“I’ll believe you are who you claim to be once all threats to Eclipse-born vanish.” His words were infused with a dark thread of anger. “Until then, why should we bow to a deity who abandoned us? How are you going to set all of this right?” Nods of assent fueled him to go on. “Most of us haven’t seen our family for months and can’t go home for fear of being caught. We have friends imprisoned at Institutes all over the world, loved ones who’ve had their magic ripped away from them. And let’s not forget about the people we’ve lost to Collapsing incidents or thosewho we might have hurt during our own Collapsing. So much death and harm caused by the Shadow’s curse—yoursupposed curse. Can you undo that?”
Emory half expected Sidraeus to lash out at him, but all he said was a stiff, “No, I can’t.”
“Then why should we follow you, if you can do nothing for us that we can’t do ourselves?”
The question was met with silence. As Emory studied Sidraeus’s expression—the tightness around his mouth, the barest furrow between his brows, the sudden dullness in his eyes—she saw it for what it was.
Guilt.
Etched on his skin was the memory of the first Eclipse-born—of the Tidecallers he’d led to the godsworld and watched die as they burnt out trying to take the power from the fountain, and those he’d sacrificed to appease the god of balance. But the runes must be nothing compared to the hard stares of the Eclipse-born who stood before him now, a stark reminder that they had survived in spite of him, fending for themselves in a world that had not been made for them, suffering the vitriol and hatred of lunar mages that wanted them gone.
Not everyone here saw Sidraeus as a savior. And maybe he wasn’t. But Emory knew they needed him, one way or the other.
“You don’t have to trust him,” she said to the displeased Eclipse-born. “All I ask is that you trustme. I know most of you don’t know me, but I want the same things you do. I want to save Eclipse magic and stop our world from being destroyed. I’ve come face-to-face with all the monsters who are trying to ruin us, and even though I—I’ve failed to stop them, I think we can do so together. But we need the Shadow on our side.”
She wasn’t sure where the confidence came from. It felt false, a mask slapped on to hide all her insecurities, but an encouragingnod from her father had her believing otherwise. Those who had challenged Sidraeus kept quiet, maybe not entirely convinced but willing to listen, at least.
Emory wanted to prove herself to them. She would find a way out of this mess.
This time, she would not fail.
22BAZ
BAZ CAME OUT OF THEshower feeling better than he had in a long time. When he was in the god’s workshop, whatever magic lived there seemed to keep him clean and fresh in perpetuity, but there was nothing quite like a warm shower and a change of clothes that weren’t from two centuries ago. Bless his parents for anticipating his return and bringing some of his things with them; Baz hadn’t expected to find such comfort in wearing one of his favorite knit sweaters.
He ran a towel through his wet hair—he’d have to ask his mother to give it a trim later—and put on his glasses, staring at himself in the old mirror above the rickety dresser. They’d all been assigned a room. Thankfully, there were plenty to go around, what with this having been the old boarding facility. Someone must have spruced the space up a bit, because the bed was surprisingly comfortable, with sheets that smelled freshly laundered.
Baz let himself sink on the pillow he propped up against the headboard, releasing a long sigh as the events of the day replayedin his mind. After the reveal that the Shadow now walked among them, Jae had filled them all in on what had happened during their absence from this world.
As Baz had seen with his own eyes, the tides had grown wild and destructive, affecting not only their infrastructures, but their magics, too. Lunar mages could only access their magic with bloodletting now, even on their moon phase. Some reported being less powerful than before, feeling like they were depleting their magic every time they bloodlet, without it regenerating the way it should have.
It was as if magic were slowly becoming extinct—except for the Eclipse-born, most of whom had all deliberately forced their Collapsing after realizing how it would expand their limits. They did so under the watchful eye of Jae and with help from Baz’s own father, whose Nullifying magic helped attenuate the force of their Collapsing.
It came as no surprise that this power imbalance had fueled hatred toward the Eclipse-born, feeding into the Regulators’ narrative of them being the cause of all this madness. The Tidelore faith had made a resurgence as a result, with more people than ever believing in the myth that portrayed the Tides as good and the Shadow as evil.
“It’s become a bit of a widespread cult,” Jae had explained bitterly. “A perverse movement spearheaded by the Regulators.”
“And the Selenic Order,” Ife Nuru had added with a glimmer of guilt in her dark eyes. “Which is why I left them.”
The Selenic Order was riding this wave of hysteria too, using it as a blanket excuse to take silver blood from Eclipse-born held at Institutes without threat of repercussion, all so they could make more synthetic magic.
“The Order distributes it widely within the Tidelore cult,” Ife had said, “and sells it to whoever else can get their hands on it. Withlunar magic dwindling, you can see how valuable it’s become.”
“The synths are a weapon,” Baz’s father had gravely pointed out. “They’re meant to level the playing field between lunar mages and Eclipse-born.”
Baz was sick to his stomach knowing where those synths came from. It was especially vile and twisted on the Selenic Order’s part to be taking Eclipse blood to make weapons to useagainstthose whose blood was taken.
Kai would have ripped them all to shreds if he knew. He would also have loved to see this band of Eclipse rebels hiding from the law, forcing their Collapsing here under Jae’s watchful eye. Baz could imagine it so plainly, the pride Kai would have felt at being here with Eclipse-born from all corners of the world, old and young, fighting to enact real change.
Baz had been introduced to most of them earlier. There were the dozens of Collapsed Eclipse-born that Jae had been training in secret before all this, as well as students who’d come to Aldryn for the Quadricentennial, like Rusli, the Luaguan student Baz had met briefly before going through the door. Rusli had been reunited with the Luaguan friend of his that had Collapsed and whom Jae had been training. Her name was Sana, her magic akin to Nullification, like Baz’s father, though it was an odd variation of it that nullified not magic, butsenseslike sight and smell and hearing, which she could negate for a time or suppress entirely.
Most others were Illusionists like Jae, though some had the kind of magic Baz hoped wouldn’t be needed, like a Poisoner who could turn any liquid fatal, and someone who called himself a Festerer, able to make sickness take root inside someone.
There were non-Eclipse-born, too. Some were familiar faces—Alya, Ife, Emory’s father, Baz’s mother—but others Baz had never seen, like the powerful Wardcrafter who was responsible for keeping the safe house untouched by the destructive tides.
A pit of sadness opened in Baz as he stared at his empty room. Kai should be here. And all Baz could do now was hope with all his being that the god’s apprentice was right; that there was something here in the present that would help Baz bring Kai back.
Baz reached for the paper folded up in his pants pocket. He unfolded it carefully, studying the odd-looking tree and the words in that strange language. It was the first time he’d done so since the god’s ex-apprentice had given it to him.
