Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Aela and Eros arrived in Neser a week ago.
While the Primary hadn’t been avoiding her, she saw less of him here than she did in the asteroid.
He was bound to be busy dealing with matters of his House now that he was back.
The rooms provided to her weren’t warded like her quarters in Avarice, and though she was free to come and go as she pleased, she opted to stay holed up in her rooms, reading about the Gods and first stars.
Her other magic had easily transported the library from her asteroid.
She was anxious she hadn’t found something yet that sparked her Need to latch onto and locate them, except the tale about Scorpan.
Eros hadn’t pressured her or given her a timeline of when she was to complete her task of locating the Gods, yet she felt the edge he balanced on.
He hadn’t shared more about his true nature—what crouched in the center of their realm—but time was slipping by.
Each moment brought all the Zodiac Houses closer to their demise.
Zosma had given Aela a reprieve from physical training, but her mind functioned better when she was active.
If she were too idle, doubt crept in and convinced her she had already failed before she ever tried.
It was a fine balance of resting when needed while staying in motion enough to focus and be of use.
“How is it you’re able to hold this longer than I, yet I taught you?” Aela breathed out. They had cleared an area of her bedroom for her favored bodily practice.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Zosma said. He was balanced on his head with his elbows to either side of his face, his fingers laced behind his head while his feet reached into the air. The Leo had taken to the movements as if he had come as a master of them from the nebulae.
Aela promptly fell out of her headstand.
“You should take your own advice and practice,” Zosma murmured. His rope-like hair was stiffly clamped at the base of his neck, the ends jutting up.
The void her grief had left was a hungry pit ensuring nothing lovely or light stayed long enough to fill her.
Not even her bodily practice calmed her much.
Where she sought to occupy quiet moments in between studying pages or chasing lines of thought with the flowing practice, the stillness was only an invitation for her mind to dredge up the worst of her past.
“What does Eros plan to do about Avarice?” Aela asked him after they ended their physical exercise.
Zosma was sitting on a chaise lounge opposite hers.
The manufactured light from Neser’s wards filtered through her stained-glass window, casting orange and magenta hues across the stone floor.
Neser claimed a castle as its capital, perched on a cliffside with a large waterfall that spilled into a lake surrounded by evergreen trees.
Where the mountainous area had once held a thriving city, the previous Primary, Hamal, had desolated his own territory.
Gaping wounds of internal strife marred the rocky landscape.
“How would I know?” Zosma grumbled as he turned a page in the book propped up on his knee.
“I assumed you two discussed it.”
“He knows I’m not here for him.”
“Have you heard anything from Arche? Tabitha?”
“No.”
Aela snapped her own book shut and tossed it onto her bed. “There’s so much to do. Neser’s crystal stores have been empty since before Eros took over, and the Taureons are a living power source for Tarek, not to mention we’re all still drifting closer to our ultimate demise…”
“And the Gods,” Zosma added.
“Of course. Can’t forget about them and what nefarious things they left behind or are creating anew.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I have to do something.” Sparks of violet-white lightning darted down her arms.
“Isn’t that the point of all this?” Zosma asked without taking his eyes off his reading.
“You are no help.”
Her elemental magic was restless from being holed up researching for too long, though for once her other magic was quiet and content within her.
“I’m going for a walk.”
Zosma got to his feet.
“Don’t trouble yourself,” Aela said. “I just need to clear my head.”
He seemed to be at war with himself for a moment before he relaxed once more on the chaise, giving her a nod and resuming his reading.
Aela left her rooms and walked aimlessly throughout the gray, unadorned halls of the castle, mulling over her competing responsibilities.
She hadn’t forgotten the Taureons and the rebellion.
She’d get back to help them somehow. Then there was her revenge.
Lest it eat her alive like her grief almost had, she tried not dwelling too much on her payment for helping Eros.
She knew what she had to do, but there was something she had to do first.
At the thought, something unaddressed settled within her chest. She had avoided the crystal her Need had gifted her when her grief almost consumed her. She hadn’t been ready to confront her past. Using small magic, Aela willed the raw cluster of rose-quartz into her hand. It was time for closure.
She knew now that her constellation was a permanent strand of silenced stars; she had no true home, yet she had not summoned the courage to seek them out in the sky.
It was one thing to see a false mirror of them above the asteroid pool, but it was quite another to confront the evidence of her failure directly.
If her Need wouldn’t deliver her to her constellation, then she’d find them on her own. Eros’ earlier words about not needing her constellation had shattered her more than she wanted to admit.
Much remained to be seen about Eros, but he was right in that she wasn’t operating at her full abilities. Even though her reality-altering magic, her Need, had grown by leaps and bounds since she stopped trying to ignore it, half of her elemental gifts still refused to answer her. She was blocked.
When Aela exited the main doors of the castle and slipped through a side gate of the courtyard, no one stopped her.
She hiked until the towering evergreen trees revealed the cliffside.
A roaring waterfall spilled into the lake below, sending ripples toward the black shore in a steady, unanswered call. She peered down at the dark waters.
With the erratic behavior of The Darkness’ prison at the center of the realm, the flaming river pulled the Zodiac Houses off the cursed trajectory the Gods had set them on.
If her falling to a Leonta planet had been any indication, she knew now why her constellation wasn’t over Solara any longer and why poring over starcharts had been useless.
Aela summoned her iridescent armor to replace her leisure attire.
She didn’t need to test her theory that her power had broken free of the Gods’ curse.
She trusted herself.
Aela leaped off the cliff and soared through the warded air out into the realm, guided by the stone clutched in her fist. On and on she flew past silenced stars and Houses that fell before the Gods fled.
A somberness trailed her starlight that leaked behind her, as if the realm itself was sentient, knew where she was going, and stood in solidarity with her.
It took her less time than she had expected. Slowing her trajectory, Aela’s ever-present grief she had learned to make peace with rushed to the surface as she hovered before a pattern in the night sky that she never thought she’d truly see again: her constellation.
They were all there.
Reduced to nothing more than bright lights, they shined down on her.
A silent sob clawed its way out of Aela’s chest, and her vision blurred as she bore witness to their sacrifice.
Her core vibrated in recognition as she zipped from star to star.
She got as close as her mortal form allowed, their brilliant light heating her skin.
Every essence was unique, as were the celestials who silenced themselves for her.
For the good of their House, for the good of the realm, House Pisces Ascended the youngest Primary Star the day they fell by offering their power for her to wield.
They gave their lives to preserve the link as she absorbed their power—all so she would live and make the realm a better place than the one she had been born into.
Aela continued visiting each star of her constellation, and long after her eyes no longer held any tears did she dare go to his star.
Epsilon cradled his ten-year-old daughter to his chest as their home crumbled behind them, succumbing to a fire so hot it ate through the stone. Reaching their destination, Epsilon set Aela down on her feet.
“Dada, please don’t leave me,” Aela sobbed. “I know I said I could do this, but please—”
“You are strong enough for this. I will be with you. We will be with you. We’re all here for you, Aela. You are never alone.” Epsilon bent a knee and knelt before her, pressing his forehead to her hands. “You are the last of us.”
Kissing her forehead, Epsilon rose and wrapped his arms around his only child, stifling a cry into her hair.
Clutching her by the shoulders, he kept his grip firm as they stared into each other’s eyes through their tears.
His eyes. She had his eyes. He was always so proud to see himself reflected in them when nearly everything else about her was Alrescha.
He nodded and brought her to the engraved crystal constellation on the floor.
The ground rumbled, and Aela looked up at him for the last time.
He nodded to her again, trying to instill confidence in her for what must be done.