Chapter Five

We're in the same makeshift hospital room. This must be its permanent setup now, since so many new souls are calling this district home. The numerous beds are empty, though, save for the ones the three of us are sitting on.

Frederick and his dad sit on the one across from me. I have a plate of food, but I'm not very hungry. Fred, on the other hand, is ravenous, and he devours everything Frederick got him.

It's his dad's story he hears first, and Fred tells us—with only a few extra-crazy ramblings—how he got locked up in Acadia. I notice he never says anyone's name. It's always my lady or my lady's sisters when he's talking about the empresses.

Fred is on a race with no one but himself as he tells the story about how his lady's sister went mad with the whispers, and when he's finished, he wants to hear all about Frederick's life. It doesn't feel like something I should be there for, so I get up and give Fred my plate, excusing myself.

I wander out of the building just in time to see Aolia and Kretia marching toward me. No doubt they heard of Fred's return. The man was close to Empress Krotas, so maybe they have their own questions for him.

Or maybe they just want to see him for themselves, see if it's true.

Kretia gives me a nod before entering through the open archway, while Aolia stops before me. It seems they never change out of their regal attire; they almost look like empresses themselves with their flowing robes and jewels.

Now that I've seen Empress Morimento, I can see just how alike Aolia is to her matron. They're almost a mirror image to each other, with the same blond hair and vibrant blue eyes. She wears the colors of Acadia: blues and greens, the colors of water and life.

"We did not expect you back so soon," Aolia says, and though I'm focused on her, I can see Ravenno and Hazor pushing past the crowd that gathered. That's when I notice something is different: the four councilmen and women don't have any private guards following them around.

"Yeah," I mutter, "a lot happened." I make sure to glare at Ravenno as he walks by; the asshole acts like he doesn't even see me.

All Aolia does is smile and say, "Let's see how your arm is doing." She doesn't wait for my approval; she simply steps closer and brings her gloved hands to the bandage on my arm. With an expert tug, she unravels it and lets it fall to the ground.

The wound started out deep. Way deeper than I felt comfortable looking at, but now it's nothing but three scars side by side, as if the attack on Laconia—the attack on me—happened so long ago.

"How?" I ask, unable to hide my shock. While it's true I was distracted, there's no way it's fully healed. No way. I didn't even go through the itchy, scratchy phase where the wound scabs over.

"Empresses always heal faster," Aolia says, as if it should be obvious, but she doesn't know what happened. She doesn't know I don't have any magic anymore. I'm no empress. That's a fact.

I don't bring any of that up to her, wanting to talk to Frederick about it all, first. Instead, I say, "I saw Empress Morimento. I mean, I think I did. It might've all been in my head, but… I think she saved my life. I don't really understand it."

Aolia bends to pick up the bandage, and once she straightens out, she wears a gentle smile. "Magic is… unexplainable sometimes. Countless men and women have tried to discern the facts about it, but what is magic if not the unexplainable? If you saw my lady, then you saw her. Perhaps a part of her was waiting for you."

The skin on my wrist where Rune used to be itches, a reminder of what I lost, of how he fooled me so completely. There isn't anything worse than being played for a fool.

"We heard you brought Frederick LaRoe with you," Aolia says.

"Yeah. He's in there, but he's… not well. He was locked in Acadia's dungeon for years. I don't know how he's still alive." I close my eyes and sigh, the weight of it all finally hitting me. "I think things are going to get worse."

The smile she gives me right then is supportive. "If they do, then we will get through them together." She then disappears, leaving me to go inside, to see Fred for herself.

I don't know how long the councilmen and women are going to be with Frederick and his dad, so I end up going on a little walk to clear my head. No destination in mind, just… I need to get away from the crowd, away from all of the people who look at me with hope in their eyes. I'm no hero. How many times did I tell everyone that?

Definitely no hero. A hero wouldn't fall for lies and unleash an ancient evil that three powerful empresses were too weak to defeat.

I don't know what happened all those years ago or how they were so susceptible to Invictis, nor do I really know how he's connected to the woes. As far as everyone knows, the blight was the first woe, and it decimated their crops.

What if the blight wasn't first? What if it all originated from Invictis?

I wind up on the ramparts overlooking Acadia. It's where I was told to venture back to Acadia and see if I could stop the scourge from spreading again. No one had any idea that, in doing so, I'd free Invictis.

I'd seen him before, so obviously when I thought I gained Gladus's power after defeating her, I was really gaining another piece of Invictis.

