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00:00:00From the moment I was born, I could see the souls of the dead. When I was caught talking to
00:00:04the void, my terrified parents thought me cursed. Instead, they poured all their love, wealth, and devotion into Serafina, the
00:00:12orphan girl they took in, until she became the pampered jewel of House Thornwood.
00:00:16When Serafina charmed her way into a betrothal with Lord Lucian Aurelius, the handsome heir of the most ancient ducal
00:00:22house in the realm, she became truly untouchable. But fate is a fickle thing. A fortnight before the grand wedding,
00:00:28Lord Lucian fell from his horse in the old forest and never woke. The court healers called it a cursed
00:00:33soul sleep, his body breathed, but his spirit was gone.
00:00:36When House Aurelius came to hold Serafina to her sacred vow, she laughed in their faces.
00:00:41Nurse a living corpse, I'd rather die. I will not marry a ruined man. Not for all his wealth.
00:00:50Lucian's furious soul stood right there in the corner of the great hall, his eyes burning with hatred.
00:00:55Whoever stays to care for me, I will give her a fortune, an estate, gold, freedom, anything just to spine
00:01:02this treacherous viper when I rise.
00:01:04A fortune, my eyes lit up. I lifted my trembling hand.
00:01:11Then, I'll marry him.
00:01:14Every head in the hall turned. Serafina's mouth fell open, and the dead Lord spirit stared at me as though
00:01:20I had risen from a grave of my own.
00:01:22I did not care for the title. I did not care for the castle. I wanted the gold. I braced
00:01:29for Serafina to forbid it.
00:01:30All my life her chief delight had been to thwart me, then drink in my misery. But she only smirked,
00:01:36and shoved me forward by the shoulder.
00:01:39You are useless in this house anyway. Go wipe this filth, it suits you. Look at you, throwing yourself at
00:01:46a sleeping man.
00:01:48So starved for a husband you would take a broken one. How low.
00:01:51I bowed my head and said nothing. Let her sneer.
00:01:55Every cruel word carried me one step closer to the door, into a fortune that would set me free of
00:02:00all of them.
00:02:01But Lucian's soul did not stay silent.
00:02:03You poison!
00:02:05For years you wept to me that your sister Alara tormented you.
00:02:09It was a lie.
00:02:11Every word of it.
00:02:13It was you who tormented her.
00:02:15And I, fool that I was, believed you.
00:02:18His rage frosted the window panes.
00:02:20I tucked my chin and crept toward the duchess instead.
00:02:27I am the true-born daughter of this house.
00:02:30If it does not offend you, my lady, I will take my sister's place.
00:02:35I will wed Lord Lucian.
00:02:40The Duchess Cassandra had worn grief like a veil since her son fell.
00:02:44House Aurelius had sworn to the court that he would soon recover.
00:02:48If the betrothal collapsed now, the whispers would spread, the alliances would crack, and the standing of the house would
00:02:54bleed away.
00:02:55I was, suddenly, the thread holding her dignity together.
00:03:00You would truly do this.
00:03:02He cannot speak the vows yet.
00:03:05But care for him.
00:03:06Keep faith as a wife should.
00:03:08And when he wakes, the seat of this house is yours.
00:03:11I nodded, meek and eager.
00:03:13I am gentle with the sick.
00:03:16I nursed my own grandparents to the end.
00:03:19My parents eagerly chimed in, their smiles dripping with unctuous warmth.
00:03:24Yes, exactly.
00:03:25The girl is a worthless thing anyway.
00:03:27Born for nothing but menial service.
00:03:29Sending her to care for the young lord is a perfect match.
00:03:33As her parents, we give our full consent.
00:03:36Please, take her off our hands immediately.
00:03:38They spoke as if discarding a piece of rubbish, utterly desperate to shove me out the door.
00:03:43The soul stopped raging.
00:03:45He drifted close, circling me, his cold gaze raking me head to foot until my spine shivered.
00:03:51I pretended I could not see him, and smiled my most useful smile.
00:03:56Half an hour later I stood in the chamber of recovery, and met Lord Lucian Aurelius in the flesh.
00:04:01He was wasted thin, his fine features sharpened by illness.
00:04:05Kept alive by tinctures the court healers dripped between his lips and the slow rise of his chest.
00:04:10Cassandra dabbed her eyes.
00:04:15His skull was struck in the fall.
00:04:17The priest sealed the wound, but the soul sleep holds.
00:04:22Half a year, perhaps three.
00:04:25We wished to keep up appearances, yes.
