“What about the royals?” Eira asked, shifting the topic from their family.
“Lumeria is gone,” Fritz said gravely. “Ulvarth has seated himself as king and defender of the faith.”
“As we heard,” Ducot murmured, mostly to himself.
“Qwint, well, you know that some survived, but not many. And not the majority of the ministers they’d sent.” Fritz shook his head. “I don’t know about those from the Twilight Kingdom. The draconi seemed to have survived.”
“Are they in league with the Pillars?” Olivin was the one to give voice to what all of them were likely wondering, since they’d all seen the draconi competitors defending the Pillars as they’d emerged into the coliseum.
“I suspected as much. But I don’t think so. At least not beyond a moment…” Fritz frowned and took another long sip, chewing over his words. “My impression from all that I could overhear during my time with the Pillars was that Ulvarth had struck a deal with the draconi, so they would be spared. But their alliance didn’t go much farther than that.”
“Anyone who works with the Pillars, even once, is always a threat.” Olivin’s hands balled into fists.
“They returned to their island. I haven’t seen one since,” Fritz said tiredly. Eira wouldn’t have expected him to be defending the draconi…but he had always been the sort to stand against injustice.
“And just how much did you see, and hear, of the Pillars while you were with them?” Olivin asked. The tone that Eira had heard before was back in his voice: mistrust. A frown tugged on the corners of her lips.
“Not as much as I would’ve liked, or tried to,” Fritz admitted. Eira couldn’t tell if he was genuinely oblivious or not to Olivin’s skepticism.
“Why didn’t they kill you?”
“I was useful and promised I could make myself more useful…” Fritz described his time with the Pillars, but Eira could tell he was glossing over some finer details. When he spoke of being captured by them on the road and begging for his life, Eira could feel the blows that he omitted, as though they were on her own skin, blows that persisted until darkness consumed him.
He said he woke in a room of total darkness. A pit, in another name. Locked, forgotten, starved until finally someone came to him. She felt the desperation in her own stomach, tempered with rage-filled resistance at the idea of giving in to them for a few meager bites of whatever stale or mold-crusted scraps they were presenting.
She could envision the dance of words and actions that followed. The careful navigation of telling them what they wanted to hear, showing them genuine vulnerability…but keeping true strength for herself. The core of her mind, and heart, locked away.
“…Eventually, I convinced them to put me on a ship. That I could help them not only as a Waterrunner, but to navigate to Solaris,” Fritz continued, nearing his conclusion. “They eventually agreed. Though they didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Why not?” Alyss mused.
“Lightspinning isn’t particularly useful for moving ships around. It can be done, but…Waterrunners and Windwalkers are far more useful on the seas,” Eira answered for her uncle. “Did they have others from Solaris captive?”
“I always assumed they did, but I never saw any,” he said solemnly. “I would’ve freed them, were I able.”
“And what of the Solaris royal family?” Cullen had been completely silent until now. But his expression was nearly murderous. Eira wondered if, as her uncle spoke, he, too, was playing the scenes in his mind based on what she had told him—had been seeingherin every situation Fritz had described. “You didn’t mention them earlier. I take it they’re not captive?”
“Are they…” Alyss couldn’t bring herself to finish the question, even as little more than a whisper.
“I tried to get to them, but I couldn’t before the explosion. I don’t know what happened.” Fritz finished the last of his stew and stared into the empty mug, as though the answer had been hidden on the bottom all along. “Ulvarth doesn’t have them, that much I’m certain of based on what they asked me about the royals time and again. Once I had a bit more leeway with the Pillars, I picked up that they had been searching through the wreckage of the coliseum for them. Their bodies still weren’t found.”
“They’re alive.” Even though the words were soft, they were sure. Eira’s confidence resounded in them now more than ever.
“How do you know?” Cullen directed the question her way.
“Vi.” One name summarized all her conviction and then some. She had known it in her bones and, all along, Adela had been unshakably confident in the idea that Vi carried on. All eyes were on Eira, but the only one who looked like he fully understood was Olivin. So Eira explained for the rest of them, her uncle included. “She was a leader of the Court of Shadows.”
“Vi Solaris? The Court of Shadows on Meru?” Surprise was as evident in her uncle’s tone as it was on his face.
“That was only the edge of her quilt of influence, I suspect,” Eira said, mostly to herself. Then, louder, “She is a Lightspinner, in addition to a Firebearer.”
“Impossible,” Olivin blurted.
“She is,” Eira insisted. “And I always suspected that was just the tip of her power. If anyone could’ve survived the coliseum—even with the might of flash beads—it’d be her.”
“I hope so.” Fritz’s words were as wavering as his hope no doubt was.
Eira remembered what he had told her right before everything went sideways about Vhalla being his Alyss. She rested a hand on his knee and met his fearful eyes with confidence. “I’m sure she kept the Emperor and Empress safe, too. With all three of their powers together, how could they not survive?”
