Chapter 115

No power came without cost. The question was whether one had the strength to pay it.

“It happened at the Delrose knight training ground,” the report had been babbled to him hurriedly, but Aden only half heard it. He could see all he needed to know in Ilyin’s pallid face.

She hadn’t known the kind of stamina needed for invoking a divine power. Or perhaps she thought the necklace would ask no more of her than Setoze had. He should have explained it to her earlier, the toll that it could take – but he hadn’t wanted to see worry on her face when he used the power himself.

“Everyone is dismissed,” he said heavily, barely registering how many were even in the room.

***

The drain on one’s stamina to use a divine object was variable, changing with the circumstances and the reason it would be used. When the weather was colder, controlling the weather was harder for him, and carried a greater cost.

The only exceptions were those objects that didn’t affect others, like Blue North’s cloth. But the necklace, Delrose’s fire . . .

He’d heard that she started the fire in the Delrose training ground. That she’d been fascinated to find she could move and manipulate it. That she’d done so too long, in that fascination. He imagined her blushing cheeks as she played, how adorably cute she would have been.

He brushed Ilyin’s silver hair. Part of him wished he could have seen her use it, but he had no wish for her to do it again. Let her leave such work for me, he thought.

The back of his hand brushed Ilyin’s cheek, and her eyes opened slightly. They searched drowsily before finding him.

“Den,” she whispered, and with everyone else dismissed, the faint whisper seemed to echo in the quiet. “I didn’t mean to surprise you like this.”

“I know,” he said, relief washing through him at the sight of those violet eyes. “Of course.”

He leaned in, brushed her cheek before setting his hand gently on her chest.

“It must have hurt quite a lot,” he said.

“Does it hurt you so?” she asked, “Every time?”

She remembered the fire springing to life, remembering it dancing to her command. Did she do too much, move and play with it too long? She could still feel that tight pain in her heart, as though a hand had suddenly gripped it. Mere seconds later, she had collapsed.

“I can’t say it doesn’t hurt at all, but . . . “Aden said, shrugging, “there’s a reason they say I am the greatest Duke of all time.”

The cockiness was for her, to dispel her fears. He didn’t want her to think herself or her power weak, but he also didn’t want her to worry for him when he used the power himself.

“Don’t use it so often from now on,” she said, fixing him with what was, even in her weakened state, a stare that threatened storms if he disagreed. He couldn’t help but laugh.

“If Ilyin never uses it,” he responded pointedly.

“Only in emergencies,” she said. He could accept that condition.

“The fire,” she said. “It was amazing.”

The fire that floated, the fire that burned without consuming. Ilyin looked to the fireplace. Even here, the fire of Delrose burned.

“I heard that that fire was started by the first Duchess,” she said, “But how is it still going?”

The everlasting fire of Delrose, it was called. But she had used it, felt the cost of it. The first Duchess may have started the fire, but she was long gone. How was the fire still burning?

“That’s probably….” He started to say but stammered to a halt. The more he told her, the more likely she would try again. She tilted her head toward him, curious.

He sighed. There were too many people in Delrose that wouldn’t be able to refuse her. Someone would satisfy her curiosity, sooner or later. Better that it was him, who would tell her the truth without ambition or agenda.

“I have heard,” he said, “that if there is something to burn, it takes power only to start the fire, not maintain it.”

“Then,” she said wryly, her eyebrows peaking in even greater curiosity, “it’s not an everlasting fire?”

“If we’re being technical, it’s a question of how the cost is being paid, by fuel or by power,” he answered, smiling. “For example. . . “

He went to the fireplace and pulled out the wood, piece by piece. Ilyin watched wide-eyed – the fire she thought would continue to burn on the wood instead stayed in the fireplace, and as soon as the last log was extracted, it vanished as though it had never existed.

The warmth in the room instantly vanished. There was no lingering heat, no embers as when a normal fire died. Just a cold hearth as though no fire had ever been.

Aden replaced the logs and clapped his hands together. Taking a cloth, he wiped the cold soot from his hands and returned to Ilyin.

Still laying in bed, she shifted to make room for him. He sat beside her, wrapping one arm around her shoulder and, with the other hand, gently taking hold of the Delrose’s necklace.

“Look at the fireplace,” he said. His eyes seemed to sparkle with intent.

With an audible poof, the fire resumed in the fireplace, instantly spreading warmth through the room. Ilyin turned to Aden as though studying his face.