Tides of Shadows (Dominium Saga #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter

It should have been my brother. The gods decided otherwise.

I dragged myself up the stone steps. The echo of my footsteps clung to the damp castle walls. Everything had already been packed. The chests sealed. The ships made ready to sail.

Only farewells remained.

I had left home before, but this time it felt different. I drew a deep breath and pushed open the heavy oak door to the chamber. She stood at the window with her back to me, her ginger hair wild and untamed. She looked like a shadow of a person I once knew. Fragile. Almost translucent.

“Darkness,” she said softly, before I could speak. “Darkness is coming. It can no longer be stopped. Too much has already come to pass.”

My shoulders dropped, listening to these stories again.

“I came to say farewell,” I said at last.

She turned slowly. Her eyes were distant, unfocused, as though she looked not at me, but through me. She lifted her hand and brushed my cheek with her fingertips. Her skin was pale. The only color left in her was her hair.

“Many dangers lie ahead of you,” she said. “I prepared you as well as I could. Now you must face them alone.”

“Mother,” I breathed.

“They will come for you,” she went on, as if she had not heard me. “You will suffer. But it must be. It’s woven into the tide.”

I held still, fighting the urge to flinch from the chill of her skin and the weight of her words. Her prophecies had shadowed our home like perpetual fog, turning joy to dread.

“Mother. Please.”

She blinked. For a fleeting moment, her gaze sharpened, as though she had returned to this world. She turned abruptly and crossed to the sideboard, opened a drawer, and withdrew a small box.

“We have little left,” she said, pressing it into my hands, “but you have to take this.”

When I lifted the lid, I found a familiar necklace. An enormous sapphire, in the shape of a perfect teardrop, cradled in palladium. Our family’s most prized heirloom, the stone hummed faintly in the dim light, alive with trapped ocean energy.

“I am not going there to wield Elementars,” I said quietly.

“I know,” she replied. “But the palace is not about physical power. It is about social standing. They will look down on you. A weak creature invites attack.”

I gazed at the stone, sensing the vast magic slumbering within it. And how little that power signified for me. I nodded and closed the box. Her hands rose again to frame my face, firmer this time. Pain surfaced in her eyes, real and human.

“Forgive me,” she whispered. “This was not how it was meant to be. But we had no choice.”

I did not answer. I offered her a faint smile instead, for I had no strength left for her visions. She was drowning in her own world. I no longer wished to be part of it.

I left.

That was not the hardest farewell.

On my way, I strayed into the castle kitchen.

I loved lingering there, stealing sweet cakes and listening to the gossip.

The room stood empty now. I settled onto the wooden stool where I had once perched as a child.

In those days, my feet had dangled above the stone floor, never quite reaching it.

Today, I had to bend my knees to fit myself there.

The thought settled in my chest, quiet and strange.

After a moment, my maid, Mirabel, walked in.

“My Lady,” she called. “Everything is ready. The ships await. Your father asked me to find you.”

“Where is everyone?”, I asked.

“They are waiting at the harbor,” she said softly. “The whole castle has gone to bid you farewell, my Lady.”

I didn’t expect such ceremony.

“I will come shortly,” I said, walking out the kitchen.

I passed servants carrying out the chests for our travel. There were not many. There has not been much of anything lately.

I turned toward the library. I knew he would be there.

He always was.

I entered quietly. When he saw me, he tried to rise from the chair. He was almost as tall as our father. He swayed and nearly fell. I reached him in two strides.

“Easy,” I whispered, guiding him back down.

Pain twisted his face. Beneath my hands, I felt how thin his body had become. He had once been as strong as a bull; no one could have taken him down. Everyone envied our father for having such a promising heir. Now… Now everyone looked at him with pity. Even me. My brother.

They said there was no cure. They said nothing could be done. My father called in medics from distant cities. But no one could save him. I helped him sit up, but when he saw the worry on my face, he snorted.

“Do not look at me like that. I don’t want you to remember me like that.”

“Alaric,” I said, fixing him with a cautionary look, for the words he shouldn’t have said.

I sat beside him and squeezed his hand. For a moment, neither of us spoke.

“I have something for you,” he said, reaching for a small pouch. “It is not much, but I do not want you to feel like some poor island girl at the palace.”

I opened it and froze, the purse was full of palladium coins.

“Where did you get this?!”

“I have no use for it,” he shrugged. “I need no horse, no sword, no armor. You can buy yourself a nice dress in the White City. Perhaps you will finally look like a proper Lady.”

I laughed.

“I don’t need a dress.”

“And how do you plan to find a husband?”

“Simple. I don’t.”

His expression sobered. “Do not say that. What happened doesn’t mean you will never find anyone else.”

I shook my head.

“Maybe someone will be insane enough to bind themselves to you for all eternity,” Alaric said. “At least it would relieve me a little of your constant presence.”

I punched him in the arm.

“Do you remember,” I asked, “when I was five and said I would marry you?”

He laughed aloud. I had missed that sound more than ever.

“I remember. Mother had to explain to you that it didn’t work that way. You were very angry and offended. Then you took some random dog to the castle and told everyone it was your child.”

“I was an excellent dog-mother.”

“Until father discovered you both had fleas.”

We burst out laughing. For a moment I felt like in the old days. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave him. He was so alone here, prisoner in his own body.

But I also knew that White City could be my only hope. Maybe they knew a cure there.

“It is time for me to go,” I said softly.

“Forget about me,” he said pleadingly. “About me as I am now. Remember only the good times. Go, live your life, regret nothing.”

“Don’t say that.” Tears welled. I turned my face so he would not see it.

“Life is too short, Nerissa. And too fragile to dwell in the past,” he added. “I know something about that.”

There was still a spark of light in his eyes.

“Sail without fear.”

“Without fear,” I echoed.

I kissed his forehead and fled before more tears could fall.

I ran down the stone stairs without looking back.

The longer I lingered, the harder it would become to leave.

I made for the harbor. Sea air filled my lungs, salty and comforting.

Along the way, I passed all the familiar paths.

I knew every turn, every stone. I brushed my fingers over the moss on the walls, as I always did.

Everyone waited at the harbor. Everyone I knew since I was a kid. Some were cheering for my travel, I could see some were worried. I didn’t want to show any sorrow on my face. Now I had to present my Family proudly.

Father waited at the deck. He embraced me tightly in his huge arms and helped me board the ship. I think he knew that if he didn’t make sure of this, I’d run away at the last minute.

The weather was perfect. Too perfect. Not a breath of wind.

As though the islands themselves wanted me to stay.

The helmsmen raised their hands, carrying wind Elementar bracelets. Their lapis lazuli stones chimed softly. A single breath was enough to fill the sails.

The ship moved.

There was no turning back.