“They then took it upon themselves to become the guardians of these doors. They built their temple to the gods over the Treasury to keep this secret safe behind wards and the aura of mystery and power that has always permeated this place, thanks to its proximity to Dovermere. And when the temple eventually crumbled into oblivion, what remained of their order built this college atop its ruins, creating the Vault as the perfect front to hide the Treasury.
“But what started out as a sacred order tasked with guarding the secret of the door to other worlds eventually became more about power and prestige. The members of the Selenic Order were the founders of Aldryn College. They shared access to the Vault with only a select few students, the brightest and most brilliant of them, who became part of the Order themselves. The door was all but forgotten, a mystical thing that might have once explained theorigins of our Order, but no Selenic has been concerned with such a thing for a long time now. Until me.”
“But how do you know about the door if it’s supposed to be a secret?” Baz asked. “If it’s lost to time and wards?”
“I’ve always had an affinity for Seer magic. It has allowed me to see things that are impossible, things others might think are folly for their strangeness. But I’ve always known the truth: that I see glimpses of other worlds. Possibilities of what might become in each one, and the universe at large. These visions have allowed me to acquiresomeinformation on these worlds, but not enough and, most importantly, not how to travel through them. One thing I know for certain is that they’re all connected through the realm of dreams.”
Clover inclined his head to Luce. “Thames and Luce have been helping me map it out. We’ve concluded the sleeping realm is laid out in a giant spiral, and these worlds are points along it. Our world sits on the outermost ring of the spiral, and every world after sits a bit closer to the center of the spiral: the Deep, where the Tides and the Shadow disappeared to. A world ruled by the very gods who created them. A world that will fall to ruin if what I saw comes to pass.”
There is a world at the center of all things where nothing ever grows…
Kai locked eyes with Baz and knew he was thinking the same thing.The sea of ash.
“I have seen the bleak future that awaits us,” Clover continued, expression grim. “A future beyond yours that heralds the extinction of all magic—of life itself. Surely you must have noticed in your time that there are fewer and fewer eclipses? Possibly other odd goings-on as well?”
Kai thought of the tides being out of whack, of what Drutten himself believed: that all of this was due to the appearance of a Tidecaller.The Shadow reborn.
“I believe the only way to prevent such an apocalypse is to bring the Tides and the Shadow back,” Clover said, “by petitioning the higher gods to restore magic to what it once was.”
“We’ve heard all this before,” Baz said weakly. “From someone in our own time who… who wasn’t good.” A generous way of describing Keiran Dungshit Fuckby. “He sought to bring back the Tides, but for that, he thought he needed a vessel. Someone who had the capacity to hold all the Tides’ magic in their veins.”
“A Tidecaller, yes.” Clover sounded unsurprised. The words Selandyn had translated from his journal came to mind:A Tidecaller must rise. Open the door. Seek the gods. Restore that which lies at the center of all things.
Clover drew himself a bit taller. “If that is the fate that awaits me, I’m willing to accept it. If it means saving the world… as well as Emory.”
Confusion muddied Kai’s thoughts. By the look on Baz’s face, he was just as lost.
“What does she have to do with this?” Kai asked.
“Everything,” Luce said in a tremulous voice, closing her eyes as if to keep back tears. She blew out a long breath. “It’s why I’m here, why I left my time to seek Cornelius in the past. He’s not the only one who’s seen this vision of the future.”
“So you Dreamers have the gift of prophecy now?” Kai quipped.
“Dreams were once believed to be messages from the gods, you know,” Clover mused. “Dreamers were seen as messengers between the mortal and divine realms, taught to interpret these dreams and translate them into waking. One foot in the concrete world and one foot in the sleepscape. A dead art, but I wouldn’t be so quick to discount the prophetic nature of dreams.”
Luce nodded. “Mydreams were always full of stars and song, a voice that was not one but many, calling me to my destiny. I felt certain I was hearing the Tides. In my most vivid dreams I felt them being splintered, ripped apart, pulled into oblivion. I was suddenlydriven by this need to avenge them. I wanted—needed—to put them back together, and I knew that Dovermere was the answer. So I sailed toward it. Then my boat capsized in Harebell Cove. One thing led to another, and I suddenly found myself pregnant with Emory.”
Luce worried her lip. “It quickly became a difficult pregnancy, and my dreams turned… strange. All I heard in them was a song out of tune, screeching as if in protest at the life growing inside me. I tuned it all out. Iwantedthis child, but I couldn’t deny the impression of impending doom that followed me everywhere. When Emory was born on a rare eclipse, I sought a trusted Seer friend of mine to tell me what she saw in Emory’s future. She saw the same vision of apocalypse as Cornelius did… and that if Emory’s true Tidecaller nature were ever unlocked, it would bring upon this ending of worlds.
“I knew Cornelius had also been a Tidecaller in his time, so when my friend saw his and my daughter’s fates entwined, I had to seek his help. If anyone might save my daughter, it had to be him. So I hid the truth of Emory’s birth, hoping it would keep her safe, hoping she would remain a Healer forever, like Clover was believed to have been. I left her with her father and found the time rift in Harebell Cove. I’d been studying ley lines in depth by then and guessed correctly that this cavern I’d found when my boat first capsized was indeed a door to the Deep, one that would carry me on the tides of time. And here I am.”
Luce gave Clover a fond smile. “When I told Cornelius my story—a woman from the future claiming to be his distant descendant, asking for help saving her daughter from a nebulous vision… I was certain he would have me thrown into the Institute.”
“Little did she know I’d seen her coming,” Clover said. “Our goals aligned the moment she told me of this vision.Myvision foretold Emory would indeed unlock her powers, and that with them she would burn the worlds to ash.”
“Emory wouldn’t do that,” Baz said fiercely.
“Perhaps not willingly, no. But this is what I have seen: Emory unlocking her Tidecaller nature, going on a quest through perilous worlds to wake the Tides… and becoming so consumed with power that everything turns to ash.”
Baz was shaking his head. “Emory wouldn’t let that happen.”
“She won’t ever have to,” Luce said. “Not if Cornelius succeeds.”
“If I wake the Tides myself—and not just the Tides but the Shadow, too—then magic can return to what it once was. Balance can be restored. I can take this on myself, in this time, so that Emory never has to. If I succeed, it will change the future for the better. Foreveryone, including Eclipse-born. But first we need to open the doors between worlds—and we need to break through these wards to findourdoor.”
Kai had to wonder if this was a hopeless endeavor; if the future could be changed at all, or if all their fates were already predestined. He saw the determination in Baz’s eyes and knew it wouldn’t matter to him.He’ll do anything for Emory, he thought, perhaps a bit too bitterly.
And Kai would go along with it, becausehewould do anything for Baz.
