Fordham was as still as a statue. He didn’t take in the surroundings. Just glared at Keres unapologetically.
“I know,” she said, holding up her hand. “I apologize for the violation.”
“You used my magic. How?”
“You are Daijan,” she said on a sigh as she fluttered around the room, drawing the curtains.
“Explain.”
“The powers that you have are yours. The ones that I bonded to myself are mine. You are an extension of me. It is why your powers were amplified in the arena. My powers are of that magnitude if I choose, and they’re easier to wield through another. Becoming Daijan means that you have access to what I offered you, but it doesn’t mean they’re yours. It’s a Gift. Not a gift.” She put different emphasis on the words. An emphasis that Kerrigan had realized was significant too late. Keres shot Fordham a reluctant smile. “I wish there had been another way, but Vulsan never would have walked away otherwise.”
“Are you going to forcefully use my powers often?” he demanded, his back tight with discomfort.
“Blessings, no,” she said. “I hope that I never have to again. I wouldn’t have this time if we hadn’t needed a quick escape.”
“I could have—”
She cut him off, “We couldn’t speak without Vulsan hearing. You didn’t have any idea where my sanctuary was. Let alone the experience to travel several miles at a time.”
“Miles?” He choked on the word. “The most I’ve ever done is a mile, and I nearly died.”
“Precisely. With my new powers, yours are not unlimited, but they are massively extended, and I know how to use them. I’d be happy to train you to do so as well, but I do not currently have the time to continue arguing with you.”
Kerrigan slowly rose to her feet. “What are we doing here?”
Keres finally stilled. “Vulsan will want to parade you both through the city. He’ll want to appear as if he’s the champion, especially considering I stole his Daijan. I could sense the relationship between you two and knew that I had to intervene. Also that doing so would be unpleasant.”
“Because of Vulsan? What is with you two? You’re clearly more powerful.”
Keres sighed. “We don’t have time for that conversation. What’s important is getting you two out of the city and figuring out the problem with your magic.”
Kerrigan winced. “You saw that?”
“Clear as daylight.” She shuddered. “I didn’t know that was even possible against a Doma. That news in the wrong hands …” She looked green around the edges. “We don’t want that to get out in Domara. It would be devastating.”
“For Doma?” Kerrigan asked. “Because as far as I’m concerned, it sounds like they could be brought down a peg or two.”
“Certainly. Though I suspect it would be worse for the Doma to use it on others.”
Kerrigan blanched. “Oh.”
“Right. Now, we need to leave immediately, find someone with expertise in Doma magic—someone who will remain silent.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “And we need to do it before the sun sets.”
“I know someone who is a professor in theoretical casting. She was training me before my magic disappeared.”
Keres looked up at her. “I didn’t think they had professors and universities in Alandria yet.”
“They don’t. She’s here, in Domara.”
“How exactly did you meet and have her train you then?”
“She’s a spiritcaster, like me. Or … like I was.”
“Oh no,” Keres said, as if realizing where this was going. “No, no, no.”
“What?”
“You speak of Cleora Ectorius.”
“Well, I didn’t know her surname, but yes, Cleora. She’s been training me.”
“We’re already damned,” Keres said, sinking into the first available seat.
Kerrigan and Fordham exchanged a glance of confusion.
“She has been helpful thus far,” Fordham explained.
“Does she know about us? About your parentage?”
Kerrigan swallowed hard before nodding. Which was the wrong answer. “I trust her.”
“She’s one of Vulsan’s,” she said, burying her face in her hands. “She will do anything to remove her debt from him. She will sell you out. Her brother is a soldier in his dragon vanguard. There is nothing she wouldn’t do to get her into a better place for them.”
“No,” Kerrigan said at once. “She’s … she hates him.”
Keres laughed humorlessly. “Everyone hates him. That doesn’t mean currying favor isn’t more important than your hatred. Self-preservation is the key here.”
“Do you even know her?” Kerrigan asked. “That doesn’t sound like her at all. She wanted me to quit the tournament and help me get back home. She even tried to warn me that you were at the tournament today. She’s not what you think. You should give her a chance.”
“I’ve lived a long time. Chances are death traps waiting to be sprung.”
Fordham gently placed a hand on Keres’s shoulder. She stiffened under the touch, as if it had been so long since anyone had handled her with care.
“I once thought like you. I lived in a world that was battle-strewn and vicious and vengeful. I would not have given another chance to anyone without expecting a knife in the back. Kerrigan changed that.” Keres raised her head to meet his gaze. “You do not yet know your daughter, but I do. Let me illuminate her character for you. She is a freedom fighter, stubborn, willful, generous, kind, and talented. She wants the best from this world. She sees the best from this world and the next. Even with all the many reasons it has given her to hate it. She still stands on her feet and will do anything to make it right.
“We came here to find you. We came here to end an atrocity done upon us. And the only guiding light I have had in all that time is Kerrigan’s judgment. If she says that Cleora is trustworthy, then listen as I have learned to listen. It might seem rash and unreasonable and dangerous, but in the end, it is always worth it.”
