Chapter 12 — White Wings Above a Silent Crowd

That change took less than a minute.

Caeloria's Festival of Ascendant Light had always been loud. Bells rang from every tower. White ribbons stretched between bridges. Children wore paper halos, merchants sold sugar stars, and half the city seemed determined to throw flower petals at anyone important enough to stand still.

Unfortunately, I was important enough.

“Hold still.”

“No.”

Seris reached for my collar again.

I leaned away.

“You look crooked.”

“I've been awake for nearly two days. I am crooked.”

Cassian snorted beside us.

“You also put the ceremonial clasp on backwards.”

I looked down.

He was right.

I hated that.

Seris fixed it before I could complain.

“There. Now you look slightly less like you got dressed during an earthquake.”

“High praise.”

Cassian adjusted his new commander's insignia.

Unlike me, he looked annoyingly presentable.

“You could try smiling.”

“I am smiling.”

“That looks like you're considering murder.”

“Maybe I am.”

Seris patted my arm.

“Very festive.”

We were standing above the Sunfall Plaza, waiting for another procession to start.

Below us, thousands packed the streets.

White wings filled the sky.

For most Aetherians, the festival celebrated the old belief that celestial light descended into the world once each year to remind people they weren't alone.

I used to like that idea.

Then people started asking me to represent it.

“Star-Chosen!”

The crowd spotted me.

A cheer rolled through the plaza.

My shoulders tightened before I could stop them.

Seris noticed.

She always did.

“You can leave after the speech.”

“Promise?”

“No.”

“Cruel.”

“I'm learning from the Council.”

Cassian looked toward the eastern entrance.

Something in his expression changed.

“What?”

He shook his head.

“Nothing.”

I followed his gaze.

Three figures in silver festival masks stood near the edge of the crowd.

Nothing strange about that.

Everyone wore masks during the final procession.

Still, Cassian kept watching them.

Then the bells rang.

The plaza erupted in applause.

Seris groaned.

“Here we go.”

We started down the stairs.

I made it halfway before the first blade flew.

I didn't see who threw it.

I saw the reflection.

Silver flashed in the corner of my eye.

Epitaph was in my hand before I thought about drawing it.

Metal struck metal.

The blade spun away.

People screamed.

Cassian moved instantly.

“DOWN!”

The crowd dropped badly.

Some froze.

Some ran.

Most had no idea what was happening.

I turned toward Seris.

A masked attacker was already behind her.

Too fast.

He reached for her throat.

I crossed the distance before his fingers touched skin.

One hit.

My shoulder caught his chest.

He flew across the stairs and crashed through a festival stall.

Seris stared at me.

“I'm fine.”

“Good.”

A second attacker appeared above us.

Then a third.

Then eight more masks turned toward Seris.

Not me.

Her.

Something cold settled inside my chest.

“Cassian.”

“I see them.”

He drew his sword.

“Seris, stay between us.”

“That's difficult when they're coming from every direction!”

A masked woman slammed her palm against the ground.

Red lines raced through the plaza.

A suppression array.

My Soul Crown flickered.

My wings suddenly felt heavy.

Cassian stumbled.

Seris didn't.

Human.

Of course.

The attackers had planned for us.

One rushed her.

I grabbed his wrist.

Twisted.

He screamed.

I threw him into another.

“Who sent you?”

No answer.

A spear struck my back.

Not deep.

Deep enough.

I turned.

The attacker pulled it free and stabbed again.

I caught the shaft.

The weapon was made of nullglass.

Magic died wherever it touched.

For one second, I couldn't feel my left wing.

That scared me.

Then I saw two more attackers closing on Seris.

Fear became something else.

I broke the spear.

The attacker froze.

I hit him hard enough to crack the stone beneath him.

“Zyrion!”

Seris's voice.

I looked.

A chain wrapped around her waist.

Another attacker pulled.

She hit the ground.

Something in me snapped.

Not my halo.

Not yet.

Something quieter.

I stopped thinking about how much force was enough.

Epitaph's first sigil lit.

Then the second.

Cassian saw it.

“Zyrion, wait!”

The suppression array covered the whole plaza.

That meant it had structure.

Epitaph could cut structure.

I drove the blade into the ground.

Silver light exploded outward.

The first sigil severed the array.

The second found every connected spell.

Barriers.

Concealment charms.

Null fields.

Trigger marks hidden beneath the paving stones.

