“And for that, I can never forgive myself.”
Raidon was confused. “Why would your position here prevent you from coming back to us, even for a short visit?” he said. “It would have been hard to explain, but at least we could have seen you from time to time.”
“I am the Lady of the Moon. I sit on the Throne of Seeing.”
Raidon stared at the woman before him, gladness and hurt battling each other. Her posture seemed almost awkward for someone so graceful.
“Why do you not stand?” he asked.
“I cannot. Whoever sits on the Throne of Seeing gains great powers of vision and prediction. But she who sits on the throne remains bound to it until the title is relinquished. Its embrace is unflinching.”
“How awful,” whispered Raidon. “So you left us, knowing that this would be your fate?”
“It was necessary,” his mother replied. “It is one of the tools that allows us to keep watch on the Citadel of the Outer Void.”
“But it’s like slavery,” he pressed.
“No, it is not that, though it kept me from seeing you,” she replied. “At first, I thought I never would again. Later, I saw a chance that, though slim, might one day bring you to me.”
She offered a hand, and he took it. She squeezed, and he returned the pressure.
Raidon felt brittle. In that room, beyond all belief, was she whom he’d spent so many years searching for, before the Sovereignty. But Erunyauve had willingly chosen to separate herself from him. It was almost as though she’d chosen to sacrifice herself. He wondered, though, why she hadn’t even chosen to send a messenger?
“Well, now I’ve arrived,” he said. Resentment coiled just behind his words. “But a threat to everything rides at my heels. Why did you not call me before now, when we could have spent days, or even years catching up?”
“Because that is not the way I saw events proceeding. We have only a thin chance of surviving what occurs next, and meddling with that thread … Purposefully muddying the visions shown me by the throne might have changed things and ensured the Sovereignty’s victory.”
“I see,” he said, though he didn’t, really. “So, my part here is all foreseen.”
“Not entirely; events spiral out of control,” his mother replied. “I only hoped you would come. And, now that you have, you can help stem the incursion.”
The monk wanted to start over, to begin his meeting with his mother again, and hear comforting words. He wanted her to be what he’d always imagined: a being of perfect love who’d had no choice but to leave him. Instead, he found a woman with complex motivations of her own, motivations that went beyond love for an absent son.
“Will you help?” she asked.
Raidon clung to his focus and nodded.
Japheth spoke up for the first time. “What was the nature of the attack your knights spoke of at the gate?” he said.
“A city of aboleths appeared in the void no more than a few bells ago,” Erunyauve said.
The warlock gasped.
“Xxiphu came here?” said Raidon.
“Just so,” replied the Lady of the Moon. “The wards tried to crush the city, but the ancient cyst proved too strong. The Spire of Winter’s Peace toppled, and the other towers were damaged.”
“Did anyone else accompany the city?” asked Japheth.
“Anyone else?” Erunyauve asked.
“Companions of ours were observing the city, before it came here. A woman, named Anusha-and her friend Yeva. A ship captain called Thoster, and his crew and vessel …”
Erunyauve shook her head. “I didn’t see a sailing craft. Xxiphu appeared several hundred yards off the cliff face. The city was haloed in worldly cloud vapor and sea water. It’s possible a ship was caught up in that detritus. But the city didn’t linger after it appeared; it receded into the dark, toward the Citadel of the Outer Void. If others accompanied the city, they never came here.”
The warlock scowled, worry plain across his tight face.
“What about Malyanna?” said Raidon, curious despite his hurt. “Did you see her on Xxiphu’s ramparts?”
“No,” replied Erunyauve. “My knights relayed your claim, that the Lady of Winter’s Peace is a traitor.”
“It’s true,” said Japheth.
The Lady of the Moon nodded, her demeanor resigned. “Her mentor, the previous Lord of Winter’s Peace, was also a betrayer,” she said. “How tragic; Carnis’s corruption claimed his successor.”
“Carnis, who you kept in a prison splinter of the Feywild called Stardeep,” said Raidon.
“Not me,” she replied. “An arm of our order did, at least they did so until the changing of the world, when Stardeep was destroyed, and Carnis with it. His death contributed to Xxiphu rousing.”
“Others also contributed,” Japheth said, frowning.
“No one person or event is fully to blame,” said Erunyauve.
The warlock nodded. Then his eyes narrowed. “You should keep better track of your bad seeds, Lady,” he said. “Malyanna found the remnants of Stardeep and the petrified body of Carnis. From it, she’s apparently got her Key of Stars, whatever that is. She believes she has what she needs to open the Far Manifold.”
The eladrin returned Japheth’s gaze with her silver regard until he blinked.
“You don’t seem surprised,” Raidon said.
“The Throne of Seeing revealed this to me,” Erunyauve said. “Malyanna retrieved what she sought.”
She paused a long moment, then turned back to him. “I left you with something to remember me by when I departed,” she said.
A smiled tugged at the corners of Raidon’s mouth. “And I treasured it,” he said. “My one physical remembrance of you.”
“You showed its power at the gate, so I know you still have it with you,” Erunyauve said.
“After a fashion,” Raidon replied, opening his shirt wider to reveal the Cerulean Sign stitched into his flesh as a spellscar. Its fire flickered and bathed the room in its sapphire glow.
“The Throne did not reveal this!” she said.
“It helped me fight the aberrations,” Raidon said. “With it, and the sword Angul forged in Stardeep, and my own modest skills, I kept the Eldest somnambulant when Malyanna tried to rouse it.”
Composure returned to the seated woman. “You did well, better than you know,” she said. “But the Sign-” She put one hand to her mouth. It worried Raidon to see a hint of doubt cloud his mother’s features.
“You knew it was more than a remembrance when you gave it to me?” said Raidon.
“I left a Cerulean Sign for you, as a remembrance only,” his mother said. “Each Sign is precious to us because they are vanishingly rare. I couldn’t think of anything more fitting to leave for you. It was only later, upon taking up my position, the Throne hinted you might one day return it to me when the need for it was most urgent.”
Japheth broke in, “To see so far into the future, you must command a considerable talent,” he said.
“Yes. But it’s a lonely power,” Erunyauve replied. “To see the future, sometimes blurry, sometimes clearly … Destiny can seem so certain that neither fate, nor luck, nor intervention of any kind can alter what is fated. But for all that, the Throne did not reveal the Sign would be bound indelibly to my son’s flesh!”
Raidon saw tears well anew in Erunyauve’s eyes. His heart hurt a little to see her distress. “Don’t worry,” he said, pointing at the Sign. “It seems to have all the power it possessed when it was an amulet.”
“It’s not that,” she replied. “It means your part in this fight is not done, Raidon. I had planned to take this burden from you at the last, relinquish my title, and leave this seat. You’ve had to bear so much, even though you did not choose to do so. But now …”
The monk put a hand on her arm. “It’s literally been a journey of decades to find you,” he said. “Know I would not turn away now, even though we are reunited. It seems I have a part to play yet, and I mean to fulfill it. The death of my own child still lays heavy on me.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Silence stretched in the court.