A Court of Three Stars

14: The City of Sunlight

Ruhn

Palace of Light, Aelius, Solarea

For a moment, I hadn't even realized we went anywhere.

Both portal rooms looked the exact same, both lined with pure gold and silver covered in runes and spells. But there was simply just a shift in the air here, some kind of recognition in the center of my chest, the core of myself. As if the very atoms that made up my body knew where I had come from, recognized it in the very depth of myself.

Bryce had elected to come along too, undoubtedly followed by Hunt. The only one of all of us that had stayed behind was Baxian, who had elected to go back to sleep instead of doing anything today. He had made a joke of it, but I knew what it was. Whatever they had done to them in those separate rooms had taken its toll, despite the fact that all the physical wounds had vanished.

I still wasn't unconvinced that I wasn't still hanging there hallucinating, especially not when Leur opened the door.

The library that stretched around me put the Fae Archives to shame. Hundreds of thousands of books, all organized on massive sprawling shelves that curved high into the air, a crystal dome skylight trimmed with shining gold lit with warm evening sunlight. Level after level of books, a warmth in the air that had nothing to do with any of it.

"Leur got into a pissing contest with Rhys to see who could have the bigger library." Azriel said to me, "But I think Rhys still won."

"I don't have an entire mountain to carve a library into." Leur huffed, walking in front of us.

I just shook my head, glancing over to my sister. Bryce looked like a kid in a candy store, amber eyes darting around every which way in absolute wonder. Hunt had his usual blank stare, only warmed by the sight of his mate so happy.

"So, where are we?" I asked, looking around.

"The Palace of Light." Leur led us out of the library down a massive corridor, "In Aelius, the capital of Solarea."

It looked like the House of Song on steroids, without all the stained glass. It was utterly breathtaking, just without that homey feeling that the house had. I supposed it was a royal palace, it could only ever be so personalized.

"This is where I was born?" I asked.

Leur's face dropped a bit, her eyes going to the floor. I could practically feel the sorrow she was trying to hide when she said, "The caves where we were still exist under here, but originally, the Golden Palace stood here. I knocked it down to build a new one."

Azriel had gone silent too, his hand gripped on the knife in his belt. Something twisted in my chest, some part of me that hated that look on their faces.

Luckily, Bryce broke the silence, "You knocked down a perfectly good palace to build a new one? How rich are you?"

Leur laughed then, but the topic didn't help my discomfort. Only her words eased it, "The Golden Palace was literally made out of gold and drenched with blood. It was a symbol of a reign that did nothing but persecute others for the sake of money and prejudice."

We turned down another hall as she continued, "We used all of that gold to build new cities all across the country, cities where Solareans and Ciatnens live in peace."

"How long were they at war?" Hunt asked.

"Over 30,000 years." Leur answered, as if it was no big deal. The sword on her hip glowed with a magic unlike anything I had ever seen as she spoke, as if in response to her words.

"How the fuck did you end a 30,000 year war?" Hunt shook his head, the crown inked on his brow hidden mostly by his hair.

"That's a much longer story." She said, pausing in front of a pair of massive arched, doors. One carved with the sun in purest gold, the other with the moon in glimmering silver, "Are you ready?"