Tears came to Keres’s eyes as they found Kerrigan’s heated cheeks. “To have someone speak so highly of you is a treasure far beyond anything I have known in many, many years.” She swallowed. “I have forgotten … been forced to forget the idea of trust and hope.”
“If it helps, you can tell me ‘I told you so’ if it blows up in our face,” Kerrigan offered.
Her mom laughed and came to her feet. “I will summon Cleora Ectorius.”
“Thank you.”
“If we choose to follow her, I have a cousin near Rhithymna. I trust her at least. We can stay there.”
Kerrigan nodded. A cousin. Her aunt. She would get to meet another member of her family. She choked up on that word. Back home, she had only ever had her father and the people she had found as family. She hardly knew how to breathe around the fact that she had more family.
“Do I have many aunts?” Kerrigan asked.
Keres beamed then. “Oh, how I would let you meet all of them, but alas, most are terrible, horrendous abominations. She was lost for many years. Her and her sister. I was thankful to have her return to us. Someone almost normal,” she said on a laugh. “You’ll like her.”
“I hope so.”
Keres patted her arm. “I’m going to send my summons.”
Something wasn’t sitting right with her. Could she leave Carithian without speaking to Constantine or Danae? Could she leave Danae behind to be trapped behind the walls of Constantine’s fortress in Eivreen? She had become something of a sister over the last couple of weeks. It would be wrong to walk away without at least trying.
“Keres,” she said before her mother exited the room.
“Yes?”
“Could you send a second summons?”
She raised an eyebrow. “For whom?”
“There is one other person I must help, if I can.”
Fordham smirked, as if to say, See.
Keres laughed. “Fine.”
It was an unsettling hour, waiting for their three guests at Keres’s palace on the outskirts of Carithian. The three prowled the massive bedchamber, hardly speaking as fear clogged the room. Kerrigan had been certain this was the right move, but every minute that ticked by in which Cleora didn’t arrive felt like impending doom. As if Vulsan would swoop in and ruin everything and it would be all her fault.
Luckily, Keres always had staff on-site to maintain the building and its gardens. They brought in a buffet of food and wine to accommodate the Doma and her two Daijan. Keres insisted that they were her people through and through and they had nothing to fear. But fear was ingrained in Domaran culture. It was hard to walk away from it.
Finally, after another long half hour, Keres straightened. “She’s here.”
Cleora strode in with her head held high and her eyes full of mistrust. She bowed low. “Domina Keres, daughter of He Who Reigns.”
Keres waved a hand. “Dispense of the pleasantries, Cleora. Kerrigan has vouched for your presence into my inner sanctum. Know that I do not do this lightly, and if this gets back to my husband, I will not just bring down justice on you, but your brother and entire family as well.”
Cleora didn’t so much as flinch. She had been threatened by one of the most powerful beings in Domara, and she stared her down and nodded. “I will hope to honor the trust you have put in me.”
“See that you do.”
“She is your daughter in truth?” Cleora asked boldly. “And he does not know?”
Keres raised her chin. “She is my daughter. He suspects, but I have forestalled him this long. I hope to be gone before he starts asking more questions.”
“Then, you have little time.”
“Indeed.” Keres leveled her with a sharp gaze. “Kerrigan says that you can help. Have you seen this … affliction put on Kerrigan before?”
“No,” she admitted, relaxing as the topic shifted from her potential death to matters she was more comfortable with. “I have texts at the Emperor’s Academy that would aid me in my research. I have some thoughts about what is happening and ways to break what was done.”
“Then, speak.”
Cleora bristled. “I have hypotheses only. Anything I say at this point would be nothing but speculation.”
“I would hear your speculation,” Keres said.
“Apologies, Domina,” she said with a head bow, “but if you want my best work, then we would need to retreat to the academy so that I might make better assessment of what we are working with.”
“Basically, leave her be,” Kerrigan said, striding between them. She touched Cleora’s shoulder and was surprised to find her shaking. “She is a scholar, and she has to do things her own way.”
“How will we know if we can rely on her assessment?” Keres argued.
“Do you have any idea what is wrong with her magic?” Cleora shot back. Then cringed at her own audacity.
Keres smiled. “I do not.”
“Then, allow me to do my work. She is the first actual spiritcaster I have had in all my years at the academy. I would not risk her, and I have grown quite fond of her,” Cleora admitted softly.
“So have I,” Keres said with a sad smile. “Ah. Our other guests have arrived.”
“Other guests?” Cleora asked in confusion.
Constantine and Danae strode through the doorway. Constantine had his back up, as if he expected at any moment to be slaughtered by his oppressor. Danae was still in servant clothing, trying to seem as unremarkable as possible.
“Good. You’re here,” Kerrigan said. “Now, we can go.”
“Excuse me?” Constantine asked.
Keres rose to her full height and strode toward the general. She tilted her head slightly and smiled before holding her hand out. He looked like he wanted to swat it away, but reluctantly put his in hers.
“Hello, Kurios.”
He stiffened at that name. “General only now, Domina.”
