Chapter 3 Astraea #2
They blew out their next drag of the pipe and gave a lopsided smile.
Their eyes had been yellow with a vertical pupil when I’d first met them; now they must have switched the enhancement in their starlight matter—a substance crafted from fallen star matter and spelled by mages for various cosmetic and practical uses—which changed them to an unnatural vibrant green with a circular pupil.
My sight flicked briefly outside, catching on the tall thorned stem with fluorescent blue flowerings. A beautiful, deceptively harmless plant, which was poisonous to my kind. Depending on the use and strength, it could incapacitate a celestial’s magick and weaken their bodies.
“Does the nebulora make you wary?” they asked in reply to my wandering observation.
“I guess I’m wondering why you grow it.”
They shrugged, nonchalant. “It’s nothing personal to your kind. I have obsidian, which can harm the celestials too, and stormstone that is lethal to vampires. I have them all in forms you couldn’t decipher.”
That furrowed my brow. “Forms?”
“It’s not always about possessing the weapon but having the cunning to use it in ways one least sees coming.”
Nadir liked to speak in riddles. Usually I would indulge in the game, but I was too on edge.
“The nebulora is rather obvious.”
“It is nearly bloomed to perfection; then you might never see it again.”
I shivered involuntarily, eyes fixing on the glowing cosmic plant that grew from soil untouched by the white snow. When I thought of a weapon, sharp things and magick flares came to mind, but I stared at something so quiet and beautiful, knowing it could kill me in far more cunning ways.
“I left a gift for you in your room,” Nadir said.
That took me by surprise. I didn’t want to question their kindness, but it was unexpected to receive something now when we’d been here for weeks.
“What is it?” I asked warily.
“We can’t have you unequipped as well as unaccompanied.” Their eyes tilted down at me with a reprimand they didn’t voice.
This was another instance that roused my suspicion over whether Nadir had some kind of clairvoyance. I didn’t confirm I harbored any plans to leave, but I didn’t need to.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Unaccompanied where?” Drystan said, strolling into the main room.
He came around the hearth, taking Nadir’s pipe and inhaling long and deep.
With the immediate relaxation he exhibited blowing out the smoke, I was starting to reconsider my desire to sample, or at least inquire about, whatever root it was.
“I was going to train tomorrow, but it seems my combatant will have to be the most sturdy tree,” I lied easily.
Drystan hooked a brow at me, settling down on the rug by the fire, his knee bent and posture the most at ease I’d seen. Perhaps it was from the hope gained with our new prospective attempt to wake Nyte, and I only prayed the loss of that hope, if it didn’t work, wouldn’t crush more of his spirit.
“You have an immense power inside you, and you want to dally in swordplay?”
Nadir’s lazy gaze slipped to me, a lingering meaning hidden in his answer. “She can’t rely on one skill that could be taken away.”
With that, my attention caught on the fluorescent blue flowering nebulora outside again with a jittering unease. A warning that no power was unstoppable.
“Are the falling stars affecting your magick?” Drystan asked me curiously, like I was a thing to study in his journals.
The stars were causing more destruction than ever before. I’d seen the gaps between them stretch apart, but this was the first time they’d started plummeting to the land as catastrophic rocks ablaze.
“No. I don’t think the cosmic imbalance is affecting me like it has the other celestials.”
“Maybe when we get Eltanin back we should wait this out—let celestial magick weaken so we have an advantage,” Drystan pondered.
I shook my head. “My war is with Auster and your father, no one else. I want to spare as many of my people as I can, and waiting only gives them more time to turn innocents against me.”
“Besides,” Nadir interjected. “It would take decades for them to be substantially weakened, and it doesn’t affect their ability to fight with mortal weapons.”
Drystan hummed, taking another inhale of the pipe before passing it back to Nadir. Then he shifted to retrieve a small journal from his back pocket. I didn’t impose on his moment of thought as he flicked through his own writing.
“I’m going to get rest,” I announced.
Drystan didn’t look up from his pages. Nadir gave me a small smile with a dip of their head, an unspoken tender farewell in their bright green eyes.
Back in my room with Nyte, I found Nadir’s gift immediately.
Combat leathers with a beauty like nothing I’d seen before hung beautifully on a wooden dress form in the corner.
I floated toward it lost in awe, taking in the exquisite craft.
It wasn’t just black; the shoulders gave the illusion of dark purple tipped feathers made of leather.
When I moved around the garment, the candlelight caught on different surfaces, and I found the sleek bodice shifted from black to an iridescent purple hue depending on the light.
I bathed in a tub filled with steaming water I assumed Nadir had also used his magick to place in this room. With a sulking heart and a lost soul, I watched Nyte with my chin resting on my folded arms over the bath’s edge.
“If this plan doesn’t work…” I started, but my words cut off, as I needed to swallow the lump in my throat.
“I haven’t posed the only other option we might have to try to save you.
I think Drystan knows of it too, but he’s hoping it will be the last resort.
I don’t think I could cross realms with you anymore.
I have a debt to Death to pay here. But Drystan could take you back through the mirror to where you belong, and then the curse from this realm won’t hold you.
Maybe there you won’t have to be the villain anymore.
Maybe home is where you get to be … free. ”
A tear slipped down my cheek at the thought.
Was it selfish to even try to bring him back with Eltanin and the dragon bond?
Nyte deserved so much better than the cruel hand life and death had dealt him.
He’d become what he had to in order to survive and protect his brother.
Now he had a chance for a new life and I couldn’t let him go.
He was so beautiful lying there that the pain in my soul swelled. I harbored so much love for him, and I didn’t want it to ever stop, but it was also killing me inside no matter what was to come.
I sighed, washing my hair with a honey shampoo before getting out and drying off. Wearing only a cotton robe, I crawled over the bed, hovering over Nyte and cupping his cheek. I pressed my lips to his, but they were cold and I held back my whimper.
“You waited centuries for me. There’s no measure of time I won’t wait for you. Forever, if need be. In every lifetime eternal until we are triumphant.”