Page 16 of Steeling Light (Shadowed Debts #3)

The young woman is a stark difference to the world of spiders she lives within.

Her soft, pale skin is nothing like the dark carapace of the silkies.

Her bright blue eyes are just like mine—not too large for her face, not slightly bulging.

There are no strange dancing eyebrows. She is a High Fae just like me, and a bit of relief washes over me at the normalcy.

“Ainslee!” she squeals. “I was so excited when Vellith came to me with news that you’d be coming. I’ve looked into the web so many times this week, and I just… I just want to say that I am very excited to work with you. You’re my first!”

I blink. What in the world did I step into? I wanted to understand why Vellith’s words had stuck in my mind so much and maybe waste a few hours. This is all so much more than that.

“Umm… Cadence, right?”

She laughs a soft, twinkling laugh like a child. “That’s me! And you know my name. Oh, I am so excited. Do you like the web I built? I’ve built webs before. Maerlix says that I’m very good at weaving. Come look!”

She bounds to me and grabs my hand, and I’ve never felt so confused in my life.

Vellith stands silently behind us, watching everything we do.

I let myself be pulled to the web that takes up almost half the room.

“See, it’s a zircon because you’re from the House of Light,” she says, pointing at the gemstone that shines in the center.

“It’s in the center because many strands orbit you, and you’re alone right now.

I almost put it to the side because you’re tied to many people, but they’re far away. ”

She frowns for a moment and looks up at me.

“Why are you here all alone? Your strands are bound to so many elsewhere, and they want to be near them. I have not seen so many strands who long so dearly to be near others.” Then she shrugs without giving me a chance to answer.

“And here,” she says, pointing toward a piece of gray stone with red lines running through it, “is a strand that is tied to even more, but he longs to be away from them.”

She points to a moonstone bead in another corner. “This one is surrounded by so many, and yet she holds herself alone. And this one,” she gestures to a piece of black metal, “this one had many, but now…”

That’s when I see beyond the trinkets. The black metal has lines of silk dangling from it, broken. So many of the lines are frayed to the point of breaking; hundreds of tiny scratches show just how tenuous their connection to the zircon is.

“Then there are these,” she says, pointing toward most of the trinkets in a corner far from the zircon.

A piece of red obsidian that looks like it was hit by a hammer, with fractures extending throughout it.

Beside it is a monocle covered in dust. There’s a piece of sea glass that’s been shattered into dozens of shards.

Each piece is suspended by silk threads, holding them near each other and only barely touching.

Around those large pieces are dozens upon dozens of smaller items: a piece of fur barely hanging onto the silk, a tiny down feather, a fish scale.

Item after item clings to the web as if a single vibration would have it falling.

Each of the items is on a piece of silk that’s tied to the zircon at the bottom.

“So many ties,” Cadence mutters. “And so different, each one. That is another oddity. If I were to make my own web, all the strands would be tied to silkies and weavers, but these… these are all different.” She turns to me and smiles.

“It is so interesting, but…” She gives the web another look before smiling at me almost bashfully.

“You did not come here for this, though. You have questions.”

I nod to her, my eyes trying to take in the details of the web again, as all of them are so minute, so nuanced. How could she know these things about me?

“Where are you on this web?” I ask suddenly. “If you know this much about me, you have to be tied to me, don’t you?”

Cadence beams at me. “So clever! I was three before I realized that! Yes, every weaver must be tied to their charge in some way, and they are the first strand that must be spun. I am here,” she says as she points at a single petal from a marigold.

Bound in black silk, it’s nearly hidden from view.

“Now,” she says as she moves to the worktable and sits down. “You have questions.”

I follow her to the table where tools that look more like they’d be in a jewelry shop are strewn about chaotically. Bits of wood and metal and gemstones sit beside them, and it occurs to me she had to gather all those items she put into the web in the last week.

The chair and table are simple and unadorned, but they’re comfortable. It’s the kind of chair that you could sit in for hours and not be squirming about by the end.

“I don’t know how Vellith knew things about me.

I’d like to understand.” The question seems simple, but it’s a heavy question that digs at what might be a House secret.

I know so little about the House of Webs.

Are they secretive about their abilities and skills like the House of Earth, or are they open like the House of Flames?

And do the Guardians of this House hold secrets even from the High Fae?

I know almost nothing about the salamanders even though I lived in the House of Flames for most of my life.

Cadence smiles at me and then Vellith before saying, “Silk spinners taste the webs that they touch, no different from any other spider, feeling all the nuances of the strand they hold. She touched you, and she tugged the strands inside you, feeling the vibrations and how they connect to the web that holds us all. She tasted the emotions and connections of your strands. Vellith is a spider who walks the lines of silk that guide us all, and while she has…”

Cadence thinks for a moment, her head bobbing back and forth as she speaks.

“She has limitations. Many, according to her. She does not know which pieces lie on the strands of your connections. She cannot name them, nor give exacting descriptions of them. All she knows are the vibrations and the way the web pulls them.”

I frown and turn toward Vellith, who is staring at us with a smile on her face. “You can read the future?”

