Chapter 129
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
The Bondsmith
“Do you have your extra clothes? The new boots Rohak bought you? They’re fur-lined, remember.
And the books Faylinn found in the Valley?
” Folami asked, constantly running her hands over her daughter’s body and hair, fixing clothing that didn’t need to be straightened and pushing hair from her daughter’s eyes that was already tightly braided back.
“Yes, Mother.” Itanya rolled her sightless eyes at Folami’s antics.
Despite the fact Itanya was now an immortal being beyond the bounds of time and reality, she was still a fifteen-year-old girl, and Folami was still a mother.
I’d let Itanya stay in Alvor with Folami for as long as possible, the two of them filling their days and weeks with activities they could only do during this time of peace directly after the Second Sundering.
They’d traveled—Folami took her to the southernmost tip of Elyria to see their ancestral home and spent a few months with Ellowyn and Torin in the Valley—before deciding to ultimately settle in Hestin.
While Rohak and Faylinn had begged Folami and her quad to settle in Vespera with them, the city simply held too many traumatic memories.
Itanya, however, was destined to have no home.
I’d given her and Folami as much time as possible, as this was, most likely, the last time they’d see each other as mother and daughter. As soon as Itanya left Hestin, she would shed her previous identity and become the Bone Weaver fully.
As a mother who had to watch her child grow from afar, I knew all too well the pain that ripped through Folami’s soul with every heartbeat, but we were at the end. It was time for Itanya to return to the nations in the Far North to continue her training.
And time for me to bring Kaos’ tether north. I swore I could feel his knife—the one I used to kill our sister—heat through the bursting pack at my thought.
“Bone Weaver,” I said softly but under-laced with a command. Itanya’s milky-white eyes snapped to mine, and something in the air shifted as she reached out to touch her powers. It was like a long-dormant consciousness awoke and stretched, unfurling in the suddenly charged air.
Folami felt it too, judging by the stiffening of her shoulders and the tightened grip on her daughter’s biceps.
Itanya simply nodded in my direction, her spine straightening as she seemed to grow a few inches just by the use of her honorific.
“Write if you can,” Folami whispered, pressing her dark forehead to her daughter’s slightly lighter one. There was a moment where Itanya relaxed against her mother, her fingers twisting into the back of Folami’s cropped tunic, and I thought I might have to physically pull them apart.
It was not something I wanted to do, but this was her fate.
“I love you, my sweet girl. No matter where you go, no matter who you are, you are always my daughter first. Remember that, and remember how much I love you when the days are hard and cold. You will always have a home here, should you need it,” Folami whispered.
Itanya nodded once, pressing a quick kiss to each of her mother’s cheeks.
The sentiment was felt, but the Bone Weaver knew as well as I did that she would not return to this side of the Ice Shelf while her family still lived.
Itanya broke from her mother’s hold, moving to each of her three fathers and embracing them in turn.
Ilyas folded her into his ginormous arms, picking her feet off the ground for a moment before releasing her with a grunt.
Tears burned in his eyes, but I knew he wouldn’t let them fall until they’d taken care of Folami.
Lex was next, a playful smile and whispered barbs in Itanya’s ear had her giggling slightly before she moved to Peytor last. Neither of them said a word, but their hug lasted the longest.
Out of all of them, I feared missing Peytor—or Da, as she called him—could be her undoing.
He broke the hug first, squeezing Itanya’s arms once before jerking his chin at me.
The Bone Weaver said something under her breath, causing a small smile to pull at Peytor’s lips even as a tear slipped free and ran down his cheek.
Itanya embraced her mother once more, quickly, before shouldering the pack her family had painstakingly put together for her journey northward.
“May Fate guide and keep you,” Itanya whispered to her family, raising a hand in farewell before turning her back for the last time.
I watched as Folami collapsed in silent sobs, held upright by her three husbands before Itanya shut the door to their home, silencing any sound of grief that her mother and fathers made.
We walked in pleasant silence for a bit, our boots clicking against the stone road as the fresh summer sun beat against our backs, warming us instantly.
“Enjoy the heat now, Bone Weaver,” I said when my companion removed her outer jacket within an hour of walking. “The Far North is cold and unforgiving. Ice storms happen often and crust the heavy snow, making travel dangerous and difficult. There is no leaving once we are there.”
The Bone Weaver said nothing for a while, and I figured the conversation over.
“I’ll leave eventually. Fate will call me to do so,” she stated confidently, that eerie tone returning after being dormant for so many years. I shivered despite the heat.
Fate will call you to do a lot of things, Bone Weaver, I thought. The future of Elyria depends on whether you decide to heed that call.