My mother's expression was pained. “Claire—”
Tendrils of energy, both Light and Darkness, entwined within Claire's palms.
“Do not say my name again!”
Without thinking, I swept the spirit blade out and struck the magic from the air the instant Claire unleashed it. Again, the miinari relic drank deeply of the power, siphoning the aether away from the magic and digesting it before presenting it to me. Claire's features twisted with fury and frustration, and she began another spell, one I didn't recognize. I tensed, ready to snatch the magic away again, but then realized the spell wasn't directed at me, or even anyone at all in this room.
“You aren't going to win,” Claire hissed from between clenched teeth. “You can't stop us. Lord Cyrus will lead our House and the Empire into the future, and I will restore our honor by excising the taint that brought us crashing down.”
The spell was completed with a final twisting of mana that birthed a brilliant prominence of silvery radiance. From within that shining orb, tendrils of magic tore a hole into the fabric of reality, and I realized that Claire had cast some sort of teleportation spell. Not to flee; it wasn't directed at her, but at some distant location.
From within the warped shimmer of the gate, a familiar figure stepped out.
It was Willow Corvus.
“Seven Holy Stars,” Rose breathed. “What the fuck is going—”
The dark-haired necromancer fixed a dead-eyed gaze on Rose and raised a hand. Strands of death poured from her outstretched fingertips and streaked toward her, much too far away for me to catch them on the spirit blade—
Rose’s pendant glowed with argent fire as the warding within proved to be more than a match for the fearsome necromantic magic. There was no change in Willow's expression, no frustration or even acknowledgment that her spell had no effect. She only continued to stare unblinkingly with those empty eyes, the sense of death's touch still clinging to her fingers.
“Where did you get that ward?” Claire demanded of Rose.
“Oh, this?” Rose held up the pendant and grinned. “My best friend took it off the corpse of one of your spies sent to infiltrate the Cabal.” She let the ward fall back down against her collarbone. “I have to say, it sure is handy, especially against hypocritical Acolytes.”
“You understand nothing,” Claire growled.
Her fingertips waggled, and Willow Corvus was limned with sinister light. The necromancer shuddered violently as she began to haltingly advance on Rose. I darted forward, with Eiri's sword leading, but my interception was cut short by a blast of silvery magic from Claire.
My half-sister's laugh was mocking as she flung bolt after bolt at me. I was pushed back on my heels by the withering barrage. Though none of the fiercely-burning spheres of light mana actually struck me, it took every ounce of my focus to keep one from slipping past my guard.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Willow Corvus raising her hands to cast a spell of wind magic. Rose was warded against necromancy, and while wind would be less effective against a fire Aspect, the sheer power of the spell Willow prepared turned my blood to ice.
“No!” I cried, desperately trying to cut away from where Claire had me pinned with her continual barrage. Rose was in trouble. I had to protect her!
It was a mistake.
Three spheres of Light slammed into my right thigh, one right after another, and I screamed. The blasts burned flesh and rent sinew; nausea swept over me with enough force that I nearly fell to the ground. The tip of my sword was planted into the stone at my feet, and I somehow managed to stay upright. I couldn't put weight on my right leg, and when I glanced down at the injury, I instantly regretted it. Claire's magic had blasted a massive crater in the front of my thigh, so deeply that I could see the white of splintered bone through the mess of charred and bleeding flesh.
“My penance will be complete,” Claire hissed with obvious satisfaction, “after I offer up your head at the altar to the Celestial One.”
Spikes of agony chewed away at the edge of my awareness. The pain in my ruined leg seemed to numb as my body flooded with adrenaline and endorphins. I shivered, feeling the icy ribbons of darkness start to encircle my mind, and knew it wouldn't be long before I lost consciousness—
A tremendous, thundering sound like the world itself breaking apart sliced through the air. I tried to blink, tried to focus on what was happening around me. The numbness was rapidly spreading through my body.
