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Keres remained impassive, but everyone else sat up a little straighter. Clearly, there were questions.
“I saw Cyrene.”
Vera rose to her feet. “But Cyrene is alive!”
“I know. I was concerned about that too. She said that I summoned her there and she was there to help me. I was escorted to a sort of tribunal before deceased Doma. Or at least, I think most of them were Doma because Helly was there. She was my mentor,” Kerrigan explained. “But fully Fae as far as I know.”
“How do you know the rest were Doma?” Keres asked.
Kerrigan shrugged. “Cyrene said so.”
“And who is Cyrene?”
Vera waved her hand. “She was my prodigy. She lives in the other world.”
Keres nodded, as if satisfied with that answer, but Kerrigan couldn’t leave it at that.
“She was my idol. I looked up to her. She was just a human, and yet she was changing the world. I wanted to be more than I was because of her.”
“Cyrene makes everyone feel like that,” Vera whispered.
“She does,” Kerrigan agreed. “I miss her.”
“As do I.”
“What happened after she took you to this tribunal? What was the court assembled for?” Keres asked.
“They were debating whether or not to return my magic. Because I … I’m descended from He Who Reigns, and he has done much damage.”
Keres’s lips pursed. “I see. But they finally agreed. Why?”
“The leader of the group was his mother.”
Keres took a step backward. “You saw my grandmother?”
“Yes. She never gave her name, but she said that she birthed He Who Reigns and she wasn’t punished for it. So, I shouldn’t be either.”
“I see.” Keres turned her back on the group. “Did she give a name for herself?”
“No.”
Keres gulped. “He struck her name from memory. Even I can’t remember it. I was hoping …”
“He can do that?” Danae asked softly in wonder.
“Yes. He can do so much worse.”
Kerrigan’s heart went out to her mother. She and Kivrin had never really gotten along, but he wasn’t a monster. Not like He Who Reigns. What must it be like for Keres to have divided loyalty to a man like that?
“Continue,” Keres said, swallowing back the emotion she was choking on.
“I bled.” She turned her forearms over and was surprised to see matching scars. They were old now. Almost silvery but still very real. “And then I went for my magic. I met … a star goddess. I don’t know how else to explain it, but she told me I was taking too much and to stop. When she touched me, I woke up in the water again.”
“A star goddess?” Vera asked in confusion. “Have you heard of such a thing?”
“No,” Keres admitted.
“Nor I,” Cleora said.
“Though it explains the pool,” Fordham said.
“It, uh … sounds like an Andine tale,” Danae interjected.
All eyes turned to her, and she flushed at the attention. She had made herself so small since coming along with them that it was hard to remember the bold girl who had stood up for herself before her father, a king of Andine.
“I’m not familiar with Andine tales,” Keres admitted.
“Nor am I,” Cleora agreed.
“Well, we had many tales about our gods and goddesses. After the war, we weren’t to speak of them anymore. But back home, I kept an altar to our gods. I tried to keep the stories alive in me, even when they were being wiped out.” Danae sighed. “I don’t know how much it matters, but our gods weren’t like the Doma. They were powerful beings that existed on another plane. And the star goddess was one such tale. She and her husband and lover held power over the stars, planets, and moons. Together, they kept the celestial bodies moving, and you could wish upon her benevolence whenever you saw a shooting star.”
“I had heard that story,” Keres admitted. “I hadn’t taken it at face value though. I thought it just a story.”
Danae shook her head. “Not to Andine.”
“Interesting.”
“Well, whether I met your star goddess or not, I have my power back,” Kerrigan said, holding a small flame in her hand. “And now … now, I think it’s time to go home. Any thoughts on where to find a portal?”
Cleora sighed. “They’re heavily guarded. There’s only three in Domara, and He Who Reigns uses them exclusively. Even the other Doma aren’t allowed to use them without permission.”
Kerrigan glanced at her mother. “Is that true?”
“Yes,” Keres admitted.
“So … how do we break in and use one?” Kerrigan asked.
Fordham sighed at her side. “Why did I know that was going to be the way your mind worked?”
“Because it’s obvious. If we need a way back home and there’re only three portals, then we go to the nearest one, infiltrate the area, and walk through it.”
“And the guards?” Fordham asked.
“And dragons,” Cleora added. “They’re not like your dragons. Ours are beasts.”
“Keres,” Vera said with an arched eyebrow.
