Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
SACHA
“In the heart of winter, we learn which fires can never be extinguished.”
Sayings of the Earthvein Sages
I can’t sleep, not with the bond lying dead in my mind where Ellie’s presence should be.
It’s strange how that connection has become important so quickly.
Before we were thrown to Chicago, it had been nothing more than a vague sensation, not strong enough to really catch my attention.
I don’t know whether the way our powers combined at Thornspire changed that, or what happened afterward.
We lost our connection when we returned to Meridian. I don’t know how or why, but this time it’s worse. This time I don’t know if it’s because I shared my power with her. I don’t know if it’s gone because I killed her. The possibility eats at me, twisting my gut into knots.
“Still nothing?” Varam asks from his position near the river.
I shake my head, not trusting my voice to keep the fears rolling through my mind hidden.
“Could that mean she’s safe? That whatever was happening has ended?”
I want to believe that, but the alternative … that sharing my power killed her, that I poured too much force across the distance and burned out her life … refuses to be dismissed.
“I don’t know what it means.” The admission makes my stomach lurch, and I force myself to breathe, to focus on anything else, but my mind keeps circling back to the silence where she should be.
Mira shifts nearby, unable to find rest either. We’re all waiting for dawn, for answers, for potential catastrophe. By the time pale light creeps across the horizon, we’re already moving through the forest toward the road that will take us to Ashenvale.
We’ve been walking for about thirty minutes when it happens.
The dead space in my mind explodes with Ellie’s presence blazing its way back into life.
Exhaustion, triumph, and a fierce joy hits me with such impact I stumble.
My knees go weak and my vision blurs for a heartbeat. My throat closes up. I can’t breathe.
The relief that she’s alive threatens to undo every defense I’ve built.
“My Lord?” Mira’s voice reaches me.
“It’s Ellie. The bond is back. She’s alive.” I brace myself against a tree trunk and wait for the influx of emotions to settle, then draw in a steadying breath. “Keep moving.”
The knowledge that she’s alive drives me forward. We push through the remaining forest paths, and step onto the main road to Ashenvale. The city rises in the distance, but there’s something not quite right about the shape of its silhouette against the brightening sky.
“What in the shadows has happened?” Apparently, Varam can also see a problem.
I study the outline, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing.
Entire sections of the outer wall have collapsed.
The rubble spreads in heaps across the approach road, but it doesn’t look like siege damage.
Sieges target weak points—gates, corners, structural flaws.
This destruction follows no tactical pattern. It’s as if the stones simply … failed.
“How did that happen?” Mira says. “Walls don’t just collapse like that on their own.”
“Earthquake?” Varam’s tone lacks conviction in his suggestion.
I shake my head. “The damage looks too deliberate for that.”
Was this what Ellie needed my power for yesterday?
Movement on the road ahead interrupts my thoughts. Three horses coming toward us from the city’s main gates. Too distant to identify, and I still haven’t recovered enough from sharing my powers with Ellie to send my raven to investigate.
“We should get off the road,” Varam says from behind me.
But there’s something about the rider in the center … the way they’re sitting on the horse that sends recognition through me before logic can catch up.
Ellie.
“No need.”
We’re still a few hundred feet apart when she slides from her horse and breaks into a run.
She slams into me with enough force to drive the breath from my lungs, her arms wrapping around my neck.
Before I can utter a word, her mouth crashes against mine, and I taste salt from her tears and a flavor that is uniquely her.
I don’t even fight it, one hand sliding into her hair, while the other presses against her back to bring her closer to me.
A sharp intake of breath from somewhere nearby breaks us apart, and I lift my head to look at the two riders sitting frozen on their horses, staring at us with wide eyes.
“I felt you coming through the bond,” Ellie whispers against my shoulder, her voice thick with tears. “I wasn’t sure I was right, but—”
“I’m here. For hours our connection was dead, and I thought … I thought sharing my power had killed you.”
She pulls back to look at me, eyes bright with tears. “Never! That would never happen.”
“Ellie,” Mira calls out. “Put Lord Torran down and let me look at you.”
A grin pulls Ellie’s lips up, and she untangles herself from me to turn and throw herself at Mira. Mira … reserved, controlled Mira … actually laughs when she catches her.
