Neither of us wanted to voice our concerns that I might not be given a choice.
“So,” Rose muttered after a moment of silence, “here we are, right in the viper's nest.”
“You don't trust Willow,” I said.
“No, and neither should you. The Antilight have their own agenda, their own motives. They want to use us for something, that much is obvious.”
“I don't trust anyone except you and Mother,” I pointed out. “Whatever Willow wants from us, I think we can get something of equal value in exchange. She all but said as much herself.”
“That's why—well, it's one of the reasons I don't trust her. She has us in the palm of her hand, and yet she's offering to aid us as well? That doesn't follow. If she wanted to force us to fight for her, she would have little trouble. This place is filled with warriors and gods-only-know how many other 'necromancers.'”
“None,” I murmured.
“Huh?”
“Willow is the only magic-user here.”
“How can you tell with all the aetherium interfering with your senses?”
“Deductive reasoning.” I frowned, glancing away from Rose's eyes. “It'd be dangerous for them to keep more than one illegal mage in a single cell. Someone with as much power as Willow would have a hard time hiding the prominence of dark mana in her soul.” I stopped and returned to look at my toes. “It'll be that way for me, too, eventually.”
Rose leaned close enough that I could feel her breath on my neck, and she kissed it. “What do we do, then?”
I took a deep, ragged breath. “I'm guessing she'll explain it to us.”
“What?”
The door opened and Willow Corvus walked into the small room. She was dressed much more plainly now, wearing simple clothing that would serve her well through an expedition into the wilderness. The exotic robe of shadow she'd worn the previous night had given way to simple trousers and a duelist's tunic. If it hadn't been for the magic burning darkly within her, she would have been unremarkable.
“You look different,” Rose observed.
“This is how I usually dress,” Willow stated. “You managed to catch me in more formal attire this morning because I had just returned from a meeting with members of House Corvus. Rather less impressive, no?”
The Corvus mage's elaborate makeup and hairstyle was likewise gone, and the long, jeweled false nails had also been removed. Willow's black hair was pulled back into a tightly-braided bun, and she wore no jewelry save for a plain silver ring and a red stone in her right ear, both of which radiated some sort of defensive enchantment.
More telling than all of this was the holster at her waist. I'd never in my life seen a Solarian highborn lady mage carry a firearm, and the one Willow carried seemed as much a part of her as her own hand. The revolver-type pistol was obviously old and well-used; I noticed the grips had several spots where the wood had been smoothed shiny by countless hours in hand.
“Your gun,” I blurted. “I can feel… refined corrupted aetherium.”
“Very good. Your senses are strong if you're able to get an accurate read like that this deep inside the distorted field. This cell conceals a mining operation—a small one, done entirely without magic, so that the government will not detect us. We take the mined unstable aetherium and refine it into corrupted crystals.” The necromancer absently tapped the pistol on her hip. “We make blades and forge barrels that are alloyed with aetherium.”
Rose's eyebrow arched. “Anti-barrier weapons?”
“Yes, hardly enough to put a magic-dead soldier on par with a master mage, but they do lower the odds against us, just a little. Even a dabbler's barrier can deflect pistol shots. These weapons undermine the magic that sustains that barrier.”
“Why are you telling us all of this?” Rose demanded. “How do you know we won't tell anyone? Or won't be taken by IPSB and interrogated?”
“There's not much you can tell them that they don't already know. IPSB knows we have a base in the Crone's Cane, but they know not where. Nor do you, for you were blindfolded and your senses were muted as we approached. And of course they know about disrupting weapons, because it was they who invented the metallurgical processes in the first place.”
Her implication was clear. “Then the Antilight has—”
“Agents within IPSB, among other fixtures of the Imperial government,” Willow finished for me, then cast a cool glare at Rose. “Speak freely, Rose Merope. You want to know what we want of you and Lily, yes?”
“Finally,” Rose grumbled.
“You could have just asked, you know.”
Rose scowled at the Corvus mage, but I held up a hand to stop her from getting any angrier than she already was. “I'm asking now. What do you want with us?”
“The two of you are traveling to Fialla for the rest of your term break. I would ask that you make contact with the Cabal.”
I wasn't familiar with the term, but Rose clearly was. She stiffened next to me and stared at the necromancer curiously. A moment passed in uncomfortable silence before anyone spoke.
“To what end?” Rose asked. Her tone was less hostile.
“If Lily wishes to make it to your graduation ceremony alive,” Willow said, a grim look entering her dark eyes, “she need to learn how to control her Aspect and how to hide it. Her power is raw and unformed, and with Solarian law as it is, she will not learn anything of use at the Academy.”
“I do have a water affinity,” I pointed out, grimacing as I felt compelled to add, “though it's not… exactly very strong.”
Willow shook her head. “It will only be a matter of time before the masters discern the true nature of your magic.” Willow sighed and took a step closer to me, placing her hand on my head with such gentleness that I felt a tingle run up my spine. “Your water affinity may grow into an Aspect eventually, but it won't be enough. You won't be able to hide what you are.”
