My head snaps toward her. “It wasnot. No heir of the magic would ever willingly give it to one outside the bloodline.”
“You are certain?” Zora studies me with infuriating patience. “And yet the magic still lives.”
My talons dig into the stone.
“If the ribbon had been taken by force,” she continues, “its power would have withered long ago. You know that better than anyone.”
I rise, my wings flaring in warning at her implication. At this obvious truth she can't accept.
“Shestoleit.”
Zora clicks her tongue in irritation.
“You have been stalking that woman across half this city for years,” she says bluntly. “If you intended to reclaim it, you could have taken it the first day you saw her.”
I return my gaze to the broken ward circle.
“You did not,” she continues.
Silence stretches between us.
“Why?”
My voice emerges low. “Because the magic still breathes, and I cannot harm her while it does.”
Zora's gaze bores into my back.
"But youwill try, won't you?"
I don't reply. There is no need with the Skywhisperer, for she already knows my intent. Zora stares at me then shakes her head.
“Rö, the path you walk will lead you to ruin."
"I have heard the Sky's warnings before," I tell her.
"She isdying. You saw her today. She is deep in Veil Drift. I have not seen anyone so afflicted survive more than a few Cycles." She sighs. "So let her be. Once she perishes, you will have your freedom from the vow."
She straightens, her tail feathers swaying. "And I will be free ofyou, since you will no longer have the need to use me as shield for your obsession."
"Why do you stay here?" I ask her, genuinely curious. "You have seen the Pale Madness. There is nothing more to be done. It is a plague the Glasswalkers have brought upon themselves with their depravity and blood magic."
Zora shakes her head. "No, Riven. This is something else. And I would have agreed with you. A month or so ago, perhaps. If I had not seen the Sokâr touch the children with her silver light…"
My wings shift behind me as I recall those moments. The woman's eyes had glowed, her fingers bleeding starlight into the skin of dying fledglings.
"She did not cure them," I correct Zora.
"No, but the disease receded, even if only for a short time." Her wings stretch out, then fold back in. "I cannot leave. Not just yet. There may still be an answer to all this."
She looks back to the direction from where we came. "And now, the most impatient—the most reckless of the Nestings—have ripped apart the heart of this Crystal City with their greed. That device and its corrupted magic will poison the Daesa Major for years to come."
"Even more reason for us to depart," I tell her.
She looks at me, her golden eye glowing this time. "If you attempt to kill her, you will die. That is the vow."
"I will have my freedom," I tell her. "I will not be bound to a thief."
Zora smiles. Bitter.
