Page 14 of Favored by the Stars (Bound by the Veil #4)

Chapter Fourteen

Senara

"Go," Thorn urged, his hands pulling me to my feet and pressing against my back as he pushed me into the gap. I squeezed through the narrow fissure, jagged rock scraping my arms. The fresh air hit my lungs like a blessing after the stale temple atmosphere. Thorn followed close behind, his broader frame barely making it through.

We emerged onto a moonlit hillside dotted with ancient oaks. The ground still trembled beneath our feet, but the violent shaking had subsided to a distant rumble.

"Well, that was quite an exit." A familiar voice cut through the night.

I spun around. Van lounged against a gnarled tree trunk, his lute propped casually across his lap. His silver hair gleamed in the moonlight, and a knowing smile played across his lips.

"How did you…" Wyn started.

"Know you'd be here?" Van plucked a single string, the note hanging in the air. "Let's just say certain songs carry far, if you know how to listen."

Thorn stepped forward, positioning himself between Van and our group. "You were waiting for us."

"Guilty as charged." Van stood, slinging his lute across his back. "Though I must say, I expected you sooner. The temple's awakening sent ripples through every magical current in the realm."

My Mark throbbed at his words. "You know about the temple?"

"I know many things, dear Senara." His eyes flickered to my Mark. "Including what that little swim in the scrying pool revealed to you."

Volker pushed his way forward. "Impossible. The temple's location was lost centuries ago."

"Was it?" Van's smile widened. "Or was it simply waiting for the right moment, and the right person, to be found again?"

The ground shuddered once more, and we all turned to watch as the fissure we'd escaped through sealed itself, rock flowing like water until no trace remained of the opening.

"The temple has chosen to hide itself again," Van said softly. "But its awakening changes everything. The question is, are you ready for what comes next?"

I stared at Van, my Mark still pulsing with echoes of the temple's power. "What do you mean, what comes next?"

"He means war," Thorn growled, his hand moving to the hilt of his sword.

Van raised his hands. "Peace, Thorn. I'm merely a humble bard who knows which way the wind blows." He pulled his lute forward and strummed a chord that sent shivers down my spine. "And right now, it's blowing straight toward chaos."

"The visions," I said, pressing my palm against my Mark. "The woman I saw, standing between the courts, she was trying to prevent exactly what's happening now."

"And failing spectacularly, if history serves." Van's fingers danced across the strings. "But perhaps you'll fare better."

Wyn stepped closer to me. "What are you saying?"

"Don't play games," Thorn snapped. "If you know something, speak plainly."

Van's music halted. "Very well. The temple didn't wake for nothing, and it certainly didn't show Senara those visions on a whim." He fixed his gaze on me. "You saw the empty thrones, didn't you? Sun and Moon, waiting to be united?"

My breath caught. "How did you…"

"Because that's what the prophecies spoke of. An Eclipse Child who would bridge the divide." He nodded toward my Mark. "Someone marked by both courts, carrying both powers."

"That's impossible," Volker interjected. "The courts have been separate for centuries. No one can wield both magics."

Van made a noncommittal noise, his eyes never leaving mine, before he said, "Tell me, Senara, have you noticed anything strange about your mark lately? Besides the obvious, I mean. Perhaps... moments when it burns like sunlight instead of moonlight?"

I froze, remembering the searing heat that had coursed through me in the temple, so different from the cool silver fire I was used to. "You've been watching me."

"Many have been watching you." Van plucked another string, the note hanging ominously in the air. "The question is whether you'll survive long enough to fulfill your destiny."

My stomach twisted at Van's words. "My destiny? I didn't ask for any of this."

"Few ever do," Van replied, his fingers resuming their dance across the lute strings. "Yet here you stand, marked by moon and sun alike. The first in generations."

The night air grew heavy around us. In the distance, thunder rumbled, though the sky remained clear and star-filled.

"We need to move," Thorn said, his voice taut with urgency. "If the temple's awakening sent ripples through the magical currents as you say, then others will have felt it too."

"Others who might not be as friendly as our musical friend here," Wyn added, her hair gleaming as she scanned the surrounding forest.

Van's melody shifted to something darker, more foreboding. "The Sun Court will be scrambling their scouts as we speak. The Moon Court has likely already dispatched their shadow walkers."

"And which court do you serve?" I asked, studying his face for any hint of deception. The first time we had met, he had claimed that he was part of neither court, but now I was more experienced in the ways of the fae and wondered if that was actually true.

His smile was enigmatic as moonlight. "I serve the music, dear Senara. The song that flows between all things." He strummed a final chord before silencing the strings with his palm. "But if you're asking where my sympathies lie... let's just say I prefer balance to dominance."

Thorn's hand hadn't left his sword hilt. "That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you'll get tonight," Van replied, standing with fluid grace. "Now, you have a choice to make. The courts will converge on this spot by dawn, each hoping to claim the Eclipse Child for their own purposes."