Rose glowered fiercely. “What are you—”
“Calm yourself, young one,” Willow cut her off, laughing. “You certainly are a territorial lioness, aren't you? I am an old and married woman who loves her husband, even if he only halfheartedly returns my affections and spends his evenings in the arms of servant girls. I have no interest in stealing your lover away from you.”
I tried not to laugh as a very dark blush appeared on Rose's cheeks.
“F-fine.”
“As your lioness can no doubt assure you, the Celestial Prophecy has no influence in Fialla.” The woman chuckled and drew her hand back away from my head. “If you hadn't been chosen as a political tool, Rose Merope, perhaps your dark affinity would have been honed into a true Aspect by the masters of the Cabal.”
There was that term again. I frowned at Willow, unwilling to let it pass this time without some sort of explanation. “What's the Cabal?”
“They're a—”
Rose held a hand up to cut her off. “All right, all right. The Shadow Cabal is a circle of… well, I suppose 'circle' might be overstating the matter. They're a nominally secret organization dedicated to the research, study and training of necromancy, funded by several of Fialla's more influential families.”
“Including Merope?”
“Primarily Merope,” Rose replied. “I had no idea they were in contact with rebels in Solaria, though. The Ministry of Magic pretends to ignore them, for they serve a useful purpose. The Cabal teaches people with dark affinities to control and hide their powers, partly so that the Holy Solarian Empire doesn't decide to declare a divine crusade against Fialla and conquer the nation 'for our own good.'”
I stared at her.
“Willow is exactly correct. If Minister Valen and I hadn't pressured my father into setting me up to show Solaria how concerned Fialla is about necromancy, I could have been sent to train with their masters, too.”
I wanted to ask her more of what led to her being used as a bargaining chip, but I could tell she was agitated at having to talk about these things with Willow present.
Rose trusted me, but it was clear she did not trust Willow Corvus at all, no matter who her niece was. And no matter who she was talking to, it was beyond obvious that she was afraid of what my country would do to hers. I shivered, and cast a guilty look in her direction. The look she returned was meant to be comforting, but anxiety radiated off of Rose in waves.
Changing the subject, I fixed my attention on Willow. “So you want me to go to Fialla and learn how to use my power. Why, though? What do you get out of it? What does the Antilight get out of it? Do you mean to have us join your rebellion?”
“I'm not permitted to tell all,” Willow admitted.
“Isn't that convenient,” Rose muttered sardonically.
“The answer to your question is no, we don't wish to force you to join Antilight. You, your lost fey parent, your mother who fell in love with a miinari—all of you are the very people we risk our lives fighting to protect. You are all those that the Celestial Prophecy wishes to purge from this world, simply for being different than they.”
Rose and I exchanged looks and we both knew. What Willow was saying without words came clearly to us—that eventually, we were both fated to fight the Empire, because we would have no other choice.
*
“Are you sure you don't just want us to use what Mother gave me?”
Willow shook her head. “No, you keep that. You might need it later. I can open a temporary rift from here to a small cliffside park in Naara.” The necromancer's lips twitched in something that looked like amusement. “A localized spatial distortion still exists there, which will serve to cloak your approach from IPSB. Incidentally, it was also where the two of you inadvertently foiled one of our operations.”
I stared at her. “Wait, those men were yours?”
“Not of this cell, but another,” Willow clarified. “The woman you rescued was a lady of House Naos. Her family's Head, Lady Kleine Naos, is a Celestial Acolyte and one of the Imperial Court's most hawkish members. She continually submits proposals for aggressive military action against nations that reject the divinity of the Celestial One.”
Rose's jaw fell open. “I saved a woman whose family wants to go to war with my home?!”
“You couldn't have known, and take heart—the second team sent was successful.”
“Do I even want to know what happened?”
“I couldn't tell you even if I knew,” Willow replied. “I only know that the Naara cell got to her before IPSB.”
I didn't respond, and Rose seemed uninterested in continuing further conversation. Taking our silence as an indication that we were finished with our questions, Willow Corvus began to cast a powerful spell.
The green manashard in her forehead darkened completely, emitting no light whatsoever, and I realized that it was a cleverly-designed fake. That made sense; in order to move openly in this country, she posed as yet another Corvus aeromancer, while hiding her true talents. This was what she wanted me to learn from the Shadow Cabal.
How to pretend, in order to survive.
I moved closer to Rose and encircled an arm around her waist, holding her close. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut—her fear of travel magic hadn't appeared to wane at all, and I suspect it was stronger still when the spell in question was cast by a necromancer terrorist/revolutionary that Rose trusted not at all.
“Be a dear and distract her while I finish the casting,” Willow said to me. “She's going to hurt herself if she keeps resisting.”
I grinned and leaned up on my tiptoes. I kissed Rose, hard, and the unexpected and enthusiastic gesture of affection sent a shiver running up her spine. I squeezed my body against her as hard as I could, shoving my thigh between her legs, and felt her muscles loosen as—
A wild sensation of darkness and falling surged through me, but I ignored it and continued to focus on Rose. It lasted only a fraction of an instant before the strange disorientation passed. The cold coastal breeze, redolent with the scent of salt and sea, brushed familiarly against my body.
