Prologue One

  Caja looked back over her shoulder one more time at the city that she held such fondness for. Randar, however, had changed significantly since her arrival to Palitern seven years ago. The cityscape of stone buildings surrounding her was familiar to the ones she remembered from her home world of Stigandore back in Dbemle’s dominion, yet the destruction The Darkness had inflicted on her city made her feel unsettled.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay,” Riza declared beside her with a look of suspicion in her eyes.

  Looking back at Vina’s head guard, Caja couldn’t help but be disappointed by what she saw in Riza’s eyes. Etana, Vina’s sister, had sabotaged their relationship with only a few words. In the short time she had been in The City of Halos with Vina, however, she realized just how seriously Riza would take a head family member’s opinion. While Etana and Ann had not yet been inducted into The Family, Riza would value either of their words as if Vina herself had stated them. “I’m dedicated to Vina,” Caja said simply as she moved toward the portal ring before them.

  Riza stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, however. “She is no longer Asharaina, and you are no longer dedicated to her.” Riza gestured at her fellow guards and then back to herself. “We will protect The Lady Esca from every threat. Stay,” Riza asserted.

  Caja took a sharp inhale as she prepared for a confrontation. She had hoped her earlier absence while she met with the Kalenar was not too concerning to Vina’s guards, but clearly Etana’s warning about her conflicted allegiances had sparked their rejection of her. Lifting her own hand slowly, golden bracelet glimmering in the morning light, Caja prepared to touch Riza and activate her aspect at the same time.

  Her response was not required, however, when Oyna pulled Riza’s hand from Caja’s shoulder, gently squeezing it. “Stop it. Vina is hurting and alone. She needs all of us.” She looked at Riza with a firm gaze. “We are all going back to Valanire right now, unless you want to be responsible for telling her you left one of her friends behind in a warzone.”

  Riza’s hard gaze softened as she seemed to absorb Oyna’s words. Without a word, she pulled her hand free from Oyna, snapped her fingers, and turned to lead her guards through the blood-powered portal ring.

  “Thank you,” Caja said to Oyna with a look of appreciation.

  Oyna stepped away as she prepared to enter the portal ring. “Do not interpret my help as approval. Because of Etana, we all know you are hiding something from Vina. But the way she is now… well you won’t be able to keep your intentions hidden for long.” She paused at the threshold before looking over her shoulder, shifting her bone wings to the side. “Soon Vina will know everything there is to know about us.” With a slight shake of her head, she stepped through the portal ring, leaving Caja alone.

  Caja gazed down at the bracelet still firmly fastened to her wrist, a forced attachment she had discovered upon her arrival in this world. Although it was still laden with three aspects, it suddenly felt heavier than it ever had to her. Gently, she rubbed a finger across the aspect whose purpose she had lied to Vina about. Doubt filled her, however, about exactly what Etana had known that was interpreted as so threatening to Vina’s safety. Did Etana know that she influenced Vina every time she touched her? Or did she know that her people suspected Vina was Larathana? Would Etana expose it all to Vina and destroy the work Caja had put into their relationship?

  Without any answers to her worries, Caja sighed and stepped forward through the portal ring only to arrive within Valanire’s refuge. While once clamoring with refugees, now the building was under guard per Vina’s instructions. The stone flooring had been removed entirely in the time Vina had resided uneasily within the city. Now a vast array of runic lines and symbols littered the floor she walked across, careful to keep a distance between herself and Riza who was now issuing new orders to locate Vina.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Caja slipped out of the building to discover a light rainfall had started. A pit in her stomach grew as she realized the implications. Valanire, Vina, and rainfall were a dreaded combination stemming from the first time Vina had arrived within the city. In Vina’s already distressed state from her meeting with Trina, Caja feared exactly what Vina might do.

  Vina’s state just hours earlier, was distressing even for Caja. The blood, sobs, and Vina’s completely distraught behavior had stunned her. Her aspect warned her that leaving Vina on her own for any duration of time was dangerous. That her friend was potentially unstable enough to cause herself great harm, had driven Caja crazy in the intervening hours while she waited for the portal ring to be available. Although she had hidden it as best she could, she too was outraged at Trina's revocation of Vina’s Asharaina Title. As her thoughts churned, she found an urgency growing within herself to also locate her former asharaina and now friend.

  The memory of Vina’s blood on her hands still haunted her, driving her feet faster as she ran through the city. She moved quickly, passing through the courtyard of the castle, stopping only for a moment to consider whether Vina would have gone inside. She dismissed the thought immediately as she turned to exit the gates, remembering Vina’s assertion that the buildings contained only bad memories.

  “Does she want comfort or escape?” Caja asked herself as her fast walk turned into a run through the city, past the open-air marketplace. As her concern grew, she could only think of the bleeding, quivering, and crying Vina she had held just hours ago. Now she clenched the hand that had once been covered in Vina’s warm blood, feeling only the cold rain in her grasp. As she ran, she berated herself for not having the Aspect of Journey as she had claimed earlier to Vina, knowing such an aspect could tell her exactly where Vina was. The real aspect wedged into her bracelet now felt useless in her effort to find her friend.

  Everywhere she looked, people huddled beneath shopping stalls or covered their heads as they ran toward their homes. But Caja recalled one home was forbidden to be lived in by Vina. She turned down to the side and raced through the streets until she found it, still locked up save for a broken window. Leaning her head into the opening, she looked inside but saw no one taking shelter within. Hesitantly, she traced her hands along the runes still carved on the windowsill, her mind playing through the events she saw painted into Vina’s masterpiece.

  “The graveyard?” she muttered to herself, recalling Vina’s act of burying Mary and erecting a gravestone in her honor. But doubt filled her as her mind turned to the Tavern just across the bridge. “Oh no…the bridge…” she whispered as a realization struck her. She turned and ran again down the plateaus of Valanire, her heart beating faster from both the exertion and growing concern within her.

  As she crossed into the lower levels, the number of people grew more sparse. Few wanted to live this far from the portal ring or the convenience of the marketplace above. As she ran, she grew only more certain that this was the only place that Vina could be. When she rounded the corner to the final plateau, her eyes locked onto a figure cloaked in red kneeling at the edge of the broken bridge.

  The cold rain began to pour down in torrents, partially obscuring Caja's vision as she sprinted towards Vina, her heart pounding in her chest like a drumbeat of desperation. Each step seemed heavier than the last, weighed down by the fear of what Vina might do so close to the edge of the barrier.

  As she drew closer, Caja's eyes fixated on Vina's silhouette, hunched over, seemingly lost in despair. She could hear Vina's choked sobs carried by the wind, mingling with the drumming of raindrops on the broken stone. She could see the uncontrolled trickle of blood dripping from Vina's chin into the depths below.

  With a surge of adrenaline, Caja pushed herself harder, her lungs burning with exertion. She reached out, her fingers passing through Vina's blood cloak as her friend leaned forward toward the barrier's edge. "Vina!" she called out again, her voice raw with emotion. Without hesitation, Caja wrapped her arms around her, pulling Vina close with a strength born of determination and love. She could feel Vina trembling against her, her body racked with sobs as if still futilely trying to release the weight of the world from her shoulders.

  "I've got you, Vina," Caja whispered, her voice barely audible over the storm. "I'm here. You're not alone."

  For a moment that stretched into eternity, they clung to each other on the edge of that broken bridge, two souls bound together by the fragile thread of friendship. And in that moment, as the rain continued to fall and the world around them faded into insignificance, Caja felt a pang of guilt when she activated her aspect on Vina. However, when her friend relaxed in her arms, she knew that she would do whatever it took to pull Vina back from the brink.