Miri Greymantle's Arc

Chapter 8 of 8

The pedestal stood at the edge of where solid ground stopped making sense. Miri could see it ahead—a flat stone platform rising from mist that shifted between blue and gold. Rothe's light pulsed beside her, brighter than it had been in days. His mother waited at the center of the platform, her form clearer than any spirit Miri had seen before, almost solid enough to touch. Miri climbed the steps and stopped at the edge of the platform. The woman's face held no expression, but her eyes tracked every movement. "You brought him here," she said. "But you didn't bring him home." Miri held up her hand, showing the cracked ring. "He told me this breaks unless he takes the throne again. I came to ask why you couldn't just let him choose." The woman's gaze didn't waver. "Because choice without consequence is not choice. He left souls trapped between worlds when he crossed to follow you. The throne cannot stand empty." Rothe's light flared beside Miri, and for the first time since crossing the bridge, he spoke aloud in a voice that carried weight. "Then bind us both." His mother's form flickered. "What?" Rothe moved closer to Miri, his presence steady. "She's already marked as a guide for trapped souls. Make her my equal at the throne. Bind our passage so we can move between worlds at will." He paused. "Through marriage, if that's what the old ways require." The woman stared at him, then at Miri. "You would share the burden of judgment? Knowing what he was?" Miri thought about her father's years of research, the careful work to bring her back. He'd been afraid of losing her. But she'd never been afraid of what she'd become. "I've already died once," she said. "I know what it's like to be stuck between. If this lets me help them and keeps Rothe free to move with me, then yes." The woman reached into her robes and drew out a small glass bottle that glowed with the same blue and gold light as the mist. She poured it over the platform between them, and the light spread in a circle. "Then speak your binding here, where both worlds can witness. When you leave this place, you'll carry the threshold with you." The ring on Miri's finger stopped cracking and began to shine.