9: Gifts

*Content warning: mention of blood, small cut.

Emrhys padded through the snow, legs weak. Breathless, she leaned against a tree, lungs burning, mind racing. Freedom was close, yet fear lingered, cold and tight in her chest. She glanced back toward the town proper.

There was no way in all the hells she would ever go back. Forward was the only path.

She followed a foot-track dug through the snow with boots and shoes of every size toward a cozy stone building with a peaked roof and warm light glimmering in stained-glass windows. The Priory receiving room would be just within, and beyond that, the chapel complex. She stepped up to the ancient wooden door and knocked.

“Who is it?” someone called out brightly. Someone who sounded just like her sister.

“A petitioner who seeks shelter at the Priory to offer prayers to the Light.”

The door swung open silently, no creak—someone must have oiled the hinges recently. It seemed like a thing Sevens might do.

“Em! Oh, thank goodness!” Lenore, framed in golden firelight that danced on her shining hair, smiled as she rushed forward to crush Emrhys in a hug.

“Lenore, I have missed you. I have missed you so much,” Emrhys rasped, half-laughing and half-crying as sudden joy rushed over her in a shimmering wave. She allowed Lenore to bustle her in through the entryway, guiding her toward a simple, comfortable receiving room filled with overstuffed chairs, a merrily crackling hearth fire, and a Melt Moon rosemary tree decorated in gold ribbons and flanked by icons of Saint Eskala, a flower-crowned woman holding a beautiful red fox in her arms, wearing a secret smile.

“Sit by the fire, get warm. Are you alone, or…” Lenore paused, expression tightening.

“Do not worry. Corvus is simply waiting outside. And he told me everything,” she whispered.

“Oh, thank the light,” Lenore exhaled in relief. “We don’t have long. I sent everyone who was supposed to be on duty with me to the orphanage with a generous donation from an anonymous donor—bless having a nest egg nobody else knew about. You must know everything now—what happened with father, why I was always so strong, and why you were always so strongly affected by your own spells. There is one other thing, though.”

“That the soul phials do not exist—that you are the phials?”

“Yes, just that tiny little insignificant fact. I carry you all within me,” Lenore murmured. “Father talked about it for as long as I could remember, about that power. Power to continue his work. To be given everything I want. I thought he was still trying to achieve it when he died—I didn’t quite realize that he had already somehow made it happen.”

“And it killed him, didn’t it? The darkness of the magic he was using sealed our fates.” Emrhys’ eyes went distant.

Lenore shook her head in disgust. “It always comes with a cost—at least, that is what Corvus told me as soon as he remembered it himself. I had forgotten all the details, but we both could recall something before our change, a horrible darkness, an evil green light, a feeling like impending death. Between the two of us, we figured out it had to be Kraah magic. Corvus is remarkably clever, that one.”

“He only remembered because the wards they were using to kill us broke the block on his memories. How delightful,” Emrhys muttered, shaking her head.

“Things are even worse than you think, I’m afraid. I found out that children have gone missing from the orphanages around Imperium and Frosthome—that someone matching the description of Madame Felsin ‘adopted’ them. I’m worried that monstrous woman is trying to continue Father’s work, or worse.”

“I… no. Absolutely not. We can’t allow that.”

“Do not worry, sister. I have plans in place to help. We are not the only ones. Em, you must listen to me. I’ll make up for what our father did. I’m saving your life, Sevens’ life. I’m going to restore you, or at least try—and it will help me understand how this all works, in case we can someday help others.”

“What do you mean?” Emrhys asked.

“Your most excellent fission calculations allow for the extraction of soul matter through blood and aethermagic. I have all these years been working on how to manage this.” Lenore drew a dagger from the sewing pouch tied to her apron strap, pointing to a satchel at her feet.

“Take out the phials box, Em. Prepare them, and fill two as quickly as you can.” Lenore waited until Emrhys had uncorked two mage-treated glass phials, then slid the dagger’s blade over her left arm with no wince or yelp of pain.

Emrhys watched with fascination as Lenore’s blood filled the phial she pressed to her sister’s arm with a shaking hand. She shoved the first into Lenore’s waiting hand so she could fill the second. Emrhys quickly sealed both while Lenore bandaged her arm.

“I just need to say the spell,” Lenore said, taking both tubes. “The words are anathema to the Kraah curse father used to do all this, and should have an immediate effect.”

