82. Chapter 75
Chapter 75
We live in a world where mountains can be moved. We live in a world where dragons rain fire on our enemies, but there is a universal truth that no one wants to accept. There is always an ending. An entire race of Immortals has been around for almost ten thousand years, and the oldest ones are only a thousand. Death comes for us all, and that is for the best. Goodbye, Mother. Thank you for everything you gave me. I would not be the woman I am without your touch.
~Echo Vael, mother, wife, and Queen of Shadows, personal journal
Maeve
My mother, Brenna Morvyn, stands in a linen dress that would be completely normal to see in a village like Blackgrove. It’s not a dress made of spellstones or even silk. Not a dress made of shadows made solid. No, those are things that nobles and Immortals wear. My mother is just a normal human with no powers.
But she’s smiling wider than I’ve ever seen. Da’s arm wraps around her waist, his fingers gripping her hip, and he’s just as happy as she is. My eyes are dry as I give them a wide smile. A month has passed since they left Draenyth together and took a wagon back to Blackgrove, along with all the other people who left Valinar together.
I’d offered to shadow walk both of them rather than make them spend a month on the roads, but my mother had turned me down. She told me she would enjoy a simple stroll through the countryside with no need to hurry. As long as my Da was at her side, of course.
Echo stands beside us, and unlike Cole and me, her eyes are filled with tears. Brenna may have given birth to me, but she raised Echo. And that was after my mother had learned of love. Of the two of us, she’s the one who knows my mother’s love, even though Brenna Morvyn was known to be heartless by the rest of the Immortals of Draenyth.
“You can come visit us,” she says to Echo. “It’s not like I can keep you from it!” she finishes with a laugh that feels so unlike her.
“But what am I supposed to do without you, Brenna? You’ve always been there at my side. You’ve always had answers for me. You’re going to grow old now. You’re going to… you’re going to die.”
My mother chuckles as if it’s the silliest thing she’s ever heard. “I was always going to die, Echo. This isn’t changing anything. At some point, every night ends so that the next night can come. Mine has passed, and yours is coming. But,” she moves to the fourteen-year-old girl who is anything but ready for the person she’s depended on her whole life to leave her, “you are cleverer than I ever was. Just as the rest of your generation of Conduits is better than their predecessors, so are you. You can learn from my mistakes. You have the book to learn our history. I believe in you, Echo. I trust you to be the pillar of our House.”
She smiles at the girl, and she wraps her arms around her in an embrace that truly feels motherly. “I will miss you, Echo. I will miss our time in Valinar. You… you let me be a mother when I shouldn’t have been allowed that right. You’ve made me so proud.”
Cole squeezes my hand, and I’m sure he thinks that this is like when his father had given himself to the void. It’s not. The woman before me was never my mother. And I’ve mourned my Da’s passing twice already. They’re not even dying. They’re just finally enjoying their lives, something that humans rarely get to do.
“I’m going to miss you, too,” Echo says through sobs. “And if I can’t figure something out…”
“You’re more than welcome to come visit. I’ll even make us some tea like I used to, though I doubt we have mistwood bark here.”
Echo chuckles, breaking the sobs up. “We’ll have to get creative, I guess.”
Brenna nods, a smile on her face. Then she kisses Echo’s forehead and says, “Trust the other Conduits, but don’t forget that you were my choice to take my Throne. You are clever. You are powerful. More than anything, you embody what it is to be House of Shadows, Echo. Vyran didn’t make a mistake when he made our House. Be strong. Be clever. But also, be you.”
Echo nods and sniffles, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. “Okay. I’ll try. But Brenna, I’m going to come visit you. I’m going to spend a lot of time here because I’m only fourteen, and I have not had nearly enough training. And… and, I’m going to miss you.”
My mother smiles at her and wipes the tears from her cheeks, one hand on each side. “That sounds wonderful. Maybe Vesta will even come spend time with us. It’ll be just like it used to be.”
Echo nods again, much quicker than before, and it’s like she’s trying to keep from crying. Then she turns around and walks away. Brenna watches her go for a few moments, but then she moves to me. “Little Star,” she says with a smile. “No tears?”
“I only just met you,” I say, “and you’re not dying. You’re just becoming human, which isn’t a terrible thing in my mind. I’ll come visit, and we can actually get to know each other when the world isn’t depending on us to work together. I think it’s wonderful that you and Da get to live in Blackgrove again.”
She grins at me. “Somehow, that response doesn’t surprise me at all. You have a lot of your Da in you, you know? He’s always been so capable of accepting things. When my father decided it was time to pass the Throne of Shadows to me, I fought him. I tried to imprison him, thinking that he’d lost his mind. He was smarter than me, and he escaped just like he’d said he would. You… you just let it all happen.”
“It’s the right thing to do, Mother. We both know that you couldn’t be the Conduit any longer. Calyr needed the power to protect Nyth, and you didn’t want it. This is good. For you and for the world. It’s the only answer that made sense. And now I get to try some of your tea.”
