Chapter 38

In Dolion’s cell, Maevyth watches him burn herbs and chant in Primyria to scry for Aleysia. A foreign anxiety claws at Maevyth as an inner feminine voice translates the invocation. She trembles, then convulses; her eyes roll back and she collapses. In a burst of light, Maevyth sees Aleysia beneath blankets, bruised but peaceful, with a hearth fire—then blackness. She wakes to Dolion and Allura, the mirror cracked.

Dolion reports the summoning failed outwardly, yet Maevyth recounts the internal vision. Startled that she understood Primyria, Maevyth questions how she knows dead tongues, while Allura notes Maevyth is not speaking Vonkovyan now. Dolion suggests the gods choose their means; Maevyth, desperate yet doubtful after recalling Moros’s abduction, is urged by Allura to believe the vision indicates life.

Turning to Maevyth’s puzzle book, Allura interprets moving images as the story of Deimos and Morsana: the death goddess who loved a fearless mortal, the jealous god Magekae empowering enemies into immortal Solassions, Deimos cast into sablefyre, Morsana imprisoned, and her raven escape. The tale reframes fables as history, aligning with Maevyth’s existence and the many human bones Allura identified from Maevyth’s earlier outburst.

As fatigue sets in, Rykaia arrives, briskly assigning quarters and revealing a cool hostility toward Allura. Allura departs with Rykaia, while Maevyth remains with Dolion, unsettled yet newly hopeful about Aleysia and burdened by the expanding implications of gods, languages, and ancient curses.