“The church did this?” Velmira asked.

  “The Church of Retribution,” Mother clarified. “Your brother, the king, has a ransom letter, but the price is too great. They want . . .”

  Vel could see it in Mother’s eyes. She closed her own, taking a deep breath. The tears had stopped running, and maybe it was for the thought that if it was a ransom, then Edard could still be alive, despite knowing that she truly couldn’t trust the church. Opening her eyes, she turned her gaze to Amoira.

  “Please, I would like to see the letter,” she insisted.

  “Dear,” Mother started, “they want your life. That is not something we can give.”

  “I know,” Velmira said, looking back to her mother. “But I’ve not come this far to just give up. I need to try.”

  “He is the [dark seer],” Amoira noted.

  “Another will be called if he dies,” Mother said. She reached over, and brushed some hair from Vel’s face, then placed her fingers under her chin, beckoning her eyes once more. “I know that you love him, but for your own life, and for whole of the world, you may need to let him go.”

  “No,” Vel shook her head. She looked at Amoira, eyes harder. “Where is my brother?”

  Amoira sighed. “I shall get my husband,” she said, and turned, walking from the courtyard.

  After she was gone, Vel sat in silence with her mother for a long moment, and it wasn’t that she had nothing to say, just that she was so exhausted. The washerwomen were even clearing out of the courtyard now, the sky darkening with each passing moment.

  “Edard said you liked the name Velmira,” her mother broke the silence.

  Vel nodded, looking at her mother. “Yeah,” she said, the smallest smile stretching on her lips as she recalled that same moment he gave it to her. “He gave it to me, said I looked like a princess,” she said, then asked, “do you think he knew then I had been one? In my last life, I mean?”

  “It’s likely,” Mother said.

  “So he knew who I was the entire time?” Velmira asked, “He’d been the [dark seer] that whole time, hadn’t he?”

  “I believe so. The [dark seer] is called in certain instances. Whenever you are born, someone near your home will be called, and when the prior seer dies. A [dark seer] also loses his or her gift whenever you die.”

  “So if Edard is dead, then another near me would be called?” Vel asked.

  “Indeed.”

  “We would know then?”

  “Most likely.”

  So he was alive. That much Vel knew, and she grasped at that. “Do you think he intended to fall in love with me? Or for me to fall for him?”

  “If he did or did not, I do not know,” Mother replied, and gave Velmira the softest, most loving smile she could never have imagined seeing from Oma. “But I know without a doubt that that boy loves you.”

  Mother turned her head as Amoira returned, a large man with indigo hair walking beside her. He wore a fine violet suit, the gold threading shining as he passed light sconces on the pillars in the hall. Brother, Vel thought, looking him over. Far as she knew, she had many more like him, and she hoped to meet them all. Could they have a family dinner, even?

  No time to think about that now, she thought, standing up. “Brother?” she asked.

  The man paused, staring at her for a long moment. “I . . .” he started, then looked at his mother, taking a deep breath as he stepped closer to the table. “Yes,” he answered, then offered a neatly folded page. “This is for you.”

  Vel took the rough parchment between her fingers, and stared at the broken church seal that had waxed it closed. She slowly unfolded it, and read the words.

  Dear Sacrifice,

  We have in our possession Edard Emlyn. If you wish to see him one last time, come alone to the Jungle Temple of Retribution in the south. We will permit him to live if you commit to your preordained holy duties.

  With much love,

  Oma

  Velmira crumpled the page in her hand as she read Oma’s signature. Her shoulders tensed, and she pulled her eyebrows close together. Looking up at her brother, she said, “I’m going to save him.”

  “No,” her brother responded. “We need you for a higher purpose, we can’t risk your life, and not . . .” he looked her over, “before you’ve received at least some proper training.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  [Skill gained: Persuade]

  [0.5 Acuity added ]

  “Don’t use your skill on me,” Velmira pointed a finger. “I’m going. I have a choice to go. For once in my life, I get to choose what to do with my life!”

  Her brother winced at the word “choice”, and even took a step back when she pressed further. “Then please, don’t go alone,” he said.

  “Well, I’m not that silly, at least not anymore,” Velmira responded. “I intend to take Sigurd, Amalia, and Aden with me,” she turned, looking at them as they waited with the captain at the edge of the courtyard. Each looked just as haggard as she felt. Right now, there was no way they could save Edard, and that much hurt Vel, knowing they likely needed to rest the night before going to that temple.

  “Please, take my best [scouts] and [spear masters],” her brother offered.

  “Is it more dangerous to take more?” Vel asked.

  “There is no way of answering that question,” Amoira answered, irritatingly as poised as she normally was. Did she ever stop using that skill?

  “Very well,” Velmira nodded, then asked, “Do you know where the jungle temple is?”

  “Yes,” her brother nodded. “It’s old, and has been overrun by the jungle. However, it still stands with the Church of Retribution’s seal. We abandoned it during our time of reformation.

  “Please, I insist, rest here tonight, and I’ll help you make a plan in the morning.”

  Velmira nodded. “Can you please house my friends as well?” she asked.

  “Of course,” her mother answered. “Renyn, please?” she asked, motioning to her son.

  Velmira’s brother, Renyn, nodded, then motioned for Vel to follow, but not before her mother could catch her hand. “Ilnona,” she said, the name striking Vel. Had it been hers? She could only assume from how her mother looked at her. “Please, let me see you before you leave in the morning?” she asked.