She shakes her head, but it’s Cadence who speaks.

“No, that’d make them a Greater House on their own, their powers coming directly from a dragon.

No, her power is to understand directions and hidden connections.

That is all. She cannot tell what you will choose, only that you must make choices.

She cannot tell what those decisions are, only that you will have them. ”

Cadence's eyes go to the web in the other half of the room, and she smiles. “We web weavers have slightly more information. Vellith and I have worked together all week to create this web, to see the strands that tie you to your past, present, and future, and Ainslee, it is important. The future is dark for so many, and you, of all the lightbringers, will light the way for them. But you’re not ready. It is our job to help you prepare, to find the Light inside yourself so that you may bring it to others.”

I blink. How am I important? And how are my Light powers important?

The only thing that Light is ever used for is entertainment and storytelling.

It’s to make things pretty, not to do anything of value.

“You’re wrong. I don’t know what your webs are telling you, but there’s no way that I’m important. ”

Cadence grins. “Ha! I win!” she says, her eyes going to Vellith. “I knew she wouldn’t believe us. You owe me two chocolate crickets for that!”

“Maybe I knew she wouldn’t, and I needed you to be motivated. Two chocolate crickets is a small price to pay for your undivided attention.” Vellith’s voice has an unusual sparkling quality to it. Like a mother teasing her daughter.

“No. This is my first. There’s no way I would be distracted!”

Vellith just hums softly, and Cadence huffs before turning back to me.

“You are not useless, Ainslee Emlyn,” she says, light in those too-young eyes.

“You are unique, and Light is the only thing that will save so many from the darkness that looms. Maerlix has seen this, and I refuse to question his words. The Ancient Ones are stirring, and they will bring a darkness so complete that the world will be flooded in tears. You, Ainslee Emlyn, must find your spark. You must breathe life into it, and you must push back the winds of turmoil that will try to snuff it out. You, and no other, must become the Light.”

I blink at her sudden seriousness. “But I’m no one.” My father’s words flash through my mind again, called forth from the darkness as they are so often.

“You are not no one. You are Ainslee Emlyn.” Her confusion is palpable. “The web would not have brought you here if your strands didn’t matter. It would not have brought you to me as my first charge or to Vellith as her last.”

The possibility and repercussions of what Cadence is saying push against everything inside me.

I can’t be important. I’m not strong like Cole or Maeve, capable of standing against someone like Gethin.

My place is to help, but I could never fight back on my own, and that’s exactly what Cadence is saying.

Cole bears the burden of being important, and he’s barely holding himself together. I’ve seen how it nearly broke Maeve. Rhion, Casimir, and even Gethin are all so much stronger than me, and yet, the weight of their responsibilities has threatened to crush each of them.

My place in this world is to help, not to lead. I cannot be the person they think I am. It would… it would break me to have that many people rely on me.

“No.” I say it and stand up, pushing away from the worktable.

Cadence doesn’t move, her smile never fading.

“I am not who you’re looking for. I’m sure there are a hundred people in the House of Light that would love to be told they’re meant for something greater.

Not me. I’m not important, and I never will be. ”

Instead of waiting for her to respond, I turn around and walk out the door, leaving Vellith and Cadence in the room. I don’t need to shine a light now that I know the tunnel was only darkened because of the spelled web at the entrance.

I go back the way I came, ignoring everyone and everything.

I walk as fast as I can through the tunnel and into the main corridor.

My heart races, my mind simply repeating, “No, no, no,” over and over again.

Then I get to the small wooden door that opens into Selithar, and as I put my hand on the knob to open it, a soft hand touches my shoulder.

I whirl around, and Cadence is standing behind me, her head tilted ever so slightly with a smile on her face, and she says, “You will bring the Light, Ainslee. The web is leading you to that purpose. You will bring the Light, and it will be glorious. Shine brightly. Only the Bright can tame the Strong. As it was in the past, so will it be in the future.”

Then she lets me go, and I don’t hesitate to swing the door open and step into the waning sunlight. I don’t stop walking. Everything urges me to escape the Keep of Webs. Cadence and Vellith don’t follow me.

When I’m out of sight of the Keep, I turn around and make sure I wasn’t followed, that my guides aren’t anywhere to be seen.

Without a second thought, I step into an alley and shift into another woman’s shape, and it’s strangely difficult.

The fear inside me at what they’d said won’t seem to allow itself to be pushed into a recess of my mind.

Then I feel like I can breathe again. My heart’s still racing, but my chest doesn’t feel like someone’s sitting on it.

I’m free. The words that Vellith and Cadence said almost seem like they came from a dream.

I know they weren’t, though, and I know that there’s nothing that will convince me to go back into the Keep of Webs until it’s time to meet Maerlix.

I take another full breath, savoring the air that tastes so sweet compared to the musty scent of the Keep.

When I let it out, I smile, and the fear fades even faster.

Nothing they said matters. I have my orders from Maeve, and that’s what I’m going to worry about.

I will find Vesta, and then I’ll go back to Stormhaven.

We have a war to fight, after all. But first, I have to get ready for my night with Rhion. That, at least, brings a smile to my face.