Chapter 59 Three Years Later - Lyra
Three years later – Lyra
Iforgot how hot it was here.
Behind me, Darian curses. “We need to stop. I need to remove a layer. Every layer. Any.”
Eres rides beside me, his thin shirt a contrast to Darian’s heavy cloak as he struggles out of it. He wears his healer’s belt around his waist, worn and faded and barely holding onto existence, despite Kaelen making him a new one. He's too attached to it, he says. “I did try to tell you.”
The four Solvandyr suns burn overhead, heating the back of my neck as we approach the gates.
The line of golden soldiers that wait for us are split into two, their armor brightly polished and glorious beneath the sun’s rays.
In the distance behind the glimmering walls of the city towers—of my tower—the Glass Dunes stand tall.
They don’t sparkle anymore, though. As I understand from Reena’s letters, Solvandyr punishment isn’t quite as brutal as it used to be.
Reena waits between the welcome guard, the High Solar at her side.
Kaelen pulls up on my other side, his hand reaching out to pause me. “We don’t have to go inside. We can turn around, right now.”
I breathe it in. The scent of roasted meat, of incense from the temple—woody, and smoky, and deeply familiar in a way that catches at the back of my throat. “Yes, we do.”
Reena bows her head to Kaelen as we dismount. “Duskbane.”
She still seems mildly irritated by his existence, but not as much as she once did. He inclines his head in return, and her smile grows as she turns to me. “Lyra.”
We meet in the space between both parties, my arms wrapping around her as I breathe my sister in.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” she whispers. “But I’m glad you did.”
“It was time.” I draw back. “Are they… do they know?”
She nods. “I have a room waiting. They said they’ll wait as long as you need.”
Today I will meet my mother’s older sister, and her son. And I intend to learn more about the woman who tried to save me from Vaelion, only to lose her own life in the process.
Reena moves past me, greeting Eres in a far friendlier voice than she did Kaelen as I look up at the gates. They don't seem as big as they once did.
“Lyra Vaelion.” The High Solar waits for me to approach before she draws back her calantica.
I’ve never seen her face, as far as I remember, though her prophecy defined my entire life.
To my surprise, she’s younger than I expected.
Her forehead holds thin lines etched deeper with age, dark golden hair graying at the temple.
Her eyes hold no fire. Only darkness that reminds me of Darian’s gaze, when he’s casting.
“Welcome back. It has been a long time.”
“Thank you.” My smile feels forced. “I’m pleased to be back.”
But her eyes are tracing my face now, studying my riftlines closely. “Your marks tell your story, I think. A gift from Erevan.”
“I…,” Frowning, I look down at my arm. The thin silver lines curl around it, as familiar to me now as the features I was born with. But I have no idea what she’s talking about.
“And you completed the task Aedryn set for you.” She smiles. “Well done.”
My brows draw down. “I did not.”
She clicks her tongue. “The prophecy was that you would end the war. And you did that, if the stories are true.”
I stare at her, uncomprehending. “But—Kaelen—,”
“Ah. That was Vaelion’s interpretation.” Her lip curls, before it wipes away. “The prophecy was merely that you would end it, Lyra. And you did.”
She bows her head to me, before she turns and makes her way back through the gates, leaving me staring behind her.
Slowly, my eyes lower to my arm again.
Darian’s voice interrupts my racing thoughts, his hand touching my shoulder. “Everything alright?”
“My riftlines, Dare,” I whisper. “I know what they are now.”
I hold my arm out. “Look at them.”
His finger traces along one. And I see the moment that his brows knit, comprehension dawning. “They’re—,”
“Scars,” I whisper. “They’re scars.”
Vaelion had wiped it all away.
Every bit of it. Every cut into my skin. Every brand, every mark that was made. Every piece of evidence of what he’d done to me, healed behind closed doors by tight-lipped healers so he could start all over again.
I had always hated seeing pink, new skin in the looking glass.
But Erevan knew. And he gave them back to me.
Darian still looks stunned as Reena appears between us. She smiles. “Are you ready?”
Kaelen’s hand brushes my back as he comes to stand behind me. Eres slips his hand into mine.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I think I am.”