Page 24 of Steeling Light (Shadowed Debts #3)

The city of Selithar was painted silver by moonlight the night Adelynne Emlyn returned from Draenyth for the first time.

She’d spent the last fourteen years raising and protecting her children in the capital.

Fear was constant there. The power of Light provided no protection in a city ruled by the Great Houses.

She was valuable, yet she had no one to guard her against those who would like to take advantage of her.

Her beauty was unparalleled, a spotlight on her that couldn’t be removed.

Her kindness was a weakness in a city where only strength was valued.

Only her wit, ability to charm even the darkest hearts, and her confidence had allowed her to survive those fourteen years.

But she was home now. Without her children. And she was tired. All she wanted was to rest, to give herself time to breathe unfettered by responsibility and fear.

“You’re the obvious choice, Adelynne. We talked about your taking the Crystal Crown before you left. Before you abandoned your home. Before you…”

Adelynne whirled on the Countess of Light. The woman wore all white, a dress covered from neck to toes in shimmering diamonds. Her hair had turned white a thousand years ago. The wrinkles had been there longer. Alyth Corvanne was one of the most ancient Immortals still drawing breath.

She remembered Daegon Rahn, Erevan Morvyn, Rhosyn Cyrus, and Hadric Tarnwell, the first rulers of the Great Houses. She was not the first Countess of Light, but she was the second.

“Alyth, I left to save my children. What else would you have had me do?” Adelynne demanded.

Alyth sighed and clasped Adelynne’s hands. “I would have had you stay far away from that beast to begin with. You certainly didn’t need his money.”

Adelynne couldn’t tell Alyth about the dreams she’d had, of the spider who spoke to her of the future.

Those messages were for her and her alone.

She’d sought out the man, and even while disgusted by him, she’d agreed to have his child.

It was not all that difficult to convince him she was interested in his wealth. She came from very little, after all.

“My desire to have a child who could defend itself is a reasonable desire, and you have said many times that you regretted not having a child.”

Alyth let out a soft breath and walked to the railing of the balcony.

She rested her arms on the zircon that had been smoothed until there wasn’t a single edge.

“It’s time you took the Crystal Crown. I am far too old to be running the House of Light.

I was ready to step down before you left.

You are the only one I trust to take over. Please.”

Her wish to give Adelynne the Crystal Crown was well known, and prior to leaving Selithar, it had been what Adelynne had wanted. But now… Now she truly understood the difference in power between her and even the weakest of the members of the Great Houses.

She understood she couldn’t protect her people, and something deep inside her said that violence was coming to Nyth.

She’d watched Ainslee and Darian grow up and seen the wondrous things they were capable of.

She’d watched Prince Cole train and seen the weapon Casimir had built him into. Already, as a youth, he terrified her.

And wearing the Crystal Crown would mean she was responsible for the people in her House. All of them. Their happiness. Their safety. Their very existence would be on her shoulders.

“We’re the weakest House. If the House of Earth decided they didn’t like me, they could march their armies on the House of Light, and we couldn’t do anything to stop them.

We don’t have a wall. We have no allies.

We have no warriors who could match anyone in the Great Houses.

How can I take responsibility for all these lives when I have no way to protect them? ”

And Alyth smiled at her. “No House, Greater or Lesser, has ever gone to war with another. I have lived a very long time, my dear, and that is a universal truth. Immortals have gone to war, but never with each other. We know that our world was built by the dragons, and they didn’t make mistakes.

You don’t need to worry about protecting yourself from our kind. Only humans have ever posed a risk.”

Adelynne started to argue with her, but Alyth held up a hand. “If that’s a fear of yours, then wearing the Crystal Crown is the best way to change things.”

She didn’t answer, instead looking out at the city that had always been her home. No matter what she changed within the House of Light, it would always be the weakest of all the Houses. Her abilities had nothing to do with protecting anyone.

She watched the people walking over the cobblestones and could see the way their heads hung low. The bakers and blacksmiths. The cobblers and tailors. The farmers and laborers. Immortals, all of them, and yet, most of their lives were just as dreary as their counterparts in the human kingdoms.

“What can I do as the Countess of Light?” Adelynne asked.

Alyth cocked her head, not sure what direction her protégé’s mind was going. “You would control the House of Light. Your will would be law.”

Adelynne turned toward the older woman, a deadly serious look on her face. “Selithar isn’t Draenyth. We have no Kings or Queens. We aren’t strong enough on our own to defend ourselves, yet we act like miniature versions of the Great Houses. Selithar needs to become unified.”

She paused for a moment, not exactly sure how to explain the next part.

“And while we can’t protect ourselves like the Great Houses, all the Houses in Selithar could do more for our people.

This is the City of Moonlight. It’s the most beautiful place in Nyth, and the people living here should be happier than anywhere else.

For thousands of years, we’ve catered to the High Fae, but there’s no reason we can’t make sure the ones who bake the bread are happier than they’d be anywhere else in the world. ”

Alyth frowned as she heard the words for what they were.

A criticism. “There are always people that are excluded. There are always people who have harder lives. That’s just how things work.

You can’t change the fact that there are the haves and the have-nots.

Maybe their souls deserve to do penance for something in a previous life?

I don’t know why some people are born into privilege and others are born into a life of struggle. ”

Adelynne stood up taller. “I will accept the Crystal Crown. I will bear the burden of its weight, but it’s not for me that I do it.

I don’t want it, but I have been a have-not.

I lived in Draenyth at the mercy of everyone around me.

I didn’t deserve to be terrified. My children certainly shouldn’t have to depend on the Prince of Flame for their safety.

My son didn’t deserve to be threatened with eternal slavery because of a practical joke. ”

“No one is enslaving anyone in Selithar, Adelynne.”

Adelynne shook her head and turned back to look at the city. “I will accept the Crown. That’s all that matters to you. I will be the best Countess I can be. I will give myself over to the service of my House.”

And she would. She would also throw herself into the service of Selithar as a whole. Her life and rule would brighten the lives of the people whose struggles she barely understood. She would change the way the city was ruled.

The world would become a better place because she accepted the burden of the Crystal Crown.

The lives of an entire city would be happier because of her sacrifice.

And for almost nine hundred years, Selithar became a sanctuary for the common Immortal.

A place where an ironwight blacksmith didn’t go to sleep afraid that they’d be driven from their forge and be forced to live a half-life between this world and the void.

Where a faun doesn’t have to be afraid of being enslaved simply because he was hungry and looked in the wrong person’s direction.

There may always be haves and have-nots, but in Selithar at least, that difference doesn’t matter quite so much.

And it’s only because Adelynne Emlyn accepted a crown she didn’t want.