"I am not a thing to be claimed," I said, heat rising in my voice.

"No," Van agreed, his expression softening. "You are a bridge in a world determined to remain divided. Which makes you dangerous to those who profit from that division."

The ground trembled again beneath our feet, a subtle reminder of the power that had awakened. My Mark throbbed in response, sending pulses of alternating heat and cold through my veins.

"What do you suggest we do?" Volker asked, surprising me. The older man had been watching Van with calculating eyes.

Van's eyes glittered with something that looked like satisfaction. "There's a place not far from here, ancient, even by fae standards. The Twilight Gardens. The trees there have roots that reach far beyond fae lands."

"I've never heard of such a place," Thorn said, suspicion lacing his voice.

"You wouldn't have," Van replied, slinging his lute onto his back. "The Gardens exist in the in-between, the liminal spaces, where boundaries blur. Most people have forgotten it, and someone deliberately erased it from court histories."

I studied Van's face, searching for deceit. The moonlight cast half his features in silver, the other half in shadow. "And why would you take us there?"

"Because it hides the first artifact." He spoke the words casually, as though mentioning the weather, but they fell into our circle with the weight of stones dropped into still water.

"Artifact?" Wyn stepped forward, her scholarly curiosity visibly piqued. "What artifact?"

Van's smile widened. "The Crescent Diadem. One of three royal treasures forged before the courts split. Items of power that, when united, could..." He paused dramatically, looking directly at me. "Well, let's just say they might help an Eclipse Child fulfill her destiny without being torn apart by opposing magics."

My Mark pulsed at his words, sending alternating waves of heat and cold through my body. The sensation was becoming more frequent, more intense, like two forces battling within me.

"This sounds suspiciously convenient," Thorn growled. "We emerge from an ancient temple, and you just happen to be waiting with tales of magical artifacts that could aid Senara?"

Van shrugged. "The threads of fate are rarely neat, Thorn. Sometimes they tangle in ways that seem too perfect to be coincidence."

"Or too perfect to be trusted," Thorn countered.

Volker cleared his throat. "I've read ancient texts that mentioned royal treasures from before the schism. Items of tremendous power, supposedly lost or destroyed during the Sundering."

"Not destroyed," Van said, his voice suddenly serious. "Hidden. Protected. Waiting."

A warm breeze stirred the surrounding leaves, carrying the scent of rain and something else, something ancient and green and alive. My senses, heightened since the temple, detected magic in that breeze, wild and untamed.

"The Gardens are a decent walk from here," Van continued. "If we leave now, we'll arrive before either court can mobilize their forces."

"And you'll answer our questions along the way?" I asked, already knowing I would go regardless of his answer. The pull I felt toward whatever lay ahead was too strong to ignore.

"All that I can," he promised, though something in his tone suggested limits to what he considered possible to share.

Wyn moved to stand beside me. "I want to go," she whispered. "Think of what we might learn in a place forgotten by both courts."

I nodded, though uncertainty gnawed at me. The visions from the temple still swirled in my mind, fractured images of a woman standing between warring factions, her arms outstretched as magic tore through her. Was that my fate, too?

"We should go," I said finally, meeting Thorn's concerned gaze. "If there's something that can help me control... whatever this is becoming," I touched my Mark, which pulsed beneath my fingers with alternating waves of lunar chill and solar heat, "then I need to find it."

Thorn's jaw clenched, but he nodded. "I don't trust him," he murmured, his eyes never leaving Van, "but I trust you."

Those simple words sent a flutter through my chest that had nothing to do with my mark.

"How touching," Van commented, his keen hearing having caught our exchange. "Now, shall we depart before this hillside becomes a battleground?"

We set off through the moonlit forest, Van leading with confident steps that never faltered despite the darkness. Thorn stayed close beside me, his hand occasionally brushing mine in a way that seemed both deliberate and unconscious. Wyn followed, her eyes wide as she took in every detail of the forest, while Volker brought up the rear, his weathered face set in contemplative lines.

"You mentioned the Crescent Diadem," I said to Van as we walked. "What exactly does it do?"

"Stories vary," he replied, ducking beneath a low-hanging branch. "Some say it allows the wearer to channel opposing magics without being destroyed by their conflict. Others claim it reveals hidden truths, paths unseen."

"And which is it?" Wyn asked.

Van's smile flashed in the darkness. "Perhaps both. Perhaps neither. Magic items from that era rarely conform to simple explanations."

"Helpful as always," Thorn muttered.

The forest grew denser as we walked, the trees more ancient. Their bark spiraled in patterns that caught the eye and held it, almost hypnotically. Moss glowed with faint bioluminescence, casting everything in an eerie blue-green light.

I paused, entranced by a cluster of luminous fungi that pulsed in rhythm like a heartbeat. Their caps shimmered with translucent patterns that seemed to form and dissolve, almost like writing in a language I couldn't quite grasp.

"Don't touch those," Van warned without turning. "Dreamer's Caps. One brush of your skin and visions will engulf you for days," Van warned, without turning.

