46. Vera
Vera
The first thing I felt was soft silk beneath my cheek, then a thick comforter melting around me.
I stretched my limbs with a groan, relieved to wake up without sand stuck in every crevice, thanks to a bath the night before.
My eyes slowly opened, and I was startled by the total darkness.
My body told me it was morning, but the lack of sunlight flooding the room said otherwise.
Then I remembered. The shipwreck, the guardians, the portal, the lost kingdom. Odessa’s fate. The Elders story and my quest.
I sat up in bed and looked out the balcony doors to see golden buildings towering against a black sky.
I wished Mama and Nox could see this. It had been the three of us for so long cooped up in Scarven’s mansion—I would’ve never believed I’d one day find myself in a place like this.
I wanted them to see how fantastical this place was, rivaling the fairytales Mama used to read me at the fountain.
With a flick of my wrist, I sent magic soaring through the room to light the candles in their sconces, then crossed to the attached bathing chamber.
I stared into the mirror. Purple bags hung beneath my eyes, stark against pale skin.
The streaks of red in my blonde hair had faded over time.
It was a symbol of the life I lived under Scarven’s thumb, when he started his underground fighting ring and made me his champion.
I started dyeing it during those dark days, and it had grown on me.
It was a reminder of the blood I’d spilled, and the blood I would yet spill in seeking revenge for all Scarven and Mortep had done.
They’re both dead now. You need to move on.
I closed my eyes and gripped the porcelain countertop.
A knock sounded at my door, and I jumped.
I padded over and cracked the door, then opened it wider when I saw a maid.
Her uniform was plain but neat: a black dress with a high collar, long sleeves buttoned at the wrist, spotless white apron falling against the pleats of her skirt.
Chestnut brown hair was slicked back in a bun, and keen, golden eyes looked back at me. “Good morning, miss. May I come in?”
I let her pass, and she laid an outfit on the bed. “My name is Sloane. If you need anything, please let me know,” she said as she bustled around the room, picking up my dirty clothes. “I’m the maid assigned to you and your friends here in the guest wing during your stay.”
“By yourself?” I asked, surprised.
“We’re a bit short staffed at the moment.” She averted her eyes. “I’ll be back with freshly laundered clothes and sheets later this afternoon.”
Sloane flitted out of the room. I stared after her for a second, brows pinching at something I couldn’t place, then shook off the feeling.
I pulled on the fitted black pants and loose white tunic she left for me, then slipped my arms into my leather jacket.
It still reeked of seawater, but I felt more comfortable with it on.
The hallways were nearly pitch black. Perhaps the servants weren’t used to tending this wing of the palace.
They were short staffed, as Sloane had said.
I crept farther down the corridor, surprised I hadn’t heard any movement yet—surely it wasn’t that early, but it was impossible to tell without the sun.
I retraced my steps back to the main hall, listening for any familiar sounds to guide my path.
The silence made the hair on the back of my neck rise, until footsteps finally penetrated the halls.
“Ah, Vera! Good morning,” Arcadia said with a clap of his hands. “I was just coming to fetch you. The other High Elders and I have something we would like to show you in our collection of archives.”
Sounds echoed farther down—more footsteps, plus the clinking of dishes, coming from a nearby kitchen, I presumed. A maid appeared around the corner and dipped her head into a low bow as she passed me.
I flicked my eyes back to the hallway I’d come from, wondering if I should wake the others, then decided whatever the Elders told me, I could pass on to them. We didn’t have time to wait.
“I’m ready,” I said. Arcadia led me down several more winding corridors, where palace life finally began to wake.
The staff greeted us with smiles, and everywhere I looked, shadows and light magic manifested in physical forms, lighting lamps and carrying supplies like extra hands.
I still couldn’t get over how free their use of magic was.
It made my own power stir. I hadn’t even been here a full day, but I already felt a connection to these people.
Arcadia stopped before two enormous, gold-trimmed doors. They creaked as he opened them, sending dust flying into the air. He brandished an arm to the room. “This is the Hall of Archives.”
The word room didn’t do it justice. Shelves rose in endless tiers, climbing high into the vaulted, gold-plated ceiling.
Dozens of lanterns were already lit and hanging around the open space.
Along the walls were rickety ladders reaching to the books held far above our heads.
The air smelled like dust and papyrus and smoky incense, and I could’ve sworn I heard whispers rustling in the weathered pages of so many books.
My first thought was of Everett. He loved books—in the few months I lived at the Keep, I learned how studious he’d become, single-handedly building the Ashen Order’s library over the years. I started to search for him, eager to see the look on his face, then remembered he wasn’t here.
I shook off the disappointment. It was probably better that way. After the things we said to each other last night, we needed time apart.
Maeve and Julius waited for us on the other side of the circular room, next to a smaller door. “Good morning, Lightbringer,” Maeve said, dipping her head.
I shifted uncomfortably. “What do I have to do to get you to call me Vera?”
Julius smirked. “Point taken, Vera. Are you ready to begin your search for the final amulet?”
“Yes, but I don’t even know where to start.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Maeve said. She pulled open the solid iron door, revealing another room within the Hall of Archives. “Welcome to the Inner Sanctum.”
The first thing I saw when the Elders led me through the door was the huge phoenix on the wall.
It looked just like the crest on the amulet I’d found, but a hundred times bigger.
Its wings were spread out wide, with shelves built into the feathers and body.
