41. Caspyn
Chapter 41
Gripping my blades, I took off at a run, plunging myself deeper into the trees, into the dark where fog swirled at the sounds of birds long since forgotten echoed off gnarled trunks. I continued after that pull at a run, panic fueling me forward in a way it never had. The strings of energy throbbed alongside my magic as it yanked me forward. The bright gold line grew stronger and stronger with each step as I moved. Then, as though it had hit a wall, all of that pulling and yanking stopped as I ran into a clearing, my filthy boots splashing into the pond of a marsh I hadn’t been anywhere near moments before.
I had been pulled forward, that line dragging me through more than just space.
Crickets and birds sang their displeasure at the sudden disruption, the wind whistling through branches and wide leaves as though it too was upset at my arrival. I was frozen, staring at the pond. Bright purple lilies floated on the surface, their yellow centers glowing like the marks on the Lightens’ arms, as though they were reflecting the light of the moon. No, as though the light of the moon was trapped within them.
I knew what they were at once. I had seen them enough in the delicate paintings covering the walls of our home before my world had been blown to bits.
Caspyn lilies.
They looked like little dots of gold amongst the inky pool, bringing light to a world that had none.
“Caspyn Light Bringer,” I whispered, stepping back into the water as though those dainty little flowers were pulling me in. Water lapped around my ankles, my boots keeping the water away, even though I swore I could feel it.
Feel its warmth.
Warm water in the midst of the dark forest.
The water didn’t give the slightest ripple as I stepped further into it. The surface remained clear and smooth, reflecting the light of the delicate lilies that drifted atop it. The lilies smelled of light and sun and something soft that I swore I had scented before. The aroma swirled around me, tugging with as much strength of the pull that was still prickling over every inch of me.
“I had a feeling you would see them before your time with us was at a close,” Ryndle said from behind me. I didn’t turn, I stared at those flowers, wanting to move closer, wanting to touch them. I couldn’t prod myself forward. “I knew they would choose for you to see them.”
That time I turned to the man who was perched on a rock beside the pond, one leg up as though he had been watching me the whole time.
“What do you mean they would choose?” I asked, standing up to my knees in the curiously warm pond water.
For once, Ryndle didn’t smile.
“These flowers carry the last light of the Fae who fell in the battle that sent our people in exile, the last battle of the Black War.” His tone was flat, his eyes drifting from me to the flowers that glowed and floated in the water behind me.
“The last light? But they are flowers,” I spoke slowly, even as something in me was screaming that they were so much more.
Looking at them now, at the real thing, the paintings that covered the cabinets of my home as a child were nothing more than a crude sketch. These were light, and I could have sworn Mother and Lily were standing there with me, watching them. That familiar ache rose up and I pushed it down, into the same black pit that all my memories of them belonged in. The ache didn’t leave, however, it twisted itself alongside the darkness that was always in me.
“And you are a man who can walk through time.” I shouldn’t be surprised that he knew, and with how he was looking at me now I had a feeling that he always had, even before the fight.
“You said you would tell me everything, Ryndle. So tell me.” The calm that the flowers had brought ebbed away as I took a step closer, the warm water swirling past my knees and taking all of the blood with it.
“Start with how you know about magic? How you moved those tents? How Lyani knew what had happened before? Tell me all of that.” I demanded one after another, Ryndle did nothing more than blink, the tiny motion pulling all of my rage up in a heat that I was surprised didn’t send the pond to boil. “No more games, Ryndle. I know you know.”
“So many questions.” He picked at a bit of moss on the rock.
“And I expect so many answers.” I made sure to use his same inflection, if only to drive him crazy. Judging by the tiny flinch in his smile I would say that it worked.
“The power of time is known as Vynari,” he plucked another bit of moss from the rock, inspecting it before popping it into his mouth. He wasn’t the first I had heard use that word, although thinking about the other was turning all of that heat into an inferno. I pushed it back down, I needed to be careful.
“It is a power that is only held by a select few. I do not know how you came to hold it,” he continued, sliding from the rock. “There are only a few who know how to wield the Vynari power. All of them know how to manipulate it better than you.”
“That King, Vaelar,” saying his name burned my tongue, “he could step through time. He said the same.”
“Yes, he is the eldest of our kind to have been blessed with the gift. He has used it to save many.”
