Princess Azura Stellaryn's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Princess Azura Stellaryn had memorized one line from the broken texts: "Where the twin rivers forget their names." She whispered it now, alone in the cold hall her mother once ruled. Somewhere out there lay the Sacred Wellspring of Aethon, and with it the light her dying world had lost. But she could not chase the twin rivers. She had never seen them. No map of them survived. She pressed her palm to the white display and let it wake. It projected the neighboring worlds above the desk, each one turning in slow light. She dragged them apart with her fingers, searching for two rivers that met. The screen showed oceans, deserts, cracked ice. No rivers. She had spent three nights this way. The emeralds in her crown caught the glow, seven of them, each once bright with her family's power, now dull and cold. A sound came from the corridor. Metal on stone, steady, unhurried. Azura's hand went to the crown. No guard walked like that. A man filled the doorway. Pale blue skin, shimmering. A black braid marked some rank she did not know. His armor was scarred and dented, mended in places with pieces that did not match. A long scar cut from his cheek down beneath the plate. He looked at the turning worlds above her desk, not at her. "You're hunting the Wellspring," he said. Not a question. "Who let you in?" "No one. I walked." He stepped closer and studied the display. "Twin rivers. That's the old riddle." Azura stood. "You know the line." "I know the place." His voice was flat, clipped. "Two rivers ran through the god's temple. They dried when he took it. The beds are still there. They forgot their names when the water left." Her breath caught. "You've seen them." "I knelt there. He marked me." He touched the scar without looking down. "I've been hunting him since." Azura's pulse raced. For years the line had been a locked door. Now a stranger stood in her hall and named the key. She did not trust him. His armor was a graveyard of failed fights. But he knew the way, and she did not. "Show me the place," she said. "On this." He leaned over the display. His scarred glove passed through the projected worlds until he stopped on one, small and gray, ringed with dead cloud. He held his finger there. "North of the temple. The dry beds cross. That's your Wellspring, if it's anywhere." The world he chose lit up beneath his hand. Azura stared at it. Three nights of searching, ended by a man she had never seen. "My name is Sambad Archer," he said. "You'll want a mount. It's a long climb, and the god watches the road." Azura took the crown from her head and set it on the desk beside the glowing world. She had a direction now. She also had a debt she did not choose, and a companion who hunted a god.