"None but the Eternal Radiance could have crafted the laurel, Child. Such perfect patterns and glorious colors do not arise by accident."

--from the Holy Ovidiana

*~*~*~*

"All right, Alumna," Valens said, pulling a white shoot from a jar, "this one's for you. Two hours, Aix says."

For once, Domi's aedificans did not need to shout over the wind, and the light breeze felt almost balmy compared to just an hour earlier.

Domi accepted the sprig with a frown. "Are you sure it's safe?" He nibbled the sweet stem, glancing around the snowy expanse as the warmth of his rekindling prometus began to creep through his bones. Pawprints, sled tracks, and snowshoe footsteps so enormous they could belong to a giant marred the snow around them. "We passed that family just a half hour ago."

All day, they had found themselves in good company as the huskies pulled them through the dark night-side wilds deeper into the Blightlands. Ancient paths over frozen lakes, around slick hills, and through snow fields bore the nomadic locals to and fro about their business, and Valens and Aix took Domi and Daedalus the same way. Wind turbines spiraled at regular lengths along the footworn paths, ensuring little rogue promenia tore up the trails, though the surrounding lands lay jagged and shattered.

They weren't the only travelers using sled-dog teams to navigate the frigid lands, and Domi had even seen an old woman cross an iced-over lake using long blades strapped to her boots, her flock of sheep following. At lunch, he and the others shared a campfire with a gregarious family, who blathered so much about their ice fishing exploits Domi didn't need to lie even once about his identity.

He hadn't been able to believe so many people lived on the night-side, let alone in the Blightlands. But Aix said these Pyrrhaei communities under the Luminis curia's rule had been here for generations.

"We'll be leaving these more populated parts soon," Valens said, nodding for Domi to climb back onto the sled after their short break. "And even if we weren't, Aix wants us to give our prometus a little time to recover before we re-suppress it. If we want to avoid being seen, this is the best time."

Domi hunkered down in their sled amid pans and gruel barrels, glowering sideways at his twin as Daedalus sat gingerly among the other sled's tent and blankets. Why did the dunce get to ride with all the soft  gear? He shoved a skillet handle away from his ribs, which had begun to throb with the echo of Daedalus's injuries. "But our laurels--"

"Just keep your collar up and your scarf on."

Domi sighed and nodded. He peeked at Daedalus again as Aix called out to the other dog team to depart. His brother didn't have a laurel to hide. Domi frowned, studying his twin's pale feminine face. He hoped Dae would get it back, even if the markings would make his brother harder to hide.

At least the resonance still worked. He rubbed his arm with a grimace. The swelling from Dae's injuries was annoying, but it also meant his brother's prometus, even unkindled, was hard at work, thank the Eternal Radiance.

He caught his twin's dark eyes watching him and offered a small smile, massaging his wrist one more time before releasing it. Dae's brows furrowed, and the illusory girl turned stiffly to face the snow, back ramrod straight. Domi rolled his eyes at the stuffy prig.

As his sled bounded over the gentle, snowy hills, Domi sighed, rubbing his sore ribs as they throbbed. Daedalus flicked him a frown from the other sled, and Domi glared sternly until his twin turned away again. "What?" he grumbled under his breath. "I don't have to like it, you dunce."

"What did you just call me?" Valens asked, amber eyes narrowing over his shoulder.

Domi's cheeks heated. "Nothing. I meant Dae."

His aedificans studied him for a long moment from within his furred hood, before finally snorting and turning away. Then he cursed, shoulders tensing.

"What?" Domi asked, twisting his head to the left to follow the line of the older worldholder's gaze. For a moment, he expected to find a cloud of golden light barrelling toward him. Valens had told him to keep an eye open for rogue promenia shining like campfire light in the black afternoon.

What he beheld was, arguably, far worse. Domi's breath stalled in his chest as he gaped at the crimson orb hovering in the black star-studded sky. "That's not the sun, is it?" he asked in a small voice with the little air remaining in his lungs.

"No."

