Toby remembered his sister from a place where neither of them should have possessed memories.
Darkness.
Warmth.
A heartbeat surrounding him.
Cael nearby.
And a girl's hand holding his.
Don't forget me when you leave.
The memory vanished as quickly as it had returned.
Toby staggered against Cael.
"Toby?"
Cael gripped his shoulders.
"Look at me."
Toby did.
"Who is she?"
"I don't know."
"You just said she's our sister."
"I remember her."
"From where?"
Toby looked toward Seraphine.
"Before we were born."
Every face in the throne chamber changed.
Seraphine went completely still.
"No."
Gareth noticed.
"You know."
"No."
"Seraphine."
She backed away.
"There were two."
"Toby and Cael?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you afraid?"
Seraphine looked toward the main gates.
"Because for the first months..."
Her voice failed.
Gareth stepped closer.
"For the first months what?"
Seraphine whispered:
"There were three."
Silence.
Cael stared at her.
"Triplets?"
"I didn't know."
"How could you not know?"
"I was told one stopped developing very early."
Toby's stomach turned.
"The girl."
Seraphine nodded.
"The physicians said her body had been absorbed."
Cael looked toward Toby.
"By us?"
"Possibly."
"No."
Toby touched his chest.
"She didn't disappear."
Ancient Lyra stepped closer.
"What exactly do you remember?"
"Darkness."
"Anything else?"
"Cael."
Cael frowned.
"You remember me?"
"Not your face."
Toby closed his eyes.
"A presence."
"And the girl?"
"She was older."
Ancient Lyra's expression sharpened.
"Older?"
"She sounded older."
"How much?"
"I don't know."
"Child? Adult?"
"Child."
Aeron whispered:
"Temporal memory."
Gareth stared at him.
"Meaning?"
"The Veil doesn't experience time the way we do."
Cael's patience snapped.
"Can anyone in this family give an answer without making three more problems?"
Aeron ignored him.
"If the third fetus died while carrying Vaelor blood, her consciousness may have entered the Veil."
Mira understood.
"And grown there."
"Possibly."
Toby looked toward the gate.
"For ten years?"
"From her perspective, perhaps much longer."
Ancient Lyra whispered:
"Or much shorter."
Gareth drew his sword.
"Nobody opens those gates until we know what she is."
Toby stepped forward.
"She's my sister."
"You don't know that."
"I remember her."
"Nhalor manipulates memory."
"Nhalor is gone."
"Part of him may not be."
That stopped Toby.
Gareth lowered himself to his son's height.
"I want her to be who you think she is."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
Toby studied him.
Gareth smiled sadly.
"At this point, one more child barely changes my situation."
Cael laughed.
Mira did too.
Even younger Lyra smiled.
The tension broke for only a moment.
Then the bells at the main gate rang.
Three times.
The mysterious woman was still waiting.
---
They did not let Toby go alone.
Gareth walked first.
Seraphine beside him.
Toby and Cael followed.
Mira and younger Lyra came behind them.
Ancient Lyra and Aeron remained close.
Edric ordered fifty guards onto the walls.
Veyron commanded the courtyard.
The main gate stayed closed.
Through the iron viewing slit, Gareth saw the woman.
She stood alone.
No horse.
No weapon.
Perhaps thirty years old.
Long dark hair.
Bare feet.
A simple white dress.
She looked like Seraphine around the eyes.
Like Gareth around the mouth.
And disturbingly like Toby and Cael everywhere else.
"Name," Gareth demanded.
The woman smiled.
"You already know."
"No."
"You gave it to me."
Gareth's expression hardened.
"I didn't know you existed."
"Not consciously."
"Name."
She looked past him.
"Toby."
His crest ignited.
The woman's two marks answered.
One on each forearm.
Cael's mark burned too.
Then Mira's.
Then younger Lyra's.
Five flames.
Ancient Lyra whispered:
"Impossible."
The woman heard her through the gate.
"Hello, namesake."
Ancient Lyra went pale.
"You know me?"
"I know all of you."
Aeron stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked at him.
For the first time, sadness entered her face.
"You carried us for so long."
Aeron froze.
"What?"
"The dead."
His black-gold eyes widened.
"You're from the Veil."
"Yes."
