Still, I thought it might be a relative. It isn’t uncommon for warrior families to migrate to the same cities, as you know. But the more he came around, the less I could deny it.
And the older he gets, the more he is the spitting image of Riolan.
My eyes were misty, my throat crowded, but I continued.
He has the Deneski hair and eyes, certainly, but beyond that, he carries himself with the strength and gentleness ofheart that made Riolan the warrior he was. He reminds me so of my brother, Mali.
Please tell Cypherion that I am sorry I never told him. I wished to, but it was his mother’s business before my own. The one time I tried to speak with her about it did not end well. Tell him I have kept an eye on her ever since they returned to Palerman, and I will continue to do so as long as we are both here. She is not alone.
And neither is he. If Cypherion wants to take the Deneski name, we are honored to have him.
I exhaled, looking to the ceiling. Everyone was quiet. Waiting. Beside me, Santorina wiped her eyes.
And…fuck. She’d lost both of her parents. Ophelia and Malakai had lost their fathers, though to very different circumstances. And Tolek’s relationship with his parents was…well, I didn’t truly know what to call that. But it made me certain without having to say anything, they understood the weight of this letter in my hand. Of Akalain’s acceptance.
“Can I keep this?” I asked Malakai.
He nodded. “Are you angry?”
“That Akalain didn’t tell me?” I considered. “No. I’m angriermymother didn’t—couldn’t,” I corrected quickly. It wasn’t my mother’s fault something had addled her mind. “When did Riolan die again?”
“Maybe a decade ago now,” Malakai said, dragging a hand across his jaw as he thought. “I think I was eleven, maybe.”
“I wonder if that’s what did it,” I mumbled.
“Did what?” Ophelia asked, seeming to relax now that I said I wasn’t mad at Akalain.
“Maybe that’s what sent my mother into…” I trailed off. “It’s been about that long.”
Tolek said, “It could’ve been. Maybe she’d been in touch with him or was planning to contact him. I can imagine it would have hurt her to find out.” He shifted closer to Ophelia at the thought.
“Maybe she loved him.” Rina’s voice was small. “If she learned of his death, her heart could have broken.”
Guilt gripped my chest at the thought. Of a heartbreak so deep, it sent my mother into her current state, unable to even care for her son. I’d resented her sometimes for it, though I didn’t want to. Now, I wished I’d known sooner. That I’d understood.
I imagined having Vale ripped away from me permanently, and my mind threatened to free fall the way my mother’s had. Spirits, if she hadn’t told me to come back for her—if she wanted to leave or if something horrible befell her—it would have been easier to give into the void than continue on.
I wished she were here. Everything was less painful with her around, her questions and reflections soothing as I processed.
A flash of what she might be experiencing right now barreled through my head. A cage she’d escaped, slammed shut once more. A master she’d broken free of, wielding her power as if it was his own. And if her readings were still malfunctioning, if she was hurting?—
My fist tightened around the parchment.
At the crinkling I snapped back to the present.
Clearing my throat, I folded the letter and tucked it into the pocket of my leathers. The same dirty pair I’d been wearing for much too long, though everyone had the grace not to tell me they smelled like horse shit, sweat, and dirt.
“I think, more than anything,” I said, “a part of me hoped he was still out there. That he might look for me one day. Now I have this void that I’ll never fill.”
“I’m sorry, Cypherion,” Ophelia said. “But this doesn’t make you anything less.”
I shrugged. “I always suspected my father might have been a Soulguider. Because of the scythe.” The one I found all those years ago in my mother’s attic and had trained with ever since. The only piece I had of him.
I’d never told everyone to whom it belonged—but based on the benign reactions, they’d guessed.
“Riolan was the Master of Communication for Lucidius’s council,” Malakai said. “It’s why I only met him twice. He was always traveling for different negotiations and meetings. Maybe he got the weapon during one of his trips.”
As the only Soulguider in the room, Erista added, “He could have won it as an honor. Sometimes, if foreign warriors perform a service in our territory, they’re rewarded with a scythe.”
