Chapter 24 #3
“When we realized we could be recruited as Guardians for our shifting, that we could serve and get away—it was the greatest day of my life.”
She turns entirely toward him, shoulders shaking. “I’m sorry. Sorry for letting you believe it was real. Sorry for using your kindness as a way out. Sorry that I made love so conditional.”
The silence is sharp. Then Lowan reaches past his sister, his hand steady on Remli’s shoulder.
His voice is low, even. “You are one of my oldest friends, and you always will be. That doesn’t vanish.
You didn’t break me, Remli, and you didn’t ruin love for me.
I should have seen what you needed back then. ”
Remli bows her head, tears dripping onto her fists. The anger is gone; only the ache remains. Finally, Selene speaks. Her voice is steady, though her eyes glisten.
“Before my magic had even fully Manifested, I was eager for adventure. Eager to see the mainland.”
Zillah cuts in, quick and protective. “Selene, there is no part of you or your story that I am ashamed of. But you don’t have to share anything you aren’t comfortable with.”
Her words hang like a shield, but Elaris rebukes her gently yet firmly. “It is not for you to determine another’s truth. Let your beloved speak her words.” Zillah bows her head, chastened, and looks to Selene. Selene nods, assured.
“I left my home against my mother’s wishes and advice,” she continues. “I stole out in the dark of night. I had visions of adventure, of all the wonders the mainland might hold. But what I found was quite different.”
“I discovered I could not make my way back. I had no money. No connections. My mother didn’t even know where I was. I couldn’t send a fire-falcon—my magic wasn’t even fully formed yet. I was at the mercy of strangers.”
She swallows, her jaw tightening. “Pretty soon, I found myself in a seedy pleasure house. Men loved my ‘exotic look,’” she spits the words.
“Day after day, they used my body for their pleasure. Their fantasies. Their hungers. It was a vicious cycle I couldn’t escape.
The house was owned by a wealthy man who took almost everything we earned for himself.
” The silence in the cave is heavy, waiting.
Selene breathes in slowly before continuing.
“One day, I was sent to fetch a healer. Patrons often grew too rough with the girls. I slipped into the streets, weaving through the crowd, when I felt it. A pull. It led me down an alley where men and a few women were drinking, playing cards, laughing at a pub.”
She turns entirely now, her eyes on Zillah, their hands clasped together. “There you were. The most beautiful face I’d ever seen. You froze with the bottle halfway to your lips, staring at me standing there in the alley. You got up and walked toward me, and you never took your eyes off mine.”
“But I knew. I knew what you were to me. I never went back to that hell. We sent for the healer, but you brought me home. You say I saved you, Zillah, but you—” her voice cracks, soft with reverence—“you saved me first.”
Zillah presses her forehead to Selene’s, tears spilling silently down both their cheeks.
The cave is utterly still. None of us speaks.
None of us moves. But when Selene finally leans back, I see it—the shimmer in every pair of eyes around the circle.
Even Remli. Even Lowan. The truth she spoke hangs in the air like a benediction, and tears glisten in us all.
Elaris draws a deep breath and closes her eyes.
“Your truth has been spoken. A tapestry is woven from thousands of threads. Each is placed carefully to create the greater whole. Tobias’s story was one Thread.
Yours are others. Arden’s will be another, when you find him.
Tobias saw this—saw it all—when he gave his vision to King Valemar. ”
Lowan, Zillah, Selene, and Remli all speak at once: “King Valemar? You mean King Tharion.”
“No,” Elaris says emphatically. “The man who calls himself Leander Tharion is no king. He is an impostor. The true King was Leander Valemar, except he wasn’t a king at all, but a king consort.”
Silence falls thick and suffocating. Lowan’s eyes go wide as the truth takes hold. As the Illusion fades away. “That’s right. I remember now. He was—”
He halts. They all turn, horror-struck, their Illusion-cleared gazes landing on me.
“What?” My voice cracks. “What is it?”
Elaris lifts her mug with steady hands, her gaze drifts, her tone taking on a faraway hush.
“Long ago, before an Illusion was spun over Thrae with malice at its core, our realm looked very different. It was one of peace, harmony, and cohesion. Life was equitable and fair. Realm-walking was common, and since Donovans were the only ones who could open portals and make that possible, they naturally rose to power as our protectors and leaders. It was a matriarchal society—not built on conquest or fear, but on honesty. You gave what you could, you helped where needed, and the community thrived by lifting one another.”
“It was diverse, too. Cultures from other realms crossed freely into ours, influencing and cultivating our own. It was a magnificent time. Forgotten by nearly all except me. And Tobias, once.”
Her eyes glisten, but her voice holds steady. “But I remember Leander Valemar. I remember his striking green eyes.”
Her gaze flicks to me—lingering, almost knowing—before she looks away again. “I remember the day he vowed to protect this realm. The day he vowed his life—and his love—to our true Queen.”
She pauses, and the weight of the name seems to bend the air itself. “Our true Queen, Elin Donovan.”