A smile touched Emre’s lips. “The Great Crystal is the source of all Life. But as you well know, life is fleeting in a harsh world. However, there is something within all of us, in our souls, that perpetuates our existence. Gives us life. Gives us purpose. Allows us to continue. This is aether, the true source of Life. And it was upon Zenith’s chosen to give that life. Give that aetheric spark so the world could remain. Sacrifice their life for the rest.”
“They had to give their lives?”
“It’s called Soul Form, Lojen. The ultimate Form of aetheurgy. Those named Godsblood, those chosen by Zenith to bear this spark, they faced the ultimate sacrifice. By breathing their aether into the Great Crystal, the world was reborn. Each day transferring their lifeforce into the Crystal, growing weaker each time.”
“Until the Fall?”
“A thousand years ago, two Calibrathian elfir were born. You know these elfir as Canlon Carr, the Last Godsking, the other as Lu Har. Bloodkin they are, but the man who became the Fallen was jealous of not being Zenith’s choice. Jealous of the glory heaped upon Canlon. Jealous of being withheld Soul Form. Lu Har was one of the greatest aetheurgists during Canlon’s reign. And it was Lu Har’s jealousy that brought the end of Eminence.”
“How?”
“Tevun only spoke of it once, for even the great drakken wardkeeper couldn’t explain it. There is another crystal. One just as important to all existence as that of Eminence.”
“Like the Shards?” Ruane had her taloned claw under her jaw, elbow propped on the tabletop, leaning toward him. Intently listening. Perhaps Emre had misjudged her.
“The Four Shards are but pieces shorn from Eminence. Facets of Life. But there is another. A dark crystal. The Crystal of Death. Noctis.” Emre paused to let the revelation sink in. Even he hadn’t been able to grasp this truth when Tevun had told him, for it betrayed everything ever believed in.
“Noctis,” Lojen breathed.
“A corruption. Housed in the never-ending void of Nocturne’s Pit, in the very dank, deep recesses of the Meadows. Death’s Crystal. The source of Void Form aetheurgy.”
“How do you know all this? My father would never have gone to the other side.”
Emre glanced back toward the front of the safehouse. “Be at ease, Lojen, your father only knew of Noctis, nothing else. Valeria Dunleith is the one who knows the truth of this second crystal. Val was one of Canlon’s closest confidants. But she was also the lover of Solanine when Val was barely out of her formative years.” Lojen let out a small gasp while Ruane hissed. Emre heard Finn labor a disgusted sigh. “The woman you know as Solanine was one of the first to turn join with Lu Har. But Solanine is no woman. Solanine is a blooddrake.” The siblings growled deep in their throats. “Yes, Solanine of Drenth is merely a blooddrake wearing the scales of some poor woman stolen along the way. It was Solanine, the blooddrake, who helped Lu Har engineer the downfall of Canlon. Their Void Form aetheurgy corrupted Canlon’s Soul Form. In the end, they were too much. And when that end came, Eminence cracked, and the mist poured forth.”
“And my father?” Lojen asked. “He must have known Solanine was a blooddrake. A blooddrake, by the Arbiter…We, I mean us on Merj, have always believed blooddrakes to be a myth.”
“Blooddrakes are no myth, Lojen. They are very real. And very dangerous.” He toyed with the vial of parch, rolling in between his fingers. “In the time before the Fall, Four Shards of the Crystal of Life were housed within towering temples upon the four corners of Eminence. At the base of each Shard was a Seal.”
“You speak of the Four Tenets of Aether.”
“Aere, Aquis, Ignis, and Terris,” Emre said with a nod of affirmation. “The four dogmas of nature.”
Lojen stiffened. “That’s why he came to Drenth, isn’t it? My father? The Terris Shard is here, in the desert?”
“Tevun always bragged about your quick skills of deduction.” Although Ruane seemed to disagree under her breath, which caused Emre to chuckle. “But you are correct, the emerald Terris Shard was discovered in the desert, in the mines. In the Temple of Mother Marrow.”
“But how is that possible?”
“When Eminence cracked, Mother Marrow reacted. Yes, the mist poured through the veil from the Meadows, aether altered forever, but She made it so Lu Har couldn’t yet win his war. Eminence had to be protected at all costs. With the last of his strength, Canlon Carr summoned all the aetheurgy he could contain, gifted by Mother Marrow and others of the Pentax. The purest of aether filled him and sucked him dry, killing Lu Har in the process. As the great city fell from the heavens about to wreak its destruction on this world and creating the Mistlands, his final act came forth. The Four Shards and their Seals were thrust from their temples to the four corners of the earth. There to be hidden in the destruction and thus sealing the city within a tomb veiled by the very veil that separates the realms of Life and Death. And there they remained. Until now.”
“But if Lu Har was killed, how can he be alive now?”
“The Divine, Lu Har’s master, rebirthed him fifty years ag—”
A loud scream, almost unearthly, echoed from the front of the safehouse, cutting Lojen’s question off. A deep wail of ghastly chorus.
“Guys!” Wick called from down the hall, “You may want to come in here.”
They screeched to a halt at the sight of Val hanging in the air inches above the ground. Rime dripped from her arms, streamed from her hair. Her head lowered to gaze down on them, her black iris a deep abyss of pitch, her white a brilliant achromic. Below her feet was the corpse of the wardkeeper.
For Emre, he could only give in to the desire to scratch at his arms. Finn stood next to him, mouth agape.
Val’s mouth opened but did not move as a voice drawled forth. “Lojen, Ruane. My hatchlings.”
It wasn’t the melodic voice of the goddess Bliss, but instead the voice of Tevun. She’d done it. Val had found his soul in the Meadows.
“Father?”
“Forgive me… forgive me,” the sepulchral growl of the former wardkeeper came from Val’s open mouth. “There are no words… no words to which I could say to make this make sense. You must trust in the Arbiter. In your ability. In your soul.”
Ruane went to her knees, her drakken tail flicking in distress. “Father… I… need you.” Her head lowered as her body convulsed in what Emre realized were silent sobs. Lojen crouched beside her, a talon upon her back.
Val’s head moved as if Tevun’s soul was controlling her, a concerned parent looking upon a crying child. “You’ve the fire to excel in Justice’s trials, my hatchling. Remember this truth. Without it, a wardkeeper is nothing.”
Lojen’s gaze went to the corpse before quickly averting his eyes. “Father, I don’t know if I’m worthy, but I will do whatever is demanded by the Arbiter to right this wrong. This injustice.”
Elfirish face blank but the pride in the voice strong. “He will deem your worth, Lojen. The way of the wardkeeper is your path. Always had been. Justice will lead you to His doorstep.” Val’s left arm rattled; the seer-sight bracelets glimmered as she pointed toward Emre. Emre felt Finn’s fingers entwine into his. “My ward is now your ward. The Seals are your duty. Protect the Seals at all costs.”
“I will, Father,” Lojen said with conviction.
The bikrome’s body began to shudder in the air, slowly at first but grew in ascendancy. Finn barged forward. Val’s mouth began to close, her form slowly lowered to the floor. Finn caught his sister, pulling her close.
But before her aetheurgy severed with Tevun’s soul in the Meadows, her face turned toward Emre. “She is… hounded.” Voice fading, as if drawn back into the void. Wails of the dead began to rise in its wake. “She must… know… you. The Seal… won’t… break… otherw—”
And then Val’s body went limp in Finn’s arms.
Emre stood there silently, contemplating. Is this wise, Tevun? O how I wish I had you still beside me. I don’t know if I can do this.
