“I suppose a good place to start might be proper introductions. Forgive me, Your Highness, but I lied to you before.”
His brows shot up when she thrust out her hand. Meanwhile, a roaring had started in her ears, the throbbing beat of her rushing blood filling the room. Once she told him her name, that was it—the end of her running and hiding.
“I am… Lunara the Moonweaver. It’s wonderful to finally make your acquaintance.”
His eyes danced, his fingers engulfing hers. “Hello, Lunara the Moonweaver.” He tugged her arm and planted a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “You’re an Elder.”
“You don’t seem surprised by the prospect.”
He chuckled, letting their hands fall. “Not in the slightest. I had a feeling it was along those lines.”
“Yes, well…” Her head fell back on her shoulders and she stared at the ceiling—easier than looking him in the eye. “They think I’m dead. And, for clarity’s sake, I’m not technically an Elder. I never completed my trial.”
“I see.”
It didn’t sound at all like hedid.
“It’s strange, the lens you find yourself under when you’re the child of not one, but two Elder Tier Sorcerit and Council members. I imagine you can relate, being an Imperial.”
“Oh yes.” His nod was slow, introspective. “Very well, indeed.”
“My power bloomed late—almost too late. The first nineteen years of my life were spent with countless eyes on me, waiting to see whether I’d live up to the legacy. I was nevernotaware of the fact that I might be a freak anomaly.”
Her mind reached for the heavy curtains beside the bed, seizing their particles and drawing them open to invite the waning moonlight inside. It didn’t beam down like it should have—not when she had it in her grasp and was pulling it towards herself.
“My magic was weak. Hardly good for anything. I could do little tasks without trouble, but nothing meaningful. Certainly not healing. Except, my energy never dwindled, while everyone around me would get so tired.”
A prismatic glow encompassed her as the well within gulped the moons’ magic down, the level rising and rising.
“Most Sorcerit can go a day, maybe a few, before needing to bask in the cosmos. Hence their love for the Evesong, where there’s a constant source of sustenance.”
Twisting her wrist ‘round and ‘round, she spun the light into threads, threads into yarn. Tugging the newly-formed length towards herself, she disconnected it from its source and laid the coiled scrap of material into Brand’s palm.
“Their love…”He skimmed his fingers over it, then her. “What about you?”
“A few months shy of my twentieth birthday, I felt the moons for the first time—playful caresses, poking at me, looking for attention—and I realized what was inside me.”
She gestured towards the tiny bundle of yarn. “My gift is the ability to manipulate the very life-source of all Nachthellians. I can bend it, shape it, weave it. But, most importantly, I can store it. As much as I want. I’ve never tested how deep the well is, out of fear, but I can go formonthswithout seeing the night and still use my magic.”
Lunara let go of the light, letting it snap back to wherever it naturally wanted to fall, her glow gradually fading.
“Turned out, I’d been unwittingly filling the well without knowing how to use or direct it my whole life. Once I understood…” She shrugged. “Quite the prize for the Elder Council. My parents were ecstatic.”
“And you?”
“Oh, ecstatic doesn’t even begin. I was beside myself. Told everyone I knew, made little presents. I’d been an oddity for so long, and then powerfulpeople were suddenly inviting me to parties, clamoring to speak with me… They were the happiest months of my life.”
He wrapped his hand around her foot, giving a little squeeze. “What happened?”
“Malachyr the Mistwarden.”
Brand cringed. There probably wasn’t a creature alive who didn’t know his name. Not after the horrific blow he’d single-handedly dealt to the Evesong.
He searched the bedsheets, and she felt his calculations. Watched in real time as it dawned on his face. “The calamity on the Upper Block… Fuck. They were there?”
Lunara’s laugh was a twisted, bitter thing. “Oh, they weren’t just there. They were the reason it happened.”
His eyes went wide as he recoiled.
