Page 89 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
“Aye. Even those lost to us.”
Sometimes, I forgot Marek had dealt with the same pain as me. “Perhaps your mother simply made a poor decision,” I said quietly. “Trusting a friend too much. Perhaps,” I ventured, “those waters were not cursed but simply… dangerous. In the way the Depths were dangerous even before Galfrid hid the Crystal there.”
Glad that Marek appeared open to discuss this, a topic that was difficult for him, bolstered my confidence to continue. “You said yourself the Depths do not forget. That the oldest legend tells of its long memory, as if it were a living thing.”
“The sea, to us,isalive.”
“Right. And if you remember the journal entry. ‘She called upon the sea, but it answered in hunger. Not offering the tide its due. The Depths demand more than courage. They demand a heart willing to break.’”
“A sacrifice. I remembered that entry when you were willing to accompany me.”
“Perhaps it was nothing more than a recounting of the legend you had heard. But maybe, it’s more than that. If the Maelstrom Depths are not just a place, but sentient in some way?—”
“As I’m certain they are.”
“Then they absorbed centuries of magic, sacrifices, and lost souls. They remember every life taken by the sea. When an artifact as powerful as the Wind Crystal entered the water, the Depths, perhaps, absorbed its power. Taking it back was like ripping out a piece of the Depths itself. Maybe that was the sacrifice? Or maybe it simply didn’t belong there, an Aetherian artifact in Gyorian waters.”
Marek stared at me. “You’ve thought a lot on this.”
“I have. Though at times, I wonder if they are meanderings of thought that bear no consequence.”
His smile was slow to form, almost sad. Unlike Marek’s usual easy grin.
“There is nothing I’ve ever wanted more than to sail the open sea, solving its mysteries with you, Issa.”
My breath caught at his words. I could imagine it. The adventures we would have. Every part of me craved his touch. Craved to be with him again. But I was as certain that I could not do that, and be separated from him again, as I was that my duty called in one direction, my heart… in another.
“The Warden,” he offered, so suddenly, I’d forgotten his tale for a moment.
“The Warden,” I repeated, my mind meandering back to Marek’s story.
“You’ve learned on this journey, Issa, toread the waters of your life. You no longer need me, or anyone, to steer for you. Like the Warden, you’ve always had the ability to navigate. Trust yourself. And whatever decision you make…”
I understood his sadness now. Marek knew well the weight that held me down.
“I will support you.”
36
MAREK
“Why does everything look so much more different than I remember it?”
We stepped onto the dock in Valewood Bay, Issa looking around as if it was the first time she had seen it.
You’re not the same person as when you left.
I wanted to tell her that, but Issa wasn’t a woman that could be coerced or convinced into a decision. She would decide for herself what our journey meant to her, and the course of her future, without aid from me. It was one of the many things I loved about her. That fierce, independent spirit was evident on the very first day we met. She was so brave, for a human especially, and Issa had proven that in the Depths.
“I know we said we would wait for the others, but if you wish, we can make our way to Hawthorne now?” I asked, assuming Issa would be anxious to be on the road.
“With the same winds and good weather we had, they should not be far behind us, you think?”
“That’s my hope.”
“We will wait,” she said. “Besides, we have no mounts until they arrive.”
“I can get us mounts if necessary.”
