Page 136 of Salt in the Seas
That first night, hardly anyone slept, and Iris grew feverish from her bond having been broken, requiring them to carry her on a hastily constructed litter the following day. Paddling down the channel became a foggy test of willpower until they were back on the main island for the night. Thankfully the Sayhleens had finally acquiesced and removed the seaweed shackles—not because they’d regained any trust, despite Nori continually fighting to clear the visitors’ names, but to allow faster travel.
Most of the Vendarans went to bed, exhausted after their day of paddling and their night of grieving, but the Sayhleens settled by afire, and Aeliana and Sylmar sat a short way away, halfway between their sleeping comrades and Cyrus, who’d found his own space to kneel before the Stars.
“I want to focus on my somatic spoke again,” Aeliana said.
Sylmar’s eyebrows rose. “What brought this on?”
Aeliana’s face heated, and she glanced back at the tent, picturing Iris and the way Aeliana had failed her in the Seer’s Sanctuary. “The noetic skills are interesting, and clearly they’re valuable for Gaeren and others who have developed them, but they feel like a distraction to me. I want to be able to heal and protect again. I don’t want to come away from battles wondering if I could have saved someone if I’d only spent more time training.” Her voice shook, and she closed her eyes, trying to regain control. But she hated what she had to say next even more. “And if those skills can’t return to their full power because of my brand on Durriken, I want to remove it.”
The murmur of the Sayhleens by the fire filled the silence, but Aeliana still felt too exposed as she laid her vulnerable remorse out before Sylmar.
“I’m not going to complain or argue if you ask to learn your magic.”
She glanced at the older man, catching a proud glint in his eyes.
“Have you discussed this option with Durriken?”
She shook her head. “I can’t reach him on this side of the barrier. I won’t do it until I talk to him. I’m hoping I won’t need to do it at all if we train hard enough.”
His eyes narrowed as he rubbed at his beard. “You like your connection with him.”
Aeliana hesitated. “I don’t like that it’s through a brand, but yes, I look forward to checking on him. I care about him the same way I care about Felk. I feel a responsibility for him.”
He hummed, but Aeliana couldn’t tell if he found that news good or bad. “It’s interesting that you can’t reach him. It suggests that brands weaken significantly when a barrier is between them. It makes me wonder if it’s Mayvus who’s crossing the barrier after all. Could she still control her brands if she did?”
“If not her, then who?”
He shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“What about the curse?” Aeliana asked. “Did you hear it in your vision from Lady Merinnia? I’m guessing out of all of us, you’re the only other person who might want to know it more than me.”
Sylmar hesitated. “I realize now that the Seer is not as simple as we would have hoped.”
Aeliana’s heart sank. “So you didn’t see the same vision as me?”
He shook his head. “No. You want to break the curse more than anything. And while I want that too, my desires go beyond that. I want Mayvus brought to justice. I want to see her power end, whether that’s through ending the curse or some other means.”
Aeliana squeezed her eyes shut. “And because breaking the curse doesn’t actually bring about that justice, that’s not what you saw.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry. Can you tell me what you did see in your vision?”
She started from the beginning, surprised she was still able to tap into enough of her noetic skills to recall the details with perfection. When she described the woman in the sprites’ cavern, Sylmar sat straighter.
“She had tattoos on her hands?”
“Yes,” she said. “They were similar to Marnok’s.”
Sylmar frowned. “Just one more way in which that man’s past seems to matter.”
“What do you mean, ‘one more way’?” she asked.
“Your mother implied his past connected him to us. But she wouldn’t reveal any details. I suppose the tattoos could be the same thing that connects him to us. Either way, he has some explaining to do when he shows up again.”
Aeliana winced, imagining the interrogation Marnok had coming. “The sprite said, ‘for the loss of your sister, the Wyndren sisters will pay. Each—’ and then it was cut off by a scream.”
“Iris,” Sylmar said.
“Yes.” Aeliana glanced at the bedrolls, wondering if Iris was sleeping any better that night. “I don’t think I missed much because then it picked up with ‘—cursed for their crime.’ So maybe each of them cursed for theircrime?”