  Giving a warm smile to her mother, Velmira bent over, giving her a hug. “Gladly,” she answered before straightening up to follow Renyn.

  As they stopped by Sigurd and the others, Vel paused, looking up at the hunter. “He’s not here,” she said, voice barely escaping her. By the gods, she could fall asleep standing up as she was now.

  “I gathered that,” Sigurd answered, and placed a hand on Vel’s shoulder. “We’ll find him,” he said, confident in a way she hadn’t seen him be before. At least, not in regards to Edard being alive. He’d often warned her of the worst outcome, but now . . . now he reassured her, and Vel so badly needed it to be true.

  As they climbed up spiraling stairs after Renyn, Vel relayed all that she knew to the others, even giving Sigurd the letter. He’d noted how strange it was that there was no threat in regards to if she didn’t come alone.

  “I think they’re expecting you to come with a party,” Sigurd said as they crested the stairs and started down a corridor that was just as beautified as the rest of the building’s interior. “My guess is, Vel, given the opportunity, they will kill you on sight.”

  “The church won’t be willing to take anymore chances,” Amalia agreed. “Where is this temple in the south?”

  “It’s not far,” Renyn answered, stopping next to a door. He opened it for Vel. “Here, you can rest in this room tonight.”

  Velmira entered the room, and she swore her eyes were going to roll out of her head from the sheer size of it alone. “By myself?” she asked.

  “I can stay with you, if you would like,” Amalia asked.

  “I . . . okay,” Renyn said, and looking at him, Vel knew that he’d intended for her to not have a shared room. “Perhaps I should find a room with two beds instead?” he asked.

  Raising an eyebrow, Vel stared at the size of the bed currently in the room. It was massive. Why would they need two of them. “This is fine,” she answered.

  “Are you sure?” Renyn asked.

  “Your highness,” Sigurd said, “She’s fine with this, really.”

  “Right,” Renyn said, nodding. “I will have someone bring you fresh clothes. Your friends will be in the adjacent rooms. Goodnight.”

  “Thank you. Goodnight,” Velmira said, staring at the windows that overlooked the courtyard as he closed the door behind her and Amalia. The room was dark, but with the twilight just outside, there was still enough light to see her way to the bed. She moved to it, sitting upon its silky covers.

  “Are you alright?” Amalia asked. She moved towards a lantern on the nightstand, and opened a nightstand drawer. Finding some flint and stone, she took a moment to light the lantern, bathing the room in its yellow glow.

  “Yes,” Vel nodded, then immediately shook her head. “No.”

  Amalia took a spot on the bed beside Vel. “You have a family now,” she said.

  “Which is why I think I’m somewhat alright,” Velmira sighed, and looked down at her dirty hands in her lap. “I look awful,” she said. “And feel it. I thought Edard would be here, that my journey to find him would be over.”

  “I know,” Amalia replied, nodding. “We all thought that, but there’s still hope.”

  Velmira nodded, a numbness taking over where an ache used to reside in her chest.

  “Here, come on,” Amalia said, taking Vel’s hand. She pulled her up to her feet, dragging her across the room to a door. Opening it, they found a closet, nearly empty save for a few towels. Amalia grabbed one, then kept pulling Vel along to an adjacent door, positioned next to a vanity. Opening it revealed a washroom, which held a tub and a pipe over it. Vel had heard of such things, devices to irrigate water through buildings with gravity.

  Amalia brought Velmira’s hands to a basin on a counter. She hummed, and placed a stopper in the hole at the bottom of the basin, then figured out how to turn the water on. She pulled Vel’s hands under the water, and proceeded to help her cleanse them.

  “Tomorrow,” she said, voice soft, “We save Edard. The next day, we plan what’s next, okay?”

  Velmira nodded, staring at the running water over her hands until Amalia stopped it once the basin was full. “What if someone else dies because of my decisions?” she asked quietly.

  “Velmira, people are going to die,” Amalia replied. “That is just what happens in war, and if you worry about every decision leading to death, then something worse could happen.”

  “Yes, but some decisions don’t need to be taken, do they? If I listen to my brother, no one else has to get hurt until I’m trained, no one but . . .”

  “Edard.”

  “Why do I have to be the one to hold the lives of others in my hands?” Vel asked, furrowing her brow. She stared at the water, seeing nothing by darkness. “I’m just a girl.”

  “You are not just a girl,” Amalia said, pulling Vel’s hands toward her and to her chest, holding them there as she peered at her through the darkness. Vel could barely even see the outline of Amalia’s face. “You’re the girl that is freeing the whole world, and you started by freeing yourself. Then me.”

  Velmira blinked. Freeing. She was giving agency back to people everywhere she went. Everything she did was for the sake of her own agency, and the agency of others. Sigurd, freed from his own path of vengeance, Mama Rosie and her husband, freed from the church’s lies and ideologies, Amalia, freed from a life of indentured servitude as forced by society’s hand. Aden too, he was just a captive when they met him, under the thumb of pirates. While she thought he still had things going on, he too had been freed by her and her little group.

  Still, in a way, she felt as if she was freeing herself, as if she hadn’t actually finished that part. Or maybe, there were other things she needed to be free of. Free of guilt? The guilt and shame of death? Free from the church, entirely, wholly, to just be her own person. Free to love.

  “Let’s free Edard,” she said, steeling herself. “Let’s free him, then let’s free the rest of the world from the very gods themselves.”