[ONGOING: New Chapters Every Sunday]
Kingsblade. Rise of the Raven Queen.
Her kingdom is in ashes.
She's supposed to save it, but there's one problem.
She doesn't remember she's the queen.
She doesn't remember anything at all.
With war looming on...
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It took two more days before it was time.
Leyrl wished she had known before she was out of time with him.
The sky wept when Leyrl hugged Rajii goodbye, shuddering at the cold raindrops that fell on her bare arms as her cloak was forced up her shoulders. Honey, ginger, and cardamon mingled with salt as the taste of their last shared chai mingled with the rain and the orphan's tears on her trembling lips.
Her parting gift from the Menakan priest pressed painfully into her side where she'd tied the parcel and its contents to her belt loop. Leyrl was thankful for both the pain and the rain: they tethered her to the shifting shoreline of change beneath her feet.
The light that radiated out from the thread that connected them was so bright that even with just the King's Sight she could see the thin outline in the air between them.
"I have walked this earth sixteen of the lifetimes of man, and still I do not rest."
With each drop of rain, a different memory surfaced in her mind's eye. Thousands of fragments spread out like the stars in the night sky shone all at once, some brighter than others, in Leyrl's mind's eye: Rajii's hand on her shoulder when she had sought the silence of the Kirkko. Whispered words as he interceded for her in prayer. Countless steaming cups of chai never shared in the same teacup. Bold words that made the walls of the Kirkko sing when he eulogized from the Breathing Book. A blanket and a cookie when nightmares chased her up the stairs to his chambers. Then, like ripples in the lagoon, they folded back into the deep waters of friendship and faded.
"Éoran will be glad to see you," Leyrl choked as she leaned into his shoulder.
"Yes," Rajii replied, breathing deeply and cracking a small smile. "I expect he will be."
"I will miss you," she whispered.
"Our story is not yet finished, dear heart," he replied gently, even as Leyrl's frame shuddered with a sob. "I will see you again very soon."
"I have always wished I could have said goodbye to my birth father," Leyrl stumbled over her own faltering tongue, "but now that I am saying goodbye to you...." She stopped, shaking. Swallowing, she steeled herself as she pulled away and looked into the high priest's dark eyes. "I am so glad I only have to do this once."
Rajii laughed and nodded, and it was only then that Leyrl saw the sheen of tears on his cheeks. "Yes, often there is mercy even in suffering."
The young warrior's eyes widened, remembering Elindir's words, as she nodded.
Adeniyi's arm replaced Rajii's on Leyrl's shoulder. When she had seen them both speaking earlier, when she had seen Adeniyi's tears and bowed head, she should have known.
Thunder clapped overhead and Adeniyi nodded toward Rajii as he took a step toward the waves of the lagoon as if they, too, pulled at him. Rain pelted down with more fury every heartbeat that passed.