She grins. “That’s very true. But it feels like the proper time to tell you I’m proud of you, too, Maeve. I was not the mother you deserved. I wasn’t even really a mother, but I’m glad you’re the woman that will carry my bloodline into the future. I believe in you. I believe in your power and your decisions and your dedication to this world.”
She doesn’t try to hug me as she did Echo. No, instead, she just gives me a smile and says, “I cannot wait to hear all of your stories when you come to visit us. Goodbye for now, Little Star. Thank you for being everything I dreamed you could be.”
I smile back at her, and she walks away. But my Da takes her place. He doesn’t say anything at first, but he gives me a big hug, and I squeeze just as hard. “You’ve made me so proud, Little Star,” he whispers. “But more than that, I love you, and I will miss you, so please don’t wait too long to visit. It’s not only your mother who wants to hear your stories or feels like she’s missed out on your life. I never expected to live for thousands of years, so I know just how valuable the years are.”
I nod to him, and a bit of sadness wells up inside me. “I won’t forget, Da. I love you, and I hope you and mother enjoy your days of peace. I’ll be around. It’s not like it’s a long walk for me.” I say it with a grin, but I know how busy I’m going to be.
“Good,” he says as he pulls away. “Then go take care of your kingdom, Queen Maeve. We’ll be fine. And remember to spend time with your husband occasionally. He’s a good man.”
Cole can’t help but grin at that comment, and Da turns away to walk back to my mother. He takes her arm in his, and they walk toward Blackgrove, smiling the whole way.
“It’s everything she ever wanted,” I say. “My Da with none of the responsibilities of her Throne. She’s tired, just like your father. Maybe when it’s time for us to give up our Thrones, we can become human, and you’ll get the chance to struggle to make a fire for once.”
Cole’s chuckle warms me. “That’d be terrible. No, I think I’d rather just go to the void than have to use flint and steel.”
I slap him on the arm playfully, and he takes my hand in his. But instead of walking toward the peace and serenity of Blackgrove, we walk away from it. Back to a world that’s about to change. Back to the fear of death and destruction. Back to Thrones and Crowns and a world that needs our strength and guidance.
I look up at the sky and frown. Standing at the top of Skycrest, I am at the top of the world, but even now, I don’t know what I’m seeing. A fog of some sort blots out just a little bit of the sunlight. Everything else seems normal, and I don’t even know if anyone else has noticed the difference. I hadn’t until Zephyra told me something had changed.
Now I’m worried. Cole stands beside me, his hand in mine, and he sighs. “This is just the beginning of the changes, isn’t it?”
I nod. “I think it’s what Calyr did. I think it’s how he’s hiding us. Or maybe it’s something the gods are doing.”
“That makes sense. But if it’s blocking the sun, is it affecting anything else? Is it going to affect the plants or animals?”
I shrug. There’s no way to know what something that major could do. “It has to be Calyr, and I doubt he’d do anything that would disrupt the world quite to that extent. He had to have looked into the future to see what would happen.”
Cole presses himself against me, and that’s when I realize I was shivering. Not because I’m cold or even because I’m afraid. No, there’s nothing to fear, because the only thing that scares me is losing Cole. But I feel a little helpless, and just like the night that I fought the harpies in Blackgrove, I’m realizing that I’m not as strong as I thought I was.
Cole isn’t shivering, though. “It’s going to be okay,” he says confidently. “I know it is. We’ve done so many impossible things. Maybe that’s just the theme of our lives. I have no idea how we’ll deal with the problems that wrap around us in the future, but there is one thing I’m sure of. You’re with me, and that’s all that matters. The worst thing that could happen is that we die. I’ve already done that, and the only thing terrible about it was that you weren’t there with me. So instead of worrying, let’s go into this new era of Nyth with smiles on our faces and a new appreciation for the things that matter.”
Just like the very first time I met Cole, when he smiled after I’d nearly died in the fight with those harpies, I feel a warmth flow through me I hadn’t known was possible. It warms me and protects against the fear and worry that have plagued me since I stood up against Calyr. I feel like I can stand tall against whatever comes our way as long as that warmth flows through my body, and I smile up at the man that I love.
“I think you’re right. You know that this is going to hurt, though, don’t you?”
And that makes an even bigger grin cross his face. “That’s my line!”
I let him pick me up, and I wrap my legs around his waist as he does so. The world seems to pause as we stand at the top of the world, above even the clouds, and we stare into each other’s eyes.
We both know that this is a turning point. The world around us is changing, but it doesn’t matter. We learned to embrace the pain of flames and the coldness of exhaustion. We’ve already fought against insurmountable odds, and each time, we’ve come out stronger.
This is no different.
Except that this time, no one is going to push us apart. Until the end, we’ll fight side by side, and in a world where love used to be a weakness, that’s all either of us would ever want. We were never meant to live a life of peace in the forest. We weren’t meant to spend thousands of years watching sunsets and taking walks.
We were given the power to fight for this world, and we’ve both found our greatest joy doing exactly that. We can rest when we go back to the void, but until then, we’ll fight. Together. And we’ll show the world that love is the greatest strength anyone could hope for.