“If he walks like a king, talks like a king, and acts like a king, then no demotion by any force can make him anything but what he is,” Keres informed him.
To Kerrigan’s surprise, his cheeks heated, and he straightened even further at the assessment. As if her mother’s understanding of him made a difference.
“Thank you, Domina,” he said with a tilt of his head. “Now, will you explain what this is about?”
“The only people who know this information are in this room,” Keres said. “And I would like to keep it that way.” Constantine nodded, though he clearly had no idea what she was going to say. “Kerrigan is my daughter and heir.”
Constantine opened his mouth and then promptly closed it. His eyes swept to Kerrigan’s.
“It’s true,” she admitted.
“But you don’t have magic,” he sputtered.
“That is false,” Keres continued. “Her powers have been damaged in some way. We are going to take her out of the city to repair them. Cleora is a professor at the Emperor’s Academy and has graciously agreed to help us with the matter.”
“Isn’t she … Daijan? Doesn’t that fix it?”
Kerrigan raised her hand up, and no magic came to her fingertips. “Doma can’t gain powers from other Doma.”
Constantine looked sick. “You really are Doma.”
“And you were going to sell me to the senators.”
He coughed violently, looking at Keres with alarm. “Well, I never intended …”
Keres waved him off. “I don’t need an explanation. Thank you for taking care of her.”
“She didn’t make it easy.”
Fordham snorted. Kerrigan just grinned.
Keres laughed. “I suspect not. Any daughter of mine must have a strong will to survive in this world.”
“Sorry to ask, but what is it that you wanted of me?”
Keres touched a finger to her lips. “Not me. But her.” She pointed to Danae, whose eyes widened in alarm.
“You’re going to hate this,” Kerrigan said.
Fordham looked to the ceiling. “Would it be you otherwise?”
Constantine just turned uncertainly between them all. “What? What is it?”
“It’s Danae.”
He stilled. “No.”
“She needs a teacher.” Kerrigan gestured to Cleora, who was standing quietly out of the way. “I have a teacher.”
“The Doma will …” He trailed off, as if realizing one was standing in their midst. “You promised.”
“Let her decide,” Kerrigan argued.
Danae stiffened as everyone turned to her. “I … what?”
Keres stepped forward then. Constantine made to block her path, but there was nothing he could do against the daughter of the emperor. Nothing any of them could do. Kerrigan had put Danae into Keres’s path, knowing full well that she and her father had both wanted to remain as anonymous as possible. That they had sacrificed everything for that anonymity. But it wasn’t going to last forever, and unless she was trained, they would lose everything.
Her mother tipped Danae’s face up to meet hers. Their eyes touched, and Keres’s eyes went gray and almost colorless to match Danae’s. The girl gasped in surprise at whatever was being shown to the Doma. The same way her mother had seen what the Red Masks had done to her. The same way she’d discovered Fordham’s powers.
Keres broke the connection and stepped back. A furrow formed between her eyebrows. “Oh, child …”
“You can’t have her,” Constantine roared. “I don’t care who you are!”
A tear tracked down Danae’s cheek. “She was so beautiful.”
“She was,” Keres said, ignoring Constantine’s outburst.
He muscled between them. “She’s just a girl,” he said, his voice turning to pleading.
Keres tilted her head. “I don’t know what you think I would do with her.”
“What your lot did with all the truthtellers of my people.”
“I did nothing to them.”
“No, but your father did enough,” he snapped.
Keres acknowledged this. “I am not my father. I have no interest in taking her as my own. I will not make her Daijan. Kerrigan has argued that she needs to be trained, and I agree. Cleora will train her.”
Cleora’s eyes rounded. “Train … a truthteller? I don’t know the first thing about truthtelling.”
“But you know the ways of the spirit, and isn’t it just an extension of spiritcasting?”
“I … I …” Cleora sputtered, suddenly put off in her own subject. “We’ve never had one before. We were never permitted to study them.”
“I am giving you permission.”
Cleora straightened then, as if seeing Danae for the first time. A new subject. A new research project. A new pupil. “I wouldn’t be able to publish any of my findings if you want to keep her from He Who Reigns.”
“Agreed,” Keres said immediately before Constantine could balk.
“But I would do it regardless.”
“Do you want this, Day?” Constantine pleaded. “Is this your choice?”
Danae looked up at her father before meeting the eyes of Cleora, Keres, and then Kerrigan in turn. Kerrigan shot her a reassuring smile. She’d broken a promise to keep this secret, but she had to believe it was worth it.
Finally, Danae agreed, “Yes, I want this.”
“Then, it’s settled. Danae will go with us to Rhithymna to work at the academy. Kerrigan, Fordham, and I will stay at my cousin’s home nearby so that we can be accessible to your findings.”
Kerrigan looked around at the room of people she had learned to trust in this horrible world. No one was perfectly satisfied by the answer to their problem. How could they be with so much up in the air and the potential for disaster? But it was a step in the right direction. A way for Kerrigan to finally find a way home. Not to mention … get to know her mother. A possibility she had never considered.