Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Emmeline
“It’s like you never left your office at the Academy,” Myrella joked when Emmeline shoved aside the gowns in her closet to expose the tattered and creased notes she’d pinned to the wall behind them.
“I certainly have left, though.”
She smoothed down the curled edges of a piece of paper baring the twelve-pointed star that had been tattooed on each victim, theories of why scribbled in the margins.
Was it to create Fate ties or another connection to the Fate of Cruelty and Adoration, Anphrosia?
That was Emmeline’s current strongest suspicion, and based on Roremar’s hypothesis that Dryvius had revealed to the Fates that he was alive in the Fate Realm, she wondered if the ritual was complete.
Based on what Anphrosia said to her yesterday while in the underground tunnels, Dryvius could still be planning to use Roremar again.
“I guess you’re right.” Myrella crouched beside Emmeline, leaning closer to the notes on the Warders of Selene. “So, Selene isn’t a person but a triad?”
“That’s what we found. Selene represents the Goddess of Fate and Celestial Movements, the Angel Valyrie, and a third unnamed being.
My theory is that the Warders are the Fates themselves.
” She pointed to where she’d listed out the evidence supporting that.
“Warding what exactly, I don’t know, but a historical document reported renditions of the insignia that reflected multiple Fates. ”
“An unnamed being,” Myrella repeated. “That’s odd. I’m no history specialist, but I don’t recall ever hearing about Selene or a significant nameless figure when I was in school.”
“Neither do I. And other than the one record, there’s been nothing else. Almost like she’s been wiped from all archives.”
Myrella tilted her head, dark hair slipping over her shoulder. “Why, though?”
“Why indeed,” Emmeline said as she stacked a few books and journals in her satchel, carefully moving aside vials and glass jars.
“What’s this?” Myrella asked. Emmeline’s attention lifted to where she pointed to a nearly blank sheet of parchment pinned beside the Warders.
“That’s another cult Regina found,” Emmeline said of the colleague at the Academy who’d helped her with all this research. “Realmspinners.”
“Realmspinners?” Myrella blinked at the scant page as if she was trying to remember something. “There isn’t much here. Just that they’ve been gone for generations but originally lived on the Constellation Isles.”
“Regina couldn’t find anything else. Even less than the Warders.”
“You think it’s important, though.”
Emmeline shrugged. “I think anything could be important, but something wiped from historical records? Seems interesting.”
Myrella studied the word, her brow creasing.
In the silence, Emmeline’s gut twisted. She’d wanted to speak with Myrella more last night, but by the time they left the barracks it was late, and truthfully, she’d still been looking for the right words.
She’d briefly apologized for leaving Lyra so quickly, but she had to communicate the weight of Myrella’s presence in Valyn when she felt so alone.
“I’m happy you’re here,” Emmeline began, twisting her rings.
Myrella gave her a soft smile. “There’s nowhere else I’d want to be. Falliare found a temporary replacement for me, so it was an easy decision.”
That statement settled in Emmeline’s chest. She chewed her lip. “Did you not want to go home after everything?”
Not that Emmeline had a home to go to, but she imagined that sort of comfort was what one would long for after a loss.
Myrella sighed, sitting back and tucking her knees to her chest. “There was nowhere to go.”
“What do you mean?” Emmeline asked.
“I grew up in an orphanage on Gemmi.”
“I didn’t know…”
“You couldn’t have. I’d been on Lyra since my Fatorum Revelus, and it never really came up at the Academy, but I never knew my family.
The priestesses at the orphanage couldn’t tell me anything about them other than my mother dropped me off in the night around my…
sixth birthday, I believe. I don’t remember anything before that. I think I blocked it all out.”
The type of events that the memory could repress to protect itself flashed through Emmeline’s mind.
“I’m sorry, Myrella.” It wasn’t enough, but there was no other way to respond. Like her, Myrella never had a true home until Nico made her feel safe. And then she lost him.
“It’s okay.” Myrella flashed a dimpled smile, but the circles beneath her eyes were dark. “But that’s why I jumped to come here when Desmond told me what he was doing. I couldn’t stay on Lyra. It’s not home when I’m alone.”
Emmeline’s throat tightened. Fates, how much less lonely would she have been if she’d simply allowed herself to get closer to Myrella before? How much would this shared understanding have changed things for both of them?
