Prince Cassian had been erased so completely that even his own family had forgotten he existed.
Now his ghost stood inside the chapel wearing two Sovereign Crests and accusing King Aldren of helping murder him.
"I have waited sixty years," Cassian said, "to ask my brother why he helped our mother kill me."
Aldren looked as though he had seen the grave open beneath his feet.
"No."
Cassian smiled.
"No?"
"You weren't murdered."
"Interesting."
"You died before I was old enough to remember you."
Cassian's smile disappeared.
"Is that what she told you?"
Aldren said nothing.
Cassian looked toward Gareth.
"Your kings do love inherited lies."
Gareth raised his sword.
"And dead princes seem unusually fond of dramatic entrances."
Cassian laughed.
"Lucian's son."
"You knew my father?"
"I knew him before he knew himself."
Gareth's expression sharpened.
"What does that mean?"
Cassian looked toward Aldren.
"Ask your king."
Aldren closed his eyes.
"I don't remember."
"Exactly."
Evelyn cried out.
Her body shook beneath the apparition.
Toby rushed toward her.
Cassian turned.
"Stay back."
"You're hurting her."
"I am using the only door available to me."
"She's not a door."
Something in Toby's tone made Cassian pause.
Perhaps because it echoed arguments made three thousand years earlier.
People were not weapons.
Children were not keys.
Bodies were not doors.
Cassian looked at Evelyn.
For the first time, guilt appeared on his face.
"I won't remain long."
Cael raised Kingsbane.
"You won't remain at all."
"Cael," Evelyn gasped. "Wait."
Cassian studied him.
"The scarred twin."
Cael's face hardened.
"You know about me?"
"The dead talk."
"Apparently constantly."
Cassian almost smiled.
Then Mira stepped beside Evelyn.
Her Fourth Flame illuminated the chapel.
Cassian stared at the mark.
"Project Ember."
Mira froze.
"You know?"
"I watched it begin."
Seraphine stepped forward.
"Then tell us why."
Cassian's expression changed.
"You."
"Do I know you?"
"No."
"But I knew your ancestors."
His eyes settled on the five siblings.
"And now I understand what Mother was trying to prevent."
Aldren finally found his voice.
"Who are you talking about?"
Cassian looked at him.
"Queen Maeryn."
Gareth stiffened.
His grandmother.
The woman who had hidden him as an infant.
"Why did she bury you?" Toby asked.
Cassian slowly raised both marked arms.
"Because of these."
"Two crests."
"One for the living bloodline."
His left mark glowed gold.
"One for the dead."
His right turned black.
Exactly like Evelyn.
Ancient Lyra whispered:
"A natural bridge."
Cassian nodded.
"Yes."
Aeron stared at him.
"You could cross the Veil without ritual."
"Before your return, I was the only human born capable of doing so."
"Then why kill you?"
Cassian looked toward Aldren.
"Because I began bringing people back."
Silence.
Toby thought of Evelyn.
Memory given shape.
"You resurrected the dead?"
"At first."
Cassian's expression darkened.
"A bird."
Then another.
"A dog."
Then—
"My sister."
Aldren stared.
"We never had a sister."
Cassian smiled sadly.
"We did."
Another erased child.
"Her name was Elowen."
"What happened to her?"
"Fever."
Cassian looked toward his hands.
"I was twelve. She was six."
"You brought her back?"
"For three days."
Mira whispered:
"What happened after three days?"
Cassian's face emptied.
"She started remembering deaths that weren't hers."
Ancient Lyra closed her eyes.
"Nhalor."
"Yes."
Cassian continued.
"I hadn't brought Elowen back alone."
Aldren finally understood why their mother had been afraid.
"The Shades."
"Fragments."
"Then Maeryn stopped you."
"She tried."
"How?"
Cassian looked directly at his brother.
"With you."
Aldren went pale.
"I was a child."
"You were eight."
"I don't remember."
"Because she made sure you wouldn't."
Cassian's voice hardened.
"Mother told you I was sick."
A memory seemed to move behind Aldren's eyes.
A dark room.
His older brother chained to a bed.
Queen Maeryn crying.
Young Aldren holding something.
A silver cup.
Aldren staggered.
"No."
