We lose it all in the fire of faith.

The metal undercarriage rattled his old at twenty-three backbone. Horseshoes clopped against stone, and Reyes rested his numb arm over his brow. Morning dew fell through the thin cage windows running along the edges, but he lost himself in the abyss of yet another cage carrying him to Tervale from what the cloaked figure said. Emperor Hovolo wanted him, and he suspected it wouldn't be any better than Abraxa wanting him. No, not him, not his person nor his life. Just his magic. Magic carried by a stupid, powerless Mage. Reyes rolled over onto his side and dragged himself off the shaking floor. Exhaustion swept with a raging tempest. I think I'd have gotten better sleep resting somewhere that doesn't move so godsdamned much. He sat cross legged and rubbed his spine. Didn't have the basic decency to hand me a tarp, or anything... An audible groan left his lips, and he sent his foot into the driver's side wall. "Oi!"

He leaned back when a knight opened the small slit to the driver's seat. "I see our Mage is awake. We're almost to Tervale, so don't try anything funny."

"You broke my stave!" Reyes snapped and hauled himself to his feet, though the balancing act proved difficult with the rattling wheels and his inferno of a migraine. "Do you grasp how long growth formulae takes to brew; all the while let's not talk about the extent of time one has to put their arse in front of a tree and ask its permission for a single seed!" He scowled when the knight closed the slide, and he settled himself on the ground. "What a waste." He curled his arms around his knees and grasped at nothing. Magic tickled at his skin, but without his stave it refused to come forth without a proper conduit — and his usefulness as a biological conduit amounted to less than nothing. Oh, they took my bag too. He sent another kick into the driver's wall. Another, harder rap resounded through his ears, and he laid back down on the cold, metal ground. Unseen sand chewed at his cheek. Days on the road. Measly rations. Duststorms covered him in a hot blanket when the carriage continued to rattle through uneven, everchanging dunes, and though he begged for water, a sweet relief for his throat, the guards which walked alongside it prodded him through the bars instead.

We're near Tervale... which means it's going to get colder. Reyes dragged himself upwards once more to rest his back against one of the hard benches. Hand raised, he tried to ignite a spark. Charcoal stained his fingers, and he tossed it to the side with his tempest of irritation. His new captors gave him food and water for the elongated journey. Fate had a cruel sense of humour, but it was not the only one with such a taste. Reyes sighed and asked, "Am I going to be told why the Emperor wants to see me of all people? Does he want to use my magic? If the Prince of Tervale was murdered, and he was a Shadowblood, if he seeks to mix the blood again I'm afraid that'll be a little difficult when you're missing one piece."

"You will see soon enough," the knight on the other side said.

Ugh, honestly, whatever prompted an old Starborn and Shadowblood to mix their blood on an iceglass conduit to create the Great Inferno, I'm starting to wonder if their reasoning was akin to how I'm feeling right now, but who can fight against Fate when it has other plans? He rested his head back and closed his eyes. No sooner had he lost himself to a restless sleep, the carriage rolled to a stop. Bells tolled and resounded through the air. He frowned at the ripple of magic carried on the wind, and he winced at the light when the cloaked figure opened the back doors.

"We're here, Reyes Drazir."

Reyes toyed with the idea of losing all motivation to move, but climbed out when a knight prodded him onto the cobbled streets. He followed the source of magic to the massive belltower in the middle of Tervale's capital city. Small houses sat between larger stores, tucked in the safety of the damp alleys. Lamps swung in the breeze over the triangulated roofs, where they curled into what must have seemed like an intimidating spike. Everything in the city wanted to be pointy. "Are you going to show me your face now that we're in your city?" he questioned. "Are you even going to tell me what this is about?"

The cloaked figure went still, but Reyes narrowed his eyes when they drew their hands up to their hood, and they discarded the mask. They gazed at him with brown eyes, before fixing their flyaway brown hair. "I am Chancellor Dejan, the right hand of His Majesty. He bid me seek out a powerful Magus, a Starborn of no ill repute," they explained, gaze blank and heard to read. A frustrating realization, but Reyes counted himself among those who could pick out a liar from a crowd — which made his failures at bluff games more sad than anything. "He will explain more. We are going to take you to the palace."

"This is about the assassinated prince, isn't it?" he asked.

Some of the knights drew forward, hands around their shafts.

