Page 157 of Stormvein

“I don’t know how I can help, but I can share what I know as best as I can.”

“Thank you. Did Nyassa talk to you about the plan?”

“She visited me the night before they left. We were close. We grew up together. She came to say farewell.”

“She thought she wouldn’t return?”

“Sheknewshe would not,” Forsala corrects firmly. “What they planned required sacrifice.”

“And what was the plan?”

“To take the child somewhere safe. Somewhere the Authority could never reach. She said that the less I knew, the safer I would be.”

“Did she say anything about why this child was so important?”

“Nyassa mentioned only that Sereven had a particular interest in this child. That he had personally organized the transport to Blackvault. That was unusual enough to warrant attention. He rarely involved himself in prisoner movements.”

“Did she know why?”

“There was a rumor that the child represented the end of everything the Authority had built. That if she grew to adulthood, she could unravel the very foundations of Authority power.”

Ellie gasps, her hand covering her mouth. I glance over at her, then turn my attention back to Forsala.

“Thank you.”

She rises to her feet, ducking her head once more, then leaves.

Ellie spins away.

“Ellie?”

“It’s too much. All of it!” Energy crackles erratically across her skin, turning the air charged and unstable. “My entire life, everything I thought I knew about myself. It’s all a lie.” She turns to face me, eyes shining with unshed tears. “I wasn’t abandoned. I wassentthere. Hidden away. Because of something I can’t even remember!”

The storm of her power builds, making the shadows in the corners of the room writhe in response. Pressure builds, pressing in around us, and my powers rise instinctively, not to contain her power but to harmonize with it, creating eddies that help disperse the building energy safely around the room.

“Your life isn’t a lie.” I keep my voice calm, a counterpoint to her chaos. “Your experiences were all real. The person you became through them is real.”

“But I’m not who I thought I was!” A small vase shatters on a nearby table as her power lashes out. She doesn’t notice, too caught in her emotional storm. “I’m not even from Earth. I’m this … thisthingthat terrified Sereven so much he hunted me personally. A child that four powerful Veinbloods sacrificed themselves to protect!” The light courses down her arms now, small arcs of lightning jumping between her fingers. “How am I supposed to make sense of that?”

“By working through it one piece at a time. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we will.”

She takes a deep breath, visibly struggling to calm herself. “I can’t stop thinking about the group home. I thought I was just another abandoned child.” A bitter laugh escapes her.

I don’t offer her empty platitudes. She deserves better in the face of the revelations she’s discovered. Instead, I offer her my strength, my presence. The old Sacha, the Shadowvein Lord who used her to escape the tower, would have calculated the strategic value of her distress. Now, I find myself wanting to ease her pain for its own sake.

I reach out and draw her toward me, lowering my head until I can press my forehead against hers. My shadows surround us, responding to her power where our skin meets, creating a cocoon of intertwined energies that separates us from the world.

“Listen to me. What we’ve learned does not diminish who you became there. If anything, it shows how strong you are,growing up displaced, yet still finding your way.” My hands rest on her shoulders. “You survived being torn from your world. You adapted. Youthrived. And when my spell called across worlds, it was you who answered. Not by accident, but because something in you was always meant to return.”

“Do you think they knew?” Her voice trembles. “The masters who sent me away? Did they know I’d grow up feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere?”

The question strikes deeper than she likely realizes, touching on something I understand intimately. The isolation of being different, of carrying a burden others can’t comprehend.

“I think they knew you would be safer feeling lost than being dead. I think they made an impossible choice. They saw a child Sereven was willing to commit extraordinary resources to capture. They sacrificed themselves to keep you beyond his reach. Whatever they knew or didn’t know about where they were sending you, they clearly believed it was better than the alternative.”

She’s silent for a long moment, then she straightens, sniffs, and presses her hand to my cheek. Shadows rise, unbidden, tangling around her fingers, and she gives me a shaky smile.

“I want to know more. About the child … aboutme. About why Sereven feared me so much, and what happened to those four masters.”