“No!”
I was dimly aware of Claire's vehement denial.
Then I felt the faint sensation of soothing cool waters. Slowly, oblivion receded, dropping away and taking the nausea and dizziness with it.
“I didn't know,” I heard my mother say. “I couldn’t have possibly known.”
She was speaking to Claire. I blinked again, and my vision sharpened—and my jaw dropped. The condemnation chamber was filled with beautifully-chaotic formations of ice. The thick rime of frost had expanded outward from Mother's body and swept across both Claire and Willow Corvus, encasing their bodies up to their necks in its unbreakable embrace.
Unsteadily, I got to my feet just in time for Rose and Yuka to nearly knock me down again. The feel of their weary, battered arms embracing me filled my heart with resolve, and tears ran down my cheeks as I gazed at them.
“Lily, I—”
I smiled at Rose and pressed my lips to hers briefly. “Later. This isn't over.”
The two of them nodded, and I turned around. I could walk, but my right leg felt very weak. I glanced down at the place where Claire's magic struck. The gaping crater had been filled with faintly-glowing water mana, seeming to defy gravity as it clung to my ruined flesh. Mother's healing magic would take more time to fully repair the terrible wound.
“—never knew what happened to you,” Mother was saying, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears that would not fall. “They took you from me, Claire. You were only two years old when you were tested. You were just a baby! So much Darkness within her, they'd said. They told me you would become a danger to the Empire, a danger to the family and a danger to yourself, and I… I still couldn't believe it. I couldn't let you go. I wouldn't let you go, but they tore you from my arms!”
“Of course you didn't know,” Claire snarled, even more angry now that she had been trapped within Mother's ice magic. “It was not for you to know the designs of the Celestial One. There are forces at work beyond mortal comprehension.”
Mother's bottom lip trembled. “Claire, please. I'm your mother. I loved—”
“Shut up! You are nothing to me!”
I caught the glimmer of my mother's tears out of the corner of my eye, and something inside of me snapped. Ignoring the pain and weakness in my leg, I stalked over to where Claire was imprisoned. I swept Eiri's sword out and held the tip poised mere millimeters from my half-sister's throat.
“Hmph,” Claire spat. “I know an idle threat when I see one.”
“It's only for Mama's sake that I haven't killed you—yet.”
She laughed in my face.
Cold fury blossomed within my heart and I tensed, preparing to lean forward into a thrust that would tear through Claire's windpipe as if it were nothing but tissue paper.
“Lily, no.”
I turned toward the voice—it was Rose. She gazed at me, not with judgment or consternation, but with worry. She shook her head and gestured toward the yawning gate. “That’s enough. We've got your mom. We need to get out of here, now. The ice won't hold them forever, and we need to go before reinforcements show up.”
Yuka was beside me, and she glared at Claire with a look of pure disgust. The trapped woman sneered at her, apparently recognizing Yuka as half-fey as well. Without even acknowledging the look, she moved on and stopped in front of Willow Corvus.
“We can't leave her here.”
Rose grimaced. “We also can't let her go. Remember how she attacked us? She's under some kind of magical compulsion or gea
s or something.”
“That is precisely why we can't leave her here,” Yuka insisted.
“Yes, but—”
Claire's harsh laughter cut Rose's objection short. “You really don't understand anything. You can't 'save' her. The sinner has been reforged into a divine blade to strike down the enemy. Her mind, body and soul belongs to the Celestial One now.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Rose demanded.
Claire's only response was a haughty snort.
“Lily…” Yuka glanced at me with a knowing look. “The resonance.”
I frowned. “But I can't feel her at all.”
Yuka gestured toward the spirit blade still in my hand. “It's too loud; you can't hear the whispers through the relic's song. Send it away, and touch your fingers to her forehead.”
With a thought, I dismissed the spirit blade. Eiri's legacy receded into the tiny sub-reality and I felt the connection weaken considerably. Despite that, the flow of aether into my soul continued unabated.
