“Solaris?” Arwin looked to Sarphos, who seemed to shrink under the woman’s stare. “There is no such Empire.”
Vi fought a smile and failed. She remembered being in Arwin’s shoes. The moment the veil was lifted from her eyes was fresh in Vi’s memory. She had assumed the rest of the world knew about Solaris—that her people alone had been left in the dark. She had assumed wrong.
“There is, across what you call the Shattered Isles. On the Dark Isle.”
“A forgotten and desolate rock?”
“Let her speak, Arwin.” King Noct’s voice had deepened, his tone becoming far more serious.
“I was born in Solarin, capital of the Solaris Empire, to Emperor Aldrik Solaris and Empress Vhalla Solaris. There, Meru’s existence is not common knowledge. Shortly after my birth I was sent to our northernmost territory, Shaldan. I thought my wardship was a purely political arrangement, but it was more than that.
“There was a prophecy about my birth,” Vi proceeded delicately. Given the morphi’s relationship with the Faithful, Vi didn’t know what their reaction would be to Yargen.Tell the truth, just not thewholetruth. Half-lies were child’s play compared to the web of fictions she’d had to craft along this journey. “It involves those known as the elfin’ra and Lord Raspian’s return to this realm.”
“Lord Raspian, elfin’ra? You speak like a Faithful,” Arwin said, her voice dropping to a low growl.
“I am not a Faithful,” Vi insisted.
“But you are a liar.” Arwin stomped over to her. Without so much as a word of warning, she yanked the bandanna from Vi’s brow. “Human,” Arwin seethed, turning to Sarphos. “You brought a human among us? She could be Faithful.”
Sarphos shrank backward. If Arwin pressed, he’d break. And if he broke, there was no guarantee of Taavin’s safety.
“I said I’m not Faithful,” Vi insisted. “The Faithful don’t even exist in Solaris.”
“Silence, Arwin.” The King sighed tiredly. “Tell me more of the details of this prophecy?”
“My lord, I don’t entirely know them all myself…” Vi looked down at her feet for a moment, hoping the body language of respect and deference was the same here as it was at home. “It has been passed to me in pieces, from my mother and from the woman who raised me. All I know for certain is that I have been chosen by Yargen to play a role in preventing the end of our world. I am Yargen’s Champion. But what that means exactly… I’m unsure.”
“And that is why you have ventured so far?”
“Yes, that… and to find my father.”
“Prophecies, the Faithful’s goddess, a human in the Twilight Kingdom…” Arwin paced between Sarphos and her father, staring down Vi at every turn. “She spews lies to you, father.”
“Have you not seen it, Arwin?” Noct straightened in his seat. In that motion he went from a lounging old man to a king. “The bloody ring that circles our moon? It foretells the end of days.”
“Or it’s merely a phenomenon we don’t yet understand. What’s more likely? Ancient prophecies or a natural anomaly to be investigated?”
“Then there are the tears in the shift…” Sarphos said meekly, staring at his toes.
“Tears?” All eyes were on him. Vi watched as he fidgeted with the bag strap over his shoulder.
“Lord Raspian is rotting the world from the inside out,” Vi said finally, when Sarphos didn’t speak. “On the Dark Isle, people have fallen ill to a deadly plague from which there is no cure; we call it the White Death. There has been red lightning in the sky, now the corona around your moon, and I fear the tears in your shift are his work as well.”
“Plague? Did you say plague?” Sarphos’s head snapped up.
“Yes.”
“What are its symptoms?” He was gravely eager. So much so that Vi had a horrible theory he already knew what she was about to say.
“Stony skin, milky eyes, bulging red veins, madness, and—”
“Sores that break and ooze white,” he finished solemnly. Vi nodded in acknowledgement. “It’s started to show here too.”
“I’m so sorry,” Vi said softly. “Our healers couldn’t make headway with it. I don’t think there’s a cure beyond stopping Raspian.”
“Don’t doubt Sarphos,” Arwin said defensively.
“I don’t. He’s already helped me once.”
