Astra’s heart drummed against her ribs, the words falling off her so casually. “A what? What do you mean ‘train’ me?”
“In some ways I already have. Every time you read someone’s emotions or illuminate something… every time you move shadows or cast a spell, that knowledge flows in your blood?—”
“Hold on,” she gasped. “Move shadows? Cast a spell?”
Leona frowned. “Are you not casting?”
“No! What did you say about the shadows?”
Leona suppressed a sigh. “Your mother really stuck to the bans then?”
“Everything. We aren’t allowed to practice any of it. I just thought I was extremely intuitive. We chalked the sunlight up to The Flare.”
Leona drew closer. “You are a Shadow Goddess, Astra. One in a line of hundreds of generations of women who have carried on the tradition. You were blessed and cursed by the same ancient magic that sent me here.”
“I am an intuit?—”
“That’s not a thing,” Leona snorted. “But it is a convenient explanation for what you must be able to do without even trying. They fear you. They’ve always feared us. You were chosen by the Mother. Did you say sunlight?”
“Yes, we thought it was fire, but Ehlaria said it was sunlight!”
“Ah,” Leona whispered, chewing on her bottom lip. “So you Tethered to a Solarian, then?”
“How did you?—”
“How do you think I got into this mess, dear girl? When I Tethered to Solan and inherited his light, the clock started ticking with the Court Above.”
Astra touched her forehead, a bead of sweat rolling down her skin as she tried to take this in.
“My gods,” she sighed. “But I’ve always had the sunlight, I didn’t Tether to Luxuros until?—”
“Luxuros Soleras?” Her wispy fingers tightened into fists.
Astra winced. “We didn’t know who he was. He was thrown into the Rift during The Flare... where Mother and I both touched him,” she said, realizing now that they’d always been Tethered in some way, then. “He’s been training me, but we didn’t know anything about Shadows or casting.”
She shook her head. “He wouldn’t. Even an experienced Light God only has so much to teach you.”
“A Light?—”
“The Solar and Lunar Courts are not what they seem, Astra. You need to speak with your mother. She knows all of this!”
Astra clenched my jaw. “She never speaks of any of it, Leona. It’s too painful for her. I think she blames herself for not stopping you.”
Leona’s shoulders sank. “It was all my fault, not Oestera’s. But of course, she blames herself. She always kept me on a pedestal.”
“You didn’t cause it, Leona, we’re sure of it. I saw it with my own eyes, Selenia lied to all of you!”
“Perhaps I could still make my Ascent then.” Her eyes lit with the notion. “I don’t understand why she would do this to me?”
“We aren’t sure, either. We’ve only been able to piece together a small part of the story. But she did indeed bargain her own shadow with the Nether Queen in exchange for something, and we think my mother knows.”
“Oestera would never betray me,” Leona snapped.
“She certainly is covering something up.”
She shook her formless head. “The only secrets Oestera would keep are to ensure your safety, Astra. Oestera’s loyalty is the only thing I’ve ever been certain of.”
Astra’s chest tightened, immediately rejecting the notion her mother did anything out of protection. “I didn’t come here to fight with you, Leona. I need to know what Selenia got in exchange from the Nether Queen, and the only way to do that is to get her shadow.”
