Chapter 483: What Was Lost (1/2)
Chapter 483: What Was Lost
ARTHUR LEYWIN
“hello, Arthur”
The voice drifted to h a haze—distant and ethereal, but fa, nestled deep within a cozy blanket of thoughtless fatigue There was so about the fah to draw ht pierced the fog ofidea radiated through the fugue
This fatigue felt wrong Unnatural, even Like the sleep had sunk its claws into o
Aether bloomed fro boiled away I sat up suddenly and looked around, half in a panic with no memory of how I’d reached ht white stone, molded smoothly into curves and arches
“Peace, Arthur, peace”
Turning away fro aroundby ave ain The panic eased alis, in his puppy for deeply I was safe
“Lady Myre It’s been a long time…”
“To me, it seems as if only a short time has passed,” she answered simply
I considered the difference in our perspectives and wondered at the validity ofof time After all, how much time had passed in the keystone? Howwith Myre? By one interpretation, it had been an eternity Froh, it was only a few short years For the first tilirona, and thought I understood just a little of how they see the passage of time
“Where am I?”
“Epheotus,” she said Her eyes flicked to one of the arched s, and aze followed hers “More specifically, you’re in the town of Everburn”
Through the arched , I could see the buildings across the street The walls were clean, smooth, white or cream stone that arched up to roofs tiled in turquoise and cyan Arched s,out of, dotted the fronts, but I could make out little of as behind thereen-haired asura strode by, his brows knit in concentration, hisas he talked under his breath, apparently to his, the shadow of a massive, distant ainst a blue sky, towered over the city The mountain had a distinctive split shape
“One of several dragon towns in the shadow of Mount Geolus, yes,” Myre continued “I thought this would be more…comfortable, for your family Than the castle, I mean”
“Where are Ellie and randaze was intense and watchful I couldn’t help the feeling that she was readingand sent theive me, Arthur, but I wanted a , I eased s off the bed I was dressed in silken nightclothes that I didn’t recognize, their glossy white contrasting against the deep-forest green of the bedsheets “Speak to et that you yourself requested Windso your faentle “You are, as before, uest, Arthur”
I ments of rona?”
Myre nodded, her silver-gray hair bobbing around her face “Imprisoned within Castle Indrath He and his kinsman, Oludari Vritra, both But…”
Her hesitance and her nervous expressionout the ard Mount Geolus, she leaned forward slightly “Agrona is rona to speak Even his thoughts are shrouded, if there are any But he feels…wrong Empty Arthur, I need to knohat happened in that cave”
I quickly considered what Kezessfroe? I wondered darkly As much as I wanted to trust Myre, I couldn’t trust Kezess, and she was his wife They had appeared together in the cave, right before I fell unconscious, and she could be operating on his behalf at that very ’s Gambit, I spliton a different layer of truth, potential truth, and outright lie Aloud, I said, “Using a power the ancient djinn called Fate, an aspect of aether, I was able to destroy the Legacy’s potential by separating it from both the reincarnated version of Cecilia,it impossible for him to ever utilize its power for himself There was so to hislook “You have learned to control this…Fate, then?”
“No,” I said, letting ret The disparate branches ofthe sa I could use, only…influence And even then, only in the moments after I’d solved the keystone The power is not so that can be controlled”
I didn’t know if I spoke the truth or not, really, but I kept the thread of that thought buried beneath several others With the aspect of Fate’s presence and assistance, I had been able to directly alter those threads in a way I didn’t fully understand, but there had been no tireement with Fate or the keystone’s aftermath I didn’t yet knohat those events ht noas that Kezess not learn everything I knew—neither about Fate nor about the dragons’ repeated genocides
“Ah, well, perhaps that is for the best,” Myre said, giving no outward indication that she doubted what I said or even that she could read the several interwoven branches of s are better not tampered with” With a little shake of her head, she refocused onto know ons have been recalled to Epheotus, and the rift has been closed again Whatever Agrona hoped to acco it over, he has failed”
I frowned, focusing on one s was that Epheotus would die if the rift was closed”
“The connection remains,” Myre explained patiently, “but the portal is shut It would take aetheric knowledge beyond any yet alive—even you, Arthur—to cut the tether that binds Epheotus to your world”
Which is what the rebel djinn hoped to use Fate to acco, with Fate at h potential futures But to do so would be an act of genocide just as horrible as what the dragons themselves had done Perhaps I would if there was no other way to prevent Kezess fro history, but even then I didn’t know if I could condemn all of asuran-kind to sloaste away as Epheotus dissolved around the’s Ga, then I don’t mean to be rude, Lady Myre, but I’d like to speak to my family”
She waved away my words playfully “No rudeness in that, Arthur” Her tone quickly hardened, beco experience I can still feel the shattered echoes of soaround inside your mind Take some time to rest and speak with your loved ones You are welco as you need You have done both our worlds an indescribably incredible service by ending Agrona’s long rebellion”
She stood just as I heard Ellie’s and Mom’s voices from outside “I will leave you to your family I’m sure you have much to tell each other”
“Wait,” I said, anotherinto place “What about Tessia?”
Myre gavesine You both had to recover”
As she turned away, it was as if a veil was lifted frois’s and Sylvie’s,with their own
‘Arthur, you’re awake!’ Sylvie thought, surprise rippling outward through the threads of ourto stir’
Regis’s head lifted off the blanket and he turned to look blearily up at hts thick with fatigue He had exhausted all his aether giving it to ’s Gambit, and the power of the last keystone…
Outside of my room, Myre directed my sister and mother to h was throide open again as Ellie ran into the roo up, she started forward as if she ht throw herself at me, then hesitated Her smile flickered, strained by worry Finally, she stepped forward and bent down to give ratefully, glad to see her uninjured by the trials she must have endured in my absence Uninjured, but not unaffected Behind her, Mo back the curtain “Windsoain, then? And you’ve been treated well?”
Ellie pulled back, crossing her ar stern “Actually, we—”
“We have been very well treated here,” Mother said quickly, cutting across Ellie My sister shot her a look, which Mom answered I couldn’t read exactly what nonverbal cue passed between the back “It’s astounding, Arthur Like a whole neorld”
I sat up straighter, feeling suddenly aard in e bedroom “I saw some of the Alacryan attacks froled memories stole the words from my lips as they washed overat the center of a blasted battlefield I re in their jail cells But there were other memories too, muddled with time, distance, and a kind of unreality In thes that hadn’t happened yet, or rippedmy attention forward ‘Breathe, Arthur We’re here to support you You don’t have to carry the entire load by yourself’
Leaning into her presence within is stood up on shaky legs, a frown on his puppy-ish face Together,presence of the waves only intensified Like a drowningthem doith me
“Arthur?” Mother had taken a step forward, but her face was a blur, her expression nothing but a sed shadow across her face
Without conscious intention, aether released froainst the h is stumbled forward, de hiainst the force of so ’s Ga me hold back the tide, I reactivated it fully I saweyes, the crown of light glowing atop ain, fracturing so that every coht and memory was supported by its own branch of focused awareness
Before lance “Are you okay?” Ellie asked, her tone thick orry and an undercurrent of disappoint crown