
“Is that why you wish him to return home?” Cassia asked. “You believe he could better serve his people in the Healing Sanctuary?”
“This is not a contest of weighing the lives he could save with his healing against those he saves with his sword.”
“Then why? You know better than anyone how much suffering he has the power to prevent. Why can he not rely on your support for his cause? He cares so deeply about all those who would be destroyed if Hesperines abandoned Tenebra. It is clear you do as well, Second Princess. You cannot really believe the Departure is worth the cost.”
The princess stowed her shears in a nearby storage basket. “That cost is no greater than the one we are paying to remain. We must choose between two tragedies.”
“How can you argue the Departure is the lesser evil? Think of all the people who would never receive the Mercy. When their kin and comrades have left them to die, it is Hesperines who show them that their lives still matter to someone, that their deaths are not in vain. Have you been immortal so long now that you cannot imagine what it feels like to face your end alone?”
“You forget yourself,” the princess warned. “I still mourn the Hesperines errant who have died without the Mercy while trying to save mortals.”
“What about the children? Would you deny them the life you have? How can you bear to think of infants freezing to death or being torn to shreds by predators—”
“Enough.” The princess held up a hand. “I am a mother. There is nothing you can teach me about children. Tonight you have seen how many of my family were not adopted from the Empire. You cannot possibly know the pain I feel when I imagine what might have befallen my own children and descendants from Tenebra, had they never been Solaced.”
“How do you bear it? Why not devote your power here in Orthros to supporting your brother’s mission Abroad? You could be the Charge’s greatest ally.”
“To be a Hesperine errant is to awaken from every Slumber knowing this may be the night you lay down your life for the Goddess. To not be a Hesperine errant is to lie awake counting the lives you could not save.” Konstantina drew a deep breath. “I thank the Goddess for every one of us who made it home. But I will not see any more Hesperine blood spilled for roses that will never grow. It is time for Ioustin to abandon his fruitless labor. He is all but withered. The soil of Tenebra is starving him.”
“What about the Hesperites? Is not their mission to keep human Hespera worship alive in Tenebra a noble calling?”
“Ioustin will have no choice but to bring them to Orthros with him, where they belong. Worshipers of Hespera living as mortals in Tenebra and dying without the Gift is an open wound on the spirit of our people. They can finally become Hesperines.”
“What about Nike?”
“You should understand about Nike most of all. She was like an elder sister to me.”
“Invoking sisters will only harden me against your cause.”
“Imagine if you could relive the night of your sibling’s death—but this time, with wisdom and power. What would you give up to save her life? What wouldn’t you sacrifice?”
Cassia took a step back.
“I cannot save Nike,” the princess said to the Sanctuary Rose above them. “I could not save Methu. But my brother is still within my reach.”
“Methu?” Cassia echoed.
“Prometheus. So much died with him. Ioustin needs to realize he did not. He needs to begin a new life here in Orthros and put down roots.”
“You think he could do that while his comrades are missing?”
“He must have told you and Lio about the disappearances. Our people are vanishing without a trace. Who will be next? It is time for Ioustin to realize he is chasing Hesperines who are no longer there. He must bring home those who remain to him before it is too late. The fallen are with the Goddess in Sanctuary. We should not begrudge them that. But as my heart beats, my brother will not join the ranks of Orthros’s martyrs.”
