Page 218 of Flame and Sparrow

“You will find that this tower and its waters do not erase the marks of the mortal life you lived,” said the voice. “And for good reason.”

I startled further into awareness at the mention of atower.

“Though the bone in your leg has been healed,” said the powerful voice. “Belegor’s doing.”

“Consider it a gift,” said a new voice, low and strong and somewhat indifferent compared to the first. “So that you might stand to properly face the end of your final trial.”

The end?

I wasn’t aware I’d even started a trial. Unless…

Curiosity finally gave me the strength to open my eyes.

I was lying on a floor composed of stone and glowing crystal, next to a familiar pool of turquoise water—the same water I’d drank from while dying on the shores of the mortal realm.

And just as when I’d first entered this chamber, days ago, a figure stood on the other side of the pool.

He was not the one who had greeted me last time, but I thought I’d seen him once before, through the window of Dravyn’s palace. His figure had been eclipsed by shadows that night, but his dark hair and darker, feathered wings were familiar, as was the sword at his hip.

Malaphar.

The God of the Shade.

As soon as he realized I was looking at him, his smile curved in an intrigued sort of way, and he began to change. His hair turned silver, his pale blue eyes became glowing white orbs with unsettling black centers…and he still looked familiar.

The Tower Keeper.

They were the same being.

He was not alone, either. There were two other ethereal creatures standing on either side of him.

A female stood to his left—a goddess—with dark skin swirled through with golden patterns. Ivory wings fluttered at her back. Her eyes and hair both shone like still more gold, and her entire body shimmered as if holding in a powerful source of light, as though a piece of the very sun somehow dwelled within her chest.

She was Solatis, the goddess associated with the gift of life. She must have been.

On Malaphar’s right was the one who I assumed had healed my leg, and spoken in that low, strong voice a moment ago—Belegor. The one who had given form to the worlds. His rugged, muscular appearance suggested exactly the sort of being capable of shaping entire realms with his bare hands. But despite his obvious strength, he was the most human-looking of the three, with no wings nor strange glow about him—though there was something in the crease of his brow and the depths of his dark eyes that suggested an ancientness beyond mortal comprehension.

Slowly, it dawned on me that I was still on the ground, sprawled out before the most powerful beings in existence in a rather undignified manner. I wondered if I should stand, or bow, or even grovel—but I only found the strength to make it into a kneeling position.

They spoke as if I wasn’t right in front of them, either way.

Belegor cast an indifferent glance toward the God of the Shade, and with a yawn he asked, “You truly think her worthy of ascension?”

“I gifted her the water of this pool,” said Malaphar, dipping his hand into the pool in question and letting its waters drip through his long, elegant fingers. Fingers that had claws like mine, I couldn’t help but notice. “And I fully expected her to hand them over to the war-hungry beasts among her kind. But though she took them to the mortal realm, she ultimately brought them back. Protected them. Drank of them.”

The Sun Goddess frowned at him. “A risky bit of betting you were doing, potentially putting that water in the hands of the corrupted Fallen. Don’t you think?”

He smirked at this.

Chaosbringer,my kind often called him, and I suddenly understood why.

“Nevertheless,” he said, “this is the trial I devised for her, and she has passed it. And then some. Not only did she protect the waters of this tower, she protected the tower itself. Make an argument againstthatif you care to. I’m waiting to hear it.”

The goddess rolled her eyes at the clever smile he fixed on her.

I slowly fought my way to my feet. The combined power rolling off them was effortless yet overwhelming, making me want to sink right back to the ground. But somehow, I stayed upright.

The God of Stone appraised me for a moment, then looked once more to Malaphar and said, “And the one she intended to ascend on behalf of, the God of Fire and Forging…”

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