Page 90 of Stormvein (The Veinbound Trilogy #2)
“You see, we discovered after many experiments that non-Veinblood children make perfect temporary holding vessels. They’re open, receptive, and uninformed.
Unburdened by preconceptions, if you will.
” He speaks as if discussing crop rotation or weather patterns, not the systematic exploitation of innocents.
“We found that the power would enter them, and then dissipate harmlessly. Unfortunately, it came with their death, but such is the price we have to pay.” His voice softens slightly, taking on that reverent quality again. The voice of a man discussing his masterpiece.
My stomach turns. Experiments . How many children suffered before they perfected their method? How many died?
“But you , Elowen … you were different.”
He steps closer to her, and I tense, ready to move between them. Ellie doesn’t retreat. She stands her ground, chin lifting slightly despite the horror etched across her face.
“You didn’t just receive and channel the power, you bonded with it.
You became something more than we could have ever anticipated.
” There’s something unsettling in his gaze.
Pride mixed with possessiveness. “The first successful permanent living vessel. A breakthrough that changed everything we thought possible.”
“I was a prisoner. You were moving me to Blackvault for purging.” Her fingers clench and unclench at her sides, silver sparking between them. Frost forms in small patterns on the floor beneath her boots.
“You were never a prisoner.” Sereven dismisses her claim with a wave of his hand.
“You were the future of the Authority itself. Our greatest achievement.” His voice warms with disturbing pride.
“A vessel being trained to help establish a world of order rather than the chaos these last remnants of the old world beliefs would unleash. One who could take remaining Veinblood powers and use them for the Authority’s will. ”
His expression hardens. “Until the Veinblood masters stole you away and sent you beyond my reach.”
Ellie’s breathing turns shallow. “They didn’t steal me,” she whispers. “They saved me.”
The pieces click together in my mind with terrible clarity, a puzzle whose solution only reveals more horror.
“You didn’t hunt her because you feared her power. You hunted her because you believed she belonged to the Authority.”
“I hunted her because she belongs to me! ” The crystal flares between his fingers. “Because the power within her was meant to serve order, not become a weapon against it.”
The first genuine emotion breaks through his careful facade. Possessiveness … hunger . It isn’t just for the power itself, but for her. The way his eyes track her movements, the proprietary tone when he says her name. It’s the look of a craftsman whose masterpiece was stolen before completion.
She is the embodiment of something far more personal to him. A pet project, a creation, a possession stolen away from him. For twenty-four years, he’s been searching for her. Not simply because of what she can do, but because he sees her as his .
I take a half-step closer to her. The idea of Sereven looking at her that way, thinking of her as property, makes my shadows writhe with barely controlled rage.
“I’m not a weapon.” Her voice is stronger now despite the tremor in her hands, and the silver tracing paths through her veins like constellations. “I’m not a vessel. An object. I’m a living, breathing person .” The words carry all the certainty she’s fought to claim since arriving in Meridian.
“You are both, and neither.” Sereven’s voice drops to something almost like reverence, like a priest before an altar. “You are something entirely new. Power given form. Energy made flesh.” He takes a step toward her, hand half-raised as if to touch her face.
The silver in Ellie’s eyes flares. “Don’t.”
“The masters who took you knew what you would become. Why do you think they gave their lives to steal you away? They recognized what we had created. What I had created.”
I move forward a step, shadows sliding over my skin in sinuous patterns. The movement is deliberate, calculated to draw Sereven’s attention back to me, away from Ellie. Away from the dangerous fascination in his eyes when he looks at her.
“But then dreams spread like wildfire across Meridian.” His lips twist into something between a grimace and a smile.
“Prophecies about the Shadowvein Lord returning, and Veinblood power returning to the land.” His hands tighten around the crystal.
“I spent twenty-four years doing everything I could to ensure that prophecy would never be fulfilled, through purges, hunts, and executions of all dream-speakers.”
Thousands of deaths lie behind his words. Families torn apart, bloodlines extinguished. All to prevent what stands before him now.
“But I still came back.” Ellie lifts her chin, shoulders thrown back, as she stares at him. “And we found each other.”