Of course it wasn't. The sun was not small and ice-fringed. The sun did not have a dark smudge in it's heart, where wondertales claimed alien oceans flowed.

Domi gulped, unable to tear his gaze away from the Devouring Eye. Did any people live on the malign planet, or maybe strange creatures, stranger even than a clivia or a magically-modified cattus? Maybe the mythological whale, with fangs as big as houses and a great geyser in its back, swam those crimson seas?

None of your cetaceans dwell among us.

Domi froze. "Oh no," he breathed.

"Don't look at it," Valens said, voice grim.

"B-but--"

"Practice your breathing, Alumna."

Domi tried. Really, he did. At least the Eye stopped talking to him. Maybe it had been just his imagination? But how was he supposed to breathe calmly and clear his mind with a nightmare planet leering down at him and the pain of Daedalus's wounds wending through him?

Though, as minutes bled into an hour, then two, at least the latter faded. Instead, as pain leeched away, an odd sensation filled him. Squirming, Domi glared, uneasy, up at the crimson planet adrift in a black sea of stars. Was the Eye making him feel things? Although, why would it be making him feel this?

Domi's big toe seemed as heavy as a mountain. Yet nothing hurt.

He dragged his gaze from the creepy planet to his twin's back where Daedalus, still perched ramrod straight, bounced along in his sled a few paces ahead.

"What is he doing?" he grumbled.

Manipulating the tiny machine-cells within him.

Domi froze. "V-Valens?" he whispered, voice trembling.

He cannot give you the answers you seek.

"Valens!"

"Yes, Alumna?"

Domi tried to jerk his gaze away from the Devouring Eye and couldn't. The marbled crimson and white sphere filled his vision and his mind. A presence crowded into him, filling the space between each thought. We have much to tell you, Liberator.

"Alumna?"

Realizing he failed to answer his aedificans, Domi gathered his tattered thoughts. "Do you, um, hear that?"

"Hear--" Valens whipped around to look at him, eyes wide, then followed Domi's gaze up to the looming planet. "Aix!" Domi's aedificans turned to the dogs, shouting, "Halt," and the huskies circled to a jarring standstill, barking to alert the other sled and its occupants to the stop. Valens leaped from the sled. "Aix!" he snapped again, already stomping through the thick snow.

The older worldholder glanced over his shoulder as his sled sped away, but soon turned his huskies and drew them to a slow halt. "What is it, Alumna?"

Valens jerked an arm back at Domi. "He's hearing it."

"It?" the old man asked with a small frown, climbing from his sled with a gentle pat on Daedalus's shoulder.

Valens glanced pointedly up at the sky and the crimson orb.

"You wear a bulla, do you not?" Daedalus asked in his soft voice.

Domi brushed his fingertips over the amulet and tried to ignore the planet glaring down at him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, though whether from the Eye's presence, nerves, or the chill, he did not know.

Valens's jaw clenched. "None of that superstitious nonsense."

Domi laughed, the sound high and tight even to his ears. "A planet is talking to me, and you think the bulla is a superstition?" He clutched the wooden tri-hand in his fist, hoping the protective amulet would drive the whispering voices from his head.

Hear us, Liberator.

"Valens!" Domi hissed.

Daedalus shook his head, levering himself from the other sled with a pained grimace. Domi's big toe grew heavier, followed by his calf. "It is not a superstition," the illusory girl said.

"Alumna," Valens began, exasperation thick in his voice. "Just--"

"Aedificanti," Daedalus interrupted, his soft voice polite but firm, "please, this is important." He picked his way through the snow with care, holding his ribs with his good arm.

"Here," Domi said, pulling his bulla from around his neck and extending the amulet to his twin. "It's not working."

Daedalus accepted the wooden tri-hand, peering down at it, then gritted his teeth. "I am unkindled," he said in a frustrated growl. "I cannot sense anything." He turned to Valens. "Is there any promenia in the bulla?"

The older worldholder frowned. "No."

