to Xephyra made Veronyka feel better, stronger, and more alive. Her bond to Tristan did too. But she couldn’t let it. Being bonded to another human was dangerous…. Veronyka had learned that lesson the hard way. She kept trying to forget about it, kept hoping that it would resolve itself or fade into the background. Tristan deserved to know that a magical link existed between them that gave her insight into his thoughts and feelings, but it was hard to face telling him that without any words of comfort or reassurance.
Why, yes, Tristan, I can hear your thoughts and sense your feelings—and no, I have no idea how to stop it. You’re scared? Me too.
Veronyka knew nothing of shadow magic and only the barest fragments of how to strengthen or weaken its power. The only person who had the answers she sought was Val, and reaching out to her was a risk Veronyka couldn’t take.
She glanced down at her wrist, where a braided bracelet sat. It was her own hair she’d cut off weeks ago, black and shining with a heavy coat of pyraflora resin, along with a single braid of Val’s vibrant red. There among the strands were beads and trinkets Veronyka had collected throughout her childhood, as well as a single, heavy golden ring.
It belonged to Val—or rather, Avalkyra Ashfire, the fierce warrior queen who had died almost two decades before and had been resurrected into the girl Veronyka had until recently thought was her sister.
The ring was tied into the braids so that only the simple golden band was visible, while the front, with Avalkyra Ashfire’s seal, was hidden from view.
The revelation that her sister, Val, wasn’t her sister at all had left Veronyka feeling utterly lost and adrift. Family had always been a fraught concept for her—how could it not be, with someone like Val as a sibling?—but at least she’d known where she belonged and who she was, however unimportant. Now that she’d discovered her maiora who’d raised her was actually Ilithya Shadowheart, Avalkyra Ashfire’s spymaster, and that Val was actually the Feather-Crowned Queen herself, Veronyka had to question everything she’d ever been told about her life. And the most pressing question of all? If Val was Avalkyra Ashfire, then who was Veronyka?
Only Val knew for sure, and she was not only elusive and self-serving—she was dangerous. Veronyka had seen firsthand what Val could do with shadow magic, and she feared opening herself up to her once-sister. What if Val just fed her more lies? What if Val sent more jarring dreams and memories? What if she didn’t, and Veronyka never, ever learned the whole truth?
And what if Val tried to take hold of Xephyra again? Veronyka knew it was possible, and she was more aware than ever of the complicated web that shadow and bond magic wove between her and the ones she cared about.
Like Xephyra. And Tristan.
Veronyka knew she had to protect herself, but she had to protect them most of all.
And the best way to do that—the only way she knew how to do that—was to block Val out completely. To block shadow magic completely.
To pretend neither existed.
But as Veronyka mounted up and headed back to the Eyrie—Tristan’s presence a warm glow in her mind and heart and Val’s a cold shadow that followed her everywhere she went—she knew that to block shadow magic was to block animal magic, to block Xephyra, and that was something Veronyka simply couldn’t do.
Soth’s Fury is a series of caverns named by the ancient Pyraean people who that believed the south wind—called Soth—was wicked and vengeful, blowing storms and chaos up into the mountains from the valley below. Only Soth could carve such deep, destructive paths through the mountain, creating shadowy places in the world where Axura’s light could not touch.
Soth was more superstition than true god, at least to the people of Pyra, and a product of lower rim communities who mingled more with the valley civilizations and their diverse, wide-reaching pantheon.
The word itself has similarly unknown origins, and most historians believe that the god may have been adopted from the mysterious Lowland civilization that was later wiped out by Lyra the Defender and her Red Horde after the Lowlanders tried to invade Pyra.
The tradition of naming nature gods is a popular custom of the Arborian people, possibly suggesting a unified ancestry with the Lowland civilization. For example, the people of Arboria pray to Nors, the fair north wind, for good weather and safe travel