by Ivan Kal
He fought with Kyarra about it, told her she should’ve stopped her, or at least found him faster so that Vin could find and stop her. But by the time Kyarra had managed to send a message from her palace, Ashara was nowhere to be found. He didn’t even know which ship she left on, so he didn’t even know where she was heading. It made him seethe inside, but beneath all that anger was pain. She had abandoned him here, among these worthless, petty people.
He shook his head, trying to calm himself down. After his conversation with Kyarra, she forced him to attend one of her planning meetings with her nobles and advisers. She had returned from the city of mages, and she relayed what they told her. Vin just couldn’t believe how shortsighted and idiotic people on this world were. Her advisers and nobles took the news as if they had expected it from the beginning, as if they were not worried that their world was about to be invaded.
One of the nobles even had the gall to say that there wasn’t any proof right to Vin’s face, insinuating that Vin’s common origins somehow made him untrustworthy. He nearly splattered the man against the walls. He would’ve, if Kyarra hadn’t intervened. A weakling rat dared call him, Kai Zhao Vin, a Sage of the spirit arts, untrustworthy—dared to question his word. He had killed people for lesser offenses against his honor.
He had stormed out of the palace before his rage exploded and he killed Kyarra’s people. And then he had come here, hoping that studying books on magic made by Kyarra’s former lives would calm him down. It wasn’t helping.
Vin was still angry when Kyarra arrived. For once, she was alone, her guards probably waiting outside.
“Vin?” she called as she found him in the library.
“How could you have let them disregard your words?” Vin asked.
Kyarra sighed. “We don’t have enough proof.”
Vin turned his eyes on her. “Didn’t you show them your medallion? The sending of your first life?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “The Mages Guild has proven that prophetic magic isn’t real… And they don’t think that Vardun’s words are credible.”
“How can they think that it is all a coincidence? How can they not see the truth before their eyes?” Vin bit out. “And what of the Lashian Empire invading your city?”
“The Emperor claims that it was done by a rogue element in his Legions.”
“And you believe him?” Vin asked incredulously.
“I don’t know… It is possible.”
Vin stood up and looked at her in disbelief. “And what about my word? I know that the Lashian Grand Marshal is working with the Arashan. I know that he had Arashan with him on this world, that they blocked your magic. I know that the Arashan are coming! Is my word not worth anything?”
“It…it’s complicated, Vin. They can’t just believe your words,” she said carefully.
“But you believe me?” Vin asked.
She hesitated, but then nodded. “I do.”
“So why didn’t you make them believe you?”
“I can’t use force to change their minds.”
“I don’t understand this world of yours. How can you all just sit and wait for the Arashan to attack and conquer you?”
Kyarra didn’t respond.
Finally Vin took a step toward her. “All right, then, if they don’t want to help, we can go by ourselves. You have an army, yes? We can take it into the Lashian Empire and find the gate, destroy it.”
Kyarra’s eyes widened. “We can’t! The entire world would turn on us if we started a war.”
“And yet they did nothing when the Lashian Empire attacked?”
“It’s not the same. Tourran had been ostracized by the rest of the world for a long time because of what Vardun did.”
“And so what if they turn on you? If we stop the Arashan, it will be worth it.”
“You have no idea what you are talking about,” Kyarra said with a shake of her head. “You have no idea about the size of this world. Tourran, with mercenaries, has barely ten thousand troops, and not even five hundred mages. A single Lashian battle Legion numbers twenty thousand troops and at least a thousand mages, and they have sixty such Legions in total. We would barely manage to get through the pass.”
Vin tightened his fists. “But we have us, you and me. Against armies of ordinary people, against your world’s weak mages, we can prevail together.”
Kyarra shook her head. “The Lashian Empire has two fragment-bearers, each equal in power to me. Stronger, even, because they are older and have had more time to master their power. Even if I wanted to go, to take the armies, my nobles wouldn’t let me.”
“Nobles,” Vin spat. “Why do you even keep them around? Why do you listen to their counsel?”
She closed her eyes in frustration. “I know that you can’t understand, but that is the way that things work here.”
“You are right, I can’t understand. Why did you sit and let that noble insult my honor?”
“He doesn’t know you, Vin, doesn’t know your customs, just like you don’t know ours. And he is from an old house, old blood. He has much influence in Tourran.”
“What does that even mean?” Vin asked his voice filled with frustration. “Is his blood of a different color? Does it hold some great power? No, I can see through him. He is the same as every other person on this world. Worse, even, because he is ordinary. He has no power, he has no skills! Only a title and a name that are empty.”
“It is the way things are,” Kyarra said.
Vin shook his head, but managed to hold his tongue. He didn’t want to argue about some insignificant gnat. “All right then, forget about them all. Come with me, let us go and find the gate together. We are strong enough that I am certain we will be able to stop them from finishing it.”
Kyarra gave him a sad and frustrated look. “I can’t leave Tourran, Vin. I have a responsibility here to the people. I am their Queen.”
Vin took a step closer and put his hands on her elbow. “You once told me that when you were a young girl you dreamed about being free from the fate of the Eternal Soul—protector of Tourran. You said that you wanted to travel to see the world. Why are you staying now? You owe these people nothing. You have given them lifetimes. You can take one for yourself.”
