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I didn’t even make it through the chapter’s title before sleep closed in.

Chapter 14

“Tell me everything I need to know about Katia.” Miles and I had walked in silence for long enough, the woods so repetitive around us that I had no idea how the man knew where he was going. We left Aera yesterday, and it’d been nothing but trees and rocks and sticks. I needed something to break up the monotony.

“Okay,” he answered, his voice rugged, and I could tell he was Lieutenant Miles once again. “Only if you work on your balance.”

I scoffed, but unsheathed my sword and nestled the delicate grip in my palm. It was a lot easier to balance a blade than it was a tree limb.

“The Forgotten Saints burned the Old World down, and placed Rhedros in the New World.”

“The Forgotten Saints,” I remarked, sorting through the little I knew, trying to remember if I’d ever heard of them.

“They were here first,” Miles explained. “The Forgotten Saints were the ones who ruled before the Benevolent and Blood Saints. Rhedros was placed in the New World as a force of good. But Malosym created a child out of hatred and ash and managed to slip her through to the New World. That was Katia.”

I stopped in my tracks, my blade falling to the ground, my brows furrowed. “What? So you mean Rhedros was the Keeper of the Benevolent Saints, and–”

“Yes,” he affirmed without turning to me. “Katia was the Keeper of the Blood Saints.”

I grappled with this piece of information. “How did–”

“No one knows. But at some point, they switched places.” Still Miles walked, unbothered by the fact that I was completely dumbfounded. “And Malosym, the one who built Katia from nothing, was the leader of the Occulti, a demon horde that overran the Old World. That’s the reason the Forgotten Saints had to burn the Old World. There were just too many of them.”

My mind reeled as I stepped over stones and logs, trying to keep my footing while my brain was focused everywhere else but my feet. “I didn’t know that,” I said quietly.

We walked in silence, and it could have been for a minute or an hour as I grappled with this new information. Miles’ voice startled me when it suddenly broke through my rampant thoughts. “Any idea who your father is?” he asked, his voice noticeably apprehensive.

I opened my mouth but hesitated when I realized I didn’t know what to say. Should I tell him? Maybe he’d know something, some piece of lore or legend that could help me make sense of it all. But no one had ever mentioned the Daughter of Rhedros. “No.”

“Huh.” He held a branch back for me as we shuffled through a dense patch of brush.

“What you were reading back at the inn in Aera,” I started, “about Katia’s creatures.”

He let loose a laugh. “Kelpies, soulhags, and drivas.”

“Katia controls them?”

“According to the lore of the Saints.”

“You don’t think I could…”

He came to a stop, turning to face me. “Do you?”

I stared up at him, trying to remember what he’d read to me. I’d heard stories of Katia’s charges, how a herd of kelpies stopped Faldyr, Saint of War, from wiping out the entire world with a massive tidal wave. Soulhags inhabited the underground in tunnels beneath our feet, with bodies made of stone and hair made of cobwebs. And I’d been told a few stories of Katia’s drivas and their massive talons and snapping teeth and their ability to kill with a single fiery roar.

“No,” I answered flatly. “Those are legends. Not the truth.”

“The Daughter of Katia was a legend, too,” he replied, turning around to resume our journey. I let the thought sit with me, but logic took over before long. I could understand a world where the Saints governed, but a world of kelpies, soulhags, drivas… That was impossible.

“Where does Noros fit into all this lore?” I asked.

Miles was silent for a moment. “I’m not sure. But apparently he’s the only one who can positively identify the Daughter of Katia.When evil comes again.”

I placed my sword in my palm, trying to balance as I walked, but it fell to the ground once again. “And you think you were a piece of his plan?” I asked.

Miles sighed. “Like I said, I’m still trying to figure that out myself.”

“Maybe I can help you sort it out.”