33 lines
No EOL
2.3 KiB
Markdown
33 lines
No EOL
2.3 KiB
Markdown
The hearthfire crackled in the Veyari lodge, throwing long, flickering shadows across the soot-stained walls. Telaryn sat with her back to the stone, her fingers wrapped around a clay cup gone cold. The warmth of the flames didn’t reach her bones. It hadn’t in days.
|
||
|
||
Around her, the Veyari spoke in low, deliberate tones, passing bowls, sharpening knives, murmuring prayers. They were people carved from the mountains, their voices slow and rooted like stone. But their stories—those moved like wind.
|
||
|
||
One of the elders, face creased like bark, leaned in and spoke to her.
|
||
|
||
"They never said your name," she said. "But your blood walks with hers. The woman who ruled before there were kings."
|
||
|
||
Telaryn met her eyes. "I was taught there was no one before the kings."
|
||
|
||
That drew some bitter laughter from the circle. Another voice, a young warrior named Eris, added, "Then your kings lie better than ours ever did."
|
||
|
||
She remembered the red-gold genealogy scroll in the Talpian library, the way her tutor had skipped a generation without explanation. A name lost. A sigil scratched away in ink and denial. A crown of ash. A blade with no flame.
|
||
|
||
"She was called many things," said a spirit-priest draped in frost-dyed robes. "But her true name was burned when the pact was made. We only remember her by what she carried."
|
||
|
||
Telaryn looked up. "Ashmire."
|
||
|
||
That name rippled through the circle like cold water spilled on stone. A few muttered warding phrases under their breath. The oldest among them simply stared at the fire.
|
||
|
||
"It was not a sword," said the priest. "It was a hunger made metal. A debt shaped into steel. It did not kill. It consumed."
|
||
|
||
Another added, "But it brought peace, once. The mountain clans followed it before they followed flags. It held the terrors at bay when the gods fell."
|
||
|
||
Telaryn’s fingers drifted to the scar in her palm. It tingled faintly. The fire hissed. Outside, wind moaned through cracked beams, and in it, she thought she heard voices. Not words, just syllables too old for language. The bones of names.
|
||
|
||
"I need to find it," she said.
|
||
|
||
The circle fell silent.
|
||
|
||
One of the elders leaned forward. "You will not return the same, flame-born. That blade never sleeps."
|
||
|
||
Telaryn did not answer. She stared into the flame, but saw only snow, and shadow, and a crown wreathed in silence. |