I kept shivering. My limbs were numb, but shot through with vines of agony.
Vellum met my eyes. “Awake now? Good. Get rid of that sword.”
I frowned, still disoriented. The sword? What did that have to do with anything?
I was barely cognizant of the white aura stretched across my skin as I reached down, awkwardly fumbled with the hilt of my weapon, and half drew it from the scabbard. Turning over between convulsions, I barely managed to finish drawing it out of the sheath and shoving it to clatter across the stone floor.
Vellum mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out, and then snapped her fingers. I felt an abrupt shock as the white glow faded from my body. The numbness and pain didn’t recede, but I was vaguely aware that the source of the cold that caused them had dissipated.
The teacher turned to someone else. “Warm him.”
I wanted to roll over to see who she was talking to, but I didn’t have the strength. I heard a strong voice speaking an incantation as I slipped back into sleep.
***
Corin.
I was in a dense forest, a light rain falling from the darkened sky.
I held a woman in my arms for the last time. She would shed no tears here; she had always been the stronger of us. I ran my fingers through her hair, stained turquoise by the vast power that flowed within her.
“I will be with you soon. I will stop him this time.” I shivered as I spoke.
We both knew that I had lied.
She broke free from our embrace, turning her eyes up to meet mine. I’d seen so many things in those eyes... laughter, anger, joy. I had never seen such complete despair.
I couldn’t bear to meet that gaze. I looked away, turning to the young man at my left side. His long hair was drenched, his legendary blade resting unsheathed against his right shoulder. He’d come such a long way from the boy I’d helped to raise. His skill had surpassed my own, though he would never admit it. Perhaps it would be enough.
His gaze was filled with determination. “Take care of the rest of them while I am away,” I implored him.
Vel nodded, turning his head toward my love. “Let’s go, Ria. The others are waiting.”
She gripped my hand, squeezing it tightly for a moment before she followed Vel deeper into the copse of trees that lay ahead.
Good. I had worried she would refuse to leave me behind.
I turned and faced the entrance to the glade. I did not have to wait long before he appeared.
He was unarmored. He’d long ago reached the point where no hide or metal could match the toughness of his skin, and eschewing the ceremonial suit he wore on most occasions meant that he wanted every advantage he could employ.
His eyes glimmered gold in the forest’s low light.
I shivered again as I saw the weapon sheathed at his side. The hilt resembled the base of a tree, a bright green gem clutched between its roots. As he drew the weapon, I observed the runes on the surface of the black metal blade. One rune for every life he had taken with it, whether they were man or god.
There were countless thousands of runes on the surface of that blade.
I set my hand on my own saber, drawing the familiar weapon and raising it in salute. I felt the familiar aura of frost stretch across my skin, hardening into armor. It was almost unbreakable.
My opponent raised his own weapon to mirror my salute. “I have long anticipated this meeting.”
My grip tightened on the hilt of my weapon, my heart hammering in my chest. “So have I.” My voice was as harsh as gravel from many years of shouting battlefield commands. I was an old man, but far younger than my rival in spite of appearances. His kind would never feel the weight of mortality on their bones.
“Then let us begin.”
My rival flashed forward in a blur, his blade forward in a deadly thrust. The world froze around me, raindrops pausing in their fall.
Corin, open your eyes.
I drifted backward, my perspective shifting as I saw the scene from above. I was no longer the old swordsman, simply a distant viewer from the skies above.
I saw other figures below, the woman he loved among them, traversing the forest with haste. They headed toward a distant, shining light, something vast. Something beyond my ability to perceive, contained within the form of a many-faceted gem.
Awaken.
The world around shivered and shattered, leaving only darkness.
***
“Corin, wake up!”
I felt someone squeeze my hand. I shivered, drawing in a sharp breath, and my eyes fluttered open.
My vision cleared. My next breath was relief. It was Sera that was holding my hand.
I was in my own bed. I had no recollection of how I’d gotten there. “Mmf,” was all I managed to say. Sera was sitting in a chair beside me. She had deep bags under her eyes, like she hadn’t slept in days. It was oddly dark in the room.
“You were having some kind of nightmare.” She lifted something off my forehead, a wet towel, I realized belatedly. She replaced it with a new one.
The details of the dream were already fading. “Not a nightmare,” I murmured. “Not exactly.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but I was fairly confident it wasn’t a standard dream. I’d had plenty of adventure dreams before, but the voice that I’d heard... I recognized it. I’d only heard it once before.
It was the same voice that had spoken to me when I’d gained my attunement.
Certainly, the mind was capable of fabricating such things... but I didn’t think so. The details of the encounter were lost to me in my waking state, but it didn’t feel like the product of my ailing mind, nor even some sort of prophetic vision.
It felt like a memory.
But a memory of who?
Selys, the goddess of the towers?
A possibility, but I didn’t think so. Initially, at least, the vision seemed to come from the perspective of that old swordsman. I didn’t recognize him. A previous wielder of the sword, perhaps?
Lars had said that the sword, Selys-Lyann, was cursed. I’d assumed he’d been spinning a tale to make a sale, but what if there had been some truth to it?
I shivered, and not because of the cold.