“I can’t,” Kyarra whispered.
“Please, Kyarra, we can’t just sit here and hope for the best. Believe me, you don’t want the burden of knowing that you could’ve done something to save your world but decided not to.”
Kyarra didn’t respond. Instead, she shook her head slowly and lowered her gaze to the floor. Vin waited for a beat, hoping, but she didn’t speak again. He closed his eyes and stepped back.
“All right then, stay here and hide. You have yearned for your entire life to be free of the chains forced upon you on birth, but now, when you are finally free, you choose to stay in your prison. I will go and find this gate. I will fight for your world, because unlike you I cannot bear to sit still and cower doing nothing.”
Vin walked past her and out of the room, and Kyarra didn’t try to stop him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ASHARA
Five Years Ago
Ashara shivered in the hold of the ship, the loud sounds of rain and thunder outside making it hard for her and the others to sleep. The collar around her neck chafed, but she had already learned to ignore that pain. Two months ago, she had woken up in pain, with strange sensations on her body. Once she regained full consciousness she saw a man in the dim light clawing at her clothes, trying to undress her. She screamed, and gotten a fist to her face that broke her tooth. Disoriented and in pain, she hadn’t been able to fight back. Terror gripped her and she was so shocked that she couldn’t even move. The man was getting ready to take her, but then he was violently jerked back. Three men pulled him off her, and beat him with clubs. She heard them warning him about touching her, that she was precious cargo, that she was worth more than his life because she was a virgin. She immediately felt a plethora of emotions:
disgust that they had checked, that they had touched her while she was unconscious, and fear at the fact that she was a prisoner.
Ashara had always heard stories about the slave trade, about how the slavers of the Free Cities preyed on people all over the world, about people disappearing even in Amaranthine. But she had never seen it, never really believed that it was something that happened to people. They were stories—things that happened to people in the slums, people who didn’t matter.
She had spent the first month waiting, knowing that any moment Vin and Kyarra would arrive. That they would save her. They had power, and a ship of slavers was nothing for them. She went to sleep every night knowing that tomorrow was going to be the day when they realized that she had been taken, the day when Kyarra would cast some great spell and find her. Vin would use some strange and never before seen power on this world to reach her, and she would be safe. But they didn’t come. So she gave it more thought—of course it would take them time to realize that she had been kidnapped. Vin would wonder why she hadn’t said goodbye, and he would search for her. Kyarra would help him, and they would piece things together over several days. When they realized what had happened, Ashara and the slaver ship would be too far away even for their power to reach. They would need to find a ship, and then make chase. Of course it would take them some time. But they would find her.
But as the days passed and rescue didn’t come, she came to realize that it wouldn’t be coming at all. She realized that her situation was all her fault—if only she hadn’t been so foolish. If she had kept her head down and stayed close to Vin and Kyarra, they would’ve been able to protect her. Instead, she had left them, and they were probably happy that she was gone. She imagined Kyarra telling Vin that Ashara had left; she imagined him sigh in relief that she was gone, that he didn’t need to take care of her anymore. She imagined them kissing, finally able to be together without worrying about hiding from her. They didn’t need her, and they would be happy that she was no longer an obstacle.
She had never been worthy of them. Neither Kyarra nor Vin would’ve ever allowed themselves to be captured like she had been. Kyarra would have some ward that would turn her attacker to dust the moment they even thought about hurting her, and Vin would break their limbs, then hold a monologue about honor, teaching them before cutting their heads off.
But Ashara had no such power. She was weak.
Another month passed and she no longer even felt anything. She was just so empty, so tired of being afraid that she barely moved or ate. Her captors had to force feed her a few times, and threaten her with beatings if she refused to open her mouth.
She was all alone, abandoned by the people who were supposed to be her friends and more. But that was the way of her life, wasn’t it? First she’d fallen in love with the wrong person, who had cast her away and betrayed her; then her father had abandoned her, choosing to take his own life rather than stay with her; and now Vin and Kyarra had abandoned her, too. They hadn’t even tried to come after her, to stop her from leaving them. She didn’t mean anything to them. She knew that. She had always been a worthless little thing.
The ship rocked as a wave crashed into it and Ashara’s chains rocked against the wood, making a terrible noise. The other prisoners were like her, broken things that were resigned to their fate.
As lightning flashed outside, Ashara noticed a shape moving through the hold. A large shape of a man stepped in front of her, and she slowly turned her head up to see better. The dim lantern that he kept in one hand illuminated his broken face, twisted in a grimace.
“You didn’t think I forgot about you, now did you?” He grinned through his broken teeth.
Ashara tried to move away but he grabbed her hair and pulled hard, nearly ripping it out of her scalp.
“I got beaten up because of you, whore, and now you need to pay me back. Don’t worry. The storm is keeping them busy enough. No one will notice.” He grabbed her now ruined clothes and pulled, ripping strips of them. Ashara screamed, but her voice was lost in the storm. The other prisoners didn’t even react.
