Page 204 of Sunsplitter

The chamber smelled of pine oil and clean linen. She touched the wall panel, then winced as the lights came on, too bright, sending a throb through her head. Smaller tiles covered the bathroom floor in a mosaic of snowflakes. Fi hurried to the counter, leaning to look in the mirror.

Her heart skipped into her throat.

She looked like shit, obviously. Dried blood matted her hair and face. Her lipstick was smeared, a cut puffing her mouth. That was definitely a feather-shaped burn down her chin. All of this, perfectly digestible.

Fi stared at her eye. She touched her face, timid in disbelief.

Void-ether flesh was more grayscale than mortal hues, snow pale against her flushed cheeks. The scar cut a crescent around her eye. Not the most alarming change. No, that breath-stealing honor went to the eye itself.

The sclera had gone pitch black. Woven of Void ether, deep as the abyss.

Her iris was bright silver.

Fi blinked. The figure in the mirror blinked back—one human eye with bloodshot white sclera and a tired brown iris, the other eye crisp black and silver. Fi poked around the lashes, feeling every reconstructed line. More than just silver, her new iris glowed faintly.

Daeyari eyes were red, like their magic. Aedari eyes were gold.

Now Fi’s was silver—the hue of her own energy, seeping out.

A sliver of immortality. One piece at a time.

Fi leaned on the counter. She breathed in and out, watching her eyes tick over themselves in the mirror. A grin twisted her battered lips.

“Isn’t thatneat?” she whispered.

Fi returned to the governor’s office with face washed and hair damp, significantly more presentable. She earned another long stare from Kashvi all the same.

“The eye is weird,” Fi admitted.

“We’re in agreement, at least.” Kashvi gestured to her desk. She’d collected several small metal boxes, containers for holding energy chips.

Fi rummaged through the offerings, testing sizes and sturdiness. She was viscerally aware of the silence in the room. Of Kashvi watching her, that stoic front Fi knew too well. A subtle scowl betrayed her unease. That, and the way she kept staring at Fi’s eye.

“Do I need to hide you?” Kashvi asked. “In Nyskya, maybe?”

“Thanks, but I don’t think Avroz is coming back for me.”

“He’s tried to kill you before.”

“Sure, but he seems to have decided I’m more useful as collateral. His mistake, really. Because now I’m pissed.”

Fi selected a box large enough to fit Avroz’s antler tip. She latched it shut and stashed it in her coat pocket.

Kashvi was still frowning. “Fi, are you…”

“Alright?” Fi laughed. “No, not by a longshot. Look at myeye, Kashvi.” Fi pointed to what was, upsettingly, only in the top three weirdest things to happen to her today. “Fought another bird immortal before this. Oh, and I chatted with a kinda-god this morning, might have learned the secret to immortality, that didn’t even make the list somehow. But I think if I pause for even one second right now, I’m going to either scream or disintegrate. And I don’t havetimefor that.”

The words came out too raw. Fi braced her hands on the desk to stop from shaking.

“Antal is alone,” she said. “He needs me.”

Soft footsteps moved toward her.

“I know what you’ll say,” Fi continued. “Going against Avroz puts everyone at risk. But he hurt Antal, and he led a monster here, and he’salreadyput the people of this territory on a chopping block for his own gain. So spare me the lecture on how I’m being reckless. On how Boden wouldn’t want this—”

Kashvi lay a hand on Fi’s.

“Oh, your brother would be shouting your ass up a wall.” Kashvi’s laugh was strained, but earnest. “But if you told him this was important? He’d let you go.”