Ryndle was clearly in awe of the man, understandable seeing as he was his King. I, however, would never be in awe of him. I laughed with a bark that made Ryndle flinch.
“He was nothing but a murderer in my time.” I said through the harsh edge of my laugh, Ryndle pressed his lips together. The poor man looked as though I had shattered his world.
“You have seen it?”
I nodded, I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to share with him. Ryndle had, in a way, proven himself trustworthy. The Lightens proved that all Fae were not monsters. I had witnessed too much to think that it extended to all Fae, however.
“I have. In my time Vaelar is a hunter, he murders children for the queen.” I spoke carefully, watching Ryndle for any tell I might have missed before.
“There are many things in the future that do not make sense with our time now. Vaelar has walked far trying to understand it, trying to stop so much of that darkness from infecting Okivo. There is only one point that we have found that joins everything. When The Princess Elara faces the queen–”
“The Crimson Stained Altar.” I cut him off, my mind rushing to all of the stories that I had been told, to that moment that I had prepared my whole life to face, to kill the queen.
He nodded. “Yes, to save Okivo everything rests on that moment. It is why the Catalysts die, it is why Vaelar is controlled by the queen. She has many in her employ. Even now we see many Fae trapped under her thumb, seemingly oblivious to the path they have chosen.”
“Except for the ones I have killed in her name.” It had never made sense to me, she had an entire army of Fae soldiers in the time of the Red Wave that I was born into, yet she paid Fae killers like me to hunt them. I said the words as though to debunk what Ryndle was saying, but he nodded as though he understood.
“Yes, but that only leads her to more. You kill, and she sends her enslaved Fae to where they were killed, they hunt down others, using the same paths and safe routes that we have spent centuries maintaining. For each Fae that is killed she is able to capture two, sometimes as many as five more, using those same safe routes and safe houses. They hunt them down, and enslave them as well.” His face was pained, the sorrow dripping in the air between us. Water lapped around my calves as I remembered those Fae gathered around a map, trying to find a route that was still open out of the city.
Yersua had said the guards put a dot on the map when they delivered the ears. A dot to hunt down more, to create an army of Fae to hunt and destroy the Catalysts.
She had an army of Fae, and all this time I had been helping her to build it.
I didn’t know if I was going to be sick all over this beautiful pond, or if I needed to take my blades and fire and lay waste to the clearing. The sickly anger was quickly taking control.
I flexed my hands, forcing myself to breathe as Ryndle slid from his rock and stepped closer, clearly sensing the storm that was ready to explode from me.
“We do not know how she entraps them,” Ryndle continued as though it was the enslavement of his people that was driving me into my fury. “We cannot get close to the ones she has captured. We can only assume whatever fate fell them awaits Vaelar. We must stop that before it occurs. We must stop it all.”
“We?” I nearly spat the word.
“Yes. Isn’t that why you seek the Queen? To stop her. To stop what is coming?” He lifted an eyebrow, the poor man actually seemed concerned that he had misread me.
“For me. For my sister Lily. For the Catalysts. Not for the Fae.” I was firm, his absurd smile returned however, the thing spreading as he took a step into the waves.
“I see. Your past leads to your future, Caspyn. Just as ours does. It is the same.”
“It is not the same.” I spat, the darkness that was boiling inside of me seeped through my voice, Ryndle’s eyes narrowed in concern.
“It is. I have told you some of the histories, have you not found the truth in them?” He paused for only a moment, his eyes drifting back to the lilies. He looked at them lovingly, almost as though he was a proud father… no, I realized with a start, he looked at those flowers as all of his followers looked at him.
“The Goddess enslaved the Lynar to win her battle,” he began when I didn’t answer, the words like a drum beat. “She used their magic against the Sister and the rest of her people, The Fae.”
I nodded, that much I had figured out based on what he said, although it still did not make sense.
“If the Fae had always had magic, if the Fae had never been the ones to enslave the Lynar then why did the stories change? Why say the Fae enslaved and stole their magic if they always had it? What magic do the Lynar have that lets them defeat the Fae?”
“More Questions, Caspyn?” He didn’t smile that time.
“Until I get my answers.”
