Page 77 of Stormvein (The Veinbound Trilogy #2)

She holds my gaze for a moment longer, then nods. “They sacrificed their lives for a single child.”

“Yes.” I move closer to her, drawn by the need to offer comfort. A need that should feel foreign, yet comes more naturally than it should. “A child that Sereven wanted badly enough to oversee the transport personally.”

When Forsala arrives, her hand resting on Varam’s arm, I invite her to sit in the chair Jaris vacated. She sinks into it, eyes sharp as they look at me.

“How can I be of service, my Lord?”

“I’d like to ask you about Nyassa.”

She blinks, shocked. “Nyassa? That’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time.”

“We’re trying to understand what happened after the Silvermist Pass ambush.”

Something flickers across her face, old grief maybe, or a memory that still hurts after all these years.

“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?”

“She knew she 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 was sent there. 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 … this thing that 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. You thrived . 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 … about me . About why Sereven feared me so much, and what happened to those four masters.”

“We’ll discover what we can.”

“Jaris and Forsala both said that the Authority continued to hunt for months, but never found any trace of the masters or the child … me.”

“Which suggests whatever method they used was effective. No obvious trail, no witnesses who knew what their ultimate plan was.”

“I wonder what happened to them. Does sacrifice mean that they died getting me away?”

“It’s possible. Forsala seemed certain Nyassa didn’t expect to return.”

“What could they have done that required the deaths of all four of them?”

“Power of that magnitude always comes with a cost. Usually blood or lifeforce. Especially when channeled toward something that could have moved a person between worlds.”

“It still doesn’t make sense.” Frustration edges her voice. “I still don’t understand what Sereven would have seen in a child? What possible threat could a three-year-old pose to the Authority?”

“Perhaps it wasn’t what you were, but what you might become. The prophecy was starting to come to light around the same time as your rescue. Maybe the masters discovered something that linked you to it, even back then.”

“And if that’s true? If I was born here, taken from this world then brought back by your summoning spell …”

“Then maybe everything—the tower, my imprisonment, the spell—served a purpose none of us ever comprehended.”

“ What purpose?”

“To keep you alive. To bring you back when the time was right. When your power could finally be used as intended.” The words come easily, though the concept behind them is difficult for me to accept. I’ve never been a believer in prophecy, in fate.

She studies my face. “Do you really believe that?”

“I believe in patterns, in proof. And the patterns forming here are too precise to be a coincidence.”

Further discussion is put on hold by Telren’s arrival. He enters with several scrolls tucked under his arm, and an expression on his face that shows the barely contained excitement of a scholar who has found something interesting.

“Lord Torran.” He sounds slightly out of breath. “I’ve found some references that might relate to the blue crystal you asked about.” His eyes flick briefly to Ellie, frowning at how close she’s standing to me, and the lingering silver glow surrounding her.

I reach down to squeeze Ellie’s fingers, then gesture for Telren to take a seat. “What have you discovered?”

He places the scrolls on the table. “These contain mentions of a crystal with unusual properties. The information is incomplete. Many of our oldest texts were destroyed by Authority years ago.”

“What do they tell us?”

“They speak of a crystal that amplifies certain types of powers.” He unrolls two scrolls.

“This passage describes it as capable of … ” His fingers move across the ink.

“‘ Drawing forth and channeling the essence of those who wield it .’ Another mentions that it ‘ separates what is joined, and joins what is separate.’ ”

“That sounds like what happened at River Crossing and Blackstone Ridge. The crystal tore my shadows apart, but responded differently when Ellie’s power combined with mine and touched it.”

“These are only a couple of my findings. I thought you might want to know before I continue looking. I need more time to search the archives thoroughly.”

“Please, continue. Focus on any mention of how such a crystal might be used, or how different types of powers might interact with it.”

After Telren takes his leave, promising to continue his research, I turn to Ellie.

“There’s one more person we need to speak with.”

“Lisandra.”

“Yes. She’s been the leader of Stonehaven since my capture at Thornreave. She might recognize connections we’re missing.”

“ If she’ll tell us.”

“She will. But I think we’ve done enough for today. That can keep until tomorrow.”

She nods, but I can tell her mind is still turning over everything we’ve learned.

“It still seems impossible. The idea that I might have been born here, taken from this world, and then brought back by your spell.”

“More impossible than healing a man tortured beyond recognition?” The question comes out soft. “More impossible than our powers merging at Blackstone Ridge in ways that terrified Sereven?”

Her lips curve. “When you put it that way …”

She looks up at me, and for a moment, we’re back in that space where barriers fell and connection deepened beyond anything I’ve ever allowed myself.

“Whatever we find out, it doesn’t change what I’ve seen in you since you arrived in this world.”

“And what’s that?”

I hesitate, unaccustomed to giving voice to such thoughts.

For decades, I’ve considered every word before speaking, measuring impact against intention.

But with her, the walls I’ve built around myself have begun to crumble.

It should terrify me, this vulnerability.

It should register as a weakness to be eliminated.

Instead, it feels like finding firm ground after years adrift.

“Courage. Resilience. The will to face the impossible and still move forward.” I allow myself a rare moment of complete honesty. “Qualities I recognize because I’ve had to cultivate them myself. Qualities that kept me sane in the tower while the world moved on without me.”

Her eyes widen, and her hand rises to my face. The contact sends tendrils of silver dancing across my skin.

“Before the tower, I fought because it was my duty, my responsibility as Vareth’el.

During those years of imprisonment, I fought because I refused to break.

” Bitterness enters my voice before I master it.

“But now, after everything we’ve been through together, I find myself fighting for a future worth building. ”

I lean back, and tilt her head up, one finger tracing over her lips. An action that would have been unthinkable for me not all that long ago, yet has become second-nature.

“Whatever lies ahead. The Authority, Sereven, this prophecy that seems to have ensnared us both. You won’t be facing it alone.”