The world was completely dark, only the immediate radius visible to her. Underneath her feet was a barren landscape of pale gray ash, piled thick. Whatever fire had raged here had burned so hot that not even the stumps of trees or foundations of buildings had survived.
Cloying heat sank into her, trying to smother her, despite her detachment from the dead world before her.
She began to walk.
It was impossible to tell her direction, or what she was walking toward. But it was equally impossible for her to stomach the idea of standing still. If she stood still,itwould get to her, something within Vi nagged. But she had no idea whatitwas.
Vi came to a stop.
A shard of obsidian jutted out from the ash—a dormant crystal. There was another not too far away, and another closer to the second. Vi followed the trail to a scattering of obsidian fragments. Her gaze landed on a hand, clutched around a large shard, even in death.
The woman was mostly covered by the thick ash, but one all-white eye still stared lifelessly at the world. Even with a sunken face, collapsed with rot, even mostly covered in ash, Vi recognized her own corpse.
Her pulse returned to her first as the vision faded. It beat like a war drum in her ears. No… it wasn’t. It was a word.
Thrumsana. Thrumsana. Thrumsana, the soft voice repeated. It was strong, yet pleading—whispering, yet loud.
When Vi opened her eyes once more to the real world, light surrounded her, like flames condensed into glyphs she couldn’t recognize. They spun against symbols wrought in a faint blue magic she recognized as Taavin’s.
“Taavin,” Vi groaned. The man lay across from her, his body twitching slightly. “Taavin.” Vi pushed herself up, the magic fading. “Taavin,” she shook him slowly. Her whole body felt leaden, her mind exhausted. Her magic spent. Yet she still found energy enough to worry over him. “Please, Taavin.”
The minor convulsions stopped, and with them Vi’s panic abated, though it didn’t fully retreat until his eyes blinked open.
“Taavin, I think I… I…”
“I heard the Goddess,” they both said at once.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“You… you heard Yargen?”Taavin pushed himself up slowly. He seemed to be in as much pain as her.
“I think so. She said a word, one word, over and over, she said—”
He pressed a finger against her lips. “Don’t say it out loud… not until it sits in your mind and unravels. Think of her words like an egg: you must incubate it before it hatches understanding.”
“But—”
“What if it is a word to summon Raspian so that you may face him? Or level a city?”
Vi ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head. He was right, she didn’t know what it was for and until she did, caution was the best path forward. “I came to Risen for answers… but I only have more questions.”
“But we are getting answers.” Taavin leaned forward, bending his knees and locking them against the inside of his elbows. “There are layers and layers of magic here—magic the likes of which I’ve only ever seen in one place before.”
“Here?” Vi motioned around them.
“Here.” He reached out, tapping the watch that had fallen to the floor between them. “I was right to make sure we came back to Risen. We need the watch and that scythe to reignite the flame. It’s just as the traveler foretold.”
Vi ignored the mention of the infamous traveler. “You were right to make sure we came back to Risen,” she repeated. “Taavin… what did you do?”
He looked at her with those worried eyes. Vi slowly shook her head. She’d asked the question and now, suddenly, would do anything to not hear the answer.
He betrayed you, Arwin had said.
He betrayed you, and Vi hadn’t believed it.
“No,” she whispered. Vi placed a hand between them, leaning forward. “Taavin, what did you do?” He turned away. “Answer me,” she pleaded softly. “Taavin, please tell me I’m jumping to conclusions.”
Still, silence.