Gareth immediately ordered:
"Nobody opens the gate."
The woman looked toward him.
"Father."
"Don't."
"You don't like hearing it from strangers."
"You're not helping."
She smiled.
"Cael said the same thing the first time he called you Father."
Cael went still.
Only people inside the hunting lodge could know that.
"How do you know?"
"I heard everything."
"Through Nhalor?"
"No."
"Then how?"
She touched both Sovereign Crests.
"I was listening through you."
Toby approached the gate.
Gareth caught him.
"Stay back."
The woman looked at Toby.
"You remembered."
He swallowed.
"You told me not to forget you."
"Yes."
"Where were we?"
"Inside Mother."
Seraphine covered her mouth.
The woman continued.
"You were afraid."
Toby's eyes filled.
"Cael wasn't."
Cael frowned.
"That sounds correct."
She smiled.
"No. You were terrified."
Cael's amusement vanished.
"You just hid it better."
Seraphine stepped forward.
"What did I call you?"
The woman's expression softened.
"You didn't."
"Then Gareth?"
"He did."
Gareth shook his head.
"No."
"You dreamed about us before you knew Mother was pregnant."
A forgotten memory struck Gareth.
Seraphine sleeping beside him fourteen years earlier.
Gareth describing a dream.
Three children running through a field.
Two boys.
One girl.
He had joked that if he ever had a daughter, he would call her—
"Evelyn."
The woman smiled.
"Hello, Father."
Gareth nearly dropped his sword.
---
The gate opened.
Against Gareth's better judgment.
Evelyn entered High Keep.
She stopped several feet from the family.
Nobody embraced her.
Not yet.
She seemed to understand.
Toby asked:
"How are you alive?"
"I'm not."
Silence.
Cael sighed.
"Naturally."
Evelyn looked at her hands.
"This body isn't the one Mother made."
Seraphine flinched.
"What is it?"
"A memory given shape."
Aeron stepped closer.
"That requires enormous power."
"Yes."
"Whose?"
Evelyn looked toward Toby.
"His."
Everyone froze.
Toby stepped backward.
"Mine?"
"Partly."
"How?"
"When Nhalor entered you, the Veil touched your mind."
Gareth's hand tightened on Toby's shoulder.
Evelyn continued.
"You remembered me."
"And that created you?"
"Not alone."
She looked toward Cael.
"He remembered something too."
Cael shook his head.
"I didn't."
"You dreamed."
"When?"
"Every night for ten years."
Cael went still.
The chained child.
The dark room.
And sometimes—
a girl sitting beyond the bars.
He had always believed she was imaginary.
"You."
Evelyn nodded.
"I stayed with you."
Cael's face changed.
"You told me stories."
"Yes."
"You said the stars were still there even when I couldn't see them."
"Yes."
Cael backed away.
"No."
"Cael."
"You were imaginary."
"I was dead."
"That's worse."
His eyes filled.
Evelyn did not approach.
"You survived."
Cael laughed bitterly.
"Apparently with a ghost sister."
"Yes."
Toby looked between them.
"You were with both of us?"
"Sometimes."
"Why?"
"Because you were my way back."
Ancient Lyra's expression darkened.
"There."
Everyone turned.
"That's the danger."
Evelyn looked at her calmly.
Ancient Lyra continued.
"Anything in the Veil needs a memory in the living world to return."
"Correct."
"You used them as anchors."
"Yes."
Gareth drew his sword.
Evelyn did not move.
"Father—"
"Are you Evelyn?"
"Yes."
"Only Evelyn?"
Silence.
That was enough.
Gareth raised the blade.
"What else came back with you?"
Toby stared at her.
"Evelyn?"
She looked toward him.
"I'm sorry."
Black lines appeared beneath the skin of her left arm.
Cael immediately raised Kingsbane.
Evelyn lifted both hands.
"Don't."
"What is inside you?"
"Not Nhalor."
"Then what?"
Her two Sovereign Crests changed.
One remained gold.
The other became black.
Ancient Lyra whispered:
"Two flames."
Aeron understood.
"One living."
"One dead," Evelyn finished.
Mira stared.
"What does that mean?"
Evelyn looked toward the castle.
"I wasn't the only child who died carrying Vaelor blood."
Seraphine went pale.