"You will see," Chancellor Dejan said with a raised hand, causing the knights to back off, but close ranks all the same around them. Shepherded through the dim streets, nothing more than a sheep, Reyes tasted the air and tried to seek out where the flow became strongest, an opportunity of escape, but the longer he mulled over the option, the further his need to move decreased into the abyss he left it in. He knew naught of Tervale's magic defenses, and it'd take too much time studying it for a conceptual understanding of the myriad of walls surely protecting the city from outside forces. Light scarves wrapped around the people who went about their business, a proof that who went about their lives without much consideration of the deeper recesses underneath their feet.

Those who sought it out played with fire.

I like to play with fire because I'm incapable of creating my own.

Reyes sighed as a crowd lined the streets, and parted to let their party through. Chancellor Dejan ignored them all when they followed the large street to a massive palace against the closest mountain face of the range, sending a flurry of air over the city. He curled his fingers together when they pushed him up the needlessly huge steps to the gilded entrance. Guards opened the doors, and the murmurs of the crowd went silent behind him. Inside, the architecture swirled upwards into its own tiny spires, where large chandeliers hung across the black chains and hanging candles. A valley of shadow bathed in blood. Reyes frowned when Chancellor Dejan turned to him at another set of even fancier doors.

"We are to enter the throne room," Chancellor Dejan said. "And you are to hold your tongue to the best of your ability. I advise you to hear Emperor Hovolo out if you wish to someday go about your life, unshackled."

"You say that as if I don't have experience in what being shackled for most of my life is like," Reyes said. "Does he have a particular preference in how someone curtsies?" He flinched when a knight sent their hand into his shoulder blade. "What?" He faced them, and they glared at him through their helmet. "I've met some stuffy people who are offended if you kneel to them wrong." He returned his attention to the Chancellor. "I will do what I please, but I will hear him out — if only to see what this was all about. What was worth the risk of attacking a Mage on the border of Abraxa."

Besides... I have nothing to go back to - nothing to have faith in.

Chancellor Dejan opened the doors with both hands. "Emperor Hovolo," he said, and it echoed through the pillared throne room when he got on his knees, along with the knights, though he found himself without the urge to bow to the man who orchestrated his abduction. Ravens held up basins of flames, their signature standard. On a high throne, a man of graying hair leaned into it, resting his elbow on the arm. "We have returned with the Starborn, Reyes Drazir, without incident or response from Abraxa."

Emperor Hovolo sat up, his gray eyes cold as steel. "Reyes Drazir. Your reputation precedes you."

"Good to see people like to talk," Reyes said, and ignored the prod of his back from another knight. "What do you want from me? Why have you sent these hoots to capture me while I'm trying to enjoy a drink? I was not on my way to destroy Tervale on the orders of the Abraxan Mage Council, though I suspect you knew that. After all, what monarch is without his spies? I'm sure you have plenty right here." Reyes stomped forward without fear of the perceived power of a crown. "That's how you heard about me — and that's how they heard about your assassinated prince."

"Show some respect, Mage!" one of the knights snapped.

Emperor Hovolo raised a ringed hand, and the knight fell quiet with a deep, disgruntled scowl in his direction.

"Any smart man in a position of power would send informants to gather knowledge on any possible threat," Emperor Hovolo said and lifted himself out of the throne. "I have had you brought here for a different reason than the one you suspect. Your knowledge could assist me."

Oh, here we go... "Apologies, Your Emperorness, but if you've heard of me, you must have heard about my candid nature. You abducted me. Your hoots broke my stave. In what inclination do you believe that I will help you? I wanted to get through Whiteraven and to the coast. Tervale was not my destination, and you've stolen me from mine." In his peripheral, a knight clutched their sword. "You could at least start with a please."

Emperor Hovolo didn't even finish with one when he said, "I require your knowledge to return my people to the other side of this mountain range." He leaned forward and tapped his rings together. "Have you heard of Iceglass, Reyes Drazir?"

Reyes narrowed his eyes at the indication of a dangerous subject. "Bits and pieces."

"I think you've heard much more than that alone," Emperor Hovolo said with a cold smile. "As you do know, I'm sure, Iceglass is a perfect conductor of magic, and legends tell of the perfect cutting of such a diamond, on a stave made from the heart of an elderwood tree. It created, and was thus lost in the Great Inferno which swept the entire world."

"A legend," Reyes said. "I live in the present, not the past."

"And yet, the past has not ceased to exist, Mr. Drazir," Emperor Hovolo pointed out. "We have retrieved the Iceglass of the Elder Star."

