Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
-LIL-
My breathing turned ragged, my hand anchored against my chest.
The doors lead us to… dream worlds? Flashes of the Court of Reflections trial in Azmeer returned to me. I had been swallowed by the water, a bubble engulfing me, transporting me to my childhood home.
“He says you stole it, Lilianna.”
I refused to respond.
“You know she does this whenever you call her by that name, Eeli.”
“Forever obstinate, Lilianna. How many times must we tell you to do as you’re told?”
My father’s hand slapped the table and ripples of water appeared mid-air, twisting and weaving themselves into chains as they chased toward me, locking me in place.
“You will tell us where the ring is, Lilianna.”
I wouldn’t. I knew that Rai was permitted only to propose with that ring. A tradition from his mother’s family, an heirloom from her line. The moment it glided onto my finger, I would be tied to him, and I wouldn’t allow it.
In order to escape that dream, I had to escape from Lesalia, and when I reemerged from the vision, I was left with the same sensation of dread that I had now.
“Lil?” Dainan strode toward me, being sure not to reach out to touch me.
“I’m fine.” We both knew the words were a lie. An appeasement in order to ensure we continued our progression through this place. Would the doors torture us by showing us what it is we craved most, only to take it away.
That would not be a reason.
It would be reason enough to drive anyone to madness.
“Where did you go?” Dainan swerved in front of me, eyes locking on mine. Flame and shadow bounced within his irises. Malice, just waiting to be unleashed.
“Where did you go?” I whispered. “You disappeared.”
As if it had been an illusion, there now remained no sand. We had returned to the hall with its watery walls, images flashing, one of a dusk-filled sky by the beach, fading into obscurity, only to be lost to the depths for eternity.
“The room was empty for me, but you vanished.” He snapped his fingers, “Gone in an instant, only to return gasping for breath. So tell me, are you alright? Truly?”
“You don’t owe me your concern, Dainan.” The fabric of my pants remained soft under my fingertips as I straightened myself to full attention.
“The concern is not new, Lil.”
“Isn’t it?” I spat. “Where was this concern when I was being married to a monster? Did you voice it then? Or were you too preoccupied with your own fate to notice that I was drowning? Isolated from everyone I cared about, fading away like the images before us. I was a ghost. And no one did a thing.”
“That’s not true…”
“I’ve been on my own my entire life, Dainan.
I…I…” Tears welled in my eyes, anxiety coiling in my throat.
These were the words I had held back for so long.
The dam was ready to break. “This is a reflection of my life.” I gestured to the walls.
“Fleeting images of freedom, only for them to be taken away.”
Dainan opened his arms to me—an invitation if I wanted it. Comfort. A place to rest my head, if only for a moment. Relinquishing control, allowing something other than myself to take over, I stepped toward him, and he wrapped his arms around me.
“They handed me to him.” I lamented.
His warmth was a balm to my pain, the heat drying the tears from my face. “I’m sorry life has been unkind to you. You’re right. We failed you. We should have done more.”
His caress was gentle, his words soft. “You are strong and capable, Lil. No one has ever doubted that. You have endured many trials and had to do so alone.” He pulled away, placing his hands atop my shoulders.
“But just because something has always been so, does not mean it is required to remain as such. Please allow me to help you.”
To my surprise, I nodded into his chest. “Kadian.”
Dainan nodded in return, understanding where it was I had been, whom I had seen.
“I take it you do not yet know your reason?” Dainan released me, placing his hands in his pockets as I shook my head.
“No. But we can assume there will be doors that pull us in, perhaps there are multiple doors and they are all a piece of the puzzle.” The hall stretched before us, doors flashing in and out of obscurity, waiting for their person.
“Do you think it was real?”
“I’m not sure,” I said as we made our way past a door with small creatures with wings carved into the wood of an ancient tree, the door giggling as we moved on past. “Kadian spoke of current events. He…”
“It’s alright if you don’t wish to discuss it. I just thought it may give us a better idea of what to expect.”
My throat was parched as I cleared it. “I think the essence of him, the part of him I know, was real. But I think perhaps my subconscious was superimposing ideas into the fray.”
Dainan’s nod was subtle, a movement so quick that most would have missed it. We each remained silent as we wandered through the palace.
The next door had called to Dainan— a land of darkness where we had been separated, and all that remained for me had been a void. Dainan said his experience had been much the same until he witnessed an explosion and was propelled back.
We were chased by animals made of spectral lights in one of the rooms, fleeing before we could explore further.
One door placed us in the midst of a market with a man singing a song about star-crossed lovers, while another had placed me atop a rock in the middle of an ocean.
Alone with the waves crashing against it, only to be dissolved with the passing of time.
One was a land of perpetual winter, the winds icy claws cutting our faces, another was a world with two suns. Each door held a reason, and out of the hundreds we’d entered, none had been ours.
“What was it Thetius said this was?”
The swirling vortex doors stood in front of us, undulating slowly, luring prey into its grasp.
“The Archives. Whatever the context of that is here.” I stepped closer, the doors were humming. A low, melodic song, calling to us from the deep.
I swayed on my feet. There it was again, a tether. Wings beating beneath my skin, a trembling urging me to move. To do something.
“What are you doing?” Dainan questioned as I made my way to the center of the right door. All of the doors thus far had been simple, turn the handle, and enter. These were different.