God, I was so stupid.

After a while, I end up with my back against the stone wall and my ass on the floor of the walkway. My shoulders are slumped, and now more than ever, I really want to go home. It's clear as day I'm not meant for any of this. Odds are I sentenced everyone that's left in Laconia to an awful death at the hands of that golden bastard.

Time passes. I don't know how much, but it must be a while, because as I'm wrestling with self-hatred, Frederick climbs up the stone stairs to the ramparts and spots me instantly.

"There you are," he says with a smile. I don't get up, so he comes and joins me, sitting beside me and mimicking my position. The sunlight shines above us, highlighting the warmer tones in his brown hair and making his brown eyes sparkle with flecks of amber.

Like I said before, he's cute. A bookish sort of cute. Sitting there, beside him, feeling so out of sorts, I'm reminded of the feeling I had the night I kissed him.

A mistake. Who can forget the man lied to me to get me to do what he wanted?

Kind of like Invictis, now that I'm thinking about it, only Frederick's lie isn't as bad.

"Thank you for bringing my father back," Frederick says. He sits so close to me his arm touches mine, but I don't move away from him. I'm too tired to. "I never thought him being alive was a possibility."

All I do is nod.

Frederick's next question is an abrupt change of subject: "Are you all right? You seem… off."

I offer him my right hand, not so he can hold it, but so he can see that I'm now tattoo-less.

"What's…" He must realize it then. "Where did your mark go?"

Everything is so raw, so recent, but this might be the only time Frederick and I have alone, and I don't really feel like spilling it all in front of everyone else. Maybe Frederick can make some sense of it, tell me what I should do.

So I tell him. I tell him everything. I tell him about Invictis tricking me by pretending he was Empress Morimento's son, how he says he's a weapon sent to destroy all of Laconia and I made him whole again. I even tell him about seeing Morimento in that world of white and how she said I need to go to the undercrofts of every castle—after I bring Fred back to Laconia.

Still don't get why Fred is so important. The man's half-mad. Sure, he might be smart, but I doubt he knows a way to end this.

The story takes a long time to tell, and throughout it Frederick listens intently. He makes no judgment, says no snide remarks. The only thing he does is sit beside me while he listens to the story of how I fucked up spectacularly.

Only when my depressing tale is over does Frederick say, "Wow. That's… quite a tale. I've never heard of Invictis before. I'll have to see if any of the books in the library mention it." His voice quiets to a bare whisper when he adds, "I must admit, though, I don't believe Invictis is the reason you could do all that, Rey."

I meet his eyes, questioning.

"You never thought you were special, but Prim knew. I know it, too. Don't let Invictis deceive you." My doubt must still be evident, because Frederick asks, "You still have it, don't you? The Hilt of Storms?"

"Yeah, it's still in my bag, but…" But what use is it to me right now?

"Pull it out."

I grumble, not knowing where he's going with this, but I go into my satchel all the same. My hand finds the metal hilt tucked away in the bag, and I pull it out into the bright light of day, holding it between us.

Just a fancy hilt made of black metal. Nothing more. It isn't like I can summon lightning and make a cool magical sword like Gladus. It's basically a paperweight.

"See?" Frederick says, as if that's that.

"See what?"

Frederick lets out a sigh before poking the hilt with a single finger. He draws his finger back instantly, wincing as he turns the tip of it toward me, showing me that the hilt burned him. "Even without Invictis's power, you can touch the Hilt, which leads me to believe it was never its power that let you do so to start with. It was always yours."

I open my mouth to argue, the need to say he's wrong deep in my bones, but no words come out. I can't deny what I just saw, nor how the Hilt of Storms seems to weigh absolutely nothing when I'm holding onto it, like it's an extension of my own arm.

"You have power inside you," he tells me. "You simply need to unlock it and accept it."

A weird sound of disbelief and incredulousness escapes me, but no matter what I do, I can't take my stare away from the Hilt of Storms.

"Now, going back to what Morimento told you. She wants you to visit the undercrofts in each castle—I have no idea why that would be. The undercrofts aren't meant for the public; only the empresses were allowed inside their depths. There's no record of what's inside any of them." Frederick rubs his cheek. "But she wouldn't have mentioned it if it was not important. There must be more to it. Perhaps my father knows." He stands, dusts himself off, and offers me a hand.

I take it, allowing Frederick to help me up. Together, we find his dad and have a long talk.