He pushed her to the ground and climbed on top of her, fumbling with his trousers.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and she froze. She was alone, she had no power. There was no one coming to help her, and she was on her own. She knew what was about to happen, and she knew that she wouldn’t survive it. Her mind cleared, and time seemed to slow down. Ashara closed her eyes and forced her mouth to open and her voice to come out. She whispered a word.
“Khalio.”
Then there was light, stabbing into her closed eyes. The weight of the man was gone and she slowly opened her eyes. The hold was illuminated by a small orb floating above her, and above her on the ceiling of the hold was the man—or what was left of him. He was splattered against the hull, his skin pressed awfully against the boards, his blood spread all over the wooden planks. None of it was dripping; in fact, there was no sound or movement at all.
Ashara looked around as she stood, and then she saw him. He looked the same as the last time she had seen him: a man wearing black and red clothes with golden embroidery. His hair was golden, too, as were his trimmed beard and glowing eyes. He regarded her with a small smile.
“It took you long enough to call on me,” the man, Khalio, said.
Ashara shivered. She knew that she had just taken a step that she couldn’t come back from. But a part of her relished her decision. She didn’t want to feel this helpless ever again.
“Tell me,” Khalio whispered. “What is it that you desire?”
Ashara swallowed all her fears and pain, pushed it all deep down. She was alone in this world, and she needed only one thing to survive. “I want power.”
Khalio smiled widely and then swiped his hand at the air. It shimmered and pulled apart, making a doorway in the air. Her chains and collar collapsed into dust, and Khalio gestured at the doorway. “Come, then, and I promise you that you will have more power than you can even imagine.”
Ashara steeled herself and took a step forward, joining the strange god as he walked through the doorway.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VIN
Present
The sun shone brightly over the city of Tourran. The bay was filled with ships of all sizes as the Norvus slowly made its way to the docks. Seeing the city after several years of traveling the Lashian Empire made Vin feel…something. He was not quite sure what it was that he felt. A part of him was afraid of stepping back into the city, of seeing Kyarra again. He wondered if Ashara had returned; he imagined what he would say to her. He had been hurt by her leaving, her not even saying goodbye. But as time passed he realized that it had been his fault. Ashara had been hurting, she had been reaching out to him, and he’d failed to see it. He ignored her, hurt her. She was his first friend, his soul mate in all the ways that mattered, and he had failed her. He only hoped that she would have it in her heart to forgive him for it the next time they met.
As the ship settled into the harbor, Vin found Captain Corvo near bow of the ship.
“And so we have come right back where we started,” Corvo said with a faint smile.
“And so we have,” Vin said. It seemed almost as if it was yesterday when he fell from the sky near Corvo’s ship, when Ashara had saved his life in the moment when he had been content to let it slip away. “I am thankful that you agreed to come with me.”
Corvo shook his head. “No need for thanks, you paid us enough.”
It was true. Vin had paid Corvo and his crew a small fortune to take him and the two mercenaries to the Lashian Empire, and then to stay and wait while they explored the land looking for clues about the gate. The Norvus hadn’t stayed in port all the time waiting, of course—Corvo would take on contracts on the Lashian Coast—but they would always arrange to meet up and check in every few months or so. If they didn’t find any rumors about the gate, the Norvus would ferry them to another part of the Empire. It made Vin feel good to know that he had som
eone he trusted ready to help him escape.
“What will you do now?” Vin asked.
“I think that we’ll stay for a while in Tourran. The crew deserves at least a month’s worth of rest after being in the Empire for so long.”
“Well, thank you again for everything. If you ever need anything you can leave a message at my estate here. I can’t promise that I will be there to respond immediately, but I should see it eventually,” Vin said with a little smile.
Corvo laughed. “I’m a sailor, I understand perfectly. Good luck to you, Vin.”
“You too, Captain.”
A few minutes later, after the ship docked and Vin said his goodbyes to the crew, they disembarked. They left their things on the ship as Vin arranged to have a few of the crew bring their possessions to his mansion in the city. Vin had pressing business and he didn’t want to delay.
Teressa and Jirross followed behind him as they walked into the harbor and then the city proper. The two had decided to stick with him for the time being. Seeing as he was probably paying them far more than what they would make in a mercenary company, they had to be happy. Vin didn’t really care about gold and treasure, it was worth nothing to him—but it was obviously easier to think as much when he had it.
“Where are we headed? Or is it a secret?” Jirross asked.
“The palace,” Vin answered. He heard Jirross snicker.
“Right, we going to meet the Queen?” he asked cheerfully. Vin didn’t respond.
The two of them didn’t know much about Vin, other than that he had coin, which at the time had been enough for them. He found them in one of Tourran’s taverns, where they had been a part of a small group of mercenaries that had arrived after they heard the rumors that Kyarra was hiring mercenary armies. Sadly for them, Kyarra only dealt with larger companies and not individual mercenaries. The two had been debating whether to join up with one of the companies when Vin found them and offered them a job. He had been in need of guides who were both capable and knew how to speak the Lashian language. The two had grown up in Tessera, a kingdom that had been conquered by the Lashians several decades ago, so they were familiar both with the language and culture.
