“I need to start looking for some leads on the crown,” Vi murmured, standing. She also had some research she wanted to do.
“Now?”
“No time like the present.” Vi hooked his chin with her finger and pulled his lips to her for one more firm kiss. When they pulled apart, she gave him a beaming smile. “Perhaps I’ll let you be the one to keep me up all night soon.” Vi held out her hand expectantly.
“Don’t tempt me.” Taavin passed the stone back to her.
She leaned away and released her focus onnarro hath. Taavin vanished.
With the stone in her pocket, Vi wandered down to the Tower library—a smaller and more private collection, separate from the Imperial Library. It was late, but she doubted she’d be able to sleep tonight. Her mind was far too full.
The library was dark and icy cold. Vi pushed her spark to burn beneath her skin, warming her as her breath fogged the air. There was a hearth on the far side of the circular room, but Vi didn’t light it. She didn’t want to draw attention from any other late-night wanderers.
A mote of fire appeared at her side, just enough to see by. The gold embossing on the spines that lined the shelves winked at her as Vi explored the library. She flipped the stone over and over in her pocket, her thoughts centering around it.
If she could manipulate the crystals to make weapons, she could manipulate them into the shape of a body. Crystals were Yargen’s magic given physical form. Her presence in this world was proof of that. The body Yargen gave Vi between time, when the world was remade, was a result of Yargen’s magic making a physical form.
Furthermore, if Taavin’s consciousness could be anchored in a watch, it could be placed in a hypothetical body. It was all theory, yes. But she had facts to back up that theory.
Still, she knew no matter what she said, Taavin wasn’t going to let her experiment… at least not until she could offer him some assurances that she would succeed.
Vi came to a stop by a back section of worn, tucked-away books. Most of the titles had flaked off their spines. Still, one volume caught her eye. She knew she should be looking for clues to the crown, but Vi couldn’t stop herself. She hooked her finger on the book, sliding it from its place.
“The Windwalkers of the East,” she murmured and flipped open the first page. It was a record, put together by none other than the current Imperial Librarian, Mohned Topperen.Topperen. The name was familiar to her—beyond the stories her mother told—but Vi couldn’t place how or why.
The manuscript was an account of the Burning Times through interviews with one of the last surviving Windwalkers. Vi scanned the pages, which covered everything from magical theory to terrible experiments involving human sacrifice meant to unlock the true power of the crystals. Fiera had learned how to manipulate crystals by reading accounts from the Burning Times. Perhaps, if Vi did her own research, she could find something that would give her the additional evidence she needed to convince Taavin to let her experiment.
A pair of footsteps approached and Vi snuffed her flame on instinct. She hastily shut the book and returned it to the shelf. But she hadn’t been fast enough.
“Who’s there?” a male voice called into the darkness.
“Durroe watt radia,” Vi whispered under her breath, stepping back against the wall.
“I’ll give you one more chance. Show yourself.”
Fire burst into life in the hearth. It cast long, shifting shadows on each of the bookcases. Vi could see its light shining through the tops of the books between the shelves from where she stood.
She saw the orange glow falling on a young man who needed no introduction. Her heart began to race.
Vi had wondered what she’d feel when she first laid eyes on Aldrik Solaris. The man who, in another world, had been her father. The man whose mother she’d taken from him.
There were too many emotions within her now to count, blending together into something impossible to name.
His dark hair went past his shoulders, unbound in a style Vi had never seen her father wear before. He was awkwardly tall, mostly legs and gangly arms—a body half grown and still trying to fill itself out. Vi recognized that phase. She’d been there herself.
This is not your father, Vi reminded herself. Yet her eyes, her heart, tried to tell her otherwise. The magic glyph around her wrist trembled with her hands.
He walked down the rows of shelves, searching. “I could’ve sworn…” Aldrik mumbled. Vi remained stone still, and the young prince eventually shook his head and rubbed his eyes. It was late, and he no doubt wrote off her faint light as a trick of his mind.
The prince set out purposefully for another section of the library. She watched him over the tops of the books. Every muscle was tense; she wouldn’t have been able to move if she’d tried.
What is it you’re looking for?Vi silently asked as Aldrik scanned the shelves with intent.
He slid a book from the shelf, his dark eyes almost meeting Vi’s as she stared at him, entranced.
“Groundbreakers and their fortifications in Shaldan,” he muttered to himself, scanning the first few pages. “Sky fortresses… impenetrable magic walls…” He stopped, eyes on a page. Aldrik snapped the book shut and started back down the row and out the library.
The fire in the hearth extinguished, leaving darkness in his wake.
