“The prince’s fiancée?” Lyse replied quizzically. “I don’t think Caldo has ever had one.”
This statement shocked Sidis. Even Seren whipped around in disbelief when he heard it.
“We dispatched imperial knights to investigate the Alstran prince and Seren, and we just received their report.” Lyse proceeded to divulge its contents. “The prince was the illegitimate child of the late king and a commoner, yet surprisingly, he was accepted into the royal family as one of their own. Because of his lineage, he was temporarily entrusted with some crown land. However, when the previous king passed away, that land was relinquished—meaning Caldo’s descendants would never inherit it. The part that isn’t a surprise is that Caldo never wed an Alstran aristocrat, as the king forbade him from marriage.”
Prince Caldo’s mother was supposedly a second- or third-generation descendant of an exiled imperial. She was used by the late Alstran king to produce heirs with mana. However, Caldo had proved to be less magically capable than desired. Still, the king had acknowledged the bastard as his son in hopes that his powers would grow with him. That was how Caldo had come to be a prince.
“So that’s why he has it out for the empire,” Sidis surmised. Caldo likely blamed Razanate for his situation, and he’d probably grown up listening to his mother’s grievances about the empire too.
“But... No...” Seren was at a loss for words.
Seeing this, Sidis said to Lyse, “I have an idea. Take out all the white rocks you have.”
She did as instructed and dumped the contents of her backpack out in front of them, forming a small mountain of crystals.
“Now put one hand on the pile and hold my hand with the other.”
Sidis’s hand pulsed warmth through to Lyse’s. It was the Light of Origin’s power. And when she then channeled that warmth to her other hand...a pillar of white light shone from the white rocks.
“Whoa...”
The beam was no wider than the grasp of Lyse’s hand, but it was indisputably the Light of Origin. Perhaps because they’d created it themselves, the three of them felt all of its warmth but none of its force. The white beam bathed the pit in its light, crumbling the black pillars upon contact. They came crashing down into small white dunes like they were made of sand.
“I was certain this would work when I witnessed Seren do it. We just needed the rocks from the Light of Origin,” said Sidis.
Lyse looked to Seren. With the stone pillars collapsed, the radiant white light made it easy for her to see him. He sat stock-still, staring at Lyse and Sidis’s intertwined hands.
“Where could I...” he muttered. Lyse couldn’t make out what he said, but that was all that came out of his mouth.
Even with the white light shining in the cavern, Seren’s green light persisted, summoning more black pillars to replace the ones that had just crumbled. No progress could be made at this rate—they’d have to kill the green light.
“Lyse, I believe Seren’s the same,” Sidis said. It took Lyse a moment to understand what he meant.
“Seren!” she called out to him. He looked visibly shaken for a few seconds, expecting to be berated for causing this situation. Yet what Lyse said next surprised him. “Take my hand!”
He suspiciously eyed her outstretched hand before Sidis pulled him over by the arm. Seren then grabbed her hand in the heat of the moment. The very instant he did, a jolt of electricity ran through them. Seren reflexively tried to pull away, but Lyse was holding on tight.
“I’m sorry, Miss Lyse. I ran off with your dog all because I couldn’t stand up to Caldo. I don’t know if you can ever forgive me, but I’m so sorry for what I did...”
“I understand. I forgive you,” she calmly replied, much to Seren’s astonishment.
His shock was only natural. He’d never thought Lyse would so simply accept his apology and forgive him for stealing her dog. In truth, Lyse couldn’t fully absolve him for that he’d done, but there were more important things right now—they needed to purge the black stones. She’d merely said what she needed to in order to keep him focused on the task at hand.
“You...” Seren hesitated as though he thought he’d misheard her. “You forgive me?”
“Yes. But let me beseech you one thing.”
“What can I do?” he inquired curiously.
“Could you touch that boulder for me?”
Seren paused, taking in what she said with a smile before responding, “Sure.”
Lyse was referring to the black boulder producing the green light, and Seren, thinking nothing of her straightforward request, complied.
“I want to send my power into that boulder,” she explained. If Seren were the same, as Sidis had said, then it should work without any problems.
“What do you mean by sending your—”
“Let’s just give it a shot. Don’t let go of my hand, okay? Here we go!”
Thinking that Seren would have his answer if she simply acted instead of explaining further, she ignored him and proceeded. If all went according to plan, it should extinguish the green light effortlessly.
Lyse channeled the Light of Origin from inside her to Seren. Normally, this would have had little effect on anyone, but the brief flinch of his shoulders indicated he felt Lyse’s power moving through him. Needless to say, the unknown force surprised him and he would’ve jerked his hand away if not for Lyse gripping it with all her might.
And then—the boulder cracked. The noise reverberated through the cavern as a white light seeped out of it. Just as the trio braced for the soft light to turn into a blinding flash, it fizzled out, turning the boulder an ashen gray. With that, the green light was no more. What remained of the boulder crumbled into a mound of dust in the blink of an eye, and the pillars ceased growing.
In the middle of the now tranquil forest of black stone, Seren finally gulped and wondered aloud, “What was that?”
“That was the power within me—the power of the Light of Origin,” Lyse answered truthfully.
“So you really do possess the Light...” Seren muttered, seeming to understand. “That must mean my power to call monsters and conjure these controlling stones is fiendish in nature. Your Light destroyed what my darkness created, after all,” he said, hiding his pain behind a mask of laughter.
“You have it wrong. Since I could channel my power through you, you, too, possess the Light.”
“What...?” Seren’s mouth hung open in disbelief.
“There’s no doubt. Like us, you have the Light within you,” Sidis added.
“But I was producing those black stones...” Seren refuted, unconvinced.
“I believe your Light was warped when it passed through that boulder. Since your Light is weaker than ours, it couldn’t overcome the influence of the black stones and instead fostered their growth. Nevertheless, they’re fundamentally the same,” said Sidis.
This got Lyse thinking. Both the black stones and the Light of Origin attracted monsters, so it wasn’t hard to believe that they were similar.
Seren sat there, staring wide-eyed at Sidis and Lyse. Tears streamed down his cheek. Lyse panicked for a second, wondering if she’d said something wrong or if perhaps they’d overwhelmed him by saying too much at once. But such was not the case.
“I’d always thought my powers were demonic. It pained me to see the Light of Origin for myself, to think that what was inside me couldn’t be further from such beauty. But if they’re truly the same...”
“The exact same,” Lyse assured him. “The average human body would reject the Light, and certainly wouldn’t conduct it from one host to another.”
“We’ll switch things up and do it again to prove it,” Sidis said as he yanked Seren’s hand to the white rocks.
Seren wanted to pull away as soon as he touched them, almost as if they hurt him, but Sidis wouldn’t allow it. Once again, he and Lyse channeled their power into the white rocks and created a bright white light. Like petals carried on the wind, particles of its luminescence scattered and blanketed the room. With every pillar they touched, another pile of sand formed on the ground.
“There they go,” Sidis said, watching the black stone pillars collapse to reveal a hole and twinkling stars overhead.
Like someone woken from a deep slumber, Seren squinted at the brilliant white Light of Origin standing thin and tall against the backdrop of the night. At last, he looked around, then at Lyse and Sidis. “You know, the truth is that I...”
“I know,” Sidis acknowledged.
Lyse added, “Lord Sidis and I are the same way. So, why don’t you come back to the palace with us? I’m sure that if you use your power to help us, His Majesty will be gracious with his forgiveness.”
Seren, his heart as pure as a child’s, nodded readily.