Chapter 36

Maevyth wakes in her cell to Rykaia’s brusque summons and food, then balks at tight leather training gear. Rykaia explains Maevyth will face Torryn, a king’s assassin, to trigger glyph power under stress. Their banter exposes Maevyth’s inexperience and Rykaia’s disregard for privacy, heightening Maevyth’s anxiety about fighting.

Rykaia teaches a basic glyph, Aeryz, drawing three wavy lines and demonstrating a force blast. Maevyth’s first attempts fail until an argument about Aleysia’s peril ignites her power; Maevyth flings Rykaia into the bars, and the Aeryz symbol carves into Maevyth’s palm. Rykaia explains minor versus major glyphs, empathic magic, Lunasier and Solassions, Dolion’s Elvynira nexus, and Zevander’s cursed sablefyre and scorpion prodozja.

After a golvyn retrieves undergarments and Rykaia magically fits the leathers, Maevyth dresses and grudgingly appreciates the gear. Dolion arrives, lightening the moment with a House of Sages anecdote. Maevyth reveals she was forced to wear a black dress and choker as a cursed woman; Dolion parallels this with Zevander’s mask.

Training plans shift: instead of Torryn, Zevander will train Maevyth while Dolion serves as scribe. Dolion insists on a fortnight of training for her safety, promises to scry for Aleysia to calm her fears, and asks about Dolion’s puzzle book. He claims the relic may belong to Maevyth’s people and suggests her blood could be Corvikae, a mortal race slaughtered and cast into the Crussurian Trench. He goes to examine the image in the book as Maevyth heads to the training room, apprehensive but bound to the new plan.