"There should be." He rested his good hand on Domi's shoulder. "One of the Princeps Worldholder's duties is to bless bulla amulets." He cast Valens a pointed glance. "With promenia charged with the same protections as the Trellis itself. The effect is weaker, but can still conceal a person from bestias and the Eyes."

"You have no magic," Domi pointed out and bit his lip. "And you're not the Princeps anymore."

Daedalus swallowed. "Indeed. However, any worldholder may learn to do such. Most just do not." He inclined his head to Aix. "I shall teach you." He glanced up at the Eye, grimacing. "We ought to do such as we travel, however. I doubt we should delay, lest we face three Eyes instead of just one when we reach the tower."

Valens nodded with a sour look, and despite the situation, Domi's lip twitched. He doubted the aedificans appreciated being wrong about something.

Aix, on the other hand, looked intrigued. "What did the Eye say to you, Domi?" the older man asked, glancing from the boy to the planet and back.

Domi shivered. "It called me 'Liberator,' mentioned cetaceans, and said something about Dae's prometus, I think." He frowned. "It was confusing."

"Daedalus's prometus?" Valens asked, turning to look at the older twin and then Domi again. "What about his prometus?"

Domi still didn't know his brother well, but he knew the expression on Daedalus's face. He'd felt the same stubborn glare and set of the jaw on himself whenever he knew he'd done something Merula wouldn't like but wasn't about to fess up.

"I'm not sure," Domi said, hoping he wasn't getting his twin in trouble. "I was wondering why my toe feels weird, and the Eye said Dae manipulated his prometus."

At least, he thought the planet referred to prometus. It had used a different term. Machine-cells? But what was a machine? The sense behind the whispered word in his mind had a feeling of artifacts, but different too. Not a promenia work then, but something else?

"Your toe?" Valens asked, looking caught between amusement and concern.

"Yeah, I was sore from the resonance, but then the pain went away. And now my big toe feels heavy."

As one, Aix and Valens turned to Daedalus. The older man arched a brow and the younger fixed him with a flat stare.

Daedalus shifted from one foot to the other.

"Out with it, Alumna," Valens growled.

The illusory girl blushed. "My injuries were bothering Domi, so I sent my prometus elsewhere for a time. Somewhere uninjured, so it would not cause him pain."

"Your big toe, Dae?" Domi grumbled, shaking his heavy leg. It wasn't even his toe anymore, but his calf up to his knee. "Seriously?"

Valens drew a breath and closed his eyes. "Alumna." Another deep breath. "Do you think your prometus can heal you if it is in your foot?" Daedalus studied his boots, and Valens opened his eyes and fixed the older twin with a glare. "Release it. Right now."

Daedalus shot Domi a worried look. "But--"

Domi shook his head. "Valens is right. You need to heal, and I can handle a little discomfort." He hesitated, then admitted quietly, "Besides, it makes me feel better if I can sense you, even if it hurts." And if he could know Dae was still alive.

Daedalus nibbled his lip, studying his feet. "I am tired of feeling this way and making you feel likewise," he said softly.

Aix sighed. "Well, you need to put up with it for a little while longer, I'm afraid. It takes time to heal." He smiled. "Though I must say, I'm pleased you can control your prometus again. I don't think it will be long before you rekindle."

Daedalus peeked up at him, dark eyes hopeful. "Truly?"

The old man nodded. "Truly." He extended a hand toward the sled he shared with the older twin, where the huskies stood waiting. "Shall we?"

As Daedalus allowed himself to be helped back into the sled, Valens climbed into place in front of Domi. "And leave your prometus alone," the aedificans grumbled with an exasperated shake of his head. "Eternal Radiance."

The Eternal Radiance is not with you, the Devouring Eye said.

Domi gulped, huddling closer to Valens's back.

"Is it still speaking?" Valens asked, and Domi nodded against his aedificans's heavy paenula. "Just ignore it, Alumna."

Never again will we allow your kind to silence us, the voices whispered.

Uneasy, Domi murmured, "I don't think it wants to be ignored, Aedificanti."