Lucia laughs lightly. A melodic and easy sound. “Yes, indeed.”
“And the gold?” I point to the area that changed with my song yesterday.
“That means the anointing has imprinted on your soul. You are truly becoming one with the old ones so that you might stand before them without giving in to madness.” She pulls her hand away. Today was a shorter anointing than previous. Not that I’m complaining.
Fenny appears at my balcony. “Come. Lord Ilryth has asked for you in the amphitheater.”
“Of course.”
“Take care, Your Holiness.” Lucia bows her head.
“Just Victoria is fine,” I remind her. Lucia merely smiles. I don’t know if I’m going to have her giving up on the honorifics any time soon.
I follow behind Fenny. At first, I think it is the dawn that is clouding the seas. But then I realize it’s that faint, reddish haze I’ve seen since I first arrived.It must be the rot.
“That, in the distance?” Fenny asks.
I bite back a sigh that the thought slipped out. “Yes.”
“It is. Duke Ilryth helps keep it out of our lands with the grace of Dawnpoint. But some rot will inevitably seep in, especially on days like today, when it seems that the currents are slow and it is not moving through the trench.”
“Could it make it through the trench and up into my world?” If the wraiths and monsters have a way to slip through the Fade, why not the rot?
She pauses, but only for a second before she catches herself and continues swimming. “I do not know—matters of the old gods are more Lucia’s domain—but perhaps it could. Should Lord Krokan’s rage and the duchies of the Eversea fall, then I see no reason to believe it couldn’t escape. We already fear the blight escaping to all of Midscape.”
“And quelling Krokan’s rage falls to me…”
“Should we be so blessed.”
“You don’t sound confident,” I point out.
“A human has never been the offering. You are an unknown.”
Little does she know that telling me I can’t do something makes me want to do it even more. “You know…you should have said all this to begin with.”
“How so?” Fenny glances over her shoulder as we swim through the ceiling and into Ilryth’s treasure room.
“Because protecting my family is something I would gladly sacrifice anything for, even my life.” It’s the least I can do for them after all they’ve done for me and all they’ve stood by me through.
“Then I’m glad you know now.” She swims for the tunnel, but I pause once more in the room, taking in all the strange baubles and reminders of home.
“Fenny.”
“Yes?” She stops the second she sees I have. Her tone betrays mild impatience.
“How did Duke Ilryth acquire all this?”
“Humans are very good at cluttering their seas,” she answers simply. “So I hear, at least. Since the Eversea closed, only the dukes are permitted to leave with permission, and I did not venture beyond much before.”
“Ilryth scavenged all of this, then?”
“Yes.”
“It must have taken him years.”
“Indeed.” There’s a lot of weight to that one word that I don’t quite understand.
“Why?” It’s still difficult to imagine a duke swimming around and collecting trash. Perhaps it’s resentment for us littering his seas with garbage? But if so, why would he save it all? And why would he call it his “treasure?”
