Chapter Thirty-Five

Lore climbs to Bastian’s rooms, intent on leaving Auverraine to diminish Apollius’s influence. She reasons that her and Bastian’s linked ties to the Fount amplify the gods; distance might break that pull. She rejects killing Bastian or herself as solutions, determined to live, even if it means exile.

Bastian confronts Lore and tries to forbid her departure. Seeing Gabe’s kiss-mark, he recognizes she plans to go. When Lore argues her absence could weaken him, Bastian insists there must be another way. Pressed about Amelia, he reveals a crucial truth: he, not Apollius, killed Amelia by overdriving her heart with Spiritum when Amelia came to assassinate Lore. Apollius then surfaced to mutilate the corpse and claimed Caeliar from within Amelia.

This confession reframes the danger: the gods are awakening in vessels, and Apollius already holds Caeliar. Seeking a sense of agency apart from divine manipulation, Bastian begs Lore to command him so their intimacy is theirs, not the gods’. Lore takes control, and they have sex, creating a private bond distinct from Nyxara and Apollius’s shadow.

After Bastian falls asleep, Lore returns to her plan. She uses a prepared cloth of chloroform to ensure he stays unconscious, dresses, retrieves her packed bag, and slips from the Citadel, choosing flight in the hope it will weaken Apollius’s hold and protect those she loves.