Reyes tasted the words, and found himself laughing at the tasteless joke. "Now, that is rich. There have only ever been rumours that the Iceglass survived the damage the Great Inferno left behind. Rumours. Some say it was at the bottom of the sea. Others say it became nothing more than a falling star and returned to the starless sea." He smiled at the knights, but it drifted at their empty expressions. "Fine. Show me. Prove it. It should be easy. If it's truly the same Iceglass, you know the story."

Emperor Hovolo nodded at a guard who carried a silk package, arms underneath the pillow. Reyes tipped his head when they lifted the veil. Iceglass, but whether it was the same one remained to be seen. "You could've cut any crystal and flaunt it as the real deal," Reyes argued with a shake of his head. "If you think to endear me with lies—"

"Bring it closer to him," Emperor Hovolo ordered the guard, who stared at him in fear. "Show him the truth of his fallen star."

Reyes twisted to the guard when they hobbled closer.

Radiance.

It hummed with energy when it came closer. Embers ignited underneath the mounds of coal in his magic, a breath of life. Dajen gasped beside him while some of the knights were forced to look away from the beams crawling through the air. "Incredible," they whispered with pure, fearful awe. "Blinding brilliance. Nascent light. Born of the shadows and rising as a star."

"And now we have proof of its truth, and yours, Reyes, as a Starborn," Emperor Hovolo said, squinting through the purest of illumination. "Can you deny such power?"

Reyes resisted the urge to reach his hand out to its clear surface, a captured star. "And why, pray tell, do you have this?" Reyes hissed. "For what reason do you have it? And how did you find it? Where?" Questions danced on his tongue, and he frowned when Emperor Hovolo grinned.

"I shall answer if you agree to assist me. I shall answer, and give you the Iceglass which shattered the world with the blood of yours." Emperor Hovolo blinked.

He chewed on his lip, and cursed Fate. "What is it?"

"It is my son, Prince Senko," Emperor Hovolo said through the light. "As you mentioned, a couple winter's prior, Prince Kevalin, my youngest, was murdered by assassins within this palace. It has left my heir apparent infirm, and if I am honest, a blabbering mess incapable of straight, cohesive thought. It may interest you to note he had magic, but is now incapable of producing the simplest of spellwork."

"What?" Reyes winced when the guard swept the veil over the Iceglass, but the light pulsed against the dark silk, cradled in the shadows. "Magic doesn't work like that. You can't lose magic." Dragons, if I could do that I'd have gotten rid of mine a long time ago. Maybe people would leave me alone. Maybe I wouldn't find myself in this situation again and again.

"It may not work as such, but ask anyone here and they will tell you the same thing," Hovolo said with a dismissive wave. "On the eve of the assassination, Prince Senko walked into the scene of his brother's bloody demise. He refused to acknowledge the truth right in front of him. Prince Senko continued to state that Kevalin was alive — though he stood over his flayed body and knelt in the blast of blood." Reyes cringed at the grisly details, but frowned at his own imagination when Hovolo continued, "I will give you this Iceglass and the freedom of your life to untangle the incapability within my son. Any means necessary." He returned to the throne. "I understand Abraxa has all but banned blood magic out of fear of the Great Inferno, but I hold no such qualms within my borders. If this road leads to the use of it, you have no need to fear the use of it. If that is what it takes to get through to my son."

What a loving father who'd sooner use blood magic on his son's addled mind... "It's wrong to use blood magic on someone you stated is incapable of straight thought," he argued. "As a healer, I cannot agree to that." He scowled at the callous disregard of his son's shaky mental well-being. "Grief can do many things — it can drive people into the depths of despairing madness, to be sure, but the answer is not in blood magic. What will you do if I refuse you?"

"You shall never know freedom again."

Crystal clear. A prisoner to Fate and Circumstance both. Reyes scowled and glared at the Tervalen Emperor. "I don't know what you expect me to accomplish if your son is as bad as you say. I am a Mage. I am not a miracle worker."

"Joyen." Emperor Hovolo clapped his hands.

One of the gilded knights leaped to his feet. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"I think Reyes Drazir needs to see things for himself. Take him to Prince Senko's quarters."

I am playing with fire, the fire of life. I've always been a prisoner. I've been a prisoner underneath desert suns and burning sands. I was a prisoner of Abraxa's desperate wish to conceal threats. Reyes found the strength in his shoulders dissipating. Me? A prisoner of my magic, which in my hands, can't even shine brilliant like the Elder Star. It's nothing more than a useless piece of charcoal. He turned to Gilded Knight Joyen. But... I'd rather be a useful prisoner than a doomed one. "Let's see this Prince Senko."