Cassian watched him.
"You remember."
Aldren grabbed the edge of a pew.
"She said it was medicine."
"It was poison."
"I didn't know."
"I know."
Cassian's anger suddenly disappeared.
Aldren looked up.
"What?"
"I spent sixty years hating you."
Cassian's voice broke.
"Then I entered the Veil and found your memory."
Aldren began crying.
"You were a child."
Cassian nodded.
"So were you."
The brothers stared at each other across sixty years of stolen truth.
"I don't blame you anymore."
Aldren covered his face.
That forgiveness hurt more than accusation.
---
Evelyn screamed.
Cassian's apparition flickered.
The black crest on her arm spread upward.
Mira grabbed her.
"Cassian, leave her!"
"I am trying."
"Then go!"
"I can't."
Aeron approached.
"Something is holding you."
Cassian nodded.
"The others."
"What others?"
The chapel walls began whispering.
Children.
Hundreds.
The lost experiments inside Evelyn.
Cassian looked toward them.
"They don't want to return."
"To the Veil?" Toby asked.
"To nothing."
Evelyn gasped.
"They're afraid they'll disappear."
Toby remembered what Nhalor had said.
Humans remembered the dead because they could not accept disappearance.
Perhaps the dead were equally afraid of being forgotten.
Toby stepped toward Evelyn.
"Listen to me."
The whispers quieted.
"You existed."
More silence.
"We don't know all your names."
Evelyn began crying.
"But we'll find them."
Toby looked toward King Aldren.
"We'll open every record."
Aldren nodded.
"Every one."
"Every experiment."
"Yes."
"Every child."
"Yes."
Toby turned back toward the voices.
"We'll remember you."
The chapel became still.
One small voice asked:
"Promise?"
Toby swallowed.
"I promise."
A golden spark left Evelyn's black crest.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Tiny lights floated upward.
Mira stared.
"They're leaving."
Evelyn smiled through tears.
One by one, the fragments disappeared.
Cassian began fading too.
Aldren stepped forward.
"Wait."
Cassian looked at him.
"Brother."
Aldren's voice trembled.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
"I should have remembered."
"You were eight."
"I should have—"
"No."
Cassian smiled.
"Do not turn someone else's crime into your guilt."
Cael looked away.
Again, a sentence meant for one person struck several.
Cassian began dissolving.
Then suddenly stopped.
His expression changed.
"No."
Aeron immediately tensed.
"What?"
Cassian looked toward Evelyn's remaining black crest.
"Someone isn't leaving."
The chapel doors slammed shut.
The temperature dropped.
Cael raised Kingsbane.
"Who?"
Cassian stared at Evelyn.
"Not a child."
The black mark pulsed.
Seraphine moved toward her daughter.
"Evelyn?"
Her head lowered.
When she looked up, her eyes remained gold.
But her voice was different.
Female.
Older.
"You always were clever, Cassian."
Gareth froze.
He knew that voice.
Aldren knew it too.
"Mother?" he whispered.
Cassian stared.
"Maeryn."
Queen Maeryn.
The woman who had hidden Gareth.
Poisoned Cassian.
Erased Elowen.
Protected the royal line.
And died decades ago.
Evelyn smiled with the dead queen's expression.
"My sons."
Cassian's face twisted.
"Get out of her."
"After sixty years, that's your greeting?"
"You murdered me."
"I saved the world."
"You poisoned a child."
"I stopped you from opening the Veil."
"You used Aldren to do it."
Pain crossed Maeryn's borrowed face.
"Yes."
Aldren stepped forward.
"Why erase him from my memory?"
"Because grief made you dangerous."
"I was eight!"
"And royal."
The answer was immediate.
As though childhood had never mattered beside duty.
Toby hated her instantly.
Maeryn looked at him.
"I know."
He froze.
"You can hear me?"
"No."
She smiled.
"I recognize judgment."
Toby stepped between her and Evelyn.
"Leave my sister."
Maeryn's expression softened.
"You are exactly the problem."
Cael moved beside him.
"Careful."
"You five should never have existed."
The chapel went silent.
Gareth raised his sword.
"Wrong thing to say."
Maeryn ignored him.
"The five flames together can do what Cassian nearly did."