"The experiments."
Evelyn nodded.
"Thousands."
Mira's eyes filled with horror.
"Project Ember."
"Before it had that name. After it. Across generations."
Evelyn touched the black crest.
"They found me."
"Who?" Toby asked.
"The children."
The courtyard became silent.
"All of them?"
"Not souls exactly."
Evelyn struggled to explain.
"Memories. Fear. Pieces."
Cael lowered Kingsbane slightly.
"You brought them with you."
"I couldn't leave them."
Gareth understood the problem.
"How many?"
Evelyn looked at him.
"I don't know."
The black crest pulsed.
Hundreds of children's voices whispered through the courtyard.
Mira began crying.
Evelyn clenched her fist.
The voices stopped.
"They're frightened."
Ancient Lyra approached.
"They're also powerful."
"Yes."
"Can you control them?"
Evelyn did not answer.
Gareth whispered:
"That's a no."
---
They moved Evelyn to the old chapel rather than the royal chambers.
Not imprisoned.
Not free.
Gareth refused both labels.
Toby stayed with her.
Cael pretended not to.
Mira brought food Evelyn could not eat.
Younger Lyra watched from the doorway.
Five siblings who had not known one another existed.
Evelyn looked around.
"This is strange."
Cael sat against the wall.
"Which part?"
"Having bodies nearby."
Toby frowned.
"You don't feel alive?"
"I feel..."
Evelyn touched the wooden table.
"Heavy."
"Is that bad?"
"No."
She smiled.
"I like it."
Mira sat opposite her.
"Do the children speak to you?"
"Sometimes."
"What do they want?"
"Names."
Mira's expression tightened.
"They don't remember?"
"Most don't."
Toby whispered:
"Then we'll give them names."
Evelyn looked at him.
"You can't invent their lives."
"No."
Toby shook his head.
"But we can remember that they existed."
Evelyn's golden crest brightened.
For the first time, the black one weakened.
Ancient Lyra observed from the doorway.
"Interesting."
Cael groaned.
"Whenever an ancient person says that, something terrible happens."
But Ancient Lyra was smiling.
"Toby may have found the answer."
"To what?"
"Belief gave Nhalor power."
She looked toward Evelyn.
"Perhaps remembrance gives these children individuality."
Mira understood.
"Separate them from the collective."
"Exactly."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
The whispers returned.
But now they were softer.
Individual voices.
A girl.
A boy.
Another boy.
A child laughing.
Then one voice rose above the others.
Clear.
Adult.
Evelyn's eyes opened.
Fear filled them.
"No."
Toby stood.
"What?"
"Someone is here."
Cael grabbed Kingsbane.
"Who?"
"Someone who shouldn't be."
The chapel doors slammed shut.
Candles died.
The black crest on Evelyn's arm ignited.
A man's voice emerged from her mouth.
Not Nhalor.
Not Malachar.
Gareth burst through the doors from outside.
"Evelyn!"
She looked at him helplessly.
"I can't stop him."
"Who?"
The man's voice answered.
"Me."
A figure began forming behind Evelyn.
Tall.
Royal armor.
A crown.
Edric entered the chapel and stopped dead.
"No."
King Aldren arrived behind him.
His face lost all color.
The apparition smiled.
"Hello, brother."
Gareth looked toward Aldren.
"Who is that?"
Aldren could barely speak.
"My brother."
Silence.
The apparition turned toward Gareth.
Not Lucian.
Another brother.
One history had erased completely.
King Aldren whispered:
"Prince Cassian."
Evelyn screamed.
The ghost solidified.
Gareth raised his sword.
"I thought Lucian was the hidden prince."
Aldren stared at Cassian.
"So did I."
Cassian smiled.
"That's because Mother only hid Lucian."
His gaze shifted toward Gareth.
"She buried me."
Toby felt cold.
"Why?"
Cassian looked toward the five siblings.
"Because I was the first child born with two Sovereign Crests."
Everyone froze.
Evelyn's marks burned.
One gold.
One black.
Cassian lifted both arms.
Matching marks appeared.
"Long before Evelyn..."
His smile widened.
"...there was me."
Then he looked directly at King Aldren.
"And I have waited sixty years to ask my brother why he helped our mother kill me."