Nym's Arc

Chapter 38 of 41

Nym shielded her eyes as she stepped through the arch. The road stretched long before her. Fields of lilac and lavender spread on both sides. Two moons hung in the daytime sky. She had crossed into her father's kingdom at last. Behind her, Drasila led the injured pegasus by the reins. Titus followed on his tusked warwolf, the green saddle creaking as the beast padded down the ancient stones. Drasila looked at the road and did not move. "It hasn't changed," she said. "Three hundred years, and the flowers still bloom." Her marked hand tightened on the reins. Nym watched her mother's face. She saw grief there, and something older. This was the place her mother had fled long ago. They walked. The road curved past a low hill. Then the castle came into view, and Nym stopped. It rose lilac against the sky, wrapped in thick purple ivy. A rune-marked doorway glowed at its base. Spires climbed high, capped in violet. It was beautiful and strange, like nothing she had seen. Titus rode up beside her. He nodded at the towers. "So this is where you met Nyms father," he asked. Then he turned to Drasila, careful and quiet. "May I ask something? About Your birth." Drasila smiled. The white streak in her hair caught the light. "I would not call it birth so lightly," she said. "I was made. The Rune Keepers could not wait for a baby to be born, then raised for eighteen years. They needed a weapon, and they made one." Nym smiled at Titus. She liked that he tried to know her mother. He was a good friend. In her head she hoped he might one day feel she could be more than that. She did not say it. She only held the thought close and warm. They reached the castle gate. Nym pressed her palm to the glowing doorway. The runes brightened beneath her skin, matching the marks on the stone. A low grinding sound came from within. The great door swung inward.