Chapter 96 Farron
Farron
The ground is slick beneath my feet, the frost on the strange, hardened lava making for difficult terrain.
Sunlight beams down on the tundra, illuminating a place that no longer looks like Winter.
I wonder if this is how Rosalina felt when she first came to the Enchanted Vale: a land reminiscent of home but isn’t.
It is the morning after Kel brought down the sky on Faustrius’s plot of vengeance.
To carry something as sacred as fire from the Above, only to use it for revenge…
I cannot imagine the holy magic of the Gardens of Ithilias was ever intended for an act so despicable.
But as Sira and Faustrius have proven, fae of the Above are just as fallible as us mere Vale fae. Why, even Aurelia has made that clear.
A team of us came out early this morning to assess the fallout.
George, Dayton, and I have spread out at the base of the volcano, while Kel, Ez, and Kairyn have climbed up to look within.
Though Kairyn is still a prisoner and remains manacled, Keldarion said some physical exertion would be good for him.
The three of them are making their way down now, sliding across the slick surface of the newly formed rocks.
Dayton and George are examining one of the huge boulders.
When Kel first brought it down from the Above, it was covered in ice, glowing with a celestial light.
Now, most of the ice has melted where it connected with the lava, revealing stone.
George taps the rock. “Ore of the Above, isn’t it? This is valuable stuff. Isn’t this what Anya and the first rulers traversed across the Vale for? To make their divine weapons?”
Dayton scrunches his eyebrows. “I don’t think this is it. I’m sure Ez could tell you more, but this looks like plain old iron.”
“We could take some samples.” I walk over to them.
Dayton’s face hardens. He turns away, stalking off to another boulder. George gives me a sympathetic shrug, but I dart after Dayton.
“Hey.” I grab his arm. “You can’t keep ignoring me.”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Dayton hisses under his breath.
“I don’t know. Talk to me?”
“About what?” He stops, but his eyes won’t meet mine.
“Farron, Rosalina’s gone. It’s up to her now.
Kel has everything under control here. Ezryn can go back to Spring with his shiny suit of armor and his blessing and his fucked-up brother.
I should return to Summer. Connect with Delphia.
Look after my people. Start rebuilding Hadria. ”
“I’ll come with you,” I breathe. “My father’s looking after Autumn—”
“No,” he interrupts. “I can’t…can’t be with you right now.”
My words are a hushed breath. “Because I saved your life?”
He jams a finger against his temple. “Because there’s something wrong inside our heads. And you don’t want to get it out.”
“You’re afraid,” I growl. “We need every advantage we can. Why are you resisting such power?”
Dayton stares at me, unblinking. “I can’t believe this.”
“What? That for once, you’re the coward, and I’m not?”
“You’ve broken your promise.”
“What promise?” I ask.
Dayton snatches his necklace from under his shirt. A piece of red sea glass glints from the snow’s reflection. “The first summer you spent with me in Hadria, you made me a promise. I promised to always be me, and you promised to always be you.”
The memory washes over me like a briny wave. Salty skin, kisses like sunshine, a love so young and fervent, I thought my heart might tear out of my chest from my need. The first night we ever made love, we made that vow to each other. “Dayton, I’m still me.”
“No, you’re not,” he whispers. “And I’m damned sure I’m not still me.”
He turns and starts walking away from me.
“Day—” I gasp. “I brought you back.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you should have left me dead.”
Silence echoes in his wake as his body shifts, turning into the Summer wolf. He begins loping across the tundra, back toward Frostfang.
My throat tightens, and tears threaten to fall, but I don’t let them.
From the ashes, a new world shall rise. Those who fear the flame will still burn.
“Quiet,” I growl, squeezing my eyes closed.
A hand touches my shoulder, and I leap away, hands suddenly aflame.
“Whoa, it’s just me,” Kel says, holding his palms up. “You okay?”
My flames die, and I take a shaky breath. “Sorry. Didn’t hear you coming.”
“What did you find up there?” asks George, walking over to us.
