There was another silence, just as in their previous call. It was more than Sol could bear, and she repeated her question, voice going shrill. “What about Mom?!”
“Lady A’s squad is down in the ruins. They’re surrounded by a pack of daemons that’s blocking the way back out.”
“Got it. We’re on our way!”
“No need. We’re already in the process of sealing the place up. Once that’s done, we’ll be pulling out of the area.”
Sol couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Seal up? Pull out? What was Biggs saying?
She felt the blood drain from her face.
“You’re planning to leave them behind?!”
Biggs did not answer. Sol felt the draining blood surge back.
“The hell is wrong with you?! You think I’m just gonna stand by and let you do this?! I’m heading there now. I’ve got Luna with me, so―”
“Listen to me, Sol. These are orders from Lady A herself. She doesn’t want anyone else going in there. This armor lurking down there―Sapphire Weapon, they’re calling it―is too big a threat. Lady A says to seal off the entrance and get the hell out of the area. You’ve got to stand down on this one.”
Sol had read the reports on Sapphire Weapon, so she knew how dangerous it was. But she still didn’t want to accept the idea of . . . A lump formed at the back of her throat, and she found herself unable to speak. She knew her mother probably better than anyone else. If Aranea gave the order, she meant it.
Biggs filled the silence. “I’ll pass word when we figure out the next rendezvous point. For now, sit tight in Nohm.”
He ended the call, and Sol stood without moving, continuing to hold the phone in hand. Her thoughts wouldn’t come together. One phrase from her childhood sounded over and over in her mind. Please don’t take them away. Please don’t take them away. Was she about to lose everything? Again? Just like that awful day ten years ago?
“Sol?” Lunafreya’s voice came soft and gentle. “Is everything all right?”
“Um. Yeah. All good.”
“Has something happened to your mother?”
At the note of concern in Luna’s voice, Sol found herself almost ready to cry. She clenched her jaw, forcing down the welling emotion.
“She’s in the depths of the ruins. Surrounded by daemons.”
“Then we must hurry. Quickly, Sol! Let us go to her aid.”
“We can’t. She doesn’t want anyone else following her in. I’m stuck out here.”
When she said it, the words didn’t even feel like hers. It was as if she were reading lines off a page of a script.
“What are you saying?” Lunafreya asked. “You told me before that you’re going to make sure no one else dies.”
Sol knew that already. She didn’t need to hear it from someone else. Luna’s hands grabbed at Sol’s arms, but Sol batted them away in irritation.
“Look, there’s some huge monster down there, one that even she wasn’t able to take down. And now they’re surrounded by a pack of daemons to boot. Me going down there isn’t going to make the situation any better.”
“You mustn’t speak like that! You said it yourself on the phone. We’re heading in there! You’ll have me with you!”
It seemed Luna had been listening to Sol’s half of the conversation with Biggs. Hardly a surprise, since Luna’d been standing right next to her. Which made it feel even worse for Sol to admit to herself that if Biggs hadn’t cut her off, she’d intended to continue, “I’ve got Luna with me, so it’ll be fine. She can take care of the daemons.” Because here she was again, expecting someone else to fix things for her, just like a child. Now she felt thankful to Biggs for cutting her off and sickly relieved she hadn’t let that last bit slip out where Luna could hear it.
“We’ve got to hurry. We shall finish off the daemons and save your mother, then―”
“Listen to yourself! You know better than anyone what absorbing the daemons does to you. If you keep on like this, next you’ll be turning into a monster.”
Asking for Luna’s help was a step too far for Sol to take. She couldn’t sacrifice someone else, not even for the sake of her own family. She wouldn’t let someone else take on the burden that she should bear. Realizing that she’d been on the cusp of doing exactly that only strengthened her resolve.
“It does not matter. I will help you. Not because it is my calling, but because I wish to do so.”
“Would you still say that if you knew who I really was to you? To your family?”
In M.E. 744, Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt of Niflheim had ordered the invasion of Fenestala Manor, home of the royal family of Tenebrae. The family of the Oracle. The assault claimed the life of the previous Oracle―Lunafreya’s mother―and for four years afterward, Lunafreya had remained in the manor under lock and key. Her captivity had been on direct order from the emperor.
“I am Solara Aldercapt Antiquum, granddaughter of the late emperor of Niflheim. The man who killed your mother. Would you still help me now, knowing what my family has done to yours?”
Sol had always been vaguely aware of her own high status even from an early age, but how precisely she fit into the hierarchy of the empire had been explained to her only recently. Her adoptive mother had been the one to break the news. “Now that you’re older,” Aranea had begun, “there’s something you should know.”
The revelation had come suddenly and heavily. It felt like Aranea was delivering some deathbed secret―like she was preparing to leave Sol somehow. Sol had listened, but she’d grown sulky and defiant.
“Yeah, I know,” she’d told her mother. “We’re not really related, I get it.”
She regretted those words now with all of her heart.
When she’d met Luna, she’d figured there was no reason to go out of her way to reveal her connection to the empire. They would only be spending a few days together at the most. But now, with Luna ready to sacrifice herself, it couldn’t be kept secret any longer. Sol wasn’t so cruel as to let the Oracle throw her life away for the sake of an enemy. Not for the descendant of someone who had so wounded her family.
Lunafreya’s response took her aback.
“Granddaughter of the emperor or not, it does not matter to me. The person I see before me right now is just a woman. She is disconcertingly good at cards, a rather indifferent cook, and a bit stubborn, but she is still a person like any other, and her name is Sol.”
“Luna . . . ” Sol murmured.