Without hesitation, she reached out a hand to the blade.
The hazy light that surrounded the weapon drifted over her hand and up her arm, before fading completely into her skin. The magic consumed her vision as though a tide of power was rising from within. Vi drew on it further, allowing herself to drown in this now familiar sensation.
The world came back into focus washed in darkness. She recognized the feeling of standing in another place and time. The future sight hadn’t entirely been expected, but she welcomed it; Vi wasted no time in looking at her surroundings. She was on a cliff-side, a quaint town in the distance.
She squinted, looking at the town, specifically.Mosant?Her eyes fell on what was certainly the bell tower for the goddess’s chapel there.
Vi turned her head to her right, where people stood. As usual, she couldn’t hear what was being said. A group on horseback were mounted before a windmill. Vi watched as an old woman stepped out to greet them and was rewarded with a sword through her eye.
Vi’s attention shifted to the vaguely familiar, mustachioed man holding the sword.
The world continued to oscillate in and out of focus. The next person to gain clarity was a young woman, hunched over in her saddle. The men were untying ropes around her and they hoisted her down. Her head was hung, but Vi didn’t need to see her face. She knew that brown mass of unruly hair anywhere.
The Knights of Jadar had Vhalla Yarl in their clutches.
Vi tried to step forward. Moving through the vision was like trying to swim through a thick jelly. Yet she wanted to keep up with the men as they carried Vhalla into the open windmill. Shackles with embedded crystals were around her wrists and she put up no fight as she was thrown onto sacks of grain.
The door closed behind them, and ended what limited view Vi had been given.
No one said anything. But when Vi’s consciousness returned to the Twilight Kingdom, just the breathing of her companions seemed loud.
“What did she do?” Arwin squeaked. Vi lowered her gaze to the pool of velvet on the table. A pile of obsidian shards and black dust was cradled in its luxe embrace. “She just touched it, and… now it’s gone.” Arwin inched closer to her father. The heel of her spear tapped on the floor with her shaking hand.
Vi lifted her eyes, looking to Noct, then to Taavin and Deneya. They all stared at her with wide eyes and soundless, slightly agape mouths. She curled and uncurled the fingers that had touched the scythe. The feelings there were muted, as if the appendage was no longer her own. However, pins and needles raced down from her elbow, and sensation returned as her head cleared.
“The power is within me now,” Vi declared.
“How did she do that?” Arwin tugged on Noct’s sleeve, looking up at him.
“Our mortal minds aren’t meant to know how she did it, because she is the goddess’s Champion,” Noct said softly. “And we will now do everything we can to help her, because she is here to save us all from an impending age of darkness.”
“Your help is required.” Her voice didn’t entirely feel her own. Vi’s mind rocked back and forth with the tide of power that swirled in her. “I need you to make something for me, using the shift.” Her eyes fell on Arwin.
“Me?” she squeaked.
“Yes.”
“I…” The girl shifted her grip on her staff and took a more relaxed stance. “I will do whatever I can to assist you.”
“Good. We shall begin after my companion makes a crown for us to work with. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we are weary from our journey.” Vi wasn’t tired in the slightest, but she didn’t want to be in the room a moment longer. She needed to sit down for a minute and try to get her racing mind under control.
“Yes, of course. Arwin, show them to their rooms in the guest tower.”
Arwin nodded and led them with confidence. But Vi didn’t miss her wary eyes looking back toward her now and then.
How cute and how fleeting she is.
“How did you do that?” Taavin grabbed her hand, jarring Vi from the thought. He slowed his steps, allowing them to fall behind so Deneya and Arwin didn’t hear his whispers.
“I didn’t do anything. It just… happened.”
“That’s exactly my point. You’ve always shifted the crystal’s power willingly. It’s never just happened, and you’ve neverabsorbed it.”
“I’ve never worked with them to such an extent before. I understand their power and their will.”Their will… The will of Yargen. Yes, that’s what it was. Yargen was alive in each and every weapon, as she was in the Caverns, and the flame, and in Vi herself. All Vi had to do was listen. “It sought me out. It… lives in me.”
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
“Why?” Vi asked him sincerely. “I am of Yargen’s make, as are you.” She held his hand tightly. “Can’t you feel it?”
