ZEPHYR: Reborn With A God System

CHAPTER 8 - WHAT MOTHER LEFT

Sable tried to walk on her own. She made it a few steps before her knees buckled, and I caught her.

“I can manage,” she said.

“You keep saying that.”

“And you keep catching me.”

I couldn’t argue with her. I put her arm over my shoulder, and we moved through the forest as quickly as she could manage. We stayed off the main paths, stopping whenever we heard voices or a horn in the distance. I kept expecting Kael and his hunters to appear between the trees.

We found a hollow beneath the roots of an old tree and stayed there until morning. I barely slept. Every time a branch moved, I thought someone was coming for us.

“You should’ve left me,” Sable said in the dark.

“Maybe,” I said, then she turned her face toward me, waiting. “Nobody came for me when I was hurt,” I continued. “I know what it feels like.”

For a while, she didn’t answer. Then she closed her eyes, and I stayed awake listening to the forest.

In the morning, I brought her water from a stream. She watched me fill a broad leaf and carry it back.

“You moved the water in the hollow,” she said.

I kept my eyes on the leaf and replied slowly “It was just water.”

“Water doesn’t jump out of a stream and knock three people down by itself.”

I said nothing and she gave me a tired smile. “Fine. Keep your secret. I know what it’s like to have one.”

She told me a little about why she had run from Clan Vorthak. Her mother, the woman they called the Mother, had ordered her to help capture an Abyssarine healer. The healer’s young daughter was with her.

“They told me to hold the door,” Sable said. She looked down at her hands. “I let them escape instead.”

“Did they catch them?”

“I don’t know. I ran before I could find out.”

She didn’t say anything else. I wanted to ask what happened after she ran, but she was pale and exhausted, so I let it go. We walked when she could and rested when she couldn’t.

By dusk, we reached the fort. The great hall was crowded. The elders were reading the Outer Trials rankings, and families had gathered to cheer for their children. Sable pulled her hood low, and we slipped in at the back with the servants.

Nyra’s name was called first. The hall filled with applause. The elders praised her skill while my father watched from the high table.

I waited for my own name. I knew there would be no applause, but I still wanted to hear it.

An elder looked down at the list then he let out a soft breath before speaking “Zephyr Veyne is recorded as unreturned.”

People turned toward the empty space where I should have been. Then the elder read the next name. Unreturned. One word, and everyone could pretend I was gone.

Renn was waiting by the boundary gate. When he saw me, he ran over and grabbed my shoulders. He checked my face and arms, like he expected me to fall apart in front of him.

“You’re alive,” he said.

“I am.”

He let out a breath. “They listed you as unreturned. I told them you might be coming back along the far boundary, but I don’t know if anyone believed me. Don’t go into the hall yet. Let them think you’re missing until we work out what to do.”

I should have listened. Renn usually knew how to keep us out of trouble.

Before I could answer, Sylene came through the servants’ gate carrying a covered plate. Her black beads rested against her wrist.

“You look awful, little brother,” she said, handing me the food.

I took it before looking up at her “You knew I’d come back.”

“I watch you, Zephyr. You know that.”

She glanced toward the hall, then lowered her voice. “Father has been clearing out your mother’s things. The servants say the old wing is being prepared for Nyra’s studios.”

I stared at her in disbelief “Why are you telling me?”

“I thought you should know.”

She touched my arm and walked away. I stood there holding the plate, suddenly unable to think about food. My mother had been gone for sixteen years. I had almost nothing of hers. What could Father be clearing out?

When I got to my room, I shut the door and checked the places where I kept my few belongings. Nothing looked different. I pulled my shirt over my head, and something slipped from the fold and landed on my bed.

A silver locket. I knew it from an old, blurry memory of my mother wearing it. I picked it up. It was worn out a bit, with a small dent near the hinge.

Inside, there was no picture. Just a piece of paper, folded so many times it nearly fell apart. The writing was faded and uneven, but I could still read it: [do not trust the house that feeds you.]

I read the words again, then once more. My mother had left a warning. I didn’t know when she wrote it, who she meant it for, or how the locket had ended up in my room. Someone had brought it here and wanted me to find it.

The system appeared above the bed and I looked up at what it had to show me [ Vespera. ]

It was the first time it had ever said my mother’s name.

“What about her?” I whispered.

[ They lied about Vespera. ]

My fingers tightened around the locket then I asked again. “What did they do to her?”

The system gave no answer then I sat on the bed until the room went dark, turning the locket over in my hands. I wanted to believe the warning was simple; don’t trust my father, don’t trust the people who raised me. But if that was all, why had someone waited sixteen years to put it in my room?

I wrapped the locket in a cloth and hid it inside the split heel of my oldest boot. Then I lay down, still dressed, and listened to the house settle around me.

The next morning, I saw Sylene across the great hall. She was talking to Nyra, but when she noticed me, she paused. Her eyes flicked to my hands, then back to my face. She smiled and folded her hands together.

The system’s words appeared, faint enough that no one else could see them. [ The Mother watches. ]

I looked from the message to Sylene, then down toward the locket hidden in my boot. The system didn’t say which mother.