“It’s good to see you’re still alive, and with all your limbs intact.”
Ellie kisses her cheek, squeezing the woman tightly. “I missed you too.”
And then it’s Varam’s turn. He stands stiff with surprise when she hugs him before awkwardly patting her back. “We were worried about you.” His voice is gruff.
“What happened?” I ask when she turns back to me.
“I have so much to tell you. I lost our connection for a while, too. When I woke up this morning after—” She pauses, and gives me a wobbly smile. “Well, you’ll see.”
“After what?”
She doesn’t answer me. Instead, she lifts her hands and presses them to my face. “I need you to look at the city, Sacha. Really look.”
She turns my head toward Ashenvale, and I scan the city more carefully, focusing on details I missed between wondering about the outer wall and my need to reach her. Banners hang from the remaining towers. Dark fabric marked with silver, instead of Authority red.
Shadowvein colors. My family colors.
My breath stops. For over thirty years, those towers have flown Authority banners that became the symbol of everything I lost. Now they fly the colors of my bloodline. The colors that were supposed to be erased from this world forever.
“That’s impossible.”
Her hands drop from my face and she steps back, dipping into a curtsey that lacks finesse and confuses me all the more. I reach out a hand automatically when she wobbles, to stop her from falling.
Her grin carries something wild and triumphant. “I took your capital back for you, my Vareth’el.”
The world goes silent around me. Not just quiet, but utterly, completely silent, as though sound itself has been drained away.
I stare at her face, then at the banners flying over Ashenvale, then back at her.
My mind rejects what she’s telling me. Taking Ashenvale would require an army that doesn’t exist, months of planning and preparation.
And we haven’t been apart that long.
“You … took Ashenvale?”
“The guards you can see aren’t Authority soldiers.” She straightens and steps forward to stand beside me, pointing at the figures moving around in the distance. “They’re Veinwardens.”
The words won’t fit together properly in my thoughts. The entire time I was imprisoned in that tower, I planned thousands of ways to strike at the Authority’s power. None of them included taking back Ashenvale. It couldn’t be done.
Yet there are no Authority patrols on the roads. No red banners flying. No sign of the military presence that should surround Ashenvale.
“The Veinwarden network is larger than anyone realized. Entire groups that kept limited contact with only Ashenvale’s Knot.
There was also a lot of support throughout the city from people who have been waiting a long time for someone to give them hope.
They just needed someone to show them it was possible to fight back and win. ”
“And you did that?”
Ellie shakes her head. “No. I was just the messenger. Knowing you were alive and fighting did that.”
Something in my chest loosens at her words. These people fought for what I represent to them.
“How many casualties?” Mira steps forward.
“Fewer than we expected. When people realized they outnumbered the soldiers, and saw Veinwardens fighting for them, they stood up for what was right. Many Authority soldiers surrendered."
“What about Sereven? Did he come back to the city?”
“He did. He put out proclamations offering bounties for both of us. But he escaped.” Her lips press into a thin line.
Of course he escaped. Sereven is too experienced, too cunning to be caught completely unprepared. Before I can question her more, Ellie turns toward her companions who have dismounted and are standing to one side, watching quietly.
“This is Corwin and Jorana, two of the leaders of the Ashenvale Veinwarden Knot. Without them, I doubt I’d have survived here long enough to do anything.”
The moment I look at them, both drop to one knee.
“Vareth’el,” Corwin says. “High Prince. We have waited so long for your return.”
“Please rise.”
“My Lord.” Jorana’s voice carries a combination of relief and wonder. “When we heard that you had returned, that you were alive, many of us didn’t believe it.”
“But the Veinwarden Knots kept faith for decades. We knew one day, a Shadowvein Lord would return to us.” Corwin shakes his head. “To finally see you here, to know your colors fly over the Spire once again … it feels like waking from a nightmare.”
The emotion in his voice threatens to undo my composure entirely. These people never gave up. Even when I was broken in that tower, even when the Authority declared me dead, they kept faith.
“You have done more than keep faith. You have raised a beacon of hope for Meridian. You have sent a message that the Authority’s grip is not as strong as it once was.” The words come automatically, my mind still racing.
“We brought horses. Ellie was certain you would not be alone, but we weren’t sure how many we would need.”