A girl stood at a water trough with a bucket. The trough gave only a whisper of water, algae and sediment clinging to the sides. The girl stared at me, her gaze going to my staff and my robes, eyes wide and pleading.
I knelt. “We will see.” The words felt like a thin promise, but I meant them. I placed both hands on the trough’s lip and called soft words—old words, the ones the Temple keeps for wells and weather.
Heat gathered at my sternum, and for a moment, the water shimmered like struck metal. The trough breathed shallowly and then expelled a thin, steady line of clear water.
The girl laughed and placed her bucket under the stream. “Thank you, priestess!” She turned to joyfully shout the news to the others in the village, her joy contagious.
As I turned to walk away, the girl called after me.
“Come back again, priestess!”
“I will,” I said. The vow tasted of iron.
As I walked back to my temple, I thought of the council chamber with its perfumed incense and polite smiles. I thought of Kathar’s voice, honeyed and slippery.
My stomach trembled with the knowledge that accusing the Elders would be like ripping a living seam open: messy, necessary, and impossible to sew back.
But it had to be done.
~
The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon as I approached the outskirts of Solaris, casting long shadows over the golden plains that stretched beyond the city walls.
They called it the City of Light. The phrase had comforted me when I was younger, when I still believed a place could be made whole by a single, steady flame. The Temple’s domes glittered in the low sun.
I had built wards to bind this city to secrecy—my own hands, my own magic entwined with stone—so the kingdoms beyond would not take our mountain, so merchants might not use our portals to bring us ruin. I had been proud of that work, and I had convinced myself that safety required sacrifice.
Now the truth I’d seen in the village followed me like an aftertaste.
A soft breeze stirred the dry grasses, carrying with it the scent of earth and dust, tinged with the faint, bittersweet aroma of wildflowers that clung to the dying light.
I pulled the hood of my cloak closer, letting the enchanted fabric fall around me, using my magic to shroud myself in a veil that rendered me almost invisible to any passerby.
It was strange, hiding myself like this, slipping through the edges of my own city as though I were a stranger, an intruder in the place I had once called home.
The journey back had been long and quiet, my mind racing with every step, filled with questions and uncertainties that I had hoped would unravel as I neared Solaris.
I shook my head, pushing my thoughts aside.
No, Dario waswrong. The Elders were trustworthy. Maybe there were one or two bad apples in the bunch, but they were not all bad.
I would question them all, and I would prove the Shadow King wrong.
When I finally reached the temple grounds, the atmosphere was one of barely contained chaos. Sun Paladins moved hurriedly across the courtyard, their voices hushed but strained, carrying an edge of urgency that sent a ripple of tension through the air.
The courtyard smelled of incense and sweat, of oil on mail. Paladins moved in tight knots; some limped while others carried sling-wrapped arms. All of them were the men who had accompanied me to the Forest of Night’s Bane.
It seemed Dario had not lied about sparing the paladins.
I slipped behind a marble column, watching from the shadows as they gathered in clusters, speaking in low, anxious tones.
“The High Priestess has been missing for a full day now,” I heard one of them say, his voice laced with worry. “If she’s truly in danger, we must act swiftly.”
Another paladin, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a grim expression, shook his head. “Leonidas has sent scouts to the forest’s edge, but there’s been no sign of her or… the Shadow King.”
At the mention of Dario, a pang of guilt shot through me. They believed I had been taken, that I was in peril, and yet here I was, creeping back under the cover of darkness, hiding from the very people who had sworn to protect me.
I took a steadying breath, and with a final tug at my hood, I stepped into the courtyard, letting my magic fall away as I moved into the open.
