“Fine, you do it.” Julus yawned. “You, go to the Tower and get Waterrunners from Victor, or a Groundbreaker. We’re going to need all the hands we can get. This won’t be pretty tomorrow.”
“Yes, of course.”
There were more orders, but Vi didn’t hear them as they left the room, leaving her by herself. She wasn’t alone for long. Within the first hour, Aldrik appeared with a worried-looking Raylynn.
“Thank you, my prince,” Vi said as she rushed over to them.
“How is he?” Raylynn asked.
“Dozing,” Vi replied. Baldair was in a hazy, half-drugged sleep. Not the ideal condition for the conversation she wanted to have. But she had to work with what fate gave her. “He’ll have clerics with him around the clock from now on.”
“That’s a relief.” Genuine kindness crossed Aldrik’s features. It was the first time she saw a glimpse of her father in the otherwise harsh man.
“Now, Raylynn, there’s something I wish to discuss with you. My prince, you should get some rest.”
“First you think to order me, now you’d dismiss me?”
“Are you not tired?” Vi arched her eyebrows in a mirror of what he’d done to her earlier. It gave him the same pause as her earlier look. Vi could’ve sworn she saw recognition somewhere in his assessment of her. Even if his conscious mind wouldn’t admit it, Vi wanted to believe that somehow, he knew who she was. “Keep up your strength. Consider it cleric’s orders.”
His eyes darted between Vi and Raylynn before he turned away, muttering gruffly, and closed the door behind him.
“And who are you?” Raylynn folded her arms over her chest.
“A cleric.”
“No, you’re not,” she said, starting for Baldair’s room. “No cleric orders Aldrik around like that. Besides, I know your face.”
Raylynn delivered the statement so calmly, without even turning, that Vi stopped dead in her tracks. She stared at the woman’s back, waiting for her to turn around with a smug grin. But she never did. That truth was delivered plainly and Raylynn moved immediately to Baldair’s bedside.
Vi followed slowly behind and looked at the scene she had orchestrated. Baldair lay in bed, drifting in and out of consciousness. His eyes fluttered open as Raylynn reached for his hands.
“I’m here,” she whispered. “It’s me.”
It had always been her at his side. Vi had seen it from a distance. She’d heard whispers from the soldiers. The man known as the “Playboy Prince” had found his singular golden woman long ago.
“Ray…”
“Don’t speak, you idiot,” she scolded lightly, running her fingertips over his forehead. Baldair’s eyes drifted, but before they could close, they landed on Vi. Focus overtook him once more. “Yes, she’s here, too.”
“Who… are you?”
Vi was in two places at once. But this wasn’t the sensation of the unique visions crystal weapons gave her. This was brought on by memory. She was in a different room, standing before a different bed, occupied by someone who would’ve been a family member in a different world, who was destined for death.
She was honest then, and she would be honest now. She’d come here not for fate, after all. But for herself. For the love of family that transcended time and space.
“I’m the one who did this to you.”
“What?” Raylynn seethed, turning sharply.
“I’m the one who pulled the strings of fate to bring you here, to this moment, Baldair. The flame of your life was supposed to be extinguished years ago.” Vi dragged her feet over tiredly, pulling up a chair that had been cast aside so the clerics could have room to work. “I’m the one who tried to keep you alive.” She looked from Baldair to Raylynn. “And I got you to help me do it without you realizing it.” She thought back to reading Raylynn’s future as Fiera. Raylynn had dutifully defended a golden crown, just as Vi had hoped.
“I don’t—” Baldair wheezed and Vi braced herself for another coughing fit. But the cleric’s medicine held and he finished, “understand.”
“I know.” Vi smiled tiredly. “It’s hard to explain. I don’t entirely understand some days myself… even still.”
“You were the one who saved us that night in the West,” Raylynn said. Vi nodded. “It wasn’t the princess.”
“Fiera is dead. I was there when she died.”
