Valens stared in pleased surprise at the repaired tower's singing white walls, then drew a deep breath. Domi got the feeling it was as much to steady the man as him and Dae. "Alright, Alumnas, I don't really know how this next step will work, but--"
"I do," Daedalus said, his soft voice at once firm and full of awe.
Domi didn't blame his twin. "Me too." His own voice was almost as shaky as his hands. Uncertainty gripped him tight--about whether or not the tower would really be able to restore the Trellis, about the absent eidolon's concern, and about what would happen to him and Dae after the Trellis was rebuilt.
But utter certainty filled him about how to use the tower. He knew it as easily as he knew his own name or how to blink.
The tower itself told him.
Knowledge unfolded within him. Black and starry, white and sparkling, it blossomed in his mind like the rosebud he'd seen on the library's ceiling. Each petal of layered information brushed softly against him, its meaning rising like perfume, fragrant and inviting.
He felt Daedalus too. His twin lingered closer than ever, as near as his own breath. The other boy's wonder and fear mingling with Domi's. They clung to each other as much for stability as reassurance.
Three petals brushed them, theirs to pluck or not. Thought-sensations, rich with imagery, filled their minds.
Clearing. A hungry fog, reducing flora and fauna, soil and sea.
Weaving. A fiery brilliance, filling the sky with light and life.
Rising. A glowing star, shooting up into the black heavens.
"Should we let them do this?" Aix's voice came from far away. Domi could barely feel the warm stone floor beneath his feet,: let alone see where the old man's voice came from. "Perhaps we should wait, Alumna. Study this."
"Look outside." The tension in Valens's voice almost made Domi pull his awareness from the tower.
"Oh, Eternal Radiance," Aix breathed.
"The clivia may not be able to get in, but that eidolon and daemon can. And who knows what all those Blended can do. This may be our only chance."
"Yes," the lifeholder said, "but..."
It is not for them to decide.
Domi shivered at the odd sensation of his twin's voice between his ears but nodded. Exactly. Everyone's depending on us. We have to help them, Dae. We have to. And we've got to do it before Kaitlyn can stop us.
Are you ready? His twin's fear swept over him. I... I have never done anything such as this before. It might hurt. Or it might go awry. I cannot be sure.
Domi snorted, though he wasn't sure if it was inside his head or not. I've never been ready for any of this. Why start now? Let's do this.
As one, they turned their attention to the second option, feeding the tower their intention.
The tower answered.
Calm white walls flared flame blue. "Sweet Eternal Radiance!" Aix snapped far away.
"Close your eyes!"
Hot. The tower grew very hot, very fast. Hot and bright and loud. Domi clasped his ears, gasping as the tower shined and roared. Its prior soothing resonance gave way to a familiar majestic hymn.
He and Daedalus huddled together on the hot floor, panting as a dark figure stood above them, arms outstretched to block some of the unbearable light and heat. But not enough. Domi whimpered, jerking his hands up away from the hot floor and cradling them in his lap, but could not do the same with his legs and feet.
Thankfully, it ended quickly. Promenia rushed past them up into the ceiling, its humming tune changing as it cascaded upward. The walls and floor faded from brilliant blue to the dimmest white glow as most of the promenia drained away.
"Look," Valens said, lifting the arms he'd flung over them both. He helped them to their feet and pointed at the Crystal Garden's window. When he spoke, wonder cracked his voice. "Eyes devour."
Domi gaped. The Eyes were not devouring anything. But the blue promenia was.
Or so it seemed. He stared, his stinging hands and feet forgotten, as one of the distant golden whirlwinds turned lightning-blue. It spun faster, winding up into the sky and joining a vast cloud that spread over the heavens.
Domi watched in stunned silence, jaw dropping. He'd seen this, once. A radiant disc of spinning cyan fire in the kindling air. But this was so much bigger than when Valens and the other worldholders repaired a section of the Trellis. The promenia rolled across the heavens in a vast wave, weaving into a tapestry of light, warmth, and sound in the swell's wake.
And it wasn't just here. Oh no, he could see the new Trellis Isle burning over the Blightlands, but he could also feel far beyond the reach of his eyes.
But not as he had felt before.
