ASTERIE
Iwas awake just before dawn again and sat at our bedchamber’s vanity. I’d let Van out to frolic in the gardens—the staff were growing used to him, and the kitchen maids often snuck him cuttings of meat.
A month had passed since the attack on Luz. The realm seemed calm, yet something stirred in my magic still. Dreams visited me of thatin-betweenplace, of conversations among the Source Origins that were muted and inaudible to me. They were not unpleasant, but I couldn’t shake that Origin Asterie was trying to warn me of something.
The night prior, Fenris had shared a quiet worry while our limbs were tangled together.
He’d whispered into the dark between us, “It feels as though it is not over.”
Now Fenris slept soundly in bed behind me with one arm slung over his eyes. His dark auburn waves caught the light of the sun as the light began peaking through pale blue curtains, and his free arm stretched to my side of the bed as though subconsciously searching for me.
Fen’s words, paired with my strange dreams, had compelled me to unpack the moonstone that had been sent from the Central Tower. I unwrapped it from the velvet.
Setting the white stone down on the vanity in front of me, I tapped my fingers against it. I hadn’t attempted to use a moonstone since that night in Fen’s bedchamber. Part of me feared it may still not respond to me at all.
Placing both hands on the cool stone, I watched my dark irises grow milky in the vanity mirror before everything went black.
Are we safe?I focused on the question and thought of that place I’d visited in death.
In that void, a blue light flickered in the distance.I’d seen this before…
Then, I heard a whisper. “This is your path, starling. You must live it now.”
This time, the blue light did not grow near. Instead, it winked out like a dying star. I swallowed hard, contemplating what that might mean.
“Asterie?” Fen’s voice pulled me back.
His brow creased in concern as he looked at me through the vanity mirror.
“Are you alright?” Fen asked.
The corners of my mouth lifted. Every new day got better with him being a part of it. He was still hopelessly flirtatious given any chance, as though he needed to keep winning me over.
Yet I was wholly won.
I answered, “Yes, I’m fine.”
“What did you see?”
“Nothing that I understand yet, unfortunately,” I admitted.
“Come back to bed,” he urged.
“I need to go through our correspondence.”
“Mmm, if your dedication wasn’t such an attractive quality, then I’d be far less distracting,” he teased sleepily.
I huffed a laugh but forced my attention from Fen to the neatly stacked letters addressed to my new title.Asterie Bennett, Chief Advisor of Luz.A new identity—one that tethered me to a new reality, a new realm.
Queen Sybilla had left for the Sahlms. I wondered, and worried, about her journey to those unwelcoming lands. I shuffled hopefully through the envelopes until I found one with a royal blue wax seal and the initials SW and quickly cut the letter open.
Asterie,
We have arrived in Sahlmsara. The settlement here isn’t as awful as I imagined—charming even, in a way. I’m safe,mostlycomfortable, aside from the heat, and I’m alive. King Darvanda has not yet killed me despite constantly looking like he wants to. I do think he will read my correspondence—and he can fuck right off if he does. No hawks are allowed in or out of this place, so my letters may be delayed. They travel by horseback and post comes weekly.
Do check in on my Sun King. I hate to ask you to step into the middle of our dispute, but I hope you would tell me if you were worried about him.
Tell Fenris that his sister is an endless pain in my ass.