I took a step closer to Willow Corvus. She was so much taller than me that I had to climb up on the ice a bit to reach her forehead. With trembling fingers, I reached out to touch her and closed my eyes, attuning my awareness to the resonance, the whispers of the soul. For a brief moment I could only sense Yuka's resonance, but she quickly quieted the voice of her spirit so that I could hear the whispers around me. My head began to throb with a low, dull ache as I focused more and more on the faintest murmurings.
Human souls were so quiet compared to the fey, but after a moment to adjust, I could just barely sense the emotional states of all the people around me. From Rose I felt worry and fear. Claire's soul radiated seething hatred, as well as frustration and a deep, hot hurt. Mother was a font of sadness and loss, directed at her long-lost firstborn child.
Willow Corvus's soul was strangely still, even more so than Yuka's. That shouldn't have been possible, for humans had no control over their own resonance. Yuka was holding herself in on purpose, as the two of us were attuned closely to each other, and she didn't want her resonance to interfere with my senses.
I concentrated on that stillness. It only took a brief moment to find the source.
“There's a yoke of shadows and light woven around her consciousness,” I said, opening my eyes and frowning at Willow Corvus's blank expression. “It's not just a geas or a charm. It's total domination, a complete enslavement of the soul. I can feel it through the resonance.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Claire's incredulous expression. I turned toward her and met her gaze with a cold one of my own. For the first time since we met in battle and beyond, I saw fear and uncertainty in her eyes.
“This is why the Church wants to exterminate the miinari, isn't it?” I demanded.
Claire said nothing, but the slight widening of her eyes and the way her face drained of color told me all I needed to know.
“What in the Yawning Hells are you talking about?” Rose gawked at me and glanced back at the imprisoned necromancer-turned-puppet.
I didn't bother answering Rose just yet. Instead, I closed off my external senses and attuned to the resonance once again. Deeper and deeper I probed into Willow Corvus's soul, until I found where the chains of domination had been anchored. The sheer power and complexity of the spell was awesome to behold. I knew just by perceiving this small portion of the magic that it had been cast by someone far more powerful than Claire. She couldn't have done this; she was only handed the leash after someone else slipped on the collar.
The question of who could cast such a spell would have to wait for later. We had to escape quickly if we wanted to make it out alive. Determination filled me and I forged the magic into a keen blade of decisive intent.
With a thought, I severed those bonds.
Chapter 34
Divine Providence
My mother gestured dismissively and the ice around Willow Corvus shattered. Life seemed to return to her eyes, and she moaned wordlessly before collapsing to the stone floor. I was too weak to pick her up, but Rose was there, smiling at me, and she bent down to help the woman up.
“What… where am I?”
Willow looked as if she'd just awoken from a long sleep. Her expression was oddly serene, but she seemed hale enough to walk on her own, if a bit unsteadily.
“No time to explain now,” my mother said in a firm tone. She placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. “Lily, I know you still have the recall I gave you. We can use that to escape this place before her masters realize she failed.”
I blinked and nodded. “How did you—”
“My people,” Willow gasped, and the reality of the situation hit her. “I can't leave. I have to get them out—I have to—”
My mother gazed at her sadly. “I'm so sorry, Willow. It's much too late.”
“N-no… it can't be.”
Claire's mocking laughter came again, wild with desperation. “It is too late! For all of you! You fell right into our trap. The Antilight has been utterly annihilated, and the Imperial Court is subject to the will of the Celestial One. There's nothing you can do to stop our advance.” Her lips spread wide in a death's-head grin. “Fialla will fall beneath the Empire's might.”
I barely saw Rose's fist flash past, it moved so fast. The punch connected with Claire's jaw with such force that I heard the wet crack of bone shattering. With a faint whimper, the Celestial Acolyte, my half-sister, fell into unconsciousness. A bit of blood leaked from her open mouth, but I knew the blow wasn't fatal.