Daedalus turned to him, beaming. "We did it, Brother. You hold the Trellis again. I can see it. Feel it. Even the Trellis proper. Part of it, at least. It is back. It is all back." The older twin's eyes glistened with joyful, relieved tears. "How does it feel? Are you well?"
"I..." Domi frowned, staring at the sky outside the window. The Trellis Isle overhead sparkled, then steadied, glowing calmly. Its unfading golden note rolled over the land, the tone and light far more stable than when Domi had held it before Trellis Descent.
He could not feel the lattice's fiery force.
"Domi?" Valens asked, eyes narrowing at something in his expression. The man frowned and cupped the stunned younger twin's face. "What is it, Alumna?"
Domi swallowed hard. "It's not with me, Aedificanti," he said, his uneasy confusion choking his voice. "I don't hold the Trellis."
For a moment, everyone just stared at him, expressions uncomprehending.
Then Valens and Aix turned to Daedalus.
Domi's twin shook his head, his face paling. "It has not returned to me either, Aedificanti."
<>
If Radix died today, they were going to blame it on the Trellis.
"Watch out!" Edera screamed somewhere behind them in the crush of skirmishing bodies.
With a gasp, Radix jerked their gaze away from the shining sky above the skyhaven and threw themself sideways. A club swung past the place where their head had just been.
Eternal Radiance, they needed to pay better attention to the battle still raging beneath the brand new Trellis. The skyhaven belonged to the Pullati now, but the enemy didn't seem to understand that yet. The city watch, skyhaven employees, and Electi reinforcements fought back brutally despite the overwhelming numbers of Merula's forces.
Gritting their teeth, Radix darted around the man trying to brain them and aimed a vicious kick at the watchman's shin. He went down with a yelp and a colorful curse.
"Sidus?" they asked, their breath coming in exhausted gasps. Fear surged through their veins, and they knew if they stopped moving, the heat of battle would wane to the chill of trembling terror. The fight might almost be over, but it still wasn't safe. "Any news yet?"
"Too soon, Rad," Edera said, wiping sweat and blood from her face with her forearm. A shallow cut glistened above her eyebrow. "Way too soon."
They nodded, clenching their teeth. Eyes devour, they hoped the dunce would be alright. The boy had run off to the palace complex on a self-assigned scouting mission the instant the Trellis blazed across the heavens.
Of course Edera hadn't heard back from Sidus through the Caeles yet. It was still too early for the starholder to have reached Arx Luminosa, let alone learned anything about whether the sorcerers at the palace complex were as impaired as the Lightbearers here at the skyhaven.
Not that Edera and the Electi trying to hold off the Pullati force were much of Lightbearers right now. The freshly-woven lattice of light high above Vola Apertus had snatched the vast majority of promenia in the air to feed itself. Even Radix had been able to watch as the particles, glowing livid blue-green, had streamed out of the Pullati's and their Electi opponents' crystalline consecturums and spiraled up into the golden net ablaze in the heavens.
Sidus had said the effect wouldn't last long; most worldholders would already be hard at work making more. But for now, few Lightbearers had magic. And thank the Eternal Radiance; battle was terrifying enough even when both sides suddenly found their magical weapons useless.
"Radix, pay attention!" Edera snapped, shoving them out of the path of an Electi who tried to rush them.
No, not rush them. Rush past them, five Pullati men and women hot on his heels.
Radix stuck out their foot, smirking as the guard, arms pinwheeling, sprawled face first in the dust outside the skyhaven. They hopped over the fallen man and then winced as they found themself abruptly beneath a familiar dark brown gaze.
"Erm..."
"What the hell are you kids doing here?" Merula roared.
Edera stepped alongside them and offered a sheepish smile. "Getting grounded for life, probably."
"You're lucky I don't end your sorry lives after you risked them like this!" She waved her companions toward the fallen watchman but kept her eyes on the kids as the guard was hauled off to join a group of kneeling prisoners. "Where is Sidus?"
Radix cringed. "Well..." They tried on Edera's smile. Merula's face didn't gentle. Eternal Radiance. "He's scouting the palaces to see if the Lightbearers there are having the same problems as the ones here."
Merula's eyes widened. "He's scouting the what?"