“Histories change to benefit those who need them, Light Bringer. The Fae’s power is drawn from the depths of our world, as is the Lynar’s. It is different ties, different control, but it is the same. The Goddess had allied with the witches, with their spells and dark magic on her side there was no hope for the sister. So, the sister sent her people, the Fae, into exile after the last battle. The battle that stood at the edge of the Forest of Ok, where the temple now stands. The sister gave her life to give her people a chance to flee, she let her magic consume her as she lay with the masses of her people that had already fallen. She sent the pure light of love, of Fae, out from her and protected her people. It moved through the fallen, bringing forth their light, and keeping them safe. It is said that everywhere a Fae had fallen a red tree of Ok grew; and every place a Fae stood to fight a lily grew, its light bright with the life of the Fae as it swallowed all of that power and kept it safe.”
“So that is why they glow? Because they have Fae… souls… trapped in there?”
“It is said that the light of the Fae would have left forever if Cassia hadn’t found a way to save it, if the lilies hadn’t swallowed it.”
“Caspyn should mean light saver, not bringer, then,” I snarled, he shook his head.
“Light bringer because someday all the light will find its way home, and these lilies will be the one to show it there, to bring it back to where it belongs.” I didn’t like the way he said that, or the look he gave me when he did.
I had plans to kill the queen, not bring light back or whatever he was spouting.
“They are just lilies.” I suddenly felt the need to get out of the pond, to get away from all of this nonsense.
It was nonsense, all of it. I don’t know why I assumed Ryndle would actually give me answers. It was only more lies. More odd riddles that led me nowhere.
Water dripped from me as I took the last few steps back to land, Ryndle already right on my heels.
“Are they?” The question was a soft hiss as he leaned in. I tried to shrug him off, he moved closer. “They brought you here, and they have led you down many other paths. You feel it in them, the souls of the Fae?”
I froze as that prickle of energy moved over my skin, the strong tug of power that I had always associated with danger and a warning of approaching Fae feeling more like hope and light. For decades that pull had led me to my quarry, it had led me deeper into a world that was drenched in blood. Now, was no different, even if there was no blood there.
“Why do some Fae feel this way and others… like you… why do I feel nothing from you? You are Fae.” It wasn’t a question and thankfully he nodded in agreement.
“I am. But I have hidden that part of me to protect The Children of the Light. To keep us hidden.”
“Is that why you don’t have…” I gestured to my ears, unsure of how to put it.
“Yes. That is just a bit of magic.” One of the tattoos on his arms glowed as he lifted his hand to his ear, the word that glimmered there shining bright as he dropped his hand, revealing the sharp pointed ear of a Fae.
The moment he did, the glittering warning that I had always expected from him came roaring to life, ringing in my ears in a hideous scream.
“Ohrya. It means hide. Of course, hiding that also means hiding my magic.” He sliced his hand forward, a line of fire rippling from his fingers to cut through the dark. It vanished without so much as a puff of smoke.
“Is that how… the words…” I was still staring at the glowing word, at the sharp point of his ears to even fight him over his claim.
It fit, it fit with so many things. That low thrum of power I had felt from Theadore, my great-grandfather, the power I had taken from him. He had said he was Fae, but not. Because he was hiding.
“I have told you, Caspyn, words have power.” Ryndle held his hand out, the lilies glow shining brighter even as the shimmer of the swirling word on his arm faded. It was as though whatever light was in the flowers recognized him. “We have written the words on our skin to protect us when those of our kind will hunt us, I have taught the Children of the Light how to use those words, to use the power of Okivo. I believe you will learn to use yours soon enough.”
That word on his arm glowed again, the shimmering light from his fingers vanishing as the point in his ears did. As the throbbing screaming warning of him did.
“So, the Fae I have been killing…”
“Are some of our strongest warriors.” I didn’t miss that pang of loss in his voice, that low pain of something that could not be replaced. Something that I had taken from him. “You are powerful indeed to end the lives of those who have lived for so long.”
Something tugged at my core hearing that, remembering what Lyani had said that first day I was forced to drive that awful wagon; about how long Ryndle had led them.
“Haven't you lived for as long?”
“I have lived for many ages, for many hundred years, but not so long as many of my kind.” Oddly he seemed almost glad of that, as though he had dodged a fate worse than death. Perhaps he had.
“And you, Caspyn, how long have you lived?”
“Too many lifetimes, but somehow not enough.” To be honest I had never counted. I had traveled through far too many ages to be able to count.
“Do all Fae age like us?”
“Oh, you are not Fae, Caspyn. At least not in the way you assume.” I started, the water not so much as making a splash as I abruptly turned to him. I had ended my great-grandfather, I had taken his magic, I had seen him with their king. Fae… but not.
