Page 68 of Empire of Wrath and Ruin
Tarshi's grip on my shoulder tightened. "Something came with that rain of fire," he said, understanding dawning in his voice. "Something that doesn't belong to our world."
Aytara nodded. "The impact created this valley, but it brought more than just stone and metal. The rocks contained a strangematerial—one the Empire eventually discovered could be used to forge collars that enslaved and controlled dragon shifters."
"Is that what causes the shadow abilities?" Livia asked. "The metal?"
"That was my first theory," Aytara admitted. "I thought perhaps it was contamination from water that drained through the metal deposits. But then we found this." She gestured toward the crystal. "And we realized it was the true source."
Yes,the voices hissed.The source. The beginning and the end. Touch it. Take it. Make it yours.
I was moving again, my feet carrying me forward despite my mind's protests. The crystal seemed to grow larger as I approached, its dark fire swirling faster, more eagerly.
"Taveth, stop." Livia's hand slipped into mine, her fingers ice-cold against my burning skin. The contact helped, anchoring me to something real and warm and good.
But the pull was getting stronger. The crystal sang to me in a language older than words, promising power, promising an end to the constant battle in my head. All I had to do was reach out and take it.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" I managed to ask, though my voice sounded strange and distant to my own ears. "All these years, why didn't you tell me what I was fighting?"
Aytara's face crumpled with something that might have been shame. "Only three Talfen elders know of this place. I'm breaking sacred laws by bringing you here."
"Then why?" Tarshi demanded. "Why now?"
She looked at Livia. "Because someone I care about came to me demanding a cure, demanding knowledge. She loves you fiercely, Taveth, and she made me realize that my silence was killing you as surely as the shadow magic itself."
The admission hit me like a physical blow. Livia had fought for me, had demanded answers when I had given up hope. The guilt that followed was almost worse than the crystal's pull.
"I didn't want to confess that I had lied to you all these years," Aytara continued, her voice heavy with regret. "Your father knew about the crystal. When you began to develop strong shadow magic, he came to me with the same desperation I see in Livia's eyes now."
My father. The madman locked in the deepest cells, the psychopath who had to be restrained and sedated daily to keep him from trying to kill anyone who came near him.
"He begged me to let him try," Aytara said. "I had a theory that the crystal might be used to draw the shadow magic out of those afflicted, perhaps even to negate the Empire's dragon collars. But I refused to let him attempt it. He was our most powerful mage, and we needed him."
But he tried anyway,I thought, pieces of a long-buried memory surfacing.I remember. I was called to help restrain him, to drag him down to the cells.
"He kept insisting," Aytara continued. "Said he couldn't watch his son suffer when there might be a way to help. Finally, I relented. I let him try to bend the crystal to his will."
"Did it work?" Tarshi asked, though I think we both already knew the answer.
"For a few moments, yes." Aytara's voice was barely a whisper. "Sayven managed to draw the darkness back through himself and into the crystal. He said he could feel everyone its taint had touched—every shadow mage across the mountains. For a heartbeat, I thought we had found our answer."
The crystal pulsed brighter, as if responding to the memory of my father's attempt. The black fire within it danced more violently, and I felt an answering surge of power in my own chest.
"But the crystal was too strong for one man," Aytara finished. "It’s evil completely absorbed him, turning him into the monster he is today."
Understanding crashed over me like an avalanche. My father—the man I had both feared and pitied, the cautionary tale of what shadow magic could do to a person—hadn't simply succumbed to madness. He had been consumed by the very force he had tried to defeat.
"You didn't tell me," I said, and my voice was getting harder to control. Shadows began to leak from my skin, responding to the fury building in my chest. "All these years, you let me think he had just... snapped. You never told me he was trying to save me."
"I didn't want you to repeat his mistake!" Aytara said, stepping back as the darkness around me intensified. "I couldn't bear to lose you the same way!"
She's afraid,the voices laughed.They're all afraid. Look how they cower from your power. You could take the crystal now. You could finish what your father started.
"I'm stronger than he was," I said, and I wasn't entirely sure if the words were mine or the shadows speaking through me. "I could succeed where he failed."
"No!" Aytara's voice cracked with emotion. "Taveth, please. You're not strong enough. No one is. I love you like my own son—I can't lose you too."
"You're going to lose me anyway," I snarled, the shadows pouring off me in waves now. "I'm already nearly gone. At least this way, I could choose how it ends. At least this way, I could try to save the others who suffer as I do."
The crystal called to me again, its song growing more insistent. I could feel its alien intelligence brushing against my mind, welcoming me, promising me everything I had ever wanted. Power to protect those I loved. An end to the constant battle forcontrol. Unity with the darkness that had always been part of me.
