With just those few words, mist swirled before sharpening into a new room.
We were no longer in the cave, but in a room that had to be somewhere in the castle. My breath caught when I saw my father and Nana.
Violet was sitting slumped in a chair, twiddling a dagger, my father beside her, in a similar position. On the other side of the table sat Nana and Zachariah, crowns atop their heads.
“The Veil is failing, Sire,” a guard was reporting. Idly, I noticed their uniforms hadn’t changed in the fifty-some-odd years between this scene and today. “Entire sections are retreating. Holes are being burned through it. Each day, we lose more and more ground. People are retreating from the borders, moving inward.”
“Is there space for all of them?” Nana asked.
“There is, your Majesty.”
I startled at him referring to Nana as such. I had seen the crown on her head, known she was the queen, but everything about this was so different from the Nana I knew. She had always been strong and regal, but she held herself stiffly, her immaculate clothing having never seen a garden. Everything was at odds with the woman who’d raised me, mud on her boots and dirt under her fingernails.
“But it’s a race right now,” the guard continued, “betweenpeople moving inward, starting their lives anew in close quarters, and the Veil’s boundaries shrinking.”
“How much time do we have?” my father asked.
“We don’t rightly know, Prince Thomrin.”
“Guess then.”
“A year? Maybe two?”
It was so silent I could hear my breaths.
Zachariah spoke for the first time, directing his words to Violet. “You are not living up to your full potential,” he fumed. Nana placed a hand on his arm, attempting to stop him, but he shook her off. “You are supposed to be the greatest of us.”
“This is my fault now?” She didn’t move her position, just raised her eyes to look at him, dagger still spinning in her hand.
“The prophecy has foretold it.”
“Does it? Are you sure you understood what it was you read?”
As he opened his mouth for what was sure to be a scathing retort, the scene melted away and we were back in the cavern.
“The Veil is failing,” she said, pacing in a circle. “Nothing you’ve told me will help me fix it.”
The man perched on a stone wall, watching her wild movements. “That is not your destiny. The Veil doesn’t matter.”
She whirled on him. “How can you say that? Every day, my people are getting infected. Every day, the dark power grows.”
“The Veil won’t stop that. It simply delays. Events are proceeding and you cannot stop the passage of time.”
She propped her hands on her hips. “Alright, all-knowing one, pray tell. What is my destiny?”
His voice was irritated, the first sign of emotion I’d seen from him. “I’ve told you before. Your fate is tied to that of the Orlaith. You pave the way?—”
“Buy her time to grow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give me something real here. Something I can work with.”
He just stared at her, but I caught the uncertainty in his expression. He knew more he wanted to tell her, but couldn’t.
“I thought so,” she said softly, before spinning on her heel and striding away into the mist.
The mist rolled in, strong and thick.
When it parted, the Great Hall was revealed, decorated in gold with hints of the other six colors. Maybe it was me projecting, but was everyone a bit weary? A bit more threadbare, even dressed as they were in their finery? The colors were muted, how they normally were in these memories, but something was off, even at something that should have been a celebration. And then I realized it—through the skylights, it was dark. No stars appeared through the night sky. If that even was the night sky.
Violet stood to the side as a priestess raised a crown and placed it on my father’s head, and another on my mother’s. Nana was on the far side of them. As they turned to face the crowd, they held hands tightly. I lost sight of them as they were swarmed, everyone giving their best wishes to the new king and queen.