Edera jumped, then frowned. "Um, Rex?" She crossed her arms stubbornly as Domi's ma scowled down at her. "You got a Caeles stone? Sidus has news."
Merula stepped away, pulling a stone from the hands of a kneeling skychariot attendant. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you," she told the frightened man, then lifted a brow at Edera.
The Lightbearer girl nodded, tipping her chin to the Caeles stone. "There, I transferred him to you."
Sidus's whispering voice rose from the black artifact. "Why are you on a stone when the Caeles is fully-- Oh, Eyes devour, you're not Edera."
"Indeed, I'm not," Merula said flatly. "Hello, Sidus."
"Erm, hello, Rex."
Domi's ma's eyes narrowed down where Radix could see the dim outline of Sidus's face. "Are you safe?"
"Yes, Augustus. Safe-ish."
"Ish?" She prompted, gritting her teeth.
"There are people all around, but they haven't seen me," Sidus said. "And there's not much they can do if they catch me. There isn't enough promenia here yet for anyone to use magic. But I saw a few worldholders making more."
"Get out of there, Kid," Merula said even as a gleam lit in her dark brown eyes.
"Will do, Augustus. But there's something you need to know."
"Go on."
"There's no sign of Decus Astralis or the Princepses. The servants say they left by skychariot forty hours ago."
For a long moment, Merula absorbed the news in silence, eyes calculating. Then her gaze narrowed down at the stone. "Thank you for the information, Sidus."
"Of course, Augus--"
"Now get your ass out of there." She turned to Radix and Edera, and Radix tried not to wilt beneath the stern look leveled down at them. "You kids go home, right now." She glanced at a lanky woman standing behind her, who held a consecturum upside down like a club. "She'll take you and make sure you bloody stay there."
The woman, whose nose looked freshly broken, smirked and gestured them toward her with two fingers. "Come on. Time for beddy-bye." Radix cast her their best glare and was ignored.
They sighed, glancing at Merula. "Where are you going?"
The Rex gazed up at the miraculous light blazing high above, then toward the glittering white spires of the nearby palace complex. "I'm taking Arx Luminosa."
<>
Valen frowned from one of his alumnas to the other, taking in the identical expressions of confusion and alarm. He glanced at Aix, whose keen gray eyes studied the twins beneath knit brows. Then he turned to the Crystal Garden's window.
The brand new Trellis Isle still gleamed overhead, strong and steady but for the smallest glittery flickers. Valens turned back to the twins, who huddled fearfully against one another, and sighed. The pair had been through far too much, and he could not help feeling a wave of relief even as it warred with bafflement.
The Trellis Isle blazed in cyan splendor above the tower, and he could feel other Isles speckling the night-side and the new Trellis Proper wrapping the day-side. Yet neither twin held the lattice. Somehow, they had escaped its crushing weight.
He would call it a miracle of the Eternal Radiance. But now he knew better.
Valens shook his head. "If neither of you has the Trellis, then who the hell is holding it?" he asked uneasily.
"I am."
Everyone jumped at the unexpected young feminine voice. Valens whipped around, staring in shocked confusion and then just shock.
A girl around his alumnas' age stepped through the shelves of artifacts, a black laurel glittering above her crystal-white paenula. She regarded them with warm brown eyes, and regret filled her dark olive face.
Around her, Decus, Oliva, Fidentia, and Buccina walked, the latter woman's hand resting on the girl's shoulder. Behind them, a regal golden eidolon followed.
"M-mother?" Daedalus whispered, eyes wide.
The promenia woman froze and stared at her son, her mouth falling open in shock. Then she composed her face, eyes shining with compassion but her expression stony as she stepped up to the Rex's side.
Heart in his throat, Valens reached for the scant particles remaining in the tower and felt Aix and Daedalus do the same.
"Do not touch promenia," the Rex said, and the command roared down from the Trellis, crashing over him. Against his will, Valens's mental grip on the particles relaxed, and they wafted away.
He stepped in front of his alumnas, Aix moving with him. "What is this?" He scowled at the girl. "Who is she?"
The Rex held out a manicured hand toward the youth. "Daedalus and Domi, may I present your cousin, Lyra Adurere? The new Princeps Worldholder."
