"There is a Taint, Rina," he said after a time. "However, you weren't told all. You see, the Taint may grow within all who have the Carnelian Way and ill intentions or greed—not just the Denese. Particularly if that power builds or is consumed and left unused.

"I couldn't let your people wield the Carnelian Way. So I let them use its influence, as you did in the fields and Sara did in the medica.

"As for the rest, I'll show you," he added in a cracked voice. The phantom line between them cut, and she found herself empty and alone, even before he wriggled out from behind her, swinging his legs off the bed and stalking to the door. He stopped there. His throat bobbed, eyes distant as the horizon.

She wanted to ask him a hundred questions. A thousand. One for every star in the sky. And if he answered one of them wrong, she'd...

What would she do?

Arkis' blood blazed through her veins, and she had learned how to wield his legacy. She could stand up to him. Challenge him. In her bones lay the knowledge this was not the time to push him.

She should trust him—he was telling her this.

He placed a hand on the door. "Wash, dress and eat. I'll send someone for you in an hour." The door clicked shut behind him, and the emptiness threatened again.

The cavern was deep in the mountain. A sheen of moisture covered the granite, and the green-tinged flames of the mage lights caused the crystal specks in the rocks to flicker. By the time they neared their destination, her knees ached, and cold sweat dripped down her back. Not just from the exercise. The past hours had given her too much time to think, thoughts rolling back and forth in her mind. Each time she tried to shove away the memories of Martha and Fin, they rebounded, washing over her and receding. Leaving her empty. Alone.

They emerged into an underground cathedral from a low-ceilinged tunnel, and Rina shivered at the sudden drop in the temperature. The steady echo of their steps dimmed, eaten by the yawning cave.

Mai paused before offering his hand to her. She examined the long pale fingers, wondering if when she touched him, that line might spark back to life.

She reached out her hand—his fingers soft, the tips calloused—and she exhaled.

He tugged, and she followed. The abyss stretched high, high above them, lost to the depths of the mountain. Below, symbols etched into the dark stone in concentric circles. They stepped over the first and the outer rim lit, then the chamber flared with light.

She gasped.

The cave had crystal teeth. Red and yellow like some beast's maw. Some crystals were sharp and curious and had crawled from the cave itself, dwindling to small pricks of light higher up until they faded away. Others sprung from the floor. Several immense prisms propped in gold and marble stands, large as the courthouse pillars. Between them, smaller crystals lay scattered, on the ground, in ebony chests, on silver platters. They were the size of nails, or fingers, or hands, each glowing.

Rina's foot kicked a loose crystal that skittered across the floor, halting with a melodic tingle at the base of a step. They mounted the steps of the dais, climbing their way to a golden altar fashioned into a briar bush, the bowl filled with crystals.

Their warm light turned Mai's eyes green as he clutched the rim of the bowl and peered in. He reached and pulled out a crystal the size of a quails egg, holding it up to the light between thumb and forefinger. A perfect rosette. Not one flaw.

"Fill it," he said.

"Why?"

In response, he took her hand, pressed the crystal into her palm, curling her fingers. The crystal was warm and pulsed with power.

"It's already full."

He inclined his head. "Almost, but not quite. I want you to fill it." She hesitated, and he said, "I need you to trust me, Rina—please."

Sighing, she held the stone to her chest. After the weeks of practice, directing her energy out of her body was simple. What she hadn't expected was the crystal in her hand to squirm, trying to make contact with her skin, to her own crystal beneath. She knew the crystal was full when it stilled in her hand like an overfull leech.

Mai unfurled her fingers. He leaned into her and spoke into her ear. "Watch."

He ditched the crystal across the cathedral. It flew, a shooting star until it fell and clunked somewhere in the expansive room. She waited. Nothing. Beside her, Mai had his ear cocked, listening.

She asked him what he was waiting for.

"Hmm. All is as it should be. That crystal was a full vessel. Unmarred and able to understands its limits. When something happens, it does not retaliate by destroying the world about it—though it might if it was misguided."

He closed his eyes and reached out his hand. The crystal darted back, humming as it shot through the air. Closing one eye, he held the rock before him and aimed at a mage lamp atop a post. A charge of energy and the lamp erupted with green flame, the metal bubbling and dripping to the floor like a pot boiled over.

Shrugging, Mai returned to the bowl of crystals, sifting through them again until he found another one. Smaller—half the size. He pointed to a hair-crack seam, then he left the dais and placed the gem in a clear space on the cave floor.

"Fill it."

Rina frowned but did so. Sent her Carnelian Way across the room in flickers of yellow light as Mai strode back to her. The crystal guzzled her energy. Mai told her to stop when it began to bounce. She knew it could consume more, wanted to, but she shoved down the dam gate on her power and watched as the crystal's movements became erratic, leaping and bouncing in a rhythmless dance.

Cold hands took hold of her upper arms. The scent of scorched earth came from the direction of the crystal.

"Watch," Mai breathed into her ear.

The crystal flared now, not touching the ground. The air began to pulse.

Rina began to step back, but Mai held on.

"I won't let anything happen to you."

The crystal expanded, red and pink, smooth edges warping. The air contracted, sucking the silence from the room so that sound no longer existed.

Boom!

A rush of air. Her ears stung as she flew back, eyes squeezed shut, waiting for her body to slam into the ground. She never did. She opened her eyes and looked down at fizzing molten fragments of the crystal that popped across the floor as she became aware of arms wrapped about her. Ozone burned her nostrils.

"What happened?" she asked when her heart finally slowed to a dull thump.

"All it takes is a fracture to cause devastation." Mai's words sounded strange, both loud and quiet through the bells ringing in her ears.

He twisted Rina in his arms, her body weightless, their legs intertwining high about the floor, and he stroked her face. That line between them thrummed, and she cradled her head in his palm.

"Twice, your people, full of power and knowing how to wield the Carnelian Way, turned on me. Even those with lesser power are dangerous if they are unstable. Frankly, I don't know who is more deadly, those who know their limits and how to wield it, or those who do not. In some cases—the worst, the seeds of the Taint take a life of their own, becoming serpents. The mubash. Syphoning power from their hosts like a parasite until they control their minds. This is the Taint in its deadliest form. There is a very real risk. This, Rina, is why I leech your people. I hope you see the extent of the trust I have put in the Chosen. In you."

"I thought that was a myth."

"No, I assure you, it is not."

Something slithered in Rina's guts as she thought of this. She nodded. She would not let such a thing happen to her people.

"But," he continued, the smallest hitch in his voice, as his face inched closer to hers "if we united our people, become one, and heal our divided nations, then that risk might reduce. Everyone with enough Carnelian Way might learn to wield it, and those with only a little use their influence for a good purpose.

"Would you help me with that?" His eyes were wide. Pleading.

Again, she nodded, the tip of her tongue darting to moisten her lips as he moved ever closer.

He lowered his lips to hers, one hand pressing to the base of her spine, the other to the nape of her neck, and kissed her. 

★☾●☽★

A/N: Thank you so much for reading!