“Vi.” He turned sharply, nearly spilling what was in the rough-hewn cup cradled in his hands. Their eyes met, and Taavin scrambled over to her in clumsy haste.
He was undeniably Taavin… Yet he looked so different than she remembered. Almost jarringly so. Enough that Vi had to blink, reminding herself that this was, indeed, the same man.
His hair was matted with dirt and grime. Dark circles she’d never seen before shadowed his eyes. The usual vibrancy of his coat was gone, replaced with gray twilight and accented by the dying embers of the fire casting long shadows over them. The only things that had any brilliance to him were his eyes—ever shining—and the small circle of light spinning around his left wrist. The glyph was drawn together so tightly that Vi couldn’t identify what it was for.
“How do you feel?”
“Like death, but slightly more animated.” Vi shifted onto her side, putting her weight on her left elbow and trying to push herself up. Every joint was stiff and aching. It felt like she hadn’t moved in years.
“Don’t get up too quickly. ‘Animated death’ may be an apt description given how I found you and what I’ve had to do to try to piece you back together properly.” But Vi was determined, so Taavin helped her upright, situating her against the wall behind her. Vi knew the space had been narrow, but she hadn’t realized that the top of her head was nearly touching one wall and her toes the one opposite while lying down. “Here, drink this—it’ll help your body wake up. I’ve been keeping you in a sort of stasis to let your body focus on healing.”
Vi accepted the cup from him, staring down at the muddy mixture within.
“I promise it looks worse than it tastes.”
She took a timid sip. It was thick and grassy, but warm on the way down—almost like liquor, but without the strong burn. Vi took another sip, replacing the salt musk of the shack with the bright tang of the drink. This was the earthy note she’d smelled earlier and Vi found it almost pleasant.
“Do you remember everything? Remember me?” Taavin asked almost timidly. “Was your memory affected at all by the trauma?”
“Yes.” Vi stared into the cup once more. “I mean, yes I remember everything—and you. No, my memory wasn’t affected.” The cup rested in her lap, over the rough-hewn blanket that covered her legs. Vi wiggled her toes. They didn’t feel like her own… nothing felt like hers. It was as if her soul had been placed into a completely new body. “I think so, at least…”
Her voice faded to nothing. Memories stacked like building blocks around her, closing her in. Vi’s fingernails dug into the grooves of the clay cup; the craftsman’s mark still present in the indents of fingers fired into permanence. The dull ache in her chest assured Vi that this seemingly new body was, indeed, hers.
Every scar she now wore was like a map, showing how she’d finally made it to Meru.
“That’s good,” he breathed a small sigh of relief. “I’ve been worried I’d not done enough…”
“I’m fine.” It was a lie. A lie to save her from having to fight her way out of the deep hole the truth put her into. Vi was many things… but after fleeing her home, abandoning her Empire, fighting for her life, facing off against a pirate queen, and putting a traitor to death… “fine” was none of them.
“How are you here?” Vi flipped the focus on him. Talking about herself was the last thing she wanted to do. “Aren’t you trapped in Risen?”
“Clearly not.” Taavin sank back off the balls of his feet, drawing his knees up to his chest. Vi watched him and debated passing the mug back. He seemed as if he could use the soothing properties of its contents as much as she could. “I managed to escape.”
“How?” Vi looked around the shack. “How did you get here? And how did you know I would be here?”
Questions piled on questions. Nothing was adding up.
“Remember, I told you that you were not the only one who would be on a journey. I vowed to find a way out of my prison.” His hand, timidly, rested on hers. “No, I always knew there was a possible escape. I just needed to have the courage to take it.”
Vi stared at his hand, willing it to spark light into her chest as it had once before, but she still felt frustratingly little. Every emotion was dulled. Instead, she focused on that conversation they’d had forever ago on Erion’s balcony. “You said you were having dreams too… of storms, and death in the water, of me in dark waves.”
He gave a small nod.
“Taavin, you dream only of the past,” Vi whispered.
“I thought I did.” He looked away, lost in his own thoughts. “But the closer you got to me, the stranger my dreams became. Or perhaps it was merely the will of the Goddess that I would find you. Either way, the black sand beaches outside the Twilight Forest are unmistakable. When I had a brief but particularly violent vision of you on the sand, I knew I had to leave.”
A violent vision? She knew he’d spoken of having shakes and going comatose during his visions… Was she nothing but violence to those around her? Was that what she was becoming?
“Then, on my way, I heard word of the pirate Adela sailing along the eastern coasts. I knew you were aboard a vessel. I had these unrelenting visions. It all seemed to compel me to go in a way I simply couldn’t ignore; I feared for the worst.”
He finally dragged his gaze back to her. Vi stared back, holding his deep and sunken eyes. They seemed all the more harrowed when framed by the gauntness of his face—a sharper edge to his cheeks than she’d ever seen. When was the last time he’d had a good night sleep? Or a full stomach?
“I’m glad you came, whatever the reason.” Vi took another sip of the concoction he’d made for her. She didn’t know if it was serendipity, the will of the Goddess, or some other magic at play, but she would count her blessings rather than question them.
“Me too. I don’t know how long you were out on that beach, but I shudder to think what would have happened if I had been any later.”
Vi looked down at his hand, still lingering atop hers. It half-hovered, trembling, as though he was afraid to touch her. Vi finally released the mug and twisted her fingers with his. He shifted closer at the unspoken request.
