The energy within the room hasn’t abated, the glittering force swirling, gentle beams of dancing light emanating from the medallion.
Erik’s voice washes over me, becoming a hum in my ears as he continues to explain. “It was after I killed Malak. I scoured the city for all Blacksmith tools, intending to destroy every last piece of Blacksmith metal. Mother Solas offered up the pin and told me its story. I let her keep it on the condition that she would hide it and give it to you when I asked her to.”
My head is swimming as an impulse that I’ve pushed away from the very first moment I picked up Malak’s hammer pulses back at me.
Erik is still speaking, but I no longer hear him.
Take control of the light and the dark.
It occurs to me, perhaps for the first time, that my impulse is not only about darkness.
It’s about light, too.
I reach for the medallion in the cup, my outstretched arm trembling as the power within the dark metal embedded in me pushes me backward, away from my grandmother’s medallion, while the energy within the silver metal pulls me closer. Two opposing forces, both equal in strength, and only my will can determine the outcome.
“Take control of the light and the dark,” I whisper when Erik falls silent. “Fight the old and find the new.”
I’m aware that Erik’s focus no longer rests on the band, but on my face, as if he’s searching for something in that moment.
I’m not sure what it is or if he finds it.
My palm brushes the tip of the silver medallion and it instantly adheres to my hand, curling upward like a vine.
It slides across the titanium band, end to end, and spreads farther outward on each side, becoming like silver liquid that thins out until it covers the darkness completely.
I now have a thick, silver band of metal across my palm and wrapped around the sides of my hand, completely concealing the dark band beneath it.
The energy around me fades.
The anger within me calms.
My heart warms, and it’s like stepping out of shadows into gentle sunlight.
The tarnish on my skin remains. My hair is just as charred.
And the darkness within me…
Well, it remains full and strong, but now, so is the light. Neither power is blocked, but neither dominates the other.
It’s a balance I’ve never experienced before. Strength with unity.
I run the fingers of my other hand over the silver metal and feel the way it acts like a barrier.
My eyes fill with tears as I realize… I can hug my family now.
Without fear of hurting them.
“Thank you,” I whisper to Erik.
His hand lowers to his side, the cup still gripped in it, and then he becomes very still, except for the small changes in his expression: the lightest press of his lips, the slight crease in his forehead, the tiniest hitch in his breathing.
My head is clear and my thoughts are finally my own again, but suddenly…
So is responsibility for every choice I’ve made since I stood between Erik and his people.
It all rushes at me at once and the warmth I experienced only a moment before disappears.
Every death at my hands, every drop of blood I spilled, every wound that was inflicted on me, every strike of fear, every angry word I spoke… Everything the medallion protected me from caring about, all of it floods over me.
