“Some may argue it was your king that tore our clans apart when he opened the Gate.”
“If it weren’t meant to be opened, he’d not have been able to do so. Do you truly believe one king’s will could undo centuries of peace, if that peace hadn’t already been fractured beneath the surface?” I paused. “The Gate didn’t break Elydor, Terran. It merely revealed the cracks your father swore never existed.”
He watched me, but remained silent.
I tried another tactic.
“Your brother is no more a traitor to Elydor than I am. He didn’t abandon you for the love of a woman. He merely realized if there was love in his heart for the daughter of his enemy, one with both Aetherian and human blood, perhaps there was space for others as well. Elydorians he only hated because he’d been expected to do so.”
“You seem to know my brother well.” He placed his empty goblet on the wooden table beside him.
“We’ve spent much time together since Mev came through the Gate.”
“Mev,” he repeated. “That’s what you call her?”
“It’s the name she used in the human realm,” I said, taking the opportunity to share the most egregious of King Balthor’s secret crimes. “When your father kidnapped the queen, he somehow erased her memory of her time in Elydor. Mev’s mother returned to The Crooked Key believing she’d been drugged, and later, on discovering she was pregnant, raped.”
I didn’t have to wait long for his reaction. It was the first time since coming to the palace I’d seen him truly angry. Shooting up from his seat, he disappeared into a back chamber, the loud thud telling me exactly what was happening even though I couldn’t see it.
In that chamber, I’d spied a well-worn Gyorian training stone, a pillar wrapped in padded hide and reinforced with bands of infused iron.
When he returned, Terran appeared visibly calmer.
“I’d wondered why you kept that in there.”
He picked up his goblet, filled it, and sat as if naught had happened.
“Kael put it in there for me,” was all he said, but no additional words were needed.
Though I should likely not press him, having Terran retrieve the Stone would not help open the Gate. I also needed to convince him to come with me to Aetheria. He’d never willingly give me the Stone of Mor’Vallis, and circumstances had put us together while retrieving it.
My best chance was to gain his acquiescence in using it, and Terran was turning. I was certain of it.
“Mev spent her life wanting answers. She became a museum curator specializing in ancient artifacts and was eventually led to Jon Harrow, an ocean away from where she was raised. Carrying her mother’s Aetherian ring, she gained just enough knowledge of our realm that, when she accidentally came through the Gate, Mev knew only that Gyorians and Aetherians were enemies. Taken by Kael, who had just left the Summit and sensed the Gate’s opening, she spent her first days in Elydor having learned of its existence just moments earlier. Neither did she have any knowledge that Mev possessed magic. As it began to manifest and she realized she and Kael were enemies, Mev attempted to escape, which was when I found the pair.”
He hadn’t interrupted once.
“Your brother didn’t fall in love with the lost princess or King Galfrid’s daughter. He fell for a scared human woman who slipped through a portal we thought was closed. He’d worked it out by the time I discovered them, and he asked that I train her.”
I didn’t have to tell Terran an untrained Aetherian could be dangerous, both to herself and others.
“And that’s when he took her north?”
I shook my head. “Nay. He’d still planned to take her to your father, despite his feelings for her.”
I managed to surprise Terran once again.
“What changed?”
“You’ll have to ask your brother. I suspect he realized that hate was easy. Love… required courage.”
It was as if I’d struck him. Terran’s nostrils flared, though he didn’t become nearly as angry as he had when I revealed the depths of his father’s deception.
“Hate,” he began, and then stopped.
“Is not easy?” I guessed his train of thought. “It allows us to free ourselves from blame, and looking inward is never a comfortable exercise.”
He sighed. “You have all the answers, Lyra.”
