Page 81 of Duskbound

"I saw her," I said quietly. "That day in training, when I tried to read your mind. She was there."

The shadows around him pulsed, but he didn't retreat like he had that day. Instead, he studied me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.

"I know," he said finally. "That's why I left. No one else has ever..." He trailed off, running a hand through his dark hair. "The Queen tried for years to help me remember. The best healers in the realm attempted to unlock whatever the Void took from me."

The weight of what that meant settled between us. I thought of my own vision in the Void, of the two people facing the flames together. Of all the questions still burning inside me.

"Do you think she was family?" I asked, unable to keep my own uncertainties from coloring the question.

"I don't know."

"She looked like you," I said quietly, returning to the wardrobe.

The silence seemed to stretch on, and I couldn't help myself from filling it.

"The Void showed me something. I can't stop thinking about it," I finally said.

The sound of shifting fabrics echoed from behind me. I turned to find Aether pulling out the chair at my desk. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

Clearly.

His stillness had cracked, replaced by something almost...uncertain. He had never been much of a talker—outside of verbal assault, of course. Yet here he was, actually attempting conversation. Voluntarily. In my quarters.

"I just don't know what to make of it, really," I continued, breaking away from his curious gaze.

"The Void tends to have that effect on people," he said.

"I know." I shot another narrowed glance over my shoulder. "But this felt different. The voice implied it was the vision I'd been waiting for."

"The voice?" Aether readjusted in his chair.

"Yes—the voice. The overwhelming, booming monstrous voice. The Void, I guess."

"I've never heard of the Void speaking to people." He suppressed a laugh, and the look on his face had irritation racing across my skin.

"Forget I said anything." I rolled my eyes.

"My apologies. The voice said it was the vision you'd been waiting for..." He bit back a smile, gesturing for me to continue.

"I saw two people," I said, keeping my voice steady. "In Riftdremar, I think. During the burning." I watched his expression carefully. "A Kalfar man and... someone else. A woman who wasn't Kalfar."

"The Void often shows us?—"

"You were here then, weren't you?" I cut him off. "When the Umbra were in Riftdremar? Before everything happened?"

He nodded slowly. "I had just entered the Umbra. The Queen had sent representatives across the rip for negotiations."

"The timing..." I started, then stopped, gathering my courage. "The timing would align perfectly. The Umbra's presence in Riftdremar, the uprising, my birth." The words came faster now. "The woman in my vision—she looked like she could have been Aossí. And they both wore these golden bracelets, like one I had when I came to Sídhe."

Understanding dawned in his eyes. "You think they were your parents."

"Is it even possible?" I asked, the question burning in my throat. "A Kalfar and an Aossí?"

He was quiet for a moment, his golden eyes distant. "There were... interactions. More than most know. Men stationed there for months at a time. But this wasn't exactly public knowledge. We had just discovered a new realm, foreign to ours. Leadership didn't want to cause a mass disturbance." He looked at me directly.

I nodded, eyes falling on the stone floor.

"I can look into it. The archives might have records from that period, though many were destroyed."

---