Page 8 of Stormvein

The scene shifts abruptly. I’m back in the tower where everything began, but it’s different. The walls are translucent, revealing infinite darkness scattered with stars beyond. Shadows move within the stone itself, forming patterns that almost coalesce into meaning before dissolving again, like a language I’m on the verge of understanding.

“The bindings have broken.” A female voice comes from everywhere and nowhere.

I spin around, finding only darkness gathering in the center of the chamber, twisting like living smoke.

“What binding?”

“All of them.” The darkness pulses, almost familiar in its rhythm. “The ones you knew about. The ones you didn’t. The ones that held him. The ones that held you.”

A fleeting silhouette forms within the darkness. Tall, lean, with a profile I would recognize anywhere.

Before I can reach for it, the dream shatters into scattered shadows.

Now I’m standing on a mountain path overlooking Ashenvale from above. The city gleams white and gold in sunlight, its towers reaching toward the sky. From this distance, it looks like something from a fairy tale.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” A voice speaks beside me, tinged with bitterness beneath admiration.

I turn to find a woman standing there. Older than I am, with silver streaking her dark hair and lines at the corners of her eyes. Something about her seems vaguely familiar, though I’m certain we’ve never met.

“It was built on blood.” Her gaze remains fixed on the distant city. “That’s what they never told you. What they never told him, either. Until it was too late.”

“Who are you?”

She turns to me with a smile both sad and knowing. “Someone who tried to stop this long ago. Someone who chose love and lost everything.” Her hand lifts, almost touching my face before falling away. “Someone who recognizes what’s happening to you.”

I wake with a gasp, the dream fading, leaving me with a strange feeling of foreboding. The power responds instantly to my distress, flaring in painful waves before I wrestle it back under control.

“Bad dreams?” Mira’s voice is soft, but still reaches me from where she sits near the cave entrance, her silhouette outlined against the fading daylight.

“Not bad, but strange.” I push myself upright, wincing. My body aches in every joint, but at least the agony has subsided into something almost bearable.

“I need to get out of these clothes.” I pluck at the Authority’s servant’s uniform still clinging to my skin. “I can’t wear their uniform anymore.”

Mira nods, and stands up. She crouches beside me, and takes the pack I was using as a pillow. The action makes me realize I must have lost mine somewhere. It must have been when we crossed the river. Opening it up, she pulls out a tightly wrapped bundle.

“Tunic and pants. We’re not quite the same size, but they’ll do until we return to Stonehaven.”

She hands it to me. Shaking it out, I discover dark pants, a loose tunic, and a hooded cloak that should help conceal the occasional flickers of light that are still escaping my skin. I retreat to the shadows at the back of the cave, stripping away the Authority uniform with barely controlled revulsion. With each removed garment, I reclaim something of myself—not the Ellie who walked home through Chicago snow, but someone new emerging from her chrysalis.

As I pull on the new clothes, my fingers brush against something tucked against the underwear supporting my breasts. Dipping my fingertips beneath the material, I touch something firm that wasn’t there before.

When I draw it out, the world stops. My breath suspends in my lungs. Time stands still.

A ring rests in my palm. Black as a starless night, with a stone set inside the band that doesn’t reflect any light. It seems to consume it, creating a tiny void against my skin.

I’ve never seen it before. But I can guess what it is.

Sacha’s ring. The one he went to Ashenvale for. The object he was willing to risk everything to retrieve.

And now it’s here. Tucked into my clothes like it belongs there. My fingers tremble as I hold it.

How did it come to me?

The raven must have brought it. He must have sent it to me during whatever moments he had left.

My eyes burn, and I blink rapidly, refusing to let the tears fall.

But why? What does it mean?