Chapter 63
63
I fell, thrashing through water, and it filled my lungs and shot through me, shoving out the fire that was searing my veins.
I was dying.
I was being dragged down to dark depths, and I couldn’t open my eyes. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t hear, couldn’t breathe.
You need to keep fighting.
Tristen’s words rushed through me. How? How could I keep going after all that I had endured? The sixth trial had ripped me apart. I had given everything, and I had nothing left. All of those who had told me I wouldn’t be able to survive them had been right.
At the end of it all, I had tried to be brave, tried to be strong, but the current was dark and I was growing cold.
The current slowed, and ahead I could see a bright light, winding with warmth and a promise of the end of pain. But as the current released me from its grip, I did not swim to it even as my breaking body begged me to.
Memories started flashing through my mind, the precious few I had. Not memories of the death and pain of the trials, but memories of him. Of Tristen. Our wedding day, even as it was cut short, and the way he gazed at me like I was his salvation. His Sael .
“Why do you pause?”
I opened my eyes. The dark water was still crushing down on me, the pressure crunching my bones and tearing my organs. Before me floated a goddess, her hair the color of the rainbow as it fanned from her glowing skin in the current. I remembered her statue at the Temple of Orsi.
“I want to go back to him,” I choked out, my voice weak.
She quirked her head. “Peace awaits you, my child. Why would you turn away from it now?”
I shook my head, the effort extraordinary so far underwater. “I do not want peace. I love him.”
“Love is a terrible thing,” she said. “Love always precedes loss. You will always be in pain as long as you love.”
“I will take any pain,” I said, and I meant it. “I want to return to him.”
“Have you learned nothing?”
I remembered my offering at her temple. “Haven’t I killed enough for you? It was you who gifted me the Bluesteel Blade, wasn’t it?”
She sighed. “It was. Your bloodline has much left to do with it, still.”
“Then let me continue to fight.”
The Goddess Orsi examined me with her otherworldly eyes. “He has fought for you, too. He’s still fighting for you to return. And… I will allow it, even though what lies ahead of you is great pain. Yours will not be an easy love.”
I almost laughed. “I do not choose easy. I choose him . I choose life.”
She took one hard look at me, and then nodded. “Very well. The waters of Aetherna have parted for you, and for his sacrifice and your role to play in all this, I will give you what you’re owed.”
The current encircled me and broke every bone in my body. I screamed, but it was wordless as the water crushed my lungs.
The goddess leaned forward, punching her hand through my chest, and in a pain more blinding than anything I’d known, she squeezed my heart until it burst.
In that moment, I became the darkness.
It was dark, but this time I was floating about the still water.
I opened my eyes to the night sky. It was so sharp, so clear. Had the stars always shone this brightly?
Suddenly, I heard a splashing noise.
“Saffron!”
My head was heavy, and I couldn’t turn it. Couldn’t even tilt it to see who was calling my name. But their voice was deep and rough with emotion. I heard their emotions like music notes. Did voices always sound like that?
“Saffron,” the voice said, so urgent. Finally, the owner of the voice came into view, leaning over me.
He was the future King of Stormgard, the Brightborne of Madness and Endings, and the owner of my heart.
“Tristen,” I said, wanting to reach for him, but my hand wouldn’t move.
His eyes widened as he took me in. “You’re… she really did it.”
“Did what?”
“We need to get you out,” he said, already slipping his hands underneath my legs and cradling my neck.
“Where am I?” I asked, my body limp in his arms as he waded to shore.
“Lake Aetherna,” he said, barely able to take his eyes off of me as he carried me to shore. “The waters of the Temple of Orsi flow down here, and it’s a place of healing and rebirth. You...”
“I died. The goddess Orsi killed me,” I said. “This must be heaven if you’re here.”
Tristen reached the shore, and gently set me down on the grassy bank. The night sky glinted on the lake behind him.
I tried to move my limbs, but they felt weird and wobbly as if blood was flowing to them for the first time.
Tristen cradled my head. “Don’t panic, Saffron.”
I frowned up at him. “Why would I panic?”
“You’re no longer human,” he breathed.
Even though he told me not to panic, I found the strength in my arms to finally push me upright. I rose on unsteady feet, Tristen by my side. I approached the shore, and in the placid waters of the lake, I saw myself.
My long blonde hair seemed to float off my body, which was coated in a warm glow. My blue eyes seemed to sparkle and swirl like mist atop an endless ocean, and my facial features were the same, yet different. There was a subtle harmony to the proportions of my face and my body that did not look ordinary. My slight frame had elongated into a willowy hourglass shape, and my jawline was sharper, my lips more plush and my skin more youthful. I held out my left hand, where the mark of the Ash Trials had disappeared. Looking back at the reflection in the water, I put together all of the pieces.
“I’m a Brightborne,” I whispered in awe, turning to Tristen. He was still in his true form, and he had a slight glow to him. “Like you. How?”
“The Goddess Orsi decided to grant you a favor. I’m so glad she brought you back to me,” Tristen said. He looked relieved, but there was still a strange tension to his features.
“I remember… you made a deal. What did you do?” I asked, knowing there was more to this.
“I just asked my father for a favor.”
Nocterin . “What did it cost?”
“Nothing. He did it for me. For us. Now we have to go,” Tristen urged me. “The other gods won’t like what you’ve become.”
Tristen started to lead me back to a moonlit path, but a strange noise made me pause. It was a whispering on the wind, a chorus of many ancient voices.
I was now hearing the conversations of the gods as they grew in strength.