Dahlia Falz's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

Dawn light crept through the narrow window. Dahlia sat by Phyllis's bed, palms sore from the ward on the door. She had also sealed the back stairwell hours before. The two workings had scraped her hollow. When she stood, the room tilted. She caught the bed frame and waited for the floor to hold still. Below the house, the dark still waited. She could not go down like this. She would faint on the stairs and never rise. "You are shaking," Luna said from the doorway. Her silver eyes tracked Dahlia's hands. "You spent yourself on the wards. You cannot fight anything now." "I know," Dahlia said. "But we go down tonight. I need to be standing." Cynder paced by the stair, red eyes bright, jaw set. "Then rest and heal," she snapped. "We do not have days. They come back at dark." A knock sounded at the front of the manor. Three slow raps. Luna's head turned. "One person," she said. "Alone. She smells of nothing I fear." She went down and came back with a woman in white and gold robes. Golden hair, golden eyes. Dahlia's breath caught. "Solaris," Dahlia said. The name came out flat. This was her half sister, the one their father had crowned priestess in Dahlia's place. Centuries of silence stood between them. Solaris had promised, long ago, to use that stolen title for Dahlia one day. She never had. "I felt your wards break the veil," Solaris said. She did not soften it. "I came. I am late by three hundred years. I know." She crossed the room and knelt by Dahlia. "You are burning yourself to ash. Give me your hands." Dahlia hesitated. Old anger sat in her chest like a stone. But her arms trembled and the dark below would not wait. She placed her hands in her sister's. Golden light spread from Solaris's palms. It ran up Dahlia's arms, warm and steady. The tremble in her hands eased. Her spine straightened. Strength poured back into her, slow and sure, until she could stand without the bed frame. "That is all I can give at once," Solaris said. She looked at Phyllis on the bed. "Your daughter. I have never met her." She pressed a hand to Phyllis's brow. More gold flowed. Phyllis's breathing deepened. Color returned to her white face. Dahlia flexed her hands. The weakness was gone. She could descend now, and walk out again. "Why come now?" she asked. "After so long." "Because the word for me was becoming Absent," Solaris said. "I did not want it to stick." She rose. "I will not leave until this is finished." Dahlia looked at the stairwell she had sealed, then at Cynder and Luna. Her strength had returned. Her sister stood with her. The dark below no longer meant going down alone. "Tonight we open the seal," Dahlia said. "We go down. All of us."