“Yes, well, the carpenter had a lot more things prepared than I expected, and was perfectly happy to get started with the easier projects first, like the bed frames,” Ruethwyn replied, stepping in and nodding to everyone, and Tadrick smiled.
“I told you he was good. What’re those? Did he give you gifts?” Tadrick asked, looking curious.
“No, I ran into Madeline by the gate. She decided to drop by and gave me these. One’s a reward for helping defend the Lightweaver Enclave, another is congratulations for everything else, and I got an invitation to tea the day after tomorrow,” Ruethwyn explained, shaking her head. “She’s being a lot nicer than she was before.”
“I’m not surprised. You’re famous by this point. Even if things aren’t settled yet, people are a lot happier not having Resvarygrath looming over them,” Sella pointed out.
Ruethwyn set the gifts on the table and pulled out a chair. She considered for a moment, then nodded. “I guess that’s true. I just… I’m exhausted of all the attention, and I haven’t even been back for that long!”
Korima giggled and gave Ruethwyn a gentle hug, prompting Ruethwyn to hug her back before she slipped into the seat.
“You’re exhausted? You aren’t the one who had to explain everything to Master Mara over the last three days,” Lissa said, half-collapsed on the table. “I was just told that I’m going to be put through an ‘accelerated first-year course.’ From the way he was grinning, I’m afraid of what that’ll entail.”
“Oh, that’s easy. The academy headmaster asked me to be a guest instructor for a few years, since I kept intruding without an invitation when Ruethwyn was there,” Essryl said, smiling at their stares of mingled interest and horror. “His first request was to get you through the equivalent of the first year before the beginning of the fall term.”
Lissa shrank back and let out a soft whimper. Anara laughed, shaking her head as she murmured, “At least you know what you’re going to be doing. I still have to figure that out. For some reason, I don’t know that dancing will be enough to satisfy me anymore.”
“I can’t say as I blame you,” Tadrick said, then paused and asked, nodding toward the gifts. “Hey, Rue, are you going to open those?”
“Hm? Eventually, I guess… if you want to, you can open one,” Ruethwyn said, gently nudging the boxes toward him. They weren’t too heavy for their size, at least, which ruled out more money. She hardly knew what to do with what she had, and Essryl had informed her that she’d be dealing with ensuring all the freed captives had enough funds for new lives.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Tadrick chuckled, pulling them close, but when Korima snagged the top one, spilling the envelope onto the table, he protested. “Hey, Korima!”
“I’m opening this one, then!” the kitsune said firmly. “You get that one.”
“Fine, fine. Let’s see… this one is for rescuing the enclave, it looks like,” Tadrick said, looking at the tag attached to the top. He lifted the wooden lid and his eyebrows rose as he unfolded a black satin cloth. “That’s nice, and… oh my. A celestial orb.”
“Wait, really?” Ruethwyn asked, her eyebrows rising as he pulled out a delicate, blown-glass sphere several inches across. Inside it was what looked like the night sky, inky darkness split by stars. He pulled out its wooden stand a moment later and set it on the table, what amounted to a wooden tripod with arms extending to a wooden ring that would hold the orb off the ground. “That’s interesting, those aren’t made often.”
“What’s a celestial orb?” Anara asked, looking at it. “It’s pretty, that’s for sure.”
“It’s a magical item that projects an image of the night sky on the room’s walls or ceiling,” Sella explained, smiling. “They’re beautiful, but difficult to make, so they aren’t very common.”
“Ah,” Anara said, and at about the same time, Korima tore open the box, her ears perked up, then they suddenly lowered slightly.
“Aw, this one isn’t all that neat at all,” Korima said, lifting out a white porcelain vase, one that was incredibly simple but well made. “It’s just a vase.”
“Err…” Tadrick’s eyes went wide.
“Tadrick? Is there something you need to tell us?” Sella asked, her tone filled with warning.
“Well, I’m surprised that you don’t know, but I guess it isn’t a tradition that’s spread much yet,” Tadrick said, running his fingers through his hair. “See, that’s… well…”
“Spit it out, Tad,” Ruethwyn said, sighing heavily.
“It’s supposed to announce the giver’s intent to court you, Rue,” Tadrick said.