The forest had transformed around us, becoming something wilder and more ancient with each step. Trees twisted into impossible shapes, their branches forming archways and spiraling staircases that led nowhere. Flowers bloomed in the darkness, their petals glowing with inner light, blues and purples and silvers that cast dancing shadows across our path.

A stream appeared beside our trail, its water flowing uphill in defiance of natural law. Tiny motes of light drifted above it, diving and swirling like a playful fish in an invisible current.

"What are those?" I asked, reaching toward one that drifted close.

"Soul-sparks," Wyn answered before Van could, her voice hushed with wonder. "I've read about them, but never thought I'd see one. They're said to be fragments of fae who lived the purest of lives, the ones most devoted to the Moon Goddess and the Sun God."

The spark danced around my outstretched fingers, leaving trails of silvery-gold light that lingered in the air before slowly fading. It felt warm and cool simultaneously against my skin, reminding me uncomfortably of the conflicting sensations in my Mark.

"We're getting close," Van announced, his voice carrying a note of reverence. "The Gardens announce themselves through their inhabitants first."

Thorn had been quiet for the past hour, his eyes constantly scanning our surroundings, his body tense and ready. Now he stopped abruptly, causing Volker to nearly collide with him.

"Enough of this," he said, his voice cutting through the magical atmosphere like a blade. "Before we go any further, I want answers, bard."

Van turned, his expression neutral. "You've never been one for patience, have you, Thorn?"

"How do these artifacts, the Crescent Diadem and others, differ from our current objectives, the ones given to us by the goddess herself?" Thorn's hand rested on his sword hilt, his stance wide and immovable. "She spoke of the Starforged Mirror, the Eclipsed Crown, and the Veilshard Pendant. Those are what we seek, what we need to restore balance. What does this Diadem have to do with anything?"

A nightbird called overhead, its cry eerily similar to laughter.

"Ah," Van said, leaning against a tree whose bark spiraled in impossible geometries. "I was wondering when we'd arrive at this particular crossroads." He unslung his lute, his fingers danced across the lute strings, weaving a melody that seemed to make the forest itself lean closer to listen.

"Tell me, Thorn, in all your years of service to the Sun Court, did you never question why the artifacts were separated? Why the courts themselves split apart?"

"Ancient history," Thorn replied, though I noticed a flicker of uncertainty cross his face. I hoped it had more to do with us not knowing about these damn artifacts until a few…hours ago. Had it really only been that long? Thorn's voice brought me back from the edge of that specific spiral of anxiety as he continued, "The Sundering happened generations ago."

"And yet," Van countered, "we live with its consequences every day." His eyes found mine. "Some more directly than others."

My Mark pulsed painfully, as though responding to his words.

"The artifacts you seek and the ones I speak of are one and the same," Van continued, his voice taking on a storyteller's cadence. Part of me couldn't help but wonder if there was some kind of magic at work. After all, he was a bard. Were the notes of his lute casting a spell over us? Making us more susceptible to his ideas? I didn't think so, not after seeing how he was in the court before. "Names change over centuries. Truths become legends, legends become myths, and myths become whispered half-truths in the dark."

"You're saying the Crescent Diadem is the Eclipsed Crown?" I asked, realization clicking before he'd even finished speaking.

Van's smile was all the answer I needed.

"But why lead us to the Twilight Gardens specifically?" Thorn pressed. "Why not directly to the artifact?"

"Because," Van said, his voice softening, "your bonded is not ready to wield it yet."

Anger flashed through me, hot and sudden. "I'm tired of being told what I'm ready for."

He gestured to my Mark, which was now visibly pulsing with alternating silver and gold light. "Do you really question it? Surely, you feel it, don't you? The battle raging inside you? Moon and sun magic were never meant to coexist in one vessel, at least not as their current incarnations. They're tearing you apart from within."

The truth of his words struck me like a physical blow. The conflicting sensations had been growing stronger since the temple. Cold silver fire one moment, burning gold the next, never settling, always fighting for dominance. Considering for most of my life my mark had been something I'd had to hide, something that I'd thought of as a curse, and had been completely inert, along with my magic, this new situation was taking a bit to adjust to.

"The Gardens will help stabilize you," Van continued more gently. "It's a place of balance, where opposites exist in harmony. It will teach your body what it needs to know before you attempt to wield the Diadem."

"And if I don't learn this...balance?" I asked, though I suspected I already knew the answer.

"Then the Diadem will destroy you the moment you touch it," Van replied simply. "As it has destroyed others who sought its power without understanding its nature."

Silence fell over our group. In the distance, something howled, not a wolf, but something with a voice that carried both bestial rage and human sorrow.

"Feral fae," Thorn murmured, his head turning toward the sound. "The corruption spreads even here."

"All the more reason to continue," Van urged, his face grim as he slung his lute back across his shoulders. "The Gardens offer safety. If we can get to them."