…bring it to her…
Halting, she bit her lip, keeping in a groan as she gripped her head. Eira inhaled slowly and exhaled, forcing the tension from her shoulders.
“He’s not here,” she whispered. Her own voice gave her ears something real to focus on. “He’s not here,” she repeated just for the calming effect it had. “But…he was. He had to be.” This many echoes of him couldn’t be mere coincidence or moved relics.
She ran her fingertips along the gilded frame of the first painting to speak to her. They trembled slightly. She already hated what she knew she had to do. But hunting Ferro had been her choice. And her magic might just be what helped her find him.
Letting her powers unspool like invisible thread, Eira reached out. She brushed against objects, walls, doors, every surface with invisible fingers that probed for traces of Ferro. But the words were weak and fractured, conversations diminishing with time as the traces of magic left on them slowly faded.
There was more. Something stronger. There had to be.
Opening the door, Eira stuck out her head to make sure the others were gone. No one was in sight. The room was still. She padded over to the main entry and rested her hand on the knob, pressing the side of her face to the door that led to the central stair and listening with her ears, rather than her magic.
Silence.
Eira cracked the door, scanned the stairs, and slipped out, her back to the wall. Her magic stretched around her, rushed over the wall, searched…but found nothing.
Pushing away, she glanced back at the unassuming expanse of stone. “I know what I heard,” Eira insisted to herself. Ferro’s voice was truly an echo. It had to be.
Once we possess…
His words were a siren’s call. She slipped back into the Solaris common area, silently shutting the door behind her. To the left of the main entry was a large hearth, ornately carved with painfully detailed flora and fauna wrapping around scrollwork. She smothered the hearth with her magic, careful not to extinguish the crackling flame with so much magic.
…am ready…
There was the voice again. But it wasn’t coming from the hearth itself; it was coming from within. Eira dragged her fingers over the stone carvings by the mantle, searching for some kind of hidden panel or door.
“Where are you?” Doubt crept into her mind, bringing along its friend: panic. What if the echoes were all in her mind? What if her obsession with Ferro had turned into—
Her finger caught on a metal latch and she pulled, revealing a small recess hidden in the carvings of the mantle.
“Oh, thank the Mother.” Eira heaved a sigh of relief. Inside the hidden compartment was an ornate, golden dagger, sheathed in a bejeweled scabbard. She grabbed it, shut the door firmly once more, and then retreated to her room before anyone could find her missing.
Safe and alone, Eira held the dagger before her, allowing her magic to pool invisibly around it. The weapon was covered in a bubble that only she could see and feel. It was swimming in so much of her power that, with a flick of her fingers, the air would turn to water.
“Now, speak,” Eira commanded, inviting that man’s voice back into her mind.
I’ve been waiting for you,a disembodied Ferro from some distant time repeated. He was clear and sharp, as though he were standing right next to her. This must have been the source of the majority of the echoes she’d heard.
You know I can’t move freely, a man’s voice answered. Eira didn’t recognize it. The voice was deep, weathered with age or trauma, and carried a haunting weight.
I know, that’s why I was worried. I thought you might have lost your way out.
They are none the wiser of my movements, or our plans.
What are my orders?
Always so eager, the haunting voice almost purred.Let me just look at you a moment; it’s not often I get to see my son.Son… Now that Eira had heard the word, she couldn’t unhear the familial resemblance in their voices. The disembodied man continued,You are growing up strong and capable. You will be worthy, when the time comes.
I pray I shall be.
That time draws near.
Ferro snarled softly.Lumeria’s ambition will be her demise. She ignores the evil that threatens to consume us all. We are the only ones who can save this land.
We alone shall stand against the darkness,the man agreed. There was a long pause. Then, Ferro let out a soft gasp.
Father, are you sure?