There was a single shelf inlaid in the fiery crown atop the bird’s head, and with a wave of his hand, Arcadia sent shadows soaring to the top and plucked a scroll from the center.
“The last written record of the original demithes,” he said in a reverent tone as the worn papyrus floated down to us. “Everything we know about the Sacred Three. Hopefully, there is something that can assist you.”
“Your people have been in this kingdom for centuries,” I said. “How has nobody found the third one yet?”
“I assure you, our ancestors have searched high and low. This is why we need you.” He moved his hands, and his shadows carefully unrolled the scroll in midair.
I shook my head. “How are you so sure it’s me that can find it?”
“You said you opened the portal, didn’t you?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Only the one destined to raise Pyraeth would be able to accomplish such a feat.”
My gaze snagged on the scroll levitating in midair. It reminded me of the star chart Odessa and I found in our records. Incredibly old and thick, almost like animal skin. It drew me forward until I could make out the faded scrawl.
So it is written,
When our kingdom lies silent beneath ash
and the sun is forgotten,
a bringer of light shall rise from ruin.
They shall walk the lost paths
in the heart of the eternal flame
to deliver the Sacred Three,
relics wrought from a soul sacrifice.
When the amulets are made one,
the power of the Fates shall answer once more,
and Pyraeth shall rise from death into dawn.
But all rebirth is written in surrender.
As it was in the first forging,
so it shall be in the last.
I traced the edges, fingers barely grazing the delicate material. “It talks about a soul sacrifice,” I whispered. “What did the original demithes give?”
“Everything,” all three Elders said at once. The Inner Sanctum was so silent, I could hear my heart beating against my chest.
“It killed them?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Arcadia cleared his throat.
“Once they made the decision to stop performing the stasis ritual, they knew they were going to die eventually. They created the Sacred Three and imbued them with the purest form of Fate power so that one day, it could be used to raise the kingdom, even if they would not be there to see it.”
Julius lifted a hand, and strands of light shot from his fingertips. They formed three circles in the air, light magic sparking and crackling above us. Within each of the circles was the sun crest, the phoenix, and a third one, which was blank.
"They poured what was most vital to them into the amulets. It took, and took, and took the deepest parts of their souls. Once that was gone, there was nothing left of them but ash. From those embers, the Sacred Three was formed. Symbols of rebirth and hope.” Julius let the light fade away.
Maeve pulled the sun amulet from beneath her robes. “The sun has been kept safely here at the palace for centuries,” she said. “The phoenix, however, was taken by a scouting group several hundred years ago, and hasn’t been seen since, until you brought it back to us.”
“But the final one remains elusive,” Arcadia finished. “We have our theories, but as the scroll says, it’s impossible to find without the person they’ve written about.”
I licked my lips. “I just don’t understand why it’s me. Why am I this Lightbringer?”
“Because it is in your blood, Vera,” Arcadia said. “You are not who you’ve always thought you were.”
A chill crept along my skin. “What do you mean?”
He stepped closer. “Haven’t you figured it out by now? The magic you were born with, the abilities you have been granted…they are not Veridian.”
My pulse pounded faster. I’d always thought something was wrong with me. Something nobody could explain, despite endless experiments. And now, being here, it all started to make sense.
“You are a demithe, Vera,” he murmured. “Part human, part Fate. Descended from the Fates themselves.”
I inhaled. His words twisted through me, mingling with my trembling magic.
My Fate magic. My Fate blood. “How is that possible?” I breathed out.
“My family is from the Veridian Empire. That’s where we were born.
Me, my brother, our parents, for as far back as I can remember.
Pyraeth doesn’t even exist to the outside world.
How can I be descended from this place?”
“We told you of expeditions our people made throughout the centuries, with the twenty-four hours of freedom. If they never make it back to Pyraeth, they are presumed dead, but we can never truly know what became of them. There’s a chance that some chose to never return.
They could have left their mission and found a new life beyond our shores.
” Arcadia gave me a wistful smile. “A new life in your empire, for instance, where they could start over and bear children outside of the scourge on our kingdom. We believe that you are a descendant of these liberated Pyraethis.”
I paced the floor. “If that’s true, then why has no one else in my family ever been like me?”
He shook his head, and his long beard bobbed. “I cannot answer that, Vera. For some reason known only to the Fates, the demithe bloodline chose to manifest in you. Perhaps it had been there all along, lying dormant until someone worthy would come to break us from our cage.”
Someone worthy. Tears stung the backs of my eyes at his words, so unexpected that it made my nose twitch.
I had never thought I was worthy. I was a problem that needed to be fixed, or a necessary means to someone else’s end.
I was someone whose purpose lay in vengeance, whose fire was only good for taking.
For destroying. But what if this was the reason I’d survived all the terrible things in my life?
That the reason I was still going, still fighting, was because there was good left for me to do in this world? To not only take, but to give.
Maybe my quest for Mortep had been what I needed to lead me here. To show me purpose beyond my old life. I could feel the shift in my desires; the open, aching wound left in the wake of Mortep’s death now revealing a new direction for my flames.
“I may never understand why it’s me,” I started, meeting each of their golden gazes, “but I promise, I’ll do whatever it takes to help your people.”
Pride gleamed in their eyes. “The path you have chosen will not be easy,” Maeve said. “The Fates will stop at nothing to prevent you from breaking the enchantment they placed.”
“Let them try,” I said simply. “They’ll find I’m pretty stubborn.”
Arcadia smiled. “Then we shall begin.”