Durroe, to deceive.
Sallvas, create sound.
Her lips tingled. Vi could practically taste the magic as it wrapped around her tongue. She could imagine with startling clarity the symbol that had taken residence over her voice box.
“Open the gate,” Vi said in Jayme’s voice.
“Ma’am?” One of the warriors asked.
“Imperial business.” Less was more. She got away with that as the princess, could she do the same pretending to be Jayme acting on her behalf?
The two guards shared a look and then one lifted his hand. A portion of the gate lowered in response to the magical command. Vi merely stared at the rocky ground that the stone had retreated into.
Was it really going to be that easy?
“Thank you. I will be back in—” Her voice cracked. Vi could hear the octave raise slightly, breaking into her natural cadence of speech. The magic unraveled.
“Jayme, are you well?” One of the men stepped forward. Vi had never seen his face before and she had no idea who he was. But Jayme might, and that was something she wasn’t prepared to try to cover.
Quickly raising her left hand to her lips, Vi made a show of coughing. In-between forced coughs, she hastened a mumbled, “Durroe sallvas.” The man made no indication of hearing.
“Something in my throat,” Vi said softly, trying not to break the magic by speaking too quickly. Her right fist felt warm, as though her illusion was struggling to get away from her. Navigating both disguises at the same time without flaw was proving difficult. “I shall return.”
With that, Vi hastened away.
If the guard was suspicious, he wasn’t suspicious enough to run after her. Vi continued on the main road, forcing her pace to be as slow as she could bear, before dipping into a side alley between two large tree trunks. Glancing around and seeing no one, Vi let out a sigh and felt the magic unravel.
Exhaustion soaked into her bones. Wearing someone else’s face was no easy task. But she’d pulled it off. Vi stared down at her hands in marvel and horror. To think, a few mere months ago she could barely make an orb of light with Sehra—could barely muster magic at all. Now she was deceiving people with light and sound.
If she managed to truly gain mastery of the illusions and sound manipulation… If she could hold it—hold it! Hoolo!Vi smacked herself lightly in the forehead.
“I’m an idiot.” She gave a soft laugh at herself, one that quickly vanished as she looked back to her hands.
Hoolo. It was her personal word of power—to hold, to sustain—given to her by the goddess herself, through Taavin.
Whenever Vi added the wordhooloto her spells, her magic wasn’t depleted. Vi didn’t know where the power was drawn from, perhaps the goddess herself… but the how didn’t matter so long as it worked. Vi made a note to see if the word had any limitations; if it worked the same with every combination of words, then the depth ofhoolo’s power was unfathomable.
Could she usehooloon two spells at once? Or would it lose its effectiveness? It was something she’d have to try, and pick Taavin’s brain over.
Withhooloand confidence in her Lightspinning abilities, she could be anyone. She could wear any face, have any voice. Her hand balled into a fist. That also meant anyone else gifted with Lightspinning likely could too, maybe just for a shorter period of time.
She had to be careful. Enemies could be lurking in plain sight.
Vi treaded lightly as she continued into the sleeping city. She glanced over her shoulder, making note of every other lone wanderer in the midnight hours. Even at this time, it seemed unnaturally quiet.
A city overtaken by the shroud of death.
It took her two wrong turns before she finally found Darrus’s family home. She’d only been there twice before with Ellene. So while her map-inclined memory of the city had not failed her, her recollection of where he lived had. The house was expectedly dark, not a soul stirring. Vi looped around the back, crouching below shuttered windows, glancing through the cracks.
The first room she peered into at the front was what appeared to be a family area. The back half of the house was occupied by a larger room that had a wide bed with two sleeping figures in it. Off the main road, a stairway wound around the tree the home was built into—leading up to more homes stacked on top of each other in the hollowed out trunk.
Setting her feet down softly, Vi made her way up the stair toward an upper window. She pulled it back slightly, hoping the hinges didn’t squeal. They didn’t. Inside the room was a single bed, and in it, Darrus asleep.
This was the last moment she had to turn back. But Vi ignored it, instead whispering a hushed, “Darrus… Darrus!”
It took four tries for him to stir, each louder than the last. She was at the point of crawling through the window when the man groaned. He twisted from one side of the bed to the other, and then finally sat upright, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Darrus,” Vi hissed again. She saw his eyes come into focus, landing on her. His hands dropped slowly to his lap as he blinked at her.