“The volcano is dormant. The ice from the Above put it back to sleep.” Kel nudges me. “Good work, Fare.”
“You’re the one who brought the stars down,” I mumble.
A cry sounds, and we look to the side of the mountain where Ezryn and Kai are examining a boulder.
Kairyn’s been fitted with new clothes since his armor was destroyed in his transformation, but he still looks ridiculous, the pants too short, the jacket’s buttons straining over his chest. His tail flicks out of the waistband, wagging excitedly.
“Hurry! Over here!” Ez calls.
The three of us exchange a look and then sprint toward them. George has no problem keeping up with us; we haven’t been back to Castletree, but I wonder if it’s feeling healthier now that all our curses are broken. There even seems to be less gray along his temples.
“It can’t be,” Kairyn breathes and trails a hand over the rock, his manacles clinking.
We crowd around. Though most of it is still covered in ice, a large patch has thawed. As with the others, the boulder is made of what looks like iron, but running along the side is a glowing gold vein.
The top of the boulder has been melted away, seemingly by a spray of lava. It forms a bowl shape. And within shimmers a small pool of molten gold.
No…not gold. Its sheen is beyond any surface metal; it radiates like the sun itself.
“What is that?” Kel asks.
Ezryn’s voice shakes, as if he can’t get the words out. Then he says, “I think it’s mythkarite.”
“Mythkarite? The same ore that made the divine weapons?” Kel asks.
“Yes. Rafael, the first High Prince of Spring, traveled around the Vale with Aurelia in search of this very substance. From what he found, he crafted the five divine weapons,” Ez says. “This…this is magic incarnate.”
George lets out a squawk and then bounces up and down, grabbing us each by the shoulders, even Kairyn.
“You in the market for a divine weapon?” Kel quips, raising a brow at his father-in-law.
“No, boy! But this…this is it!” George points at the small pool of melted ore. “This is what I need to fix the rose. The substance that can bind it all together. If it’s magic incarnate as you say, then we can do this.”
A shaky smile appears on Kel’s face, and he grabs George by the shoulders and kisses the top of his head. “You’re brilliant! If we have control of the rose—”
“We have control over the goblins. Over any of Sira’s creations. We can help Rosalina from afar,” I whisper.
“And more than that, look. Veins run all through this boulder,” Ez says, then looks up at Kel. “There’s enough to forge a weapon. A weapon fit for the Sworn Protector of the Realms.”
“You could do that?” Kel breathes.
Ez shakes his head. “I…I don’t know. The melted ore at the top of the boulder may be enough to seal the rose, but it’s not enough to forge a weapon.
We’d have to find a way to smelt the mythkarite.
Besides, I’ve never studied the weapons.
To work this ore would take a blacksmith with an incredible sense of the craftsmanship of the previous weapons.
Someone with a unique mind to—” He stops, then looks to his brother.
All our eyes fall on Kairyn. His own widen, and he steps back, horns swaying. “I…I could try. Will a new Sword of the Protector help Wrenley?”
“If it’ll kill Sira, it will help us all,” Kel says.
Kairyn nods, and a jubilant energy fills the four of them. They slap each other on the shoulders, begin discussions on mining the ore, finishing the rose, but I drift away. They don’t notice when I walk off, cloaking myself in the shadows of other boulders.
I turn to what was once the tundra. Far in the distance, I make out Dayton’s wolf. Running from me. From his destiny.
The landscape is filled with this new shiny rock, black as pitch. If I squint, it doesn’t look like rocks.
It looks like ash.
Yes, killing Sira is a start. But that’s only the beginning.
Her death will create a power vacuum. Aurelia, former queen of the Vale, will be free… but these are not her lands to rule anymore. The Son, of course, will have to die. He has grown much too powerful. And with the queen’s daughter at his side, they may be enough to topple even a god.
It’s a shame. But legacy can come in many forms. Conquered lands are, in many ways, better than sons.
A new world will be born from the ashes of the Enchanted Vale.
The world of the Green Flame.