Perhaps he was not hiding then.
“You are Lynar,” he finished before I had a chance to ask. “Like all who live in Okivo. The descendants of the Sister.”
“But the Lynar… Wait. What did you say?” I had meant to ask about the magic of the Lynar, but his words had derailed me, leaving me staring at him. “The descendants of the Sister?”
“The war lasted centuries, Caspyn, enough time for The Goddess to enslave a people and build an army, an army made from the descendants of those three children.”
“But the three pillars of light?”
“Perhaps they are the same. We do not know, but the way magic was split was because The Sister’s magic was split. Catalyst. Requisite, Sypher.”
“Three? I thought magic was only split into Catalyst and Requisite?”
“As do most. Did you not question where your gifts came from?”
“I thought they were like all others, fíra, w?der, vio, ?r, let.”
“A Catalyst is a conduit, a holder. A Requisite is an igniter, the flint. A Sypher is a puller, a collector. Different branches of magic that appear joined in others. You are a Sypher, Caspyn. Although, I believe you are the last of those left.”
“The last Sypher?” Vaelar had called me as such when he first met me, it couldn’t be possible that I was the last, but then I had never met another.
“Yes, they vanished centuries ago. Syphers are dangerous to Fae not only because they can take the magic from others, but because they can track magic. Any magic. Once found, you can devour it, take both magic and life and make it your own. You have the gift to hunt out Catalysts, Requisites, and Fae. Syphers were used in the Black War to kill off so many of our kind… they disappeared after that battle. You are the first I have seen in an age.”
It made sense, I had never known anyone to track and sense magic. Even when I had trained with the witches and the assassins it was a skill I never saw.
Because I was the last one.
The only one.
Vaelar’s fear when he realized what I was suddenly made sense.
“I am a Sypher.”
He nodded, “You said your sister's name was Lily? In Fae, Lyli means Lynar. It seems that in some way your mother knew what fate had planned for you.”
I doubted that. My mother only knew the fear of losing her children to the Fae armies, she knew nothing of fighting back. She knew nothing of Goddesses and sisters and promises to return. Well, unless it was the princess.
I only snorted in response.
“You already know the truth, Caspyn Light Bringer, as your ancestors did. As your mother did when she gave you your names.”
“I really wish you would stop calling me that.” I snarled, still gripping my blades even as I stared at the flickering light of the lilies, trying to force myself to calm. “My name is simply Caspyn.”
“There are three words in the language of the Fae that mean light.” He began as though I had asked. I shot him a look, but he only continued, as he always did. “To bring light, Caspyn. To take light, Aryon, and to hold light, Neylara.” He hesitated, his lips pulling taut as he moved down to the water, the surface not creating so much of a ripple as he stepped into the warm water.
“I am beginning to feel as though you only brought me here to convince me of my role in whatever is coming.”
“Perhaps. I believe you have an important part to play, Caspyn. We do not know how the light will right the wrongs of the Goddess and the sister. But we know that the light will each play an important role. You will play an important role.”
“I am not who you think I am.” I was no bringer of light. No savior, not in the way he wanted anyway. I would save my sister, and I would do what I needed to make that happen. “I cannot be who you want me to be.”
“There may be darkness behind you, but there is light before you, and together those journeys will guide you toward whatever path has been laid down for you.” He was being philosophical, but he didn’t need to be. I already knew this answer.
“My path is to Queen Dalyah. To end her at the crimson stained altar. I will not let the princess fail.” I stepped into the water again, the warm, still surface enclosing around the toes of my boots. “It is what I am meant to do.”
I had no question. I had never had any question. That was until Ryndle came along ranting about Fae histories and telling me that the Fae weren’t the bad guys at all. That none of them were.
“You must continue on your path, Caspyn.” Ryndle turned to me slowly, those brown eyes wide as he stepped closer. Too close. I wanted to push him away, but I couldn't move. “But I will tell you this. In your path you must find and save the princess. She is as important in this as you are. Together perhaps you can swallow the light and save it for what is coming.”
I should really start to keep track of how many people told me to either save or kill the princess. I was starting to lose track.
“I have been told to kill the princess.” I may not know the man, but somehow, I felt more apt to accept the word of my great-grandfather than this confusing Fae.
