Chapter 84
My dearest Captain,
I know you’re gone, but it doesn’t feel real to me yet. So many letters I have written to you over this past year—and when I wasn’t writing them, I was always thinking of how to write them. What words I would use to describe a place, a discovery, a feeling thumping in my chest.
Goddess, I miss you.
And while I know it’s not fair, right now, in this exact moment, I hate Merik. You gave up your life for him. Which means he took you from me.
Hye, I know you did what you did because you were created by Sirmaya. You lifted up the man you saw as king. But I’d rather have you here than Merik.
Do you remember that time we talked about marriage? We were on the Jana, and you said you wanted a proper Nubrevnan wedding with all the fanfare and dancing. I said I would never agree because Sightwitches aren’t allowed to marry …
A stupid thing to say. I wish I could take it back. I don’t adhere to the Sightwitch Rules anymore, and I expect few of the newly awoken Sightwitches will either. (Tanzi certainly won’t. I’ve already caught her twice sneaking Cam into her bedroom. Hilga will have a fit when she finds out.)
I suppose I should take some comfort in the fact that Poznin already flourishes beneath Merik’s guidance.
He’s a changed man from the one you last saw in Lejna, and as much as I wish it weren’t the case …
I do think your instincts were right. Your Threadbrother will lead the New Republic of Arithuania well, and a peaceful age will prosper there.
Also, if you had not let Sirmaya take your Paladin soul back, then magic would not have stabilized. It would not have returned to witches across the land.
We still need one more Paladin, of course.
One more source of magic to fully return to how things were.
But that is what Stix and Kahina are focused on.
They won’t rest until they find the last Exalted Ones: Ferisien, Lovats, and perhaps a reincarnated Portia too.
Although Sirmaya has stabilized, no one in the Witchlands can be truly safe while those three still remain.
Stix and Kahina also fear that Midne has joined the other side.
Why else did she disappear upon waking? I’ll admit I’m not convinced.
Although Midne might have been the first betrayer of the Six long ago—the one who turned on five—it wasn’t her choice.
She was bound to Portia as the first Hell-Bard.
What if she is still bound? What if she hasn’t slipped away because she wants to but because she fears causing more harm?
The cards offer me nothing except a verification that Stix’s and Kahina’s current path is true: the Paladin of Foxes, the Paladin of Hawks, and the Giant. Any future information beyond remains a mystery.
As for the Paladin of Bats, Owl, she has remained here at the Convent. The reason is twofold. One: she isn’t safe so long as the Exalted One Lovats still possesses the jade ring she is bound to. But perhaps, here where the mountain’s magic is strong, she can at least hide from the ring for a time.
And, on top of that, here Owl perhaps can grow with something resembling a childhood. (Although truth be told, Kullen, I feel like the child whenever I am around her, Lisbet, or Cora. I have no idea how Sister Hilga will manage all three of them as apprentices.)
In Cartorra, Eron fon Hasstrel maintains the helm with the assistance of his longtime advisors: a Dalmotti Glamourwitch, a Cartorran Wordwitch, and a Marstoki Firewitch general.
Since the Hell-Bards are now fully disbanded, this is the empire that looks the least steady to me—and my cards confirm this.
They are a muddle of different options that might steer true or might steer into chaos.
Nubrevna and Marstok are also filled with chaos, but Stix and Kahina believe in their rulers—as much as you believed in Merik—and so I must believe in them too.
As for the Cahr Awen …
Well, Safiya fon Hasstrel and Iseult det Midenzi could be anywhere in the Witchlands right now.
Truly. The girls and their Bloodwitch protector vanished shortly after the Great Collapse (that’s what they’re calling the day the Wells woke up), and the cards tell me nothing except that they’re still together: the Sun, the Moon, the Knife.
The Rook and the weasel bring me interesting animal whispers, though. A tale of the trio being spotted near the Sleeping Lands; another of them in the Contested Lands; and even a murmuring that put them near the Sand Sea.
No matter where they really are, it makes me happy to know that they and only they control their hearts, their minds, their bodies, and their destinies. For only in death could they understand life. And only in life, will they change the world.
So many things that one vision from Lisbet could mean …
I will keep writing to you, my Captain, my Heart-Thread, my Kullen.
As I descend ever deeper into the Crypts.
As I go where the Goddess and my own heart lead.
I am no longer the last Sightwitch Sister, but I still have plenty of work to do.
Plenty of new paths to find as I seek out my own future in the Witchlands.
Magic is changed. What stars will we need to think beyond now?
All the love from your maiden north of Lovats,
—Ryber