Chapter Eleven

Lore dreams she is sitting beside a warm, scentless ocean, feeling unnaturally calm. A person-shaped void sits beside her, and when Lore looks into it she glimpses a tomb, a glowing crescent brand, and a woman with hazel eyes like her own. Smoke streams from Lore’s chest across the sky, and the unseen figure calls the situation perfect and easier this time.

Lore wakes in distress after the nightmare burns through the mental barrier Gabriel helped her create. Mortem floods Lore’s senses from the walls, bedding, and furniture, causing pain and suffocation-like panic. Lore wakes Gabriel, who explains that Lore failed to ground the barrier before sleep and guides Lore through visualizing the forest in greater detail so it can hold without constant effort.

As Lore rebuilds the barrier, the overwhelming sense of death fades enough for Lore to function, though the image of smoke in a blue sky still troubles Lore. Gabriel gently asks whether the awareness of Mortem has always been so severe, but Lore only says no. Gabriel explains that minds are more vulnerable during sleep, and Lore withdraws rather than discuss her fear or shame further.

Later that morning, Gabriel takes Lore to First Day prayers at the North Sanctuary, an austere but beautiful church reserved for the Citadel’s court. Lore observes the wealthy courtiers, contrasts the sanctuary with commoner spaces, and sees Alienor arrive with Alienor’s severe father, Severin Bellegarde. Anton leads the ceremony with a one-handed Presque Mort and a priest, while King August and Prince Bastian take their ritual places before the court.

The prayers emphasize loyalty to Apollius, rejection of other divine claims, and hope for Apollius’s return, making Lore notice how closely religion and Arceneaux authority are intertwined. August appears physically unsteady, while Bastian openly performs charm and irreverence in ways that irritate his father. Anton watches Lore during the prayers, adding to Lore’s unease.

At the end of the ceremony, August unexpectedly summons Gabriel and Lore forward and publicly introduces them as the returned Remaut family. Gabriel is visibly tense and distant as the court politely acknowledges them. When the prayers end and the courtiers leave, August stops Lore before Lore can follow Gabriel, telling Lore that diversions must wait because Lore has a task to perform.