“There are many princesses. Princess of Fae. Of Okivo. Of Spryv. Which one do you seek?” I hadn’t been told, but I would think that the answer was obvious.
“Growing up, in my time, I was told Elara tried to save us when the queen killed the catalysts. I was told that the princess would return. But then you said the same for the Sister.” Ryndle nodded, pushing me on. “Perhaps neither is true. Perhaps it is only those of us who are here who can do the saving. Perhaps it is up to us to save ourselves.”
“Perhaps.” He sure had a knack for giving one word so many infuriating meanings.
“Who would you trust? Those who told you of the sister, or of the princess?”
I didn’t even have to think of the answer. That, I knew.
Even now I could see my Da’s sun-battered face as he whispered the story to Lily and I. I could see Lily’s smile as she thought of the princess who was to rescue us from the frightening world that we were trapped in.
In the end no one saved her. No one but me.
The image of her happiness blended with the pain of her sinking into the waves, the joy mixing with the pain in a terrible knot that made my magic scream and roar beneath my skin. I swallowed, tightening my jaw as I pushed it all back in that dark pit where it belonged.
“You shouldn’t do that, you know.” Ryndle whispered as though he was afraid to be overheard. Something about the tone put me on high alert and I turned.
“Do what?” I was snarling, even the lilies flickered at the tone of my voice.
“Push them away.” Ryndle didn’t flinch, even as I growled and took a step closer. “Your sister, your mother, they want to be with you. Let them be. Pain and loss can be scary, but hiding from it never helped anyone. You are brave enough to face the end of the world, Caspyn. You are brave enough to take them with you on the journey.”
He clapped his hand on my arm, and for once I didn’t move away. I didn’t growl as the forest fell away. The Lightens camp fell back into place, a different meadow appearing around them.
“Let them be there when you take that step on your journey to avenge them. Let them be there to help,” Ryndle continued as we stood amidst the camp, everyone unpacking wagons and setting the camp the same as they had every night. Ziah waved from the other side of the circle of wagons, Lyani stopping to stare.
“They cannot help,” I said, that snarl of pain seeping through my voice. “They are dead.”
“They can help, but that depends on how you take them with you,” Ryndle’s hand was warm on my shoulder as he turned me, both of us facing toward the gap in the wagons, to a large ornate camp that was popping up on the far side of the meadow that we were camped in.
The Queen’s caravan, and beyond that, the bulbous tops of the white stone barely visible in the trees, The Temple of the Sister.
“Find the princess, but be sure of which one you seek before you act. Your path is waiting, Caspyn Light Bringer.”
I didn’t even correct him that time, I just stood, staring at the wagons that even from there glittered in a sparkling glow that I could feel in my skin. The glow of a dozen different powers.
“You promised me answers, Ryndle,” I growled, looking away from that pull to snarl at him.
“I did, but I fear that for many answers you will need to see for yourself. They are hidden in all the magic that you feel thrumming through you. Go. See what is hidden there, use that magic that has been hidden in your blood this whole time. Your magic, Sypher.” He said the word as though it was powerful, instead of the disgust I had heard before. The strength of it rumbled through me as he stepped away, smaller, lighter footsteps coming up after him.
“Welcome back, Caspyn.” There wasn’t a hint of Lyani’s usual sass in her voice. I turned, her and Ziah standing there, a large wrapped bundle perched in her arms.
“Welcome home.” Ziah was beaming as he folded back the fabric on top of the parcel, revealing the black fabric and leathers folded there. The belt and sheathes for my blades were folded around the clothes, waiting for me.
“Come back in one piece, this time.” Lyani whispered as Ziah turned to run after Ryndle, her own steps faltering as though she was to follow.
“Don’t say it like that, Lyani, or one might start to think that you care about me.” I stopped her with a smile and a wink. She looked as though she was one breath away from hitting me.
“Don’t let that big head of yours get too inflated, Caspyn.” She fixed me with that no nonsense stare of hers as she backed away. She was clearly trying to hide that smile that I saw peeking its way out of the corner of her mouth. A hidden grin, more beautiful than any I had seen.
“I don’t want to waste my time putting you back together, Caspyn.” The tiny pull of a grin widened, her face lighting up as the air fled from my lungs, the warmth I usually felt from her bathing the air around me. Bathing me.
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself, Lyani,” I whispered, forcing the words out through the tightness in my chest, well aware I wasn’t the only one lying to myself in that moment.