by Elise Kova
“Where did you get those?” There were four more stones nestled against the plush velvet lining of the box.
“Western heirlooms.” Egmun turned the crystal over in his fingers, the faint, blue light catching on the outline of his face and turning his pale hair to the same icy blue as his eyes. “They were a bit tricky to get my hands on, I admit. But I managed. The Knights of Jadar still claim I stole them.” He chuckled. “I’m sure they’ll claim I stole the sword, too, once it inevitably becomes known that it has returned to the world under my possession.”
“I hope information about the sword doesn’t get back to the Knights.”
“Truth is like cupping water in your hands.” Egmun glanced at her. “Impossible to keep to yourself for long.”
“Well, either way, you don’t seem like the sort of man who cares much for what others think.” Vi leaned against his desk and plucked one of the smaller stones from the box. It shimmered brightly underneath her fingers, the magic calling out to her. Vi almost had to make a conscious effort not to absorb the frail power within. Vi suspected these crystals had been severed from the Caverns long ago, during the Burning Times and the reign of Jadar. She wondered if the Windwalkers she’d read about last night in the library were the last ones to have held these stones.
It didn’t seem like enough power was collected in them that Vi needed to worry about their presence affecting her plans at all. She was trying to preserve Yargen’s power, certainly. But Vi’s plans hinged on the raw essence of the goddess, not tiny offshoots of magic from that essence.
“I’ve never seen a crystal have that reaction before.” Egmun startled her from her thoughts.
“It’s just a different way to draw out the magic. You use the flow from your own channel to pull it along.” Vi pulled the lie out of thin air.
“I’ve never tried that before… or read anything about that.” His eyes had an undeniably cautious glint.
“I picked it up in my readings in the West. This method is more similar to how the Windwalkers work with the stones.”
“Not many tomes on the crystal magics still exist in the West. The Emperor took most of the writings with him when he returned south following the late Empress’s death.”
“What did you say about truth? Like holding water in your hands?” Vi smiled thinly and returned the crystal to the box, hoping to end the conversation. Egmun placed his crystal back in the dip in the velvet.
“You said you weren’t with the Knights of Jadar.”
“I’m not,” Vi insisted.
“Yet you have a fascination with the stones one would expect a Knight of Jadar to have. You have knowledge one would expect only a Knight to possess.”
“Don’t assume just because I am Western and appreciate the power of the crystals that I must also be a Knight of Jadar.” Vi straightened away from the desk. “I don’t assume that just because you are Southern and obsessed with items of great power that you are working on behalf of the Emperor to gain weapons for him to use against Shaldan.” She let the words unless you are remain unsaid.
Egmun laughed from his belly. “Fair, fair.” He shook his head, as though the notion had caused him great amusement. “Though I’m not working with the Emperor and have proof of that.”
“Oh?”
“You’ll see soon—” He was interrupted by a knock on the door. “There they are now.” Egmun smiled in a most devious way. He passed her a folio on his way to the door. “Here, take this ledger and record what happens.” Vi accepted it wordlessly, allowing the tides of fate to pull her along. “Good morning, my prince. Victor.”
Victor. Vi recognized the name from her studies as a girl. She also recognized it from Taavin’s tales of past iterations of their world. This man was always behind the ultimate destruction of the Crystal Caverns, usually involving the crown of the first Solaris King somehow.
He was the one whose name her mother cringed to speak, and her father scowled to hear. He had been the source of suffering in their lives. Vi could only wonder what he’d end up being to her now.
His eyes met hers as Victor entered the room with a relaxed gait. She kept her face passive save for the small smile that had worked its way onto her lips. In this world, she would be the one to find the crystal crown, not him.
“Good morning, Egmun.”
Another voice stole Vi’s attention. Her gaze shifted and Vi saw Aldrik clearly for the first time. His dark eyes settled on her and Aldrik froze in place.
“Who’s she?”
“She’s a recent graduate of the Academy of Arcane Arts in Norin,” Egmun lied deftly.
“Does the Academy still accept students?” Aldrik asked, clearly unsure of the answer.
“Graduate? You don’t look like you could be any older than I am.” Victor rubbed the makings of a goatee on his chin, which was currently little more than a ghost of stubble.
“We all progress differently.” Egmun said, going behind his desk. The two young men assumed their seats in the chairs opposite. Vi remained poised, her folio at the ready to take notes as instructed.
“Yes, not everyone is as slow as you, Victor,” Aldrik said with a grin. He clearly intended the words to be mischievous, but even Vi could tell they struck a sensitive spot instead.
“And what is your name?” Victor asked her, pointedly ignoring the prince. He clearly had a well-established relationship with Aldrik, seeing as the prince let his doggedness slide.
“Vivian.” Vi bowed her head. “It is an honor to be observing two of the Tower’s most illustrious students.”
“So you told her about us?” Aldrik lounged, looking between Vi and the box. “About everything?”
“She has a good handle of the situation herself.” Egmun gave a nod. “Vivian is well studied on the matter of crystals.” Just the word “crystals” felt like crossing a threshold from which there was no turning back. “She’s my new research assistant.”
