Be careful, soul sister. You have angered the goddess of spirit. I do not believe that she will allow you access to the plane lightly.
“I know,” she told her. “But I will not allow her access to my plane lightly either.”
Then Cyrene found the liquid-like veil between the two dimensions. She put her hand through it and then stepped into nothingness. In an instant, she stood in a red gown on the coast in a small beach cottage. A baby slept in the room, and a sea breeze blew in through the open door.
“Hello, Anne,” she said softly to Serafina’s daughter. “Thank Creator you survived or else I would never have been born.” She straightened and then took a deep breath. “Sera?”
A moment passed and then another. She had worried that perhaps she wouldn’t be able to speak to Serafina again after she passed on to the other Dominas. It was a calculated risk that she might not be here. Cyrene had a backup plan, but also a part of her had just wanted to see Serafina one more time.
“Are you still here, Serafina?” Cyrene tried again.
Nothing happened.
She sighed and glanced down at the baby one more time.
“She is beautiful, isn’t she?”
Cyrene jumped and whirled around. “Serafina!” She threw her arms around Sera, and she just laughed.
“I was wondering if you’d ever return.”
“I didn’t know if you could still come.”
“Not regularly like before,” Serafina admitted. “It’s more difficult for me to cross the divide, but I saw that you have great need.”
“I do. The diamond,” she said, her fingers reflexively going to it, “it strengthens me. It keeps me from being subject to my blood magic. It allows me to see the strengths of others. But I think it can do more. I think I can do more. But I can’t do it alone.”
Serafina smiled. “You’ve never been alone.”
“I’ve always felt that you are with me.”
“We are. All of us,” she said. “The diamond is full of the knowledge of all past Dominas, Cyrene. We have been helping you the whole time.”
Cyrene’s jaw dropped. She remembered every time that she had touched the diamond and wished that she had a way to fix her problem. How she had come up with new powers that she had never known existed. It all made sense now.
This was the power of the Domina. The knowledge that stretched back generations. Something Malysa would literally kill to access.
“Why did you not tell me?”
Sera laughed. “I would have liked to, but everyone must discover the power they can possess on their own. A Domina is not called until the other one dies. But we help how we can.”
Cyrene closed her eyes and considered Serafina’s words. “And how much help can you provide now?”
“What would you like?”
“The combined might of all Dominas,” Cyrene said. “To bring back magic to Emporia. To fix what Malysa destroyed all those years ago.”
Serafina snapped her fingers, and suddenly, they were in the great chamber of the Dominas. The giant domed room where the Doma court had once been held. The very place Cyrene had received the Domina diamond to begin with.
One by one, the room filled, as it had that day, until all the chairs were full, and Cyrene was looking up at Domina Selma.
“What is it that you wish to do, child?” Selma asked.
Cyrene curtsied. “Domina Selma, there are bloodlines that run from you and your mother. Children of the Dawn who have yet to be lit from within. They cannot access their powers. The small amounts left weren’t enough to let them become Doma. This is Malysa’s doing. She destroyed so many of our kind that, even with Doma blood in their veins, they believe themselves to be just human.”
“Yes, that is true,” Selma said. “And what do you want to do about that?”
“Awaken the bloodline.”
“Let it be so,” Selma said.
And then Cyrene felt a link open up with the oldest Domina and then the next and the next and the next until it was nearly impossible to hold them all. Until Cyrene was brimming so completely with the magic of her people that she thought she might explode into a thousand pieces like a dying sun. Finally, she reached Serafina, the last Domina to wear the white.
The link was complete, and the power settled into her skin.
She breathed it in, gently at first and then deeper. This was ultimate power.
Was this how it felt to be a pure-blooded Doma?
Was this what it was like to be a god?
If she’d had anything but good intentions, this would have shattered her. Nothing evil could ever possess this much light.
Then she closed her eyes and held her arms out wide. She reached out with her mind across the spiritual plane. Not worried for an instant that Malysa would be able to touch her here. She had full control of the plane. Full control of her immense power.
She searched them out. Each and every person who had ever had magic in their bloodline. Anyone who would birth Doma children. Anyone who had come from those fallen lines and hidden who they were.
As far as Bienco and as close as this very camp.
She touched them all. Gathered them up like sheep in her flock. Herded them into her power.
Hundreds.
No, thousands.
Tens of thousands.
So many.
So very, very many.
And then, when she had every soul within her grasp, she added her light.
The light of the Children of the Dawn.
The light of the Heir of Light.
The light of the Domina.
And began an awakening.
53
The Awakening
Reeve thrust his sword at the next assailant and the next. He couldn’t think about the fact that he might know some of these guards. These might have been men that he trained with in the castle. High Order men giving orders that he had joked with once. He couldn’t think about any of it.
He just had to keep fighting.
And it was easier with Aubron at his side.
Aubron might be smaller than him, but he was just as fierce with a sword. Just as vicious. Maybe more so.
He hadn’t been coddled to believe that Byern was a utopia. He hadn’t been indoctrinated into the system. He had never even wanted to become a High Order. He had only done it to find his brother.
Now, they stood side by side, covered in cuts and bruises and blood. Trying to break down the line and get to those with the blood magic. Stop before their darkness festered and spread.
He did it for Cyrene.
For those who had been killed in Fen.
For this new world order.
Then, he felt something touch him. Inside of him.
It was as if he had just ignited a flame within his chest.
His strength redoubled.
His exhaustion began to dissipate.
“Reeve,” Aubron gasped in awe.
And suddenly, he was glowing.
Kirby stared down at his baking materials—flour, salt, yeast. He had trekked across the Tygh with these in his pack, preparing meals for the water seekers as they all went farther and farther from Aleut to look for the resource.
When the Domina had taken hundreds of Tyghan people out of the desert, hardly any water seekers had been left behind. The old had come out of retirement and gone looking once more.