Dani stopped, breathing hard. Her eyes darted around the ruins. “Where do you think He is?”
Neither of them had much time for holy awe. Lore appreciated that Dani wanted to get right down to business, really. She shrugged. “Back in one of those rooms, maybe?”
“Could be.” Dani glanced at her. “I’m going to look through the cathedral. You search out here.”
Lore arched a brow. “Seems pretty clear He isn’t out here.”
“Check anyway.” Dani waved a hand, dismissing her as she stalked through a crumbled archway. “Doesn’t hurt to be thorough.”
Then it was just Lore and the Fount.
The piece of It burned against her back, a pleasant heat like a fireplace after a cold day, a sip of whiskey on a sore throat. She could hear It singing on the breeze, light and harmonic, thrumming alongside her heartbeat.
Go on.
Not Nyxara’s voice, not really a voice at all. Something different, something deeper.
Every thought she’d had about playing this close to the chest, not revealing the piece of the Fount, fled her mind. Everything in her pointed only to the heat and the song, to the reunification at her fingertips. Something she could finally make right.
She didn’t notice stepping forward, didn’t notice taking her pack from her shoulders and drawing out the piece, her hands immediately numbing. It fit perfectly into the notch in the side of the Fount, stone flush to stone as if it had never been broken at all.
Lore tried to step away, tried to take a moment to enjoy theforeign feeling of relief. But when she let go of the stone, it held her fast, sure as shackles, like her fingers were frozen to its surface.
The song in her head crescendoed, the melody vibrating her bones. A strangled cry left her throat, little more than a moan.
Her vision blurred. Went black.
A familiar feeling
drained
to the last
drop
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
LORE
Time is a vast ocean. Memory is a small boat.
—Graffiti on the side of a Myroshan vessel, 67 AGF
Lore?
Nyxara’s voice. Tired and languid, as if She’d just woken from a long sleep. Finally at rest, here in the Fount, finally able to speak again now that Lore was connected to It.
Lore didn’t answer, couldn’t figure out how. But when Nyxara’s voice floated through her, it sounded like a smile.Oh. You found it.
Where are You?Lore managed to cobble words together, though it was a near thing, more emotion than language.
I’m not sure.Nyxara sounded slightly troubled, but it smoothed out quickly.Resting. It’s nice to be done. I wished it away for so long, but I’d already made My vow by then. When you wished it gone, it could be. You didn’t take the drink. That wasn’t on you.
Wait.Lore felt like she was scrambling, lost in the dark, drowning without knowing which way was the surface.I have questions—
No, Nyxara said dreamily.I’m done.
“You can’t be.” That much, Lore managed to say aloud, hervoice echoing in the broken courtyard. “There’s still so much to do, I still need Your help—”