00:04:29But also to give him a companion.
00:04:42A cursed sleeper, she explained, needs the warmth of constant company.
00:04:46A voice at his ear, day upon day, to keep his mind alight and coax his spirit back.
00:04:51But the air could not be seen in such a state by outside eyes, and she herself was consumed holding
00:04:56the house together.
00:04:57Serafina had been the natural choice.
00:04:59Instead, the burden had fallen.
00:05:01Of all souls, to me, the spirit stood at the bedside, gray and bitter.
00:05:06I thought she would never leave me.
00:05:09She has frozen my heart for good.
00:05:12All I want is one reliable soul to read me the parchment dispatches each morning.
00:05:16Is that so much?
00:05:18Gods know if this Alara is even capable.
00:05:20I listened to him grumble and understood.
00:05:23Body and soul had been torn apart, that was why I could see him drifting.
00:05:27When he woke, his spirit would slip home, and he would see me no more.
00:05:31So I made my plan, and spoke it aloud to the duchess.
00:05:35Each morning I will read him the house dispatchings.
00:05:38I will fill the room with music and voices without pause.
00:05:41I will tell him the weather, bring him sense to wake his senses, and the washing, the turning.
00:05:45Let me do that too, my lady, if it does not offend.
00:05:48It will help us grow familiar.
00:05:50The duchess and the ghost both took it for empty promises.
00:05:53Neither believed a death-touched girl could be so patient, so thorough, so kind.
00:05:57By the next morning, they would learn otherwise.
00:06:01When the duchess came to the chamber of recovery the following day, she stopped in the doorway
00:06:05and stared.
00:06:06I had already shaved Lucian's hollow cheeks smooth, so that he looked less a hollow shell
00:06:10and more a sleeping lord.
00:06:12A traveling minstrel's tune drifted from the corner.
00:06:15On the table, a pot of spiced fruit steeped, its sweetness drowning the bitter reek of healing
00:06:19herbs.
00:06:20I sat at his bedside with a ledger open across my knees, reading the house accounts aloud
00:06:24in a clear, steady voice, pausing now and then to murmur in his side as if he might
00:06:28answer.
00:06:29And in the corner I had built myself a narrow cot, so I need never leave his side, day or
00:06:34night.
00:06:35Cassandra pressed a hand to her mouth.
00:06:40Child, you may sleep in the castle proper.
00:06:43You need not stay here.
00:06:45I only smiled.
00:06:46So long as I never had to sleep again under my parents' roof, I would gladly sleep on
00:06:51stone.
00:06:54My lady, staying close strengthens the bond between us.
00:07:01It will help call him home.
00:07:04When she had gone, I stole a glance at the ghost.
00:07:06The grey had eased from his face.
00:07:08He watched me with something almost like wonder.
00:07:12Seraphina was raised soft.
00:07:15She would have made a wretched nurse.
00:07:18Miss Allura is steadier than I thought.
00:07:25Perhaps the curse did me a mindless.
00:07:28I went on about my work dusting the sill, trimming the guttering candles, humming an old cradle
00:07:33song under my breath because silence felt cruel to a sleeping man.
00:07:36The ghost trailed me corner to corner, no longer cold, only curious, as though he had
00:07:41never in his gilded life watched anyone labor on his behalf without being paid or commanded
00:07:45to it.
00:07:45She does not even know I am watching, and still she is gentle.
00:07:51I pretended not to hear and pressed a cool cloth to his brow.
00:07:54After that, I told myself the rest would be simple.
00:07:58I tucked the blanket to his chin and let myself believe, for one breath, that a fortune was
00:08:02already as good as mine the gold, the estate, the freedom deed, every coin of it near enough
00:08:07to taste.
00:08:07I began to study the ghost the way a hunter studies tracks.
00:08:10He could not wander far distance from his body seen to thin him, like ink in water.
00:08:15Mostly, he kept to his chamber of recovery, drifting out only on the fairest mornings to
00:08:19taste the air.
00:08:20So, when he muttered to himself, I listened.
00:08:24How did she know I love the old operas?
00:08:26She has done her reading.
00:08:28Not bad.
00:08:29Now, if only she would learn that I despise apples, and crave the blue-veined cheese from
00:08:36the west cellar.
00:08:38Every day, apples, I am sick to death of apples.
00:08:43The next morning, I went down to the cold cellar myself, and came back cradling a wheel
00:08:48of cheese so pungent it cleared my own eyes.
