Page 71 of The Brightest Night

Green power… My chest tightened. “Green arcana?”

“Yes, child,” she said. “Power like the one you wield. Nova, you are of royal descent.”

Sylvina’s words hung in the air between us. Royal? It meant nothing. Not to me. I needed more than that.

“Where are they? The others like me. Why did they send me into space? I don’t understand.”

She smiled. “Let me explain what I believe happened. After the war was won, Divinos was changed. Wielding the spindle’s power had corrupted him. He wanted dominion over the green arcana because to have power over that was to have power over the planet itself. Nova, green arcana is the strongest of all. Protection and destruction, but it depends on who wields it. The royals never abused the gift. Silver was used in augmentation, to ease the transition and build technology quickly and efficiently. We were the architects. Crimson was destructive. A weapon and nothing more.”

“And the black threads?” Naxon asked.

“Excretions. The dregs of whatever was left. It is what most Veridians now hunger for. It’s become an addiction.” She pressed her lips together as if gathering her thoughts, then continued. “Divinos wanted dominion over the green arcana, and when he could not master it, he turned on the royals. Recruiting the crimson Malefica to fight alongside him, he used the spindle to mute the power of our silver thread, thus weakening us. He was unable to do the same for the green arcana, and the royals fought back for as long as they could. Many died. In the end, the few that were left fled this planet.” She nodded at me. “You must have been the child of a royal who fled. How you ended up in a pod floating in space is anyone’s guess.”

My family had fled with me…somehow gotten into trouble in space and ejected me in a pod with a mech to protect me, hoping to save my life? I was spinning tales. Focus, Nova. Something didn’t make sense. “If Divinos wanted the royals dead, then why is he sending feral to try and find them and bring them back?”

Ewyn and Sylvina exchanged a cryptic glance, and it was Ewyn that answered.

“We can only assume he has finally devised a way to use them to harness the green arcana,” he said. “With all three threads in his power, Divinos will essentially become a god. The only way to stop him is to destroy the spindle.” He took a deep breath, his eyes bright. “And up until now, we have not had a way to do that.” His attention was on me again. Sharp and probing.

I frowned. “Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with me?”

“Because it does,” Sylvina said. “It has everything to do with you. There is a weapon. A device that we made a long time ago to destroy the spindle, but Divinos stole it. It’s hidden in the Sapphire City, and our spies recently discovered its location. We plan to steal it and bring it home.”

“But that’s great.”

“It is, now that you are here,” Ewyn said. “Only someone who can channel green arcana can open the pod containing our weapon.”

“Wait a second,” Gabe said. “Why would Divinos put this weapon behind a ward that no one, not even he, can get past?”

“He didn’t. We did. He stole it to keep it from us even though he knew we had no way of opening it ourselves once the royals left.”

I was so confused. “So he finds a royal and what? Opens the box? But why would he want to access a weapon that could destroy his spindle?”

Sylvina smiled thinly. “Our spies report that he has discovered a way to turn our weapon to his advantage. But we will bring it back, and you can open it for us. We can destroy the spindle and free our world of Divinos once and for all.”

Silence fell as we absorbed everything they’d just shared.

I knew who I was now. My heritage was clear. But Gabe? There were still questions surrounding him, and I needed to know.

“The pod that I was found in was connected to a larger one housing Gabe.”

“Yes.” Sylvina smiled at him. “Gabe, your kind were one of our most prized creations. Guardians of the royals. So Nova, if your family expelled you from their ship, it was to save you, and your guardian would have been charged with protecting you and eventually bringing you home. He would have been programmed to do so.”

“I don’t have any such programming,” Gabe said.

“Then the data must have been corrupted somehow.”

Gabe’s shoulders dropped. “Yes. So it seems.”

My heart squeezed painfully because I knew what he was thinking. That he was nothing. A mech. Not something more like he had felt himself to be. I reached out to gently grasp his hand, and his fingers curled around mine, green energy sparking between us.

Ewyn sucked in a sharp breath, but Sylvina’s expression gave nothing away.

“You should get some rest now,” she said. “We move in the morning once our systems have been dismantled.”

“What systems?” Romax asked. “Are you packing up the whole complex?”

“Only essentials,” she said. “We have several complexes that we move between.”