“Rose!”
“What?” My partner shrugged innocently. “I got tired of hearing her monologue like that.” She glanced at Yuka and the still-unsteady Willow Corvus. “We need to get out of here. We're all hurt, tired, and save for Lily, out of magic.”
I nodded and reached into a hidden pocket in my jacket, drawing out a small jewel about the size of a Solarian crown. It was an aquamarine, perfectly deep blue and beautiful, painstakingly crafted, with an intricate rune graven into the widest facet.
“Everyone needs to be close for this to work.”
Rose and Yuka were beside me instantly, dragging Willow Corvus along with them. My mother hesitated for a moment, lingering near Claire's unconscious, trapped form. She snapped her fingers and the ice imprisoning her firstborn child shattered into motes of blue-glowing mana before dissipating into nothingness.
“Claire,” Mother murmured, catching her daughter's limp body before it could drop to the stone at our feet. “I'm so sorry. I love you.”
She lowered the unconscious woman to the ground and ran a trembling finger across her broken jaw. Healing magic, likely the last Mother had left within her, trickled into Claire's wounds. The sparkling motes of water magic shimmered as they sank into bruised flesh.
“We must leave now, Lady Alcyone,” Yuka insisted.
My mother rose without a word and strode over to where everyone had gathered around me. One after another, we all placed our hands upon the jewel containing the recall spell. It had been prepared by Mother so that Rose and I could have quickly returned to Naara after our visit to House Alcyone. It was a self-contained magic that required no arcane talent at all to use, and would work without issue even within the blighted lands.
As soon as my mother's hand touched the stone, I woke its power. Shimmering light rose from within the jewel's heart and spread outward, growing brighter and brighter until it had completely blotted out the condemnation chamber.
The light of Mother's magic stole through our bodies and souls, spiriting us away from danger.
*
When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by trees—but they were very different trees than that of the forest surrounding the Panopticon. I could smell the scent of salt and sea on the breeze, and my ears caught the faint sound of the horns of the ships in the Naara harbor.
The five of us stood in a small meadow near a small, swift-running stream. From here, I could see the tallest spire of the Academy risi
ng high above the trees, silhouetted by moonlight. We were all here, safe at least for the moment, just outside the city limits.
“So… that worked,” Rose muttered in disbelief.
Willow Corvus blinked. “This is Naara, isn't it?”
“Right outside it, yes,” I confirmed.
“Let's not relax just yet,” Rose said, frowning. “We may be out of immediate danger, but you heard what Claire said—the rebels were routed and the Imperial Court will be officially declaring war any time now.”
The Corvus necromancer blanched. “They can't be all gone.”
“I don't think she was bluffing.” I let out a slow breath and turned to gaze down the gently-descending hillside toward the port city. “It doesn't seem like anything is out of the ordinary in Naara, but I doubt that'll last.”
“We’ll take one of my family's airships,” Rose suggested. “I don't think the Empire will bar them entirely until the official declaration is signed.”
Yuka glanced at her sharply. “Aren't you forgetting about someone? We can't just leave without them.”
“You mean Shion?” Rose made a casually dismissive gesture with one hand. “They'll be fine.”
“That's rather cold, don't you think?”
“I trust Shion's skills implicitly,” Rose said with a grin. “I've known them for most of my life. Don't be surprised if they manage to make it back to Fialla before we do. I just hope they manage to avoid Dad long enough for me to get back. No sense in worrying him more than necessary.”
I scowled at her. “He was right to worry.”
“Oh, are you admitting this whole rescue mission was really reckless and stupid and we walked right into a trap?”
My cheeks warmed and I looked away. “M-maybe.”
“Not to worry, Rose Merope,” my mother said, her tone ominous, “I will be having a very long talk with my daughter, once we're out of danger.”
I swallowed hard. “Mama—”
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