Cursebreaker and Fireheart

Chapter 5: The Sword

The hall was silent. Aelin couldn't meet anyone's eyes. 

"How long have you suspected this?" Lorcan finally asked. "And when were you planning on telling us?" 

"Only a few days. Some of Dorian's magic appeared in my room two nights ago. That's when I began seeing the water creatures around the castle as well. And I was going to tell you... eventually." Aelin winced as at the last word, Rowan let out a low growl. 

"You didn't think to tell anyone?" He demanded. She knew what he really meant. Why hadn't she told him?

"I didn't want to worry anyone. I figured it was simply some stray magic at first. I only really started to believe it wasn't just now, actually, when Yrene said she'd seen the creatures in Adarlan." 

"So what are we going to do? It's not like we can go check on the Lock, can we?" Lysandra asked. She had her hands on Evangeline's shoulders, squeezing tightly. Evangeline's eyes were full of fear. She'd learned enough of the Lock and the gods to know she should be afraid.

"No. But we could always ask someone who might know." Dorian said. Aelin swiveled to look at him. 

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" She asked, brows raised.

"You can't possibly mean summoning the dead again," Lysandra said. 

"Yes. If we ask-" Dorian started, but Chaol interrupted him. 

"Dorian, the only people who could possibly know are supposedly locked in another world. And if they have escaped somehow, they won't be in any hurry to help us after what Aelin did to them." 

Aelin could have sworn she heard Rowan chuckle darkly at the mention of her last act to the gods. She fought her own smile. This was serious. 

"We should try it anyway. Perhaps Gavin could know something," She said. "But let's take it outside so no one has to scrub blood off my lovely floors, shall we?" 

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Ren had voted against summoning any spirits. So had Lysandra. But everyone else had opted to give it a chance, at least. So now they were out in the garden, standing behind Dorian as he wrote Wyrdmarks in the dirt. Once he was done, he stabbed Damaris into the ground and stepped back. 

"How long will it take for someone to answer?" Evangeline asked. She'd practically had to beg to be allowed to come. 

"Not long, hopefully," Dorian said. "It-" He was interrupted by a blinding flash of white light erupting from Damaris' blade. The entire group reached up to shield their eyes as the light grew. 

"Dorian, what did you do?" Aedion yelled, pulling Evangeline behind him. 

"It wasn't me!" Dorian protested. The light subsided slightly, and Aelin lowered her arms to glance at the sword. She took a step towards it, ignoring Rowan's protests. 

"Let's hope you haven't summoned something unsavory, Dorian." She said as the white light flared once, then vanished. Evangeline suddenly gasped, pointing at the ground where Dorian had drawn the Wyrdmarks. 

"Look! What is that?" Aelin's gaze dropped from the blade down to the dirt, and she took a step back in surprise, right into her mate. He didn't seem to notice. He was also staring at the glowing symbol surrounding Damaris. 

It was a circle, with a mountain at its center. At the top of the mountain sat three glowing diamonds, pulsing with what looked to Aelin like starlight. 

"Is that the symbol of a kingdom in Erilea?" Yrene asked. Both Dorian and Aelin shook their heads, gazes still transfixed on the glowing symbol. It flared once more, then vanished into the ground. 

But still, the image remained burned into her eyelids. Aelin felt she should recognize it. In fact, she knew she recognized it, somehow. And then it hit her. The mountain. She had seen that mountain before. She felt her eyes widen. The symbol looked exactly like the world of Fae she'd passed through when she sealed the Lock, with a sky full of stars and a winged male who had helped her return home. 

She stepped back again, and this time Rowan noticed when she banged into him. He glanced down at her. 

What's wrong? He seemed to ask. 

"I- I know what that symbol is." She said in a low voice, so only he could hear. His brows lowered to his eyes, and he opened his mouth to reply, but Lysandra beat him to it.

"That was not a spirit. What was that? One of you old bastards has to know." She pointed accusingly at Fenrys, Rowan, and Lorcan. 

"I've never seen anything like it," Fenrys said. "It's obviously meant to represent something, but why did it show up in place of a spirit?" 

"I know what it is." Everyone looked at Aelin, and she regretted saying anything. 

"How?" Lorcan asked. "Is it something of Wendlyn or the Southern Continent?" 

"No. It's not even of this world." Aelin said. Dorian met her eyes, and he nodded, understanding. 

"You saw it when you sealed the Lock, didn't you?" He asked, pulling Damaris out of the ground and sliding it back into its sheath. Aelin nodded. 

"I saw a world with a mountain that looked just like that, with stars sitting above it. That world had Fae as well. One of them... helped me return home." 

"What do you mean?" Ren asked, crossing his arms. 

"I was going too fast. And so I reached out to them for help. I don't know how he saw me, but he slowed me down by sending a darkness to stop me. I crashed through it, but it slowed me enough to return to Erilea." Aelin said, mirroring Ren's stance. 

"He?" Elide repeated. 

"A Fae male, with wings like a bat," Aelin said. "I'd never seen anything like him before. And there was a female with him as well." 

"Wings like a bat, you say?" Fenrys mused. "I wonder if he can halfway transform between Fae and animal, like us but only partway." 

"So you say you saw this symbol-" Lysandra gestured at the now-empty dirt. "But in its real form? And it was... in another world?" 

"Yes," Aelin said. "Your point?"

"Then... if it's from another world, wouldn't that mean that the Lock has indeed been broken?" 

Art by Morgana0anagrom!

Also, ya'll... if you ever feel the need to listen to absolutely gorgeous Sarah J Maas book music, EJ Moir (Little Miss Moir on YouTube) has some AMAZING songs about Throne of Glass and ACOTAR. Wings, Madness, andTerrasen were basically the entire soundtrack for this book, I listened to them so many times. Go check out her music, she needs more recognition!!