00:08:50I unwrapped it slowly at his bedside, smiling at his sleeping face.
00:08:54My lord, shall we see, how well this one has aged?
00:09:01The reek bloomed through the room, foul and forbidden, the very thing no proper noble
00:09:06heir would admit to lovers.
00:09:07The ghost sighs lit like a starving man's.
00:09:10I must wake.
00:09:11I must wake and devour a whole wheel, with my own hands.
00:09:15And as he spoke, the blessed water in the court healer's silver basin beside the bed, placed
00:09:20there to trace his life force, astir with one faint, climbing ripple.
00:09:24I broke a piece of the cheese and ate it where he could see, sighing with pleasure.
00:09:29Do you know, my lord, this is the first fine thing I have ever tasted.
00:09:33At home, I was given the bruised apples, the rotten pears, never anything like this.
00:09:37The ghost went very still.
00:09:39I had grown easy with his silent face.
00:09:42So I kept talking, the way one talks to a friend, and the words I had swallowed for
00:09:46twenty years came pouring out.
00:09:48Your mother gave me a purse for my trouble.
00:09:50Two hundred gold.
00:09:52She thinks the work is hard.
00:09:54But at home, I tended my parents, and Serafina both, and my grandparents before that.
00:09:59Here there is only you.
00:10:01It is the lightest my life has ever been.
00:10:03When I dared to look, the dead lord's eyes had gone red at the rims.
00:10:08Are her parents mad?
00:10:10They have a true-born daughter worth ten of that spoiled orphan, and they starve her to feed
00:10:14a viper.
00:10:15I will see that whole house answer for it.
00:10:21I felt an unexpected warmth, and pushed it down.
00:10:24Vengeance could keep.
00:10:26So long as the gold reached my hands, I would thank every god there was.
00:10:30From that day, the ghost and I grew close in a way I cannot name.
00:10:34I went on pretending I could not see him, yet I gave him everything he wished before he wished
00:10:38it aloud.
00:10:39And he never left my side, watching all I did with those red-rimmed, thawing eyes.
00:10:44Four months passed this way.
00:10:46Then, one ordinary afternoon, as I bent his thin fingers gently to keep them from stiffening
00:10:52his hand twitched.
00:10:53On its own, the ghost stared at his own flesh, stunned.
00:10:57My nerves.
00:10:58My body answered the touch.
00:11:00Did you feel that?
00:11:01The curse is unraveling.
00:11:03My dawn is coming.
00:11:05I am so close to waking.
00:11:07I flew to fetch the duchess, half laughing, half in tears.
00:11:11The good news could not be contained.
00:11:13Within days, learned court healers and priests came from across the realm to attend him.
00:11:18And so did Seraphina.
00:11:20She swept into the chamber of recovery, wrinkled her nose at the sleeping lord, and seized my
00:11:25arm hard enough to bruise.
00:11:28They say he's waking.
00:11:30Is it true?
00:11:31When I would not answer fast enough, her palm cracked across my cheek.
00:11:36You think you've climbed into House Aurorius?
00:11:38You think you can look down your nose at me?
00:11:40Alara, you fool!
00:11:41Strike her back!
00:11:41I will stand behind you!
00:11:43Strike her!
00:11:43When he wakes, you crawl back into the gutter.
00:11:45I will tell him I tended him all along.
00:11:47He loves me.
00:11:48He will marry me, waking or not.
00:11:53The ghost understood before I did.
00:11:56So long as my mind keeps even a shred of this soul's memory, I will never wed her.
00:12:02Then he faltered, and his voice dropped.
00:12:05Never.
00:12:08But will I keep it?
00:12:09When I wake, will the soul's memory and the body's memory truly join?
00:12:13Or will it all wash away, and leave me believing lies?
00:12:16If I forget, if I rise and think Seraphina was the faithful one, gods, what then?
00:12:21I rubbed my stinging cheek, and felt my own dread answer his.
00:12:25Whether he married Seraphina or a stranger was nothing to me.
00:12:28But if she stole the credit for my six months of toil, my fortune would vanish with it.
00:12:33The ghost suddenly brightened.
00:12:36My mother, she has seen Seraphina's true face.
00:12:40She will swear it was you who stayed.
00:12:43As long as she lives, Seraphina cannot rewrite this.
00:12:46But Seraphina was not finished.
00:12:49She went straight to the Duchess and spun her web.
00:12:52You know his heart, my lady.
00:12:54He chose me.
00:12:55When he wakes, will you truly force him to wed some stranger he does not know?
