“I wanted to save her,” Vi choked out. “I wanted to save her, and Zira, and I wanted to stop the Knights.”
“I know.” Deneya stroked her hair like a child. Like they weren’t awash in blood and surrounded by bodies. “But you protected the Caverns.”
“No…” Vi pulled away and looked to Fiera. “Shedid. Even though I was the Champion, she was the one who sealed the Caverns.” Vi staggered over and knelt down next to Fiera’s body. She tucked a stray strand of hair away from the woman’s face, thinking back to Zira. She hadn’t even given the woman a proper Rite of Sunset. “Help me?”
Deneya nodded and walked over. She first healed her shoulder and Vi’s arm, murmuring, “halleth ruta sot,” twice. Then she scooped up Fiera and brought the body out onto the cliff. The snow was churned up, rocks jutting out where footsteps had crunched through to the ground below.
“Set her there.” Vi pointed to a mostly clear area. “We’ll send her off at sunset.”
“What about the rest of them?” Deneya and Vi both turned back, looking at the carnage still littering the Caverns. “You can’t leave them be.”
“I could. They’re traitors and murderers.” Vi thought back to how Fiera had handled the traitors in the streets. What had been mere months ago now felt like years.
“All men deserve a proper sendoff. Even the worst among them,” Deneya insisted. Out of everything Vi had expected the woman to be for her, a moral compass wasn’t one of them.
Vi barely stopped herself from disagreeing. She wanted to. But the sentiment struck a chord with her—it sounded like something her mother would’ve said.
Vhalla Yarl, the woman Vi knew, was gone now. But every act she took was still a testament to her memory. That world was gone, save for what lived on in her. Was she becoming a woman her mother would be proud of?
“Pile them up off to the side. I’ll burn them all at once.”It was better than they deserved, a nagging voice told her in the back of her mind. But treating them like men, rather than meat, quieted the darkness that had consumed her and reminded Vi of her humanity. If only slightly.
Deneya carried the bodies from the deepest part of the Caverns. Vi couldn’t quite lift the men at the opening, but she could push them along with the careful use ofkot sorre. By the afternoon, the bodies were all lined up in the snow, waiting to be burned.
Vi finally went over to where the sword had fallen. She stared at it for a long moment, as though all the blood that had fallen had been wrought by this singular blade. Finally, she hoisted it for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
The weapon shone brightly with power. The whole of the Crystal Caverns seemed to glow brighter for a moment as the hilt met her fingers.
This was the magic she had been expecting all along. The sword no longer felt thin and weak, but recharged with the essence of Yargen. The more pieces of Yargen’s power Vi drew together, the stronger they all became.
“Well, you have it and the Caverns are sealed… what now?” Deneya asked, sitting heavily with her back propped against the gaping archway.
“That’s an excellent question.” Vi twisted the sword in the light before setting it down carefully on a bed of crystals. “Narro hath hoolo.”
The magic spun out from her watch as it always had. But instead of being the usual orange-yellow glyph, this time it was a pale blue. Vi watched as Taavin was cut out from the empty air, color seeping into his outline before the magic vanished entirely. She watched as he blinked, focus coming to his eyes before he turned to her.
“Vi—” Taavin stopped himself mid-turn, frozen.
“Taavin?” Vi asked cautiously, taking a small step forward. The wind tousled his hair and Taavin shivered, as though he could feel the cold. As though he were—her hand closed around his. “Are you?”
“It’s the magic of the Caverns,” he murmured, pulling his eyes from the crystals surrounding them and looking to her. “It heightens everything.”
It makes you real, Vi wanted to say. She could feel the puffs of cool air that curled by her cheek. Vi searched his eyes, wanting to touch him all over. Wanting to savor this moment. But knowing it was not the time or place.
“You made it,” he continued, as if he wasn’t feeling the same ache she was. “And the sword?”
“Here.” Vi took a hasty step away and grabbed the sword. “And Raspian’s tomb has been sealed once more.”
“Sealed?”
“We can show you,” Vi offered.
As they walked back through the Caverns, Vi and Deneya gave him the quick run-down of everything that had transpired. Vi filled Taavin in on the conversation she’d had with Fiera. Deneya told him of her healing Fiera, and the woman’s determination to come and defend the Caverns—to right the wrongs of her forefathers.
The short walk to the sealed door wasn’t nearly enough time to cover everything. But they got through the broad strokes before Taavin’s focus was drawn elsewhere. He let out a gasp the moment he laid eyes on the door.
“What… what is this?” His confusion had never delighted her more.
“Rohko,” Vi said aloud. The word was as strong as a cornerstone, able to support the immense weight of a building without cracking. “Is this barrier… this word from the goddess, is it new?”