“I thought you knew everything?” Aldrik quipped. He was the epitome of a young prince, from the way he draped himself across the chair to the way he said the first thing that flew into his mind without any concern or filter. Vi felt herself inwardly cringe in embarrassment on Aldrik’s behalf… and her own. She was old and wise enough now to know that she had been much the same once. “Isn’t that why we’re bothering to learn from you?”
“We all have something more we can learn,” Victor said firmly. “Now, don’t embarrass yourself in front of our guest.”
Aldrik glanced back at her, awareness of how he had sounded appearing across his face. Vi held his eyes for a long moment—long enough that he was the one to break the stare.
Egmun slid the box across the desk and clicked it open. “Shall we begin?”
Vi watched with a mixture of curiosity and horror as the two young men picked up the stones. They each held them in their open palms and closed their eyes, an intense look of focus overtaking them. She twisted the quill between her fingers, eventually forcing herself to jot down a note. Writing after living in the woods for so long felt uncomfortable and awkward.
Perhaps it was just the situation that was uncomfortable.
“Good, join your power with the stone’s. Try to connect your channel with it.”
Egmun was stealing her words, though it did the young men little good. Vi kept her eyes on the crystals. They didn’t change in the slightest.
“Let’s start slow,” Egmun continued.
Victor and Aldrik conjured ice and flame respectively, sometimes pitting their elements against each other, sometimes seeing how long they could sustain frost and blaze, and how intensely the magic could collect. Vi made some arbitrary scribbles, but mostly just gnawed on the end of the quill in thought. They weren’t accomplishing much other than exposing themselves needlessly to the crystals for about half an hour in the name of seeing how crystals impacted their magic.
“That’s enough for today. We don’t want to risk your minds and bodies becoming corrupted from cry
stal taint.” The minister finally stood, motioning to the box. “Please, return them.”
“It feels strange… letting it go after you’ve had it.” Aldrik curled and uncurled his fingers as if he were still imagining holding the stone.
“Strange how?” Vi asked.
“I forgot you were there.” Aldrik blinked at her several times, as if he’d just returned to the plane of existence. Then, realizing he hadn’t answered her question, continued, “You can feel it fueling your magic, making it stronger, sharper. When I hold it, I almost feel like I could make or do anything.”
Victor was intensely focused on the box.
“And you, Victor?” Vi asked. “What do you feel?”
It took several seconds for him to shake his blank expression, for his eyes to regain clarity. The man pushed himself away from the chair, standing with a start. “I feel like I want more.” With that, he abruptly left the office.
“Victor we haven’t even—” Aldrik tried to call after him, but was met with a closing door. “What’s gotten into him?”
“He’s likely just jealous of your prowess,” Egmun said.
“Well, he and I are on the same page. I want to practice more, too.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Egmun returned the box to its hiding place. Vi’s focus remained on the door. “But that’s all we are going to work on today.”
I want more. The words stuck with her. As soon as he’d said them, Victor had stormed off with purpose. A dangerous question crept into Vi’s mind: Had Victor already located the crown?
Vi set down her notes and made her way out as Aldrik and Egmun spoke. Egmun gave her a questioning look. “Please excuse me, I just remembered an appointment I must attend,” Vi said hastily and left the office.
She couldn’t waste any time beginning her search, especially now that she knew Victor might already be ahead of her.
The Tower hallway was empty. She strode down the spiraling pathway, keeping her eyes peeled for Victor, but there was no sign of him. She’d waited too long to follow.
Cursing softly, Vi headed toward an unmarked door on the outer ring of the tower. Behind this door was a narrow path—a secret passage that connected the Tower of Sorcerers with the palace proper. Vi emerged into a servant’s hall and, after orienting herself, started for the Imperial Library. She hadn’t seen much that would be useful in the Tower Library, and the Imperial Library’s collection was easily ten times the size.
On entering, she stepped hastily between shelves, easily avoiding the attention of any library staff without the need of flashes of Lightspinning. The last thing she wanted was someone asking too many questions about what she was doing.
“Histories… Histories…” Vi murmured to herself as she passed between the towering bookcases. Eventually, she made her way to a section dedicated to the histories of the Solaris Empire, organized by dates and rulers. The history of the Solaris Kingdom was tucked away in a corner of the tallest shelf, requiring her to climb one of the rolling ladders to reach.
Vi plucked the first book and skimmed the pages.
“Too long ago.” She returned it and grabbed the next one. “The crown of Solaris was bestowed on the eldest son of the original Solaris. It was a boon given to him by the Mother, ordaining him to rule this land,” Vi read aloud.
The words boon given to him by the Mother were underlined in mostly faded blue ink.
Vi flipped ahead a few pages. More words were underlined in the same pale ink.
… a powerful Waterrunner, the crown bestowed the Mother’s blessing on him.
… then he crafted the first Solaris castle entirely of ice…
His son did not have magic. However, with the crown, he could inspire loyalty in those around him with powers unlike any other…
The book was littered with faint blue lines scribbled throughout. Some were dotted, some were double lined. A few passages were even circled. Vi furrowed her brow and ran her finger over a note at the end of the book. Scribbled in the corner on the back of the last page, it read:
One - Blue.