The twins stumbled alongside Valens, ignoring his warning glance, and stared at the girl. "Wh-what?" Domi gasped.
The Rex scowled. "Did you honestly believe that you were the only twins born to the Princeps Worldholder line?" He shook his head as Buccina lowered her eyes. "Your dilemma has been faced countless times before. And the solution your parents found has been tried before, and with better success." He inclined his head to Lyra.
"But how?" Daedalus asked, shrinking back as Decus turned to glare. Valens gritted his teeth, nudging the boy behind him even as everything in him screamed to strike the Rex down before Decus could kill the boy again.
"I-I don't understand," Domi whispered.
Buccina cleared her throat, and when she lifted her eyes, a world of shame and sorrow filled her gaze. "Your uncle Laetus and I were lovers. Lyra is our daughter, as was... was her sister."
The girl glanced at her mother as Buccina's voice faltered. "My parents hid me on the night-side. Suppressed me. But then my sister died when our family was massacred fifteen years ago."
Buccina swallowed. "She had started getting fussy, so I stepped outside to nurse her. When the explosion came, I managed to shield her, but then the Trellis--" Her voice broke, and she closed her eyes, sorrow inscribed on her scarred face. "She was only three months old, far too young to survive the transfer. She... she died in my arms." She trembled as she opened her eyes again. "The Trellis would have passed to Lyra next and killed her too, but she was suppressed. So the Trellis passed to your mother."
"And now it has passed back to Lyra." Valens's heart sank into his belly as realization dawned. He turned to Decus, jaw clenching. "You used us. You never intended for Domi to rule even if he restored the Trellis."
"I cannot allow an untrained Pullati traitor to wear the Onyx Crown," the Rex said. He may still have governed from the Throne of Regret, but Valens saw no hint of the emotion in his eyes now, only cold resolve. "Princeps Buccina was wise enough to inform me of Lyra's survival after your mother ascended to the throne. I ensured she was trained in secret, as a failsafe. But she is the rightful heir. She always was."
"No," Valens snapped. "She's not." He tried to school his tone as Aix cast him a warning glance. His aedificans was right; Decus could slaughter them all in a heartbeat, and they were powerless to stop the Rex. Words were their only hope right now. He had to protect his alumnas. "We've discovered a lot here at the tower, Augustus. We learned the Throne of Solitude is supposed to be shared. The Trellis is too great a burden to bear alone."
"You expect me to believe that nonsense?" the Rex scoffed.
"It's not nonsense. It's the tru--"
"Silence." The Rex's command stole the air from Valens's mouth mid word. It was all he could do to breathe. "Face your fate with grace. Princeps Lyra holds the Trellis and will be crowned when we return to Vola Apertus. The public will welcome her as a miracle given by the Eternal Radiance to save the world." The Rex ignored Valens's scornful look at that ludicrous idea. "As for the rest of you..." The old man's eyes narrowed at Valens's older alumna. "You will join Daedalus in death after your trial. The people must see justice done after the horror of the past eight days."
At his side, Lyra and Buccina stiffened, and Verita's eidolon gazed at him in horror. "No! You promised my sons would not be harmed!"
"I promised your surviving son would not be harmed. But I cannot abide two. Nor the risk they pose. I vowed to do what I must to protect this world and give it a future. And so did you."
Fury flashed across her glittering visage, but clenching her jaw, she stepped back.
"Mother," Daedalus whispered brokenly. "Please. Help us."
Verita gazed at him, sorrow in her eyes. "I have helped you all I could, and more. More than I should have, and the whole world suffered as a consequence. I cannot make that choice again. It is too selfish. I am sorry."
It's not selfish, Valens screamed in his mind. Her brow knit, and he met her eyes. It's not selfish. Everything depends on them. Don't do this.
She turned away, and his heart plummeted as she stalked from the room and faded through the wall.
The Rex flicked his hand and turned to leave. "Come with me." His promenia thundered down from the Trellis Isle and bound them in iron command. Valens gritted his teeth as he, his alumnas, and his aedificans stumbled after the elderly man. "You are under arrest. Tomorrow, before the eyes of the world, you shall die." He glared at Daedalus over his shoulder and then flicked a suspicious glance at Princeps Oliva. "This time, I will make sure of it personally."