“What?” Ruethwyn exclaimed, her eyes going wide with disbelief. “That’s impossible! Madeline hates me!”
“Obviously not as much as you thought,” Tadrick replied, a smile growing on his face, and a chorus of giggles and laughter came from around the table. “Besides, you told me you were attracted to women.”
Ruethwyn groaned and slowly raised her hands to cover her face. “As if my love life needed to grow more complicated. Goddess preserve me.”
“You’ve already told Anara you have feelings for her, right?” Korima asked, and Ruethwyn felt her face warm as she slowly turned beet red.
“I… had not heard that as of yet,” Anara said, but Ruethwyn could almost hear the smile on her face.
“Oops. Sorry, Rue!” Korima said, her tone completely unrepentant.
“Thanks a lot, Korima,” Ruethwyn muttered.
“Interesting. I see I’m going to need to procure a white vase,” Essryl said, and everyone went utterly silent.
Ruethwyn slowly lowered her hands and looked over at Essryl. The slight smile on the Illisyr’s face could indicate she was teasing, but it also could be something else. After a moment, Ruethwyn licked her lips and asked, “You aren’t serious, are you?”
“Entirely serious, Ruethwyn. You’ve impressed me and beat me even when you have an enormous amount of growth ahead of you. I find that… interesting,” Essryl said, her tail flicking back and forth as her smile widened.
Ruethwyn suppressed the urge to bolt for the doorway. There was no way in the world she could run fast or far enough.
Instead, she hit her head gently against the table and groaned. “Kill me now.”
Another chorus of laughter filled the room at her protest.
Epilogue
Sinera watched the clouds roll over her new domain. The last few weeks had been messy, but at last the populace had settled into the reality of having a new ruler. It was fortunate that Captain Gardner had survived, though healing him had taken rather more time than she’d wanted. Once he was up, though, he’d been able to get the Shadowguard in line, and she’d only had to make one demonstration of her power to get them into the proper mood.
Inside her, Sinera felt Resvarygrath’s soul twisting and struggling against her, trying to escape, as it had been ever since she trapped it. He’d never thought about how necromancers summoned souls, and that meant they amounted to elementals, Sinera knew, and she smiled. It wasn’t easy containing him, but fortunately he’d kept convenient soul traps in the basement. When she finally was having trouble with him, she’d just put him there to take a break. For now, she was harvesting his knowledge at a slow but steady rate.
“Enjoying the view of your new kingdom?” Minerva asked, and Sinera turned to face her.
Minerva was still pale, but she’d recovered without any scars, just as Essryl had promised she would. She was limping slightly, but that was to be expected. It had taken the healers a long time to put Minerva back together, but they were together at last.
“Our kingdom, sister,” Sinera corrected, smiling warmly. “We’ve spent quite long enough apart, and I refuse to be separated again. We’ll rule together, now that Resvarygrath is out of the picture.”
“Really? You think that Selwyn will let us just take over without complaint?” Minerva asked, her tone growing warmer at Sinera’s words.
“Perhaps not wi
thout complaint, but they’d far rather have us on their border than a dragon. It’s the nature of kingdoms to fear dragons, whereas elven queens… why, that’s just normal,” Sinera explained, her smile widening. “For now, we’ll stay here. We’ll bide our time, learn, and decide what we want to do. If we decide we want more… we’ll take it.”
“Together?” Minerva asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Together,” Sinera confirmed, offering her hand.
Minerva took Sinera’s hand, looking out over their kingdom. They’d been apart for too long, and Sinera wasn’t going to allow anyone to take Minerva away again.
Thank you all for reading The Obsidian Palace, I greatly appreciate it! You find the first book in another series by me, Heaven’s Fallen, below!
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Heaven’s Fallen
Prologue
Agony seared through Isalla as the wind whipped by her face in a dull roar that suppressed all other sound. Pain radiated from the numerous wounds she’d received, most notably from her back, but also from a half-dozen other wounds and the virulent poison that seeped through her body like dull flames. Worst of all was the collar around her neck, its spikes buried in her flesh as it slowly pumped more of the poison into her.
If Isalla still had her wings, she might be able to redirect her course somewhat, or even get help, but Haral had taken pleasure in severing them with a flaming sword that cauterized the wounds. The poison steadily weakened Isalla as well, and with the tendons severed in her arms and legs, her limbs were worse than useless for trying to change her course as Isalla fell from the clouds.