Sometimes, though, she thought the Fates gave you the people you needed in your life precisely when they were needed.
Myrella was here now. Sharing this. It was a closeness that both released a weight from Emmeline’s chest and tied a new knot around her ribs. The freedom of sharing a burden warring with the fear of that reliance hurting them all more.
Emmeline stretched across the piles of books, squeezing Myrella’s hand. “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”
Gaze drifting to Nico’s name on the wall, Myrella whispered, “Everything with Nico felt so permanent. I know it doesn’t make sense since we had so little time together, but I didn’t think I’d be alone again.”
“You aren’t.”
Myrella squeezed her hand back. “I know they lied about you going to the Academy, but why did you want to transfer to Valyn anyway? You never mentioned it.”
Emmeline inhaled, a sharp burn in her lungs at the thought of what she was about to share. “I made a deal with Falliare when I first got the position on Lyra that one day I’d transfer here. I needed to work my way into the Valyn network to find information about…my family.”
It wasn’t every detail. She didn’t mention the temple trades or her sister specifically. Every piece of information she let out into the world was one she couldn’t get back, and Emmeline didn’t want to expose Addie. Plus, giving Myrella that secret could put her in danger, too.
But it was something. And based on how the shadows in Myrella’s eyes pulled back, she understood. “Thanks for telling me. If you need help, I’m here.”
Gratitude rolled off Myrella in waves, gripping onto Emmeline, too.
For so long, she’d embraced isolation. And while she still found it hard to let anyone in entirely, perhaps there was a way she could funnel her love out without letting anything close enough.
Without her coveted magic risking anything else she loved.
A sharp voice cut in from the doorway. “By the Fates, what’s all this?”
Emmeline jolted, sliding the dresses back into place before she recognized Lola and relaxed.
“How was breakfast with Falliare?” Emmeline asked.
Lola rolled her eyes, but Desmond looked extremely disgruntled over her shoulder. “He never answers questions, dear uncle of mine. But when I asked about his schedule, he said he’s busy tonight.”
“Another ritual?” Emmeline breathed.
“Possibly,” Lola agreed, dropping to her knees beside Emmeline. “But what is all this?”
Desmond grumbled. “You’ve never seen Emmeline’s evidence maps?”
“Maps?” Emmeline echoed.
“You basically make star maps out of all your clues.”
Emmeline studied how she’d carefully pinned each piece of information into place, threads stretching between them like she was building constellations. Satisfaction spread through her at that depiction.
Lola squinted at the details of the murders, absorbing everything. “So, this is how you’re going to clear my brother’s name?”
“Well, this is the information that’s going to help me figure out why Dryvius did this, and hopefully that will help us convince Rocarri and the powers that be that Roremar isn’t a threat to anyone.”
The goal felt like climbing a rocky mountain trail in the dark: One wrong step would send them tumbling down. But Emmeline clung to the part of her that couldn’t envision a future without Roremar alive and safe.
“What if he’s trying to find Selene?” Myrella suggested, eyes on the Warder information.
“That’s possible,” Emmeline said.
“Why wouldn’t he be answering Roremar’s readings now, then?” Lola asked.
“Not to mention the fact that Roremar has never seen this information on the Warders of Selene. I figured it out after…” Emmeline sighed. “Dryvius wouldn’t have had access to anything about her.”
“Unless he already knew,” Myrella suggested.
“Could be,” Emmeline said.
Lola offered, “I’m planning to stop by the barracks later. I’ll take it to him.”
The contestants had been broken into two groups today, alternating training sessions and different appearances throughout the city. Emmeline was grateful none of them required her attendance. A day without the city breathing down her neck.
“I hate to be the one to say it,” Myrella chimed in, a quiver in her voice, “but if Dryvius has a link to Roremar, should we really be giving him any information? What if the Fate uses it against us?”
The rest of them were quiet for a beat. Emmeline hated the doubt that warred through her. She trusted Roremar—when he was making his own decisions.
But she swore something happened in the seeing chamber, a fundamental change to the two of them. She’d seen how much the power had ravaged Roremar. That had to be an explanation for why he couldn’t communicate with the Fate anymore, and maybe Dryvius couldn’t hear him either.
Emmeline looked between Lola and Desmond before shaking her head. “We can trust Roremar.”
They had to. If they started doubting him, how could they convince the realm of his innocence?