“What it’s asking me to do.” I rolled up my sleeve before pressing my bare hand into the center of the swirling vortex.
Closing my eyes, I sang a low, resonant lullaby.
As the tune filled the air, the vortex stilled, receding to reveal two slender handles in its place.
With a smile, I gestured for Dainan to follow me inside.
“Did you know what you were saying? Just now?”
“No.” I whispered as we stepped through the doorway.
A solid limestone floor gave way beneath us, transforming into a transparent expanse of glass. I gasped, stopping short as I looked down, where, just beneath the surface, the tide was pulling back, revealing a seabed alive with movement, ancient currents swirling just inches below our feet.
“Holy Gods,” I whispered, my voice barely audible as I marveled at the beauty.
Towering columns of water spiraled upward from the floor, stretching towards an endless ceiling.
Faces flickered in and out of focus within the columns—some laughing, others weeping, others silent, their eyes locked on something unseen.
Snippets of songs floated through the air, harmonies of joy and sorrow entwining in a haunting symphony, while flashes of memories played out within the watery confines.
With each rise and fall of the tide, new faces appeared within the columns, their lives compressed into brief moments, each one reaching out with a silent plea, a whisper of existence that faded almost as soon as it appeared.
This was no ordinary archive. It was not buried beneath a library, guarding documents and ancient texts.
This was a living record of every soul who had ever opened their eyes, every life lived from the first breath to the last, suspended in these spiraling towers of water.
But the question remained. Were they from my world, or from all of them?
“What is this place?” Dainan murmured, his voice thick with wonder as he approached one of the columns, his hand hovering over the swirling water, an image of a man who appeared to be made of darkness resting there. “This is unlike any of the other rooms.”
“I see you wasted no time.” A chuckle bounced from wall to wall, circling us with laughter.
It was a sound we had become familiar with since our arrival.
Thetius’s voice rang out from the echoey walls.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” His tone was light, but there was a weight behind it.
“This is the Tides of Memory. It is a collection of everyone who has ever been, or ever will be.”
Like the faces of so many others, Thetius’s appeared in the water, but rather than fading as the others had, he stepped out from the walls, fully formed.
In three strides, he crossed the room and, without warning, reached out, pressing his hand into one of the columns.
Instantly, his expression changed, and when he opened his mouth, voices poured out—first the high-pitched wail of a young child, then the cracked, frail whisper of an old woman, and then…
my own voice. The sound of it sent a shiver down my spine, a strange, unsettling echo of myself.
“How…” I breathed, staring at him in disbelief.
Thetius withdrew his hand, and miraculously, it was dry. “We are woven into the fabric of time, the threads of past, present, and future. And what are those threads if not people? Lives woven together?” He smiled, his gaze distant, as though he were seeing far beyond what lay before us.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from the vast room around us. Pools of water were embedded in sections of the glassy floor, each bordered by sleek, polished stones—resembling those outside the House of Reflection, the ones I’d carefully sidestepped, wary of the memories they threatened to awaken.
At the far end of the room, a colossal wall of water rested before us, towering in a cascade that reached as high as Azmeer itself.
The left side was illuminated, sunlight threading through the water in thin beams that shimmered and danced like wisps of gold in a vast liquid canvas.
I couldn’t help but feel a tug of nostalgia, memories surfacing of long, quiet hours in the Hydratas Sea as a child.
I’d dived below the surface and let the shifting light paint my skin, twisting my body to mirror the flickering patterns. I swallowed, pushing the memory away.
“We have entered rooms, Thetius. No reason has presented itself.”
“And yet you were called here, were you not?” Thetius crossed his arms, the faces on his robe continuing to change with each step he took.
The center of the wall behind him churned with a frenetic energy—light and dark swirling together in a vortex, a chaotic force that was barely contained, fighting to burst free at any moment.
And to its right, shadowed waters rippled, streaked with hues of twilight, deep purples, and soft, star-dappled blues drifting through the inky depths.
At the base of the wall stood two doors, each one wavering as though it weren’t fully there. One door radiated light, its outline soft and inviting, while the other held shadows like a pool of midnight. They flickered, half real, half illusion, the choice between them somehow feeling monumental.
“What’s through there?” I asked, my voice a murmur as I drifted forward, unable to resist the magnetic pull of the doors.
Thetius’s eyes glinted as though he’d been waiting for me to ask. “I’m so pleased you’re curious,” he said, gesturing toward the doors. “Do they speak to you?”
Closing my eyes, I listened as the soft whispers of a song cradled me. “Yes,” I whispered, turning to Dainan.
“And for you, Dark Prince?”
Dainan’s face was unreadable, his usual calm barely disrupted, though I noticed the tension in his jaw, the way he stiffened.
Any other time, I might have argued, demanded an answer, but even as I considered it, the faint strains of music slipped into my mind.
It coiled through me, weaving around my thoughts, gently beckoning me onward.
It felt like a voice calling me home, familiar and irresistibly warm.
Dainan said nothing as he too made his way towards the doors.
I ventured to the light, while Dainan to its counter, we each placed our hands atop the handles of our respective doors. “Don’t worry, Lord of Shadows.” I lowered my voice, “I’ll be back.”
Drawn forward by that insistent pull, I barely registered Dainan’s worried gaze as I took a breath, letting the soft, golden light from the door on the left wash over me as I stepped through, surrendering to whatever lay beyond.