“It wasn’t your fault, Arken. This world can be cruel to new parents, especially those of lower stations. We don’t know their story, but I do know this:It wasn’t your fault.”
If only I believed her.
If only the circumstances of my birth were the strangest, most mysterious thing about me. Perhaps if that were the only damning evidence surrounding my existence, I could have been content to stay home, comfortable with our slow and quiet life in the woods. But it was not—and I never had been. Because I was born alone, I was born hungry, and I was born…different.
There was something wrong with me. Something dangerous.
My Light Resonance manifested first, but it came too early, and it was too strong. I had barely been a toddler when I had first displayed signs of being a strong Resonant, my chubby little fingertips glowing every time I wanted something from my surrogate mother. Precocious, she’d called me. That’s how she had explained it to the others, too. Light Resonance was rare these days, and perhaps it just manifested a little differently from the other elements. It’s not like the people of the Brindlewoods had much of a frame of reference.
To this day, Light was still my strongest aetheric bond. It was what came naturally to me, my default wellspring of arcana. But it was not the only one.
Perhaps it was a gift from the Fates that my other Resonances didn’t manifest until I was old enough to understand how to hide them. Fire came first, then Air, when I was eleven. Earth and Water showed up within the week I turned twelve, and finally, Shadow. On the day I turned thirteen.
It had only taken me one glance at the sheer terror in my mentor’s eyes that day to understand that this secret of mine was a dangerous one. And Amaretta confirmed it the moment she made me promise to keep it hidden… to keep themallhidden. Everything except the Light. She couldn’t explain why, not in full. Something about the tattoo on her wrist, she’d said, kept her bound to secrecy on certain matters. They were typically things that related to the complexities of arcane science. I understood that, now, glancing down at my own wrist, where the arcane brand glistened in the sun.
I just wish I understood the rest.
I did know one thing though. My priorities were starting to shift. There was still a hunger in my heart, a desperate thirst for any and all knowledge I could get my hands on about aether, arcana, and Resonance. I didn’t think I would ever truly escape that need, that thirst for answers… the craving had just been dulled. Sated by something else.
But I had also realized that the pull, the tug that I had felt, drawing me away from home and into the unknown in the first place… it hadn’t just been the abandonment wound, or my lack of self-identity. Beyond needing answers, I had just been craving bigger and better things. Cravingmore.
Andgods, Sophrosyne was more.
Every day, I found something new to fall in love with about the city. Slowly, but surely, I was coming out of my shell,stepping into the person I had been too afraid to reveal in the Brindlewoods because there had been no one else like me. Not just because of my secrets, either. Here, I was surrounded by similarities—surrounded by potential. The burden of my secret felt less heavy surrounded by so many like-minded individuals, by so much knowledge and history and art andResonance.
I glanced back at Laurel, who had thankfully rolled over in her sleep. Even her deep golden skin was prone to burn, though, and she was tempting the Fates at this point. I got up from my perch, and went over to poke her with my wiggling toes.
“Pssst.Laurel. Wake up. I may be a Light Conduit, but I can’t control the sun. You’re frying like a fish, woman.”
Laurel groaned, flicking a pebble at me with astounding accuracy yet again.
“Fine, fine—suit yourself. I’m sure you look good in red,” I teased, tossing the pebble back.
“What if I had been dreaming about your sexy guardsman, hmm? The cruelty to just wake me up from such bliss!”
I burst out laughing. “Oh my gods, were you really?”
“No, I was dreaming about Hanna Cragg.”
“Of course you were.”
“Hey!” a third, unfamiliar voice shouted out, interrupting our conversation. “What the actual Hel are you two doing up here?”
Oh, fuck.
Chapter Fourteen
Kieran
I absolutely loathed dealing with the Lord of Embers.
If my random encounter with Arken at the bakery had been the highlight of my day, this was essentially the very opposite. Another child had gone missing, this time from Pyrhhas, and the figurehead of Atlassian leadership had just arrived at our doorstep to discuss the matter.
Fucking phenomenal.
I had several bones to pick with Lord de Laurent, leader of the Atlassian Courts and the House of Embers, but first on my list was how he’d just strutted into the Elder Guard headquarters today like he owned the damn place.
It was true that Sophrosyne was embedded right within the heart of Pyrhhas. His territories touched every edge of ourborders—but we were still an independent entity. The Courts ruled over every square inch of Atlasexceptthis city-state, and yet he still waltzed in here, carrying himself with that same presumptuous authority that he always did, demanding to speak with High General Demitrovic.