When I pulled away, we were in the cliffside park in Naara, standing near a bench overlooking the ocean. The same place we had confessed to each other. That afternoon felt like something from a different lifetime, not an event merely a few months in the past.
“W-wow,” Rose managed after recovering a few moments later.
“You okay?”
“I'm… fine. Better than fine, actually.” She was blushing, and a content smile curved her lips. “I don't suppose you can do that every time we use magic to travel somewhere, can you?”
I giggled. “I don't mind.”
Part III
-
New Growth
Chapter 15
Across the Blue
In Rose's opinion, traveling by air was vastly preferable to traveling via magic. In mine, though, the tables were turned. I clutched the arms of the airship's seat and wrinkled my nose at the scent of my own anxious sweat.
“We're thousands of meters above the ground,” I muttered, “in a flying contraption that could fall out of the sky at any minute.”
“Do I need to do what you did to keep you calm?”
I blinked at Rose. “Um, I don't think the other passengers would approve of that. And besides, this isn't something you can use a single kiss to distract me, since the flight will take—”
“I wasn't thinking of just a kiss,” she whispered into my ear before scraping her teeth across the lobe.
My cheeks, predictably, went hot. “The other passengers really wouldn't approve of that.”
“I know.” Rose laughed a little too loudly. “I didn't know you were afraid of heights.”
“Should have told you sooner. I'm sorry.” I tried and failed to suppress a violent shiver that ran through my entire body. “I never thought I'd have to travel on an airship before.”
“I never thought I'd have to be teleported all over the place by mages, either,” Rose countered.
I took a deep breath, trying to force myself to calm down. If I closed my eyes, I couldn't feel anything. It was barely even apparent that we were so far off the ground that even the birds would think us mad.
“Tell me how the airships work,” I managed, desperate for some kind of distraction. My eyes were still squeezed shut, but I could feel Rose's arm encircling my shoulders as she drew me in. Her hair had been let down from its usual ponytail, and I let myself sink into the soft snowy strands. “I know they were invented by your people.”
“Fiallan arcane engineering at its finest.” Rose's voice was close and quiet, but I caught the pride in her words and couldn't help but smile. “You remember when we were boarding earlier, the circular panels lining the underside of the hull?”
“Y-yeah.”
“If you reach out, you can probably sense the aetherium inside them.” I felt Rose's fingertips run through my sweat-damp hair as she continued. “They emit a magical field that lets the vessel slide through the air like a seagoing ship through the waves. The first airships used a series of narrow sails to catch the wind, but they weren't very fast thanks to the field effect interfering with the natural air currents. Newer models, like this one, have a cluster of propeller engines mounted on the stern to provide thrust.”
“Oh, I read about that.” I peeked out from behind my eyelids and saw nothing but white hair and tawny skin. I closed them again and sighed. “Your people make some foul-smelling liquid out of steppe grasses that burns and can be used to power machines.” I shivered involuntarily as Rose's lips moved to the line of my jaw. “It's still weird.”
“Not really. Your country is the only one that doesn't make use of Fialla's biggest export product to any significant degree. If we end up traveling elsewhere in the world, you'll likely always be near something that runs on it in some way or another.”
“Kanamiina doesn't, either,” I muttered.
“Well, no, but who actually wants to trade with the kanari?” Rose's expression soured. “Actually, don't answer that—half of the merchant fam
ilies in Fialla would give their firstborn sons to establish trade with Kanamiina.”
I snorted. “That'd really start a war. With everybody.”
“And that's one reason why it doesn't happen. The other reason, of course, is that they'd kill any traders that came close to their territory.”
As far as I knew, nobody had made peaceful contact with the kanari since the end of the Forge War, or even managed to get close without being blasted to pieces. Solaria didn't seem to mind much, as long as the kanari stayed put and continued to occupy their creator race's ancient homeland. It suited the Celestial Prophecy's purposes perfectly for the miinari to remain scattered and hidden, too weak to resist the Church's ever-expanding power.
The airship lurched violently and my heart leaped into my throat. Rose leaned against me, holding me as best she could from the seat beside mine, and kissed the crown of my head. “Don't worry, we're just descending. The airship isn't crashing, I promise. It'll just set down in the water like an ordinary ship.”
Now it was my turn to squeeze my eyes shut, even if it didn't do anything as I'd already closed the window shade before we even took off. I could feel Rose's grip on me and her warmth, sending a soothing calm through my mind.
A few anxiety-filled minutes later, the whole vessel's superstructure jolted as the underside of the hull kissed the sea's surface. Everything trembled violently as the airship blasted through the water, losing speed as it roared toward the docks. I squeezed my eyes shut and did my best to wait until the commotion stopped. An awful screeching noise reached my ears and made me wince, but of course Rose was right there, supporting me.
The screeching sound stopped abruptly, and then, silence. A chime sounded, indicating that we could unbuckle our safety harnesses. Attendants on the flight quickly organized the passengers to file off the airship and across the wide gangplank that linked it to the dock itself. Since the two of us were closer to the middle of the vessel, it took a few minutes before it was our turn to leave.
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