“One, blue,” Vi read aloud. “What does that mean?” A frown crossed her lips. She didn’t know what kind of notation system or code this person was using. But she did know one thing with confidence—someone else was tracking the history of the crown.
Vi just hoped it wasn’t Victor.
Vi’s head jerked up as she was startled by a knock on the door—three fast raps, followed by two slower ones. Rubbing her bleary eyes, Vi glanced out the windows. The midnight oil was burning in the mostly dark city below and that meant she’d been at it for at least five hours straight.
Putting down the book she’d been combing through, Vi opened the door without hesitation. Only one person knocked that way.
She was met with the face of a Tower apprentice—a pale-skinned young woman with straw-colored hair.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone,” Vi said with a tired smile.
“Well, when you become a hermit for a few weeks, you run the risk of people seeking you out.” The young woman’s eyes darted down the Tower hall. “Now, let me in before someone sees I don’t belong here.”
“I doubt that would happen. For how secretive they are, the Tower doesn’t seem like it has the best security.” Vi stepped to the side to let Deneya enter, and she watched the illusion vanish from her shoulders.
“Can never be too careful.” Deneya hoisted a folio in the air. “I found it.”
“You did.” Vi carefully grabbed the time-worn folio from Deneya’s hands. She opened it on the table, pulling out the papers one by one.
“Don’t get your hopes up. There’s not much there about the theft of the royal treasure.” Deneya leaned on the back of one of the chairs. “All the names have been redacted.”
She wasn’t wrong, of course. Four lone sheets of paper were all that remained recorded of the greatest heist in the history of the Solaris Empire.
“Why would they blot them out?”
“I have a theory. Here, look at this one.” Deneya held up a sheet of paper. She pointed to one of the names that had been poorly inked away. The pen scribbles were hasty, and only covered half of the letters.
A—la
“Whose name does that look like to you?” Deneya asked with a grin.
“Adela.” The ink in the books had been too faded to be recent. The person who made those notations to find the crown’s location wasn’t Victor. “She was the one searching for the crown and who ultimately stole it.”
“That’s my theory. Also why they blotted out all other references of her name.”
“Men and their superstitions,” Vi muttered. She remembered how just the whispered name “Adela” had been considered bad luck in Norin.
“My bet would be pride for this one. Losing your family’s heirlooms and treasure is one thing… letting your father be murdered by that same thief and then having her slip through your grasp? Too much for a young, budding Emperor to handle.”
“Do you know what happened to the rest of the records?”
“If there were more, they’re long gone. It’s a miracle I could find these.”
“Thank you for your hard work.” Vi paused her reading to look Deneya in the eye when she gave her thanks. Having another set of eyes on everything she was piecing together—another set of hands to double the work—was invaluable.
“I am in Lumeria’s Order of Shadows.” Deneya smiled gleefully. “Collecting information like this is my job. The Queen will be all too happy if it’s also information on the bane of the seas.”
“Adela,” Vi whispered. She lifted another sheet of paper. “The thief fled to the coast. The treasure was never recovered.” Setting down the paper, Vi quickly went to the shelves underneath the windows in the back of the room. Vi had grown tired of constantly going back and forth to the library, so she’d been ferrying books back and forth for weeks now in secret.
“You’re amassing a little library,” Deneya observed.<
br />
“I’ve had a lot of time to read lately,” Vi murmured. She’d discovered reading to be different than she remembered—especially when it came to histories. She read both the black ink of the words and the white space between them. There were phantom memories within her; sections of her subconscious remembered past worlds and connected them in ways that should be impossible.
Likely, the memories weren’t her own at all. They were Yargen’s. But that was a truth Vi left in uncharted territory, for now. Taavin was right: they had enough to worry about.
“Here it is.” Vi located the book she was looking for and crossed back to Deneya, handing it over.
“The Imperial Summer Palace in Oparium.” Deneya opened to the middle and was greeted by blueprints that were now familiar to Vi. “Architectural drawings?”
“Yes, I had to get into the Imperial archives for this one… Unlike my other stolen books, I’ll need to return this soon. But for now, look at the foreword.” Vi’s mind was moving so fast her mouth could barely keep up. “The date, specifically.”
“Construction began in 308.” Deneya glanced up at her. Vi held out the paper she’d been reading. “The theft was in 307.” Comprehension lit up Deneya’s face.
“The theft of the Imperial jewels that dated back into antiquity was in 307. King Romulin Solaris was murdered the same year, leaving Tiberus Solaris to become King. Then, the man who was to declare himself Emperor the very next year decided to make his first act as a ruler building a summer home?”
“Young men are fickle creatures.”
“You know Tiberus,” Vi said seriously. “He wouldn’t let Adela’s transgressions go.”
“Then what do you think it is?”
“The manor is a front for something, I’d bet.”
“A front for what?”
“I don’t know, but look.” Vi took the book back from Deneya’s hands and rested it on the table, flipping through. “These plans are incomplete… There are sections missing. Doors lead to nowhere and hallways crop up from nothing.”
