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‘They could have —’ Thea cut herself off as she caught Anya studying her, head tilted. ‘What?’

Anya hummed. ‘It makes sense now.’

‘What does?’

‘That you so readily believed your Warsword had abandoned you too.’

Thea opened and closed her mouth, her skin suddenly tingling with discomfort. ‘I never thought about —’

But Anya dimissed her with a wave. ‘They were good people. You need to know that. Too trusting, but good.’

‘Like you.’ Thea pictured the little girl swept up in the corruption of Thezmarr.

‘A lesson I needed to learn only once,’ Anya said grimly.

Thea passed her the other half of the bread, noting that Anya herself looked a little on the thin side. Her sister took it without a word.

‘What happened after the cave-in on the Broken Isles?’ Thea asked.

Anya chewed on the bread thoughtfully. ‘There was a creature there… Something like me. It kept me alive for a time. A new shadow-touched person is like a newborn foal. Clumsy. Clueless.’

‘You were, what? Six? In the visions you look —’

‘Tall?’ Anya offered. ‘I was for my age. But no, I was younger. You and I were only born ten months apart.’

Thea stared, thinking back to the thick tome she’d found in Wilder’s cabin,A Study of Royal Lineage Throughout the Midrealms. No heirs had been listed in the Delmirian line, let alone the name days of the royal offspring. ‘How do you know that? There were no records of our birth.’

‘Not on the mainland. But when I was in Naarva —’

‘You found archives?’

‘Not quite… I found letters. Personal letters from our mother to Queen Yolena. They were friends.’

‘But Delmira had already fallen before we were born.’

Anya shrugged. ‘It seems they stayed in touch, even while our parents were in hiding.’

‘Did you keep these letters?’

‘I did. They’re in my quarters at the University of Naarva. I’d like to show them to you someday. And Wren.’

‘I’d like that… I’m sure she would too.’

The gratified glint in her sister’s eyes brought a wave of heaviness down on Thea.

‘You were so young…’ she said quietly.

Anya gave a grim smile. ‘I survived.’

‘How?’ Thea pressed.

‘Naarva was shrouded in darkness, but there were a few places of refuge, underground. Some people were shadow-touched like me. Others were civilians who had fled the fighting… I learnt quickly to control my abilities, so it wasn’t immediately obvious what I was. I kept my shadows to myself. The people of a fallen kingdom don’t take kindly to the likes of me – not then, anyway.’

‘And you were alone?’

‘For a while.’

‘I saw you,’ Thea said carefully. ‘In a vision. You cut your hair with a dagger… and then you walked out into a field. There were shadow-touched there. In pain. Being tortured…’ She didn’t mean it as a question, but she heard the inflection in her voice.