“Yes, and you stand here before me. The very combination the prophecy foretold. The union that threatens everything the Authority has built.”
His eyes move between us, while the crystal pulses in his hand. Its rhythm changes subtly, the blue light intensifying. My shadows respond, pulling toward it in ways I can’t entirely control. It feels like hooks beneath my skin, tugging at something inside me.
I resist the pull, muscles tensing with effort.
“Is that why the crystal affected my shadows differently when Ellie intervened at Blackstone Ridge?” I force the words out, buying time as I try to understand what’s happening. How to counter it.
“The crystal contains the power from hundreds of purged Veinbloods.” His voice takes on that scholarly tone again.
“Each one preserved.” His fingers caress the crystal’s surface.
“When Elowen’s energy touched it while it was actively drawing on yours, the resonance created … unexpected interference.”
I glance at Ellie, wondering if she feels it too. The crystal’s strange pull, trying to separate power from person.
“Because I was created from the same energy the crystal harvests.” Understanding and horror mix together in her voice. “I’m made of stolen magic. Pieced together from the people you murdered … from people like Sacha.”
The realization sends visible tremors through her body. She’s not just a vessel. She’s a vessel filled with harvested Veinblood power. Her abilities came at the cost of others’ suffering.
“Yes.” Sereven nods. “Your very existence represents a flaw in the system. A power that adapted instead of dissipating, that evolved instead of serving its intended purpose.” He takes another step toward us, angling his body toward Ellie.
“But it’s not too late. You could still fulfill your true function, Elowen. ”
His voice softens, becoming almost gentle. “Join with the Authority. Take your rightful place, and help establish order in a world torn apart by chaos.” He extends his hand, the one not holding the crystal. “Help us create stability instead of destruction. It’s what you were made for.”
The crystal’s blue light intensifies as he speaks, casting strange shadows across his face that seem to move independently of his gestures.
My own power tugs uncomfortably toward it, like metal drawn to a lodestone.
A persistent, invasive pull that grows stronger with each moment we stand here.
From Ellie’s wary expression, she’s feeling something similar.
“My true function? ” Ellie laughs, but there’s no humor in the sound, just a brittle edge that could shatter into either fury or grief.
“You stole power from people like Sacha. You imprisoned and tortured them, harvested their abilities against their will.” The light intensifies, radiating outward in waves that make the air shimmer around her.
“You used that stolen power to create me as a tool, and now you’re talking about my true function? ”
“I speak of purpose. About the greater good that the Authority has always served.” Sereven’s voice takes on that familiar cadence of Authority doctrine.
The same self-righteous tone heard in countless proclamations before executions.
“About the necessity of controlling power rather than allowing it to run unchecked.”
“By torturing those born with abilities you’ve always coveted.” My shadows appear briefly, weaving around my fingers, as the pull toward the crystal grows stronger. “By breaking what you cannot control. By twisting children into vessels for stolen power.”
His eyes meet mine, and for a brief moment, I glimpse the person I once knew. The man he was before the Authority’s beliefs consumed him. Before power changed him.
“You never did understand true necessity, Sacha. Sometimes things must be broken before they can be properly rebuilt.”
My shadows writhe beneath my skin. It’s almost painful, yet I cannot move away. I dare not.
“And now?” Ellie demands. “What happens next?”
“Now you have a choice to make.” Sereven steps back, creating distance. The movement of a negotiator establishing his position. “You came here for answers, and I have given them freely. What you do with them will determine what follows.”
He gestures toward the door. “My forces will reach Stonehaven by tomorrow. Five thousand men. Those you’ve come to care for will face overwhelming odds. I can order a retreat right now. One command, and they all live. You can save them all.”
His offer hangs in the air, while names and faces flash through my mind. Varam, Tisera, the families, the children. Everyone at Stonehaven who trusts us to keep them safe.
“In return for what?” Ellie’s voice gives away nothing of what she’s thinking.
“You stay here.” Sereven’s gaze fixes on her face, the offer clearly directed at her, and not me. The hunger in his expression intensifies. Not just for her power, but his creation returning to him. “Help us understand what you’ve become. Help us perfect the process.”
His words raise the hairs on the back of my neck.