The fall was long, and if she could have Isalla would have cursed the traitors who’d ambushed her. As she fell through the towering clouds, the light abruptly shifted, growing duller and more muted as the clouds changed. She’d left the heavens, Isalla realized, trying and failing to swallow her saliva. The traitors obviously didn’t want her dying in the heavens, as they’d dropped her in a location that connected to the mortal world. Anger rushed through her in waves, but the anger was threaded with fear. Fear of what Haral might be planning.
Yet there was nothing Isalla could do, as she watched the clouds of the mortal world around her pass by, until they opened before her to reveal the approaching vistas of the ground below, from towering, green-swathed mountains to rolling plains with the glittering ocean in the distance. It was as she looked directly below her that Isalla’s fear grew yet again, for there wasn’t ground beneath her.
Directly below her was the heart of the mountain range, and the vast, cavernous cone of a volcano yawned open before her… yet one without lava within. The smoke rising from it came through yet another portal, and at last Isalla realized what Haral’s plan for her truly was. She’d fall through the gateway into the lower planes, into the very hells themselves, and there was nothing Isalla could do to stop it. If anyone used magic to look for her, it would appear as though she’d gone on a foolish crusade into the lands of their enemies.
Isalla struggled, trying to change her course, but her arms simply flapped uselessly at her sides as panic grew within her. She plunged into the sulfurous smoke, and she began to cough, agony spiking through her with every breath that passed. Unconsciousness would almost be a blessing, but it eluded her.
She fell into the volcano, helplessly watching as she closed on the portal, seeing the winding paths and roads which demons took into the mortal world pass by. She braced herself as best she could as she plunged through the ink-black portal, and into the sulfurous clouds of the hells.
The skies here were different than those of the heavens or the mortal world. The world was darker, with the skies a deeper crimson, while the clouds were nearly black. Below her she could see the expanse of one of dozens of immense, magical mountains that pierced the sky of the hells and gave the demons access to most of the portals into the mortal world.
A magical gust of superheated air hit Isalla, and she grunted in pain as it caused her wounds to flare with agony again, her eyes watering as she was magically shunted away from the mountain and sent spiraling outward over the dark landscape.
At last Isalla’s fall was nearing its end, and she felt her stomach tightening as she descended toward the ground like a falling star. At least the end would be quick, she hoped, though the sheer length of the fall had almost been worse than being killed by a demon. As she descended toward a huge forest, Isalla closed her eyes and braced herself for the end, anguish rushing through her at the thought that she’d never have the chance to stop the psychotic zealots who were in the heavens.
The impact of a branch against her shoulder sent Isalla spinning, and she tried to scream in pain, only to have it cut short by the collar. Isalla’s mind was swimming, the poison even hotter in her veins as she braced herself… then stopped.
“Now, just what do we have here?” A woman’s sultry voice asked curiously.
Isalla opened her eyes, barely retaining consciousness, and found herself hanging motionless in the air just a few feet from the rocky ground, streamers of purple light wrapped around her. She was in the middle of a forest of black trees, and she looked up at the speaker… and if anything, her terror grew even greater. And with it, something inside her snapped.
A woman stood nearby, the purple light extending from her fingers. She was beautiful, with pale skin and deep violet eyes, but it was the narrow purple horns extending from her brow and the swaying tail behind her that truly terrified Isalla. The robes the woman was wearing were black and shrouded much of her figure, but her hair shimmered almost like obsidian in the light as she looked at Isalla curiously, her purple lips pursed.
And then, as despair overtook her, Isalla lost consciousness at last.
Author’s Note
This ends the first story arc of Through the Fire. Writing this book was both difficult and wonderful for me, because it’s the oldest story idea which I’ve tried to turn into a novel. Or into a series, to be more accurate.
I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, this likely isn’t the end of the story. I tend to think in story arcs, thus the idea that this is the first story arc. You may have noticed a lot of other potential antagonists and conflicts for the future. This was intentional on my part, because I want the story to be able to continue onward.
For the moment, though, this is the end for Through the Fire.
The Obsidian Palace (Through the Fire Book 3) Page 38
