Growling, Lore thrust his body between mine and the structure, sheltering me in his arms as well as he could.
But I could still see and…
The twin dragons froze, the scales on their arched bodies gleaming in the light still flickering at my fingertipI’d somehow kept burning. Their flames winked out, leaving a pall of scorched stone choking the air.
I gaped at the ceiling that remained unchanged, as if the dragons had merely flared like silent beacons before retreating into stillness. My pulse hammered in my ears, and I didn’t dare speak. The air crackled. I sensed something had changed.
No, that somethinglingeredin the chamber with us.
Lore took my other hand, linking our fingers, and shifted around to stand by my side.
We watched. Waited. Because something was coming, something that?—
The hair on my arms prickled as a misty figure appeared between the dragons’ chests. It unfolded, the smoke of it curling upward, threads of it coalescing into something vaguely female. Her tattered, formless dress moved in an unfelt breeze. Her face remained missing, a featureless blur that unsettled me more than the flaming dragons had.
Her voice sent a chill through my chest and pierced the marrow of my bones.
“Restore what's divided,” she intoned, her arms undulating at her sides. “Essence. Devotion. Dominion. Evergorne. Halendor. Irridain.”
The names echoed in the chamber even after her voice was sucked away by the ether.
I blinked, the words vibrating in my mind, scrambling together before lining themselves up. My lips moved before my mind fully caught up, everything coming out in a rasped whisper. “The three rival courts.”
Lore's entire body coiled like he would lunge at a threat we couldn’t see but both felt. He said nothing.
With a puff, the spectral woman dissolved, her smoke-likeform dispersing into threads of silver light that shot out through the room before snapping back to consume her.
For a heartbeat, the space she’d occupied hung empty.
Then three images wavered in the space.
A golden key with a gleaming blue stone.
A round, golden pendant with a glowing blood red stone in the center.
A golden featherdorn bird, its wings lifted in the slightest quiver. Alive yet equally frozen.
Each image pulsed once before blinking out, leaving the room drenched in darkness even my finger light couldn’t penetrate.
The depression released the ring, and I jerked away from the altar.
I held my breath and tightened my grip on Lore’s hand, wishing I could pull him into my arms and protect him. I sucked in power and blasted it to my fingertip until it blazed as bright as the flames the dragons had shot at the ceiling.
This wasn’t much better than the tortured shadows, but at least we could see.
The light bounced off Lore’s face. He looked as shaken as I felt.
“Alright,” I croaked, breaking the silence. My voice quavered, but at least it didn’t crack. A small victory right there.
Lore repeated the specter’s words, like he could tease the meaning from the shape of the sounds. “Restore what’s divided. Essence. Devotion. Dominion.”
“And three courts.” I linked the unspoken thought. “Evergorne. Halendor. Irridain.”
“Three concepts, three courts, three objects.” His focus returned to the altar, his green eyes sharpening as his mind churned. “The key is Evergorne. Essence. That one’s obvious. It ties to you and me.”
“Essence.” I nodded. “A fragmented soul with a cursed bloodline.”I looked down at the ring glinting on my finger, its blue stone catching the glow of my magic. “The wholeness that was split into two lives, two separate, distinct beings. It’s part of what you were, Lore. What Prager divided so cruelly. The key could symbolize identity or the ability to reclaim it.”
He turned toward me, and I wished my light could capture everything. I didn’t want to miss every nuance reflected on his face. “Keep going.”
