CHAPTER 184: [184] THE SCARS WE SHARE

The words hit Torval hard. He’d spent five years telling himself that Selene was safe, that the void between worlds was preferable to whatever fate the Winter Court had planned. But seeing Calypso’s divine nature, witnessing Xavier’s impossible power, forced him to confront the truth he’d been avoiding.

His daughter was suffering. Had been suffering for years. And he was the one who’d put her there.

"She won’t remember me," he whispered, his voice breaking on the words. "Five years in that place... she’ll be a stranger wearing my daughter’s face."

"Maybe," Calypso said, her expression softening with something that might have been sympathy. "Or maybe she’ll be exactly who she was meant to become. Children are resilient, Torval. Even displaced children."

The hope in her voice was almost worse than despair. Torval had built his entire identity around being Selene’s protector, the father who’d sacrificed everything to keep her safe. If she could be saved by others, if his years of anguish had been unnecessary...

"What do you need from me?" he asked, the words emerging as barely more than breath.

Xavier’s posture relaxed slightly, though his eyes remained watchful. "Your armory. Weapons that can channel Essentia without burning out. Your treasury—we’ll need resources for the journey and what comes after. Your maps of the northern territories, especially anything related to the Primal Gates."

"And your silence," Ashley added, her golden scars pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. "About what you’ve seen. About what we are. About what happened here."

Torval nodded eagerly. "Of course. My people understand discretion. We’ve kept greater secrets than—"

"Not just your people," Xavier interrupted. "Everyone. The Winter Court has agents throughout Frostfall. If word spreads about what happened to Malakor, if they learn we’re coming..." He shrugged, the gesture somehow more threatening than any spoken threat. "Well. You’ve seen what I can do when someone threatens the people I care about."

The temperature in the Ember Chamber seemed to drop several degrees despite the volcanic vents. Torval’s advisors shifted uncomfortably in their seats, no doubt remembering the sight of Duke Haverford dissolving into glittering dust.

"You have my word," Torval said quickly. "And my resources. And my..." He swallowed hard, forcing himself to meet Xavier’s gaze. "My gratitude. You saved Hearthome from something I was too blind to see. If there’s anything else—"

"Actually," Calypso interjected, her voice taking on a musical quality that made the chamber’s crystals chime in harmony. "There is one more thing. Something personal."

She stood, her movements carrying the fluid grace of divinity barely contained within mortal form. As she approached Torval’s side of the table, her appearance began to shift. The wine-red hair lightened to silver, the purple eyes bloomed into pink, and her borrowed features rearranged themselves into something more familiar.

For a moment, she looked exactly like the Selene he remembered—the thirteen-year-old girl who’d laughed at his terrible jokes and begged for extra sweets after dinner. Then the illusion faded, leaving only the goddess who’d worn his daughter’s face.

"I want you to know," she said, reaching out to place a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Selene loves you. Even in that place between worlds, even through all the pain and confusion, she knows you tried to save her. She doesn’t blame you for what happened."

Torval’s carefully maintained composure crumbled. Tears he’d held back for five years spilled down his cheeks as he gripped Calypso’s hand like a lifeline. "I thought I was protecting her. I thought—"

"You were someone who loved her," Calypso said simply. "That’s never wrong, even when the methods are. She knows that. And when we bring her home, she’ll tell you herself."

The promise hung in the air like a benediction, too precious to fully believe but too desperately needed to dismiss. Torval nodded, unable to trust his voice, and watched as the goddess returned to her seat.

"We’ll leave at dawn," Xavier said, his tone businesslike once more. "Three days to gather supplies and prepare. After that..." He glanced at his companions, some silent communication passing between them. "After that, we finish what we came here to do."

===

The gardens behind Hearthome’s fortress offered privacy and beauty in equal measure, terraced into the mountainside with volcanic vents providing natural warmth despite the winter air. Xavier found himself walking among flowering bushes that should have been dormant, their blooms sustained by geothermal energy and careful cultivation.

He wasn’t alone.

Calypso sat on a stone bench near a bubbling hot spring, her silver hair now flowing freely in its natural state. The suppression enchantments were gone, allowing her divine nature to manifest in subtle ways—flowers bloomed brighter in her presence, and the steam from the hot springs formed impossible patterns in the air around her.

Ashley stood nearby, examining her reflection in the spring’s surface. The golden fractures that covered her skin were more visible here, away from the chamber’s volcanic light. They traced intricate patterns across her arms and face, beautiful and terrible in equal measure.

"So," Xavier said, settling onto the bench beside Calypso. "Are we going to talk about what happened last night?"

Ashley turned from the spring, her expression unreadable. "Which part? The part where I died? The part where you became something that scared gods? Or the part where she—" She gestured at Calypso, "—decided to tie her immortal soul to my mortal one?"

Xavier’s eyebrows rose. "That last one’s new information."

Calypso sighed, steam rising from the hot spring in response to her mood. "It was the only way to anchor her soul after the transformation. When Ashley activated her final technique, her consciousness was scattered. I had to create a tether to pull her back together."

"And the cost?" Xavier asked, though he suspected he already knew the answer.

"We’re connected now," Ashley said, raising her hand to examine the golden veins that pulsed beneath her skin. "If one of us dies, the other feels it. If one of us is in danger, the other knows. I’m not entirely human anymore, and she’s not entirely divine."

Xavier studied both women, noting the subtle changes in their appearances. Ashley’s eyes held flecks of pink that matched Calypso’s natural color. Calypso’s hair showed threads of gold that echoed Ashley’s fractures.

"Do you regret it?" he asked.