Speaking of shiny.
Dingdongagain.
Rezjustmissed the good part of the crumbling old book he gave me. There, amidst all the dry, dusty-ass history, is my literal catnip.
Booty.
And not the sexy bounce-a-quarter-off-it kind, but definitely sexy in its own way.
Liora’s locket.
Fuck, it evensoundsshiny. Call it intuition, but I can just tell that in terms of shininess, this locket is going to give my Light Bearer’s crown a run for its rocktastic-racktastic money.
Made for the fae princess Liora by her demon betrothed Iradil—
As in, former head of Lux’s Light Guard Iradil? As in, I had an epic showdown with a man who wanted to make a skin coat out of me in his tomb Iradil?
Hold the fucking phone.
I flip back a few pages, and sure enough, the woodcut print definitely looks like Rez and Yae’s late brother-in-arms.
Yeah, that Iradil.
Who was apparently arranged to be married to Liora to save the fae and demon realms from going to war over the darkness encroaching on both. But here’s the twist: Liora and Iradil were secretly and deeply in love, courting in secret, which is apparently what they called immaculate railing back then.
And then came the Darkest Days. Darkness swept over the realms, and no one knew then that it wasn’t coming from the fae or demons, but from an evil, and a realm, beyond. Fingers were pointed, words were said. Nuptials were called off.
But Iradil continued to see Liora in secret, naturally, even as the darkness took hold of her. She started to weaken and fade, and was no doubt on her way to sloughing off the immortal coil and turning into a field of flowers or whatever happens when a fairy princess kicks it when Iradil was visited by, well…
The old tome isn’t specific. A demigoddess? One of the Arcane? An Arcane demigoddess?
Who—or what—ever visited Iradil was freaky powerful, and he begged her: take his life and save Liora’s.
And this Big Bad Bitch of Arcane Magic did what exactly no one trying to offer sympathy to someone whose lover is dying does. She gave him a fucking quest to prove his worth.
There’s always a fucking quest, but this quest. This fucking quest.
“Cleave a ray of starlight from the night sky.”
My dudes. A ray of fucking starlight.
And hedidit. He cleaved starlight from the sky and put it into a locket for his love.
Man, talk about romantic. I appreciate the absolutely luscious leather thigh holster Rez surprised me with for my birthday, but a locket full of starlight?
I need it. Holy tits, I need it.
So, the Big Bad Bitch saved Liora, infusing her with arcane magic, making her the very first Light Bearer.
Oh damn. Light Bearer locket.
Light Bearer locket with a whole slew of terms and conditions that Iradil probably read and agreed to before signing off his life in blood. He definitely seems like the type.
He was consigned to serve the Light Bearer for all his days—and not just Liora, but all the Light Bearers to come after her. Because therewouldbe more Light Bearers. Despite being saved once, Liora would perish, and her powers and light would pass on.
Iradil served her every day until she did.
She vanished upon her death, returning to the stars—and fuck, do I have to worry about poofing into starlight one day too? I am way too slightly horny to be having this existential crisis right now.
