“Where-” the words choke out as her suspicions bubble to the surface. "Where is Argnier?”
He stands, extending a hand to her, and her heart sinks.
Carefully, he guides her out of Coldheart Keep into a surprisingly bright sunny day for Skalor. The thick snow piles are gone, replaced with the colorful leaves of autumn.
“Lavinia’s corruption of the Skalor Sacred Stone,” Calder answers her question before she can voice it. “I wish I could relish in the true beauty of Skalor. I fear it will always represent every painful memory in my life.”
“Where is the Skalor Sacred Stone now?” She asks.
He hesitates for a moment, and a brief hint of a smile twitches on his lips. “Gunni.”
Aura squeezes his hand with a smirk as they continue toward the evergreen forest behind the Keep.
Every step twists in her gut. When they finally stop along the treeline, her eyes fall to a waystone bearing Argnier’s name in runes.
“I thought,” Calder swallows, “I thought he might be more at peace here, in his favorite place to find solitude.”
Aura collapses onto her knees before the stone, her fingertips trace the engraving of his name. “How?” It is the only word willing to escape her lips.
“He disobeyed my final order and followed Thora’s troops inside. The old bastard finally got the revenge he desperately sought.”
She senses there is more to the story, but in this moment, all that matters is the other sacrifice of that day, who did not return from the afterlife.
“Could you not? His soul…”Could his soul not return to his body?
He shakes his head. “Your body was still intact, alive, and preserved by Volund. Argnier was…gone.”
Once the floodgate of tears begins, they do not stop. She buries her head in her hands as the grief washes over like a cold wave, suffocating her until she feels she cannot breathe.
Calder remains her silent sentinel, standing over her as she grieves one of the few people in her life who supported her for all that she was, asking for nothing in return.
Worst of all, she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. To tell him how important he had become in her life.
“I’m sorry, Argnier.” She whispers to the stone, hoping beyond reason that he is drinking in the Depths with her grandpapis. “Your soul deserves more than the gods can ever give you.”
Despite the void in their hearts, Calder, Edmund, and Aura agree that their lost companion would toss them all into the Bay of Souls if they sat around shedding another tear. In honor of the exiled Prince of Treland, a banquet was held that evening. Mead flows strong, and the scent of roasted meat is abundant throughout the cold stone of the keep.
In the chaos, Aura catches Crystal smirking from the back corner of the dining hall. The Princess slips away from Calder to join the Wicked Wyvern.
“Thank you for everything.” Aura hands her a horn of mead. “You didn’t have to risk your life to help us. And I can’t imagine what it felt like to confront Makt after all this time.”
Crystal accepts the drink with a nod of her head. “You reminded me of something I thought was lost to the continent.”
“What was that?”
“Hope.” Crystal guzzles from her horn with a sigh of contentment. “With Makt’s presence still lurking on the continent, the Inner Sanctum never truly offered me restful peace.”
“What am I to do as an uncollared witch?” Aura voices the burning question she has been considering since the Wyvern’s reveal in the Sanctum. “How do I use this immense power to help my country?”
A crash sounds as Edmund drunkenly clambers onto one of the long tables and begins to jig in time with the musicians. Her uncles look on with a pride that has her laughing. The sensation makes her feel more like herself than she has in a while.
“You can start by training. I recommend a couple of years in the Sanctum.” Crystal strokes her chin. “That man of yours still needs to complete his Trial without your guidance.”
Aura’s jaw drops. “You would invite me to train? With you?” Of all the paths for her future, she could only dream of learning to harness herseidrfrom the lesser goddess.
“Who else could ready you to ascend your throne, Queen Aura?”
Aura doesn’t think. She throws her arms around Crystal’s chest. The Wicked Wyvern freezes at her abrupt physical touch.
