Page 55 of Steeling Light
It’s too much. No one should feel like that toward me. “Rhion, I’m not who you picture me as. I’m not some goddess to be worshipped. I’m just a girl trying to make it through the day. You’re… you’re a Prince. You’ve been kinder to me than anyone else. You’re a warrior who terrifies everyone. You are incredible. I’m just…”
Rhion reaches out to me and puts his hand on my cheek, stopping me from finishing what I was trying to say. “You are exactly what I want. A goddess could come down to Nyth, and I would choose you over her. The only nightmare that terrifies me anymore is losing you. Not my past. Not my father. Not even the end of the world worries me. If the world’s going to burn, so be it. As long as I have you, I’ll be smiling as ash rains from the sky. Youaremy goddess. You are perfect, and I swear to you I will do everything in my power to be worthy of your affection.”
I don’t know what to say to convey the way his words make me feel, so instead, I crawl over to him, give him a soft kiss, and wrap my arms around him. “I love you, Rhion. I will always love you.”
Chapter 29
Watch the web, young weaver. Watch the way the strands dance as new pieces are placed upon them. Watch the way a subtle vibration can leave some strands frayed and others holding tighter. Every new addition changes the entire web. No one stands alone, and an errant gust of wind can leave all the pieces shattered…
~Maerlix the Master Listener, Words to Weavers
Ainslee
I watch as Rhion flies for the Keep of Steel. The sight of him leaving is heartbreaking. Already I feel the strands that connect us growing tighter, their tension drawing me to him as he’s always been drawn to me. I’m sure I could find him in a crowd even if he was shifted now. I could find him anywhere.
But we have to do this. We’ve spent the last three days on long flights and longer nights. We’ve explored our new bond, kissing, getting tangled up in each other, and truly experiencing each other.
Now it’s time to finish this thing that lingers between us. I have a mission, and Rhion has to return to his father. We both know there aren’t any other options.
The hematite hangs from my neck, and my hair is wild and unbraided just like it has been since I bound myself to Rhion. I don’t want to change it. I don’t want to… be the girl I was when I arrived in Selithar.
I shift my body into a hardened Steel soldier and put on the uniform that I’ve kept in my pack all this time. Blending in while in Draenyth is a necessity. I know where Vesta is, so it should be a quick thing to have her pack up her things and come with me to Stormhaven.
I take one last look at Rhion as he becomes a distant speck, and I leap into the air, my eagle wings carrying me high into the sky. As soon as I’m a few hundred feet in the air, the wind becomes stronger, and my feathers turn to cut through it, doing exactly what they were made to do.
I look down at the city I’ve loved all my life, and all I can do is wish I were back in Selithar. The City of Moonlight is close to my heart, while Draenyth is someone else’s home, and maybe it is. The girl who arrived at the Keep of Light that night wasn’t me. She ran away from the past.
I’m running toward the future. Because the future holds Rhion. It holds a true soul bonding with the man I love. The future holds happiness, and I am ready for it. Sometimes, the only way out of a bad situation is through it.
I fly directly to the tailor’s shop right outside the Keep of Flames. The Flame Quadrant of the city is nearly empty, and I’m not surprised. Anyone with strong ties to Cole’s House is either imprisoned or doing their absolute best to stay out of it.
I see the little shop I’ve been in so many times with Cole. Fiona and Lorcan do some of the best work in all of Draenyth, but I’m hopeful there’s something far more important than a dress there today.
A twinge of sadness flows through me as I touch down on the cobblestones outside their shop. My wings disappear, and without wasting a moment, I open the door to step into the familiar storefront.
Dresses and suits hang on the walls of their shop, many of them in various stages of repair and construction. The use of spellstones is obvious as more than a quarter of them are actively on fire, and yet nothing burns.
Lorcan and Fiona sit at the center table with mugs of afternoon tea in their hands. A complicated gown lies across the dark wood. It is for someone from the House of Steel as chain mail is interwoven with lace.
The husband and wife stand up ceremoniously, each of them finding a place on the crowded table for the mugs. “Lady,” Lorcan says with a small bow. “Are you looking to have a dress made for the Spring Equinox?”
I smile at the man that I’ve gone to for every dress I’ve had made since I came to Draenyth. My face shifts back into my true face, and both Lorcan and Fiona’s stiff formality drops somewhat, though not completely.
“Lady Ainslee,” Fiona says, a soft grin spreading across her face. “We’ve been waiting for you. There is a sylph…”
“Vesta,” I say. “She’s really here?” It’s hard to believe that the mission I set out on almost two months ago is about to be completed. So much has happened since then that it feels like I was given that task a lifetime ago.
The couple nod in unison. Fiona responds, “In the back room. We’ve given her the refuge she requested when she told us who she was waiting for.” She pauses for a moment, a thought left unsaid, and I don’t interrupt her as she puts the thought into words. “Things in Draenyth are bad, Lady. So many of the House of Flames have been imprisoned, and many Lesser Immortals have been collared. It’s even worse than the Shattering. At least that only affected the Great Houses. This… we fear for our lives and freedom, Lady. Should we expect help? Or should we find a way to flee?”
These people may not have been my friends, but I knew them. I knew their hearts. They were simple people who did extraordinary things. They loved their craft and wanted nothing more than to create art from fabric. Yet, they’d leave it behind because of what’s happening? Things must have become terrible.
I really am back in the thick of things. My time in Selithar is over, and now I have to deal with the world and conflicts I’d found refuge from in Rhion’s arms.
“I don’t know, Fiona. Cole wants to dethrone Gethin, but the last I heard, he didn’t have an army. We’re outnumbered by too many.” My lips draw a tight line as I give her the only advice I can. “If you would like, I can help you escape the city. Your shop will be ransacked. Everything you love about your home here will probably be destroyed when you don’t deliver whatever commissions you have, but…”
She doesn’t let me finish. “My home is with my husband, wherever that may be. Humans may not have spellstones, but even they need dresses and coats. We will gather our necessities and leave with you.”
I nod to her, and without another word, she leads me to the fabric storeroom. She takes a brass key from her pocket. When the door swings open, the room is empty save for bolt after bolt of fabric.