All of them broke at once.

The plaza erupted.

Not with fire.

With force.

Stone lifted from the ground in a ring around me.

Festival stalls shattered.

Windows blew inward.

Every masked attacker was thrown away from Seris.

So was everything else.

Statues cracked.

Fountains burst.

A ceremonial arch folded in half.

The entire centre of Sunfall Plaza dropped nearly a metre as the old magic beneath it collapsed.

I heard screaming.

Then nothing.

Dust swallowed the square.

My wings opened through it.

White.

Huge.

Covered in grey powder.

Epitaph glowed in my hand.

For one horrible second, I thought I'd killed them.

All of them.

“Seris?”

No answer.

My heart stopped.

“SERIS!”

“I'm here!”

She emerged through the dust coughing, one sleeve torn.

Cassian was with her.

He'd thrown a barrier around the closest civilians just before my strike landed.

Other mages had done the same farther out.

People were hurt.

Cuts.

Broken bones.

Burns from ruptured wards.

Nobody had died.

I almost fell over.

Seris reached me first.

“What were you thinking?”

“They had you.”

“I noticed!”

“I thought—”

“I know what you thought.”

She grabbed my face with both hands.

Her eyes moved over me.

Checking.

Always checking.

“I'm okay.”

I breathed.

Once.

Twice.

Then looked around.

The attackers were down.

Every one of them.

Some unconscious.

Some groaning.

One tried crawling away.

Cassian put a boot against his back.

“Don't.”

The man stopped.

Cassian ripped off his mask.

Nobody I recognised.

“Who hired you?”

Silence.

Cassian pressed harder.

“Answer me.”

The attacker laughed.

That laugh bothered me for years.

Not because it sounded cruel.

Because it sounded satisfied.

Then I heard something behind me.

A child crying.

I turned.

The crowd had gathered at the edge of the ruined plaza.

Thousands of people.

The same people who'd cheered minutes earlier.

I lowered Epitaph.

Nobody moved.

Usually, that was when applause started.

After Lareth.

After Aster Vale.

After every monster I'd cut down while strangers watched.

There was always that pause.

Then cheering.

Not this time.

I took one step forward.

The people closest to me stepped back.

All of them.

At once.

I stopped.

A mother pulled her child behind her.

An old man who'd asked for my blessing that morning wouldn't meet my eyes.

Someone whispered something.

I couldn't hear the words.

Didn't need to.

Seris moved beside me.

Her hand found mine.

High above the plaza, someone stood on the western balcony.

I noticed them only for a heartbeat through the dust.

White robes.

Still posture.

Everyone around them was running, shouting, ducking behind pillars.

They weren't.

They watched me.

Then Seris squeezed my hand and I looked away.

At the time, I thought they were frozen with fear like everyone else. I didn't see the crystal tablet in their hand. I didn't know they'd been counting the seconds between Seris being attacked and the moment I stopped holding back.

They already had their answer.

“You saved them.”

I stared at the crater where their festival had been.

“Did I?”

“Yes.”

“They're afraid.”

She didn't answer.

That hurt more than if she'd lied.

Cassian joined us.

His face was pale.

“You reacted to an attack.”

“I destroyed a plaza.”

“You stopped eleven assassins.”

“I destroyed a plaza, Cassian.”

“No one died.”

I looked at the crowd.

That wasn't what they saw.

They saw how quickly I'd done it.

One moment there'd been music, flowers, banners and stone.

The next?

Nothing.

All because I'd been afraid Seris might die.

The bells had stopped.

Even the wings overhead had gone still.

White feathers hung in the dusty air around me.

And beneath them, for the first time, my shadow looked like something people wanted to escape.

I didn't learn the truth until much later.

The attackers weren't random.

The Council had chosen them.

Paid them.

Equipped them with nullglass and suppression marks.

They'd been ordered to target Seris.

Not kill her.

Just make me believe they might.

Ortheon wanted proof.

Proof that fear could override my judgement.

Proof that I could destroy part of the city in seconds.

Proof that Cassian's signature beneath the binding agreement had been necessary.

They got everything they wanted.

That evening, official notices praised me for protecting the festival.

Nobody chanted outside my window.

Nobody asked for a blessing.

And when I crossed the balcony above the city, the streets below suddenly seemed much wider than before.

The people had finally given me space.

I'd wanted that for years.

I just never thought fear would be what gave it to me.