"Bring back the dead?" Mira asked.
"No."
"Then what?"
Maeryn looked toward Ancient Lyra and Aeron.
"Rewrite the boundary."
Aeron went still.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I spent my life studying what our ancestors feared."
She looked toward the five siblings.
"With five flames, there does not need to be a Veil."
Toby frowned.
"Isn't that good?"
Ancient Lyra answered.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because without a boundary, death itself changes."
Silence.
Younger Lyra whispered:
"People could return."
"Yes."
"Everyone?"
Maeryn smiled sadly.
"That is what makes the temptation dangerous."
Cael looked toward Toby.
Toby already understood.
Lucian.
Brother Caldus.
Rellan.
Everyone they had lost.
Seraphine could restore years stolen from her children.
Gareth could bring back Lucian.
Aldren could restore Cassian and Elowen.
Edric could bring back Queen Elara.
Everyone had someone.
Maeryn whispered:
"Five flames can open a world where nobody has to lose anyone again."
Toby stared.
"Then why stop us?"
"Because nothing returns alone."
Nhalor.
The Shades.
Every nightmare attached to every memory.
"The dead carry everything that died with them," Maeryn said. "Love. Fear. Disease. Hatred. Madness."
Aeron nodded.
"She's right."
Cael looked at him.
"You agreeing with her makes me uncomfortable."
"It should."
Maeryn touched Evelyn's chest.
"This child is the final key."
Gareth stepped forward.
"Don't call her that."
"She is."
"She's my daughter."
"And that is why you will make the wrong decision."
Gareth's expression became cold.
"I've discovered that people who talk about necessary sacrifices usually mean someone else's children."
For the first time, Queen Maeryn had no immediate answer.
Then a horn sounded outside.
One.
Then another.
Veyron opened the chapel doors.
His face was pale.
"Gareth."
"What?"
"You need to see this."
---
They climbed the eastern wall.
Dawn was beginning.
Beyond High Keep, thousands of people filled the valley.
Not soldiers.
Civilians.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Some crying.
Some kneeling.
Some carrying portraits of dead relatives.
Toby stared.
"Why are they here?"
Veyron handed Gareth a proclamation.
It had appeared throughout the capital overnight.
Five Flames Have Awakened.
The Dead Can Return.
Come to High Keep.
Bring the names of those you have lost.
Gareth's face hardened.
"Who sent this?"
"We don't know."
Below, the crowd began chanting.
"BRING THEM BACK!"
Again.
"BRING THEM BACK!"
Thousands of voices.
Belief.
Hope.
Grief.
Exactly the forces that had once given Nhalor form.
Ancient Lyra went pale.
"Someone is creating a ritual."
Toby looked toward the crowd.
"Using them?"
"Their belief."
Aeron turned toward Evelyn.
The black crest on her arm began burning.
Queen Maeryn was gone from her face.
Evelyn returned.
She gasped.
"Toby."
He grabbed her.
"I'm here."
"Someone is calling me."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
She looked toward the valley.
The crowd continued chanting.
BRING THEM BACK.
BRING THEM BACK.
BRING THEM BACK.
Then the people parted.
A lone figure walked toward High Keep.
A woman in a white royal gown.
Edric saw her from the wall.
His face collapsed.
"Mother."
Queen Elara.
Not an illusion.
Not a Shade wearing her face.
She walked beneath the morning sun.
Behind her came another figure.
Lucian.
Gareth stopped breathing.
Then Brother Caldus.
Then Rellan.
Then hundreds of people known to be dead.
The crowd erupted in screams and tears.
Ancient Lyra whispered:
"It's already begun."
Toby stared at the dead walking toward High Keep.
"Who brought them back?"
Aeron looked toward the center of the resurrected procession.
One final figure appeared.
A young girl.
Six years old.
Holding Queen Maeryn's hand.
Cassian screamed from within Evelyn:
"Elowen."
The erased royal daughter smiled toward High Keep.
But her eyes were completely black.
And when she spoke, every resurrected corpse spoke with her.
"Five flames."
The dead stopped.
"Open the door."
Behind Toby, Evelyn's two Sovereign Crests ignited.
And one by one, the marks on Toby, Cael, Mira, and Lyra answered.