“How in Ahra did he learn to use such terrible magic?” Emrhys’ voice shook. Nobody was supposed to dabble in such things. Such magic was universally forbidden for a reason. That Ahra’s ancient forebears had tried to hide it when the toll became too high should have been enough warning.

“That is something I intend to find out when we are safe,” Lenore whispered, something dangerous and sharp flashing in her jewel-blue eyes.

“Lenore, listen. Whatever you’re about to do will change you. It may even hurt you, light working or not—” Emrhys started.

Lenore’s lips curved in a sly smile, and she launched into her chant before Emrhys could stop her. A crack like thunder after lightning striking a tree sounded around them, oddly muffled. The smell of singed dust hung in the air.

“In the service of the Light, it is done,” Lenore said, triumph making her for a moment look like Saint. Eskala herself, a champion for justice, especially for those struggling against impossible odds.

Lenore’s form flickered softly, her eyes sad yet resolved. “This price was always mine to pay,” she whispered gently.

Emrhys’s throat tightened painfully—gratitude and grief mingling sharply as she struggled to understand.

“What—what just happened?” Emrhys stared in shock as Lenore grinned widely. The phials in her hand glowed, wisps of golden and ice-blue magic hovering over the blood in each tube.

Emrhys shivered in awe, thrills of excitement dancing over her spine and arms. Her missing soul was there, just waiting for her to take it back. She felt it as real as her own fingers and toes.

“Touch one quickly. It might respond,” Lenore urged.

Emrhys gazed at the small glass containers that seemed so innocuous. Extra soul-matter, the gifts Lenore had unwittingly received from her father, who’d stolen them from her Emrhys. From Corvus.

Emrhys reached for the blue-glowing vial. It flared brightly when she brushed her fingertips over the side. Lenore clapped with glee.

“See? It worked! I knew it would.”

“Are you all right, Lenore?” Emrhys ignored her sister’s excitement, frowning in concern.

Lenore just nodded, a soft smile twisting her lips.

“I feel a little strange. Like after you drink too much champagne, then the sparkles fade. But it’s not terrible.”

“I’m so sorry.” Emrhys’ voice broke on the words. “Lenore. I can’t believe you did this for us without knowing what would happen to you.”

“Oh, pish-posh. It was the decent thing to do.” Lenore heaved a relieved, pained, and joyful sigh, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I forgot what it was like to be me. These last years have been bright and hazy. Like I’ve been staring into the sun so much I can’t see what’s around me.”

“I’m glad it’s not all bad.” Emrhys smiled softly.

“Now that I know I won’t keel over, we really need to hurry. I kept aside money for you and Corvus—most of what father left for me. It will be enough for the months it will take you to get settled, and for Sevens to find sanctuary with the Tanahr Valiants Corps if he wants, even though it’s not a proper army like ours.” Lenore nodded toward the satchel at her feet.

Emrhys picked it up, taking inventory of the contents. The phials-box was enchanted against breakage and water—she could tell from the sigils painted on it, and two wallets stuffed full of Canrish gold nestled between the phials, a stack of brown-paper wrapped rations packets, and several leather-bound potion bottles.

“Emrhys, if it does not work—taking the soul shards back—will you be alright?”

Emrhys wiped away tears that tracked down her cheek and sparkled in her eyelashes. “Always. I’ll keep us well, and away from those terrible wards. But what about you? Won’t you come with us?”

“I’ll join you as soon as I can, but for now, we must give them two trails to puzzle out. Sevens agrees it is wiser. I’ll ride to seek sanctuary in one of the remote leytemples over the Canrish border, or maybe even Tanahr—any Ahran temple can’t turn me away, not now that I’m sworn into the Priory. All clerics are welcome in such places.”

“But you must feel awful after what you did for me. Hold a moment. I can help with that.” Emrhys paused, digging in her pocket. “Drink some of this—the Dominar’s own restorative potion that Sevens gave me. Do you have a way out of the city, at least?”

Lenore took a deep sip of the healing draught, and then beamed at Emrhys. “I have a farm-horse and pack ready. And a route charted with Sevens’ help. I can leave moments after you do. All will be well, Emrhys. I’ll find you when I can. I promise. Saint Eskala has an uncanny way of protecting her own,” she added, glancing at a painting of the saint with her companion fox and sly but gentle smile.

“Then go with all safety and haste. I love so very much. Thank you for everything.” Emrhys smiled and kissed Lenore’s cheek. “Walk in the light, Lenore.”