Cypherion, watching her intently, was silent, as if she’d already told him this.
“How did he do it?” I asked.
“He forced me into very powerful reading chambers like the one I was in when Malakai and the others showed up.” Vale’s eyes closed for a moment, and she shook her head as if fighting off a memory.
“The first time was the day after Cypherion left. It was…awful. I couldn’t fight it anymore. That chamber was too powerful, and it pulled the suppressed readings to the surface until everything cracked.” She watched the rain, her voice vacant. “A deluge. It slowed eventually. But that chamber snapped whatever lock was baring my way. I think Titus had it built out of stone infused with precious resins and powders.”
“To try to draw out his own power,” Cyren muttered like a realization had just dawned.
Vale nodded.
Cyren said, “I’m sorry he forced you into that.” Vale smiled appreciatively. Cyren tilted their head, braided coronet shining like a halo. “I wonder if…”
“If?” Vale asked.
“Perhaps that seeing chamber can be used to enhance Starsearchers of a normal power level.”
Vale considered, her first genuine smile spreading across her face. “Find a way to turn his deceit into something advantageous for our clan.”
“Why stop there?” Lyria asked. “Maybe that level of magic can be converted to weapons of some sort. A mobile strength for Starsearchers.”
“It’s something to consider,” Cyren agreed.
When there was a lull in their theorizing, I asked, “You can read again?” Vale nodded. “How has it been?”
“Intense,” she said. “At first, the sessions were painful and all-consuming. I wasn’t—I’m still not—used to it. This magic was always something I understood and embraced. Until recently, something I felt proud of.”
“And you don’t anymore?” Tolek asked.
“It’s not that I don’t, but I’m relearning it. The first few sessions were excruciating. So many images flooding by after being suppressed for far too long, I still don’t know what to make of them all.” Vale swallowed. Cypherion gripped her thigh, squeezing gently, and she met his eyes. “Once I adjusted to it, I found out I can do something no other Starsearcher in known history can.”
“What?” My skin prickled, Angellight stirring.
“I can read the fates of higher powers.”
Stunned silence fell across the room like a sheet of ice. “An actual reading?” Cyren asked.
“Yes.”
Erista said, “Aren’t you only supposed to be able to read the fates of warriors and beings of similar power levels?”
Vale’s lips pressed into a line. “Exactly.”
Cypherion interjected, “It seems like what Vale saw in Seawatcher Territory—with the Angels and gods and Annellius—was part of this sect of power she has and possibly why her magic was malfunctioning.”
“Which started when I first came to Damenal,” Vale added.
“When you were first around the emblems,” I muttered, gripping my necklace. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Vale’s magic initially stopped working when she was near a potent source of Angel power.
“And when I first read about your future, Ophelia,” Vale said. “That reading that spoke of darkness without a cause.”
“Why, though?” I considered.
Vale stole herself. “I don’t only have one Fate tie,” she said of the connection Starsearchers have with the beings who transfer them readings. “I have nine.”
My eyes widened. Jezebel’s jaw unhinged, and Lyria nearly choked on her drink.
“Nine?” Tolek repeated. Cyren and Erista both blinked rapidly at Vale.
