We both knew that I had lied.
She broke free from our embrace, turning her eyes up to meet mine. I’d seen so many things in those eyes… laughter, anger, joy. I had never seen such complete despair.
I couldn’t bear to meet that gaze. I looked away, turning to the young man at my left side. His long hair was drenched, his legendary blade resting unsheathed against his right shoulder. He’d come such a long way from the boy I’d helped to raise. His skill had surpassed my own, though he would never admit it. Perhaps it would be enough.
His gaze was filled with determination. “Take care of the rest of them while I am away,” I implored him.
Vel nodded, turning his head toward my love. “Let’s go, Ria. The others are waiting.”
She gripped my hand, squeezing it tightly for a moment before she followed Vel deeper into the copse of trees that lay ahead.
Good. I had worried she would refuse to leave me behind.
I turned and faced the entrance to the glade. I did not have to wait long before he appeared.
He was unarmored. He’d long ago reached the point where no hide or metal could match the toughness of his skin, and eschewing the ceremonial suit he wore on most occasions meant that he wanted every advantage he could employ.
His eyes glimmered gold in the forest’s low light.
I shivered again as I saw the weapon sheathed at his side. The hilt resembled the base of a tree, a bright green gem clutched between its roots. As he drew the weapon, I observed the runes on the surface of the black metal blade. One rune for every life he had taken with it, whether they were man or god.
There were countless thousands of runes on the surface of that blade.
I set my hand on my own saber, drawing the familiar weapon and raising it in salute. I felt the familiar aura of frost stretch across my skin, hardening into armor. It was almost unbreakable.
My opponent raised his own weapon to mirror my salute. “I have long anticipated this meeting.”
My grip tightened on the hilt of my weapon, my heart hammering in my chest. “So have I.” My voice was as harsh as gravel from many years of shouting battlefield commands. I was an old man, but far younger than my rival in spite of appearances. His kind would never feel the weight of mortality on their bones.
“Then let us begin.”
My rival flashed forward in a blur, his blade forward in a deadly thrust. The world froze around me, raindrops pausing in their fall.
Corin, open your eyes.
I drifted backward, my perspective shifting as I saw the scene from above. I was no longer the old swordsman, simply a distant viewer from the skies above.
I saw other figures below, the woman he loved among them, traversing the forest with haste. They headed toward a distant, shining light, something vast. Something beyond my ability to perceive, contained within the form of a many-faceted gem.
Awaken.
The world around shivered and shattered, leaving only darkness.
“Corin, wake up!”
I felt someone squeeze my hand. I shivered, drawing in a sharp breath, and my eyes fluttered open.
My vision cleared. My next breath was relief. It was Sera that was holding my hand.
I was in my own bed. I had no recollection of how I’d gotten there. “Mmf,” was all I managed to say. Sera was sitting in a chair beside me. She had deep bags under her eyes, like she hadn’t slept in days. It was oddly dark in the room.
“You were having some kind of nightmare.” She lifted something off my forehead, a wet towel, I realized belatedly. She replaced it with a new one.
The details of the dream were already fading. “Not a nightmare,” I murmured. “Not exactly.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but I was fairly confident it wasn’t a standard dream. I’d had plenty of adventure dreams before, but the voice that I’d heard… I recognized it. I’d only heard it once before.
It was the same voice that had spoken to me when I’d gained my attunement.
Certainly, the mind was capable of fabricating such things… but I didn’t think so. The details of the encounter were lost to me in my waking state, but it didn’t feel like the product of my ailing mind, nor even some sort of prophetic vision.
It felt like a memory.
But a memory of who?
Selys, the goddess of the towers?
A possibility, but I didn’t think so. Initially, at least, the vision seemed to come from the perspective of that old swordsman. I didn’t recognize him. A previous wielder of the sword, perhaps?
Lars had said that the sword, Selys-Lyann, was cursed. I’d assumed he’d been spinning a tale to make a sale, but what if there had been some truth to it?
I shivered, and not because of the cold.
My eyes scanned the room. “Where’s the sword I was wearing?”
Sera frowned. “That’s the first thing you’re going to ask? Seriously?” She retracted her hand from mine to cross her arms. “It’s under your bed. Professor Vellum left strict instructions not to let you use it. You need to talk to her once you’re recovered.”
Sitting up took significant effort. My back felt like someone had stuck a basket of needles in it.
Sera ruined my accomplishment immediately by pushing me back down with a firm hand. “Stay. You’re not going anywhere for a while.”
From the pain that was building in my temples, I knew she was right. I lifted a hand to rub my forehead. “What happened?”
“A better question.” Normally, she’d be smirking with a line like that, but not the slightest hint of mirth traced across her lips. “You almost died.”
I blinked. I almost died?
That took a few moments to process.
“How? Wasn’t that just a simulation?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, and you still somehow managed to almost kill yourself. How typical.”
When I didn’t reply for a moment, she elaborated with an exasperated wave of her hand. “You somehow managed to wreath yourself in ice that spread on its own. Then you lost consciousness. You were lucky the tests are closely watched. They pulled you out almost immediately. Thing is, the ice started spreading again as soon as they melted it off you. Vellum apparently woke you up long enough to get you to toss the sword aside, which stopped the effect from propagating further.”
Oh, is that what that was?
“Uh, oops?”
She raised her arm. I flinched back, but the blow I’d expected never came.
Instead, she slipped her arm under me and gave me a crushing hug, burying her head in my chest.
“Never do that again.”
I felt my hands quiver at the unexpected contact. I… wasn’t used to being touched in a way that didn’t involve violence, at least not in the last few years.
It helped that it was Sera. I pictured when we’d held hands as children. It had been perfectly normal, even comforting, when we were little. I hadn’t associated touching with pain back then.