00:12:59He has cheated death.
00:13:00As his mother, you should support his happiness, not meddle in his marriage.
00:13:04And to my horror, the Duchess wavered.
00:13:07She drew me aside, her face heavy with apology.
00:13:11He will not know who tended him in truth.
00:13:13If I say it was Seraphina, and they wed as everyone expects, it spares the house a scandal.
00:13:18I will compensate you richly.
00:13:19Only hold your tongue, and no one need ever know it was you.
00:13:22The ghost raged in my ear.
00:13:25Lara, have you no spine?
00:13:28Why hand your triumph to that snake?
00:13:31I wanted to fight.
00:13:33I did.
00:13:34But I had been beaten down since I could walk.
00:13:37With no name, no power, no one at my back, what could I possibly fight with?
00:13:43The ghost looked at me.
00:13:45Cowards!
00:13:46Every single one of you!
00:13:48My own mother trades my future for a piece of gossip.
00:13:52And you, you just bow your head.
00:13:57Lara, I will remember the truth on my own.
00:14:00Having swayed the Duchess, Seraphina took no chances.
00:14:04She fed the news to the court herself, summoning scribes and gossiping nobles to the castle gate.
00:14:09Under my devoted care, my beloved lord is waking at last.
00:14:14We shall seal our betrothal the moment he opens his eyes.
00:14:18Soon, I will be Lady Aurarius.
00:14:23I thank you all for your blessings.
00:14:25And the whole realm came to believe that Seraphina's deep, faithful love had worked the miracle.
00:14:31With every court healers tending and the strength of Lucian's own will, his signs climbed.
00:14:35The color returned to his lips.
00:14:37His breath deepened.
00:14:38Before half a year had passed, the priests laid their hands upon his brow, traded grave
00:14:43looks, and declared his mind whole.
00:14:44He could wake at any hour.
00:14:46The closer that hour drew, the more manic Seraphina's smiles became.
00:14:49She believed she was about to successfully win everything, even though she hadn't cared
00:14:54for him for a single day.
00:14:55Lara, I pray I remember all of this when I wake.
00:15:01Gods keep me from forgetting your kindness.
00:15:05Gods keep me from mistaking that snake for my savior.
00:15:38I prayed for the same, but none of it was mine to command.
00:15:40Then Lord Lucian Aurelius, the sleeper of House Aurelius, slowly opened his eyes.
00:15:48No one dared breathe.
00:15:49His fingers stirred.
00:15:51His throat worked.
00:15:52He squinted at the intricately carved, vaulted ceiling as though dragging something up from
00:15:56a great depth.
00:15:57I stood at the back, fists clenched, and prayed.
00:16:00Let him remember.
00:16:01Let him know who stayed.
00:16:02And if he had forgotten, then six months of my life were ash, and I had stitched a wedding
00:16:06gown for Seraphina with my own hands.
00:16:08Seraphina could not wait.
00:16:10She flung herself to the bedside.
00:16:12Lucian, you're awake.
00:16:13It's me.
00:16:14You're Seraphina, the one you love.
00:16:16All these months it was I who tended you, who never left your side.
00:16:20You know it.
00:16:21You remember, don't you?
00:16:23His eyes drifted to her, clouded and lost.
00:16:25He had forgotten.
00:16:27He had forgotten everything.
00:16:28My parents pressed close to whisper their poison in my ear.
00:16:32Stop dreaming, you wretched thing.
00:16:34The Duchess herself said it.
00:16:37If he doesn't recall, then Seraphina nursed him.
00:16:40Crawl away before you ruin her moment.
00:16:43I watched Lucian gaze and gaze at Seraphina, and despair flooded my chest.
00:16:46I lowered my head and turned to go.
00:16:49And in the next breath, Lord Lucian spoke his voice cold as a crypt.
00:16:55Was it truly you who cared for me?
00:16:57His eyes had not softened.
00:16:59They were full of open, knife-edged doubt.
00:17:01Seraphina's smile cracked.
00:17:03He coughed, weak but cutting, and asked again colder still.
00:17:06Answer me.
00:17:08Was it you?
00:17:09I had taken one step toward the door.
00:17:11I did not take another.
00:17:12Because a man who doubted was a man who remembered.
00:17:15Even a shred.
00:17:16Even a whisper of the soul that had wept beside me.
00:17:18And a shred was all the hope I needed.
00:17:22Of course, my lord.
00:17:25This is your betrothal.
00:17:27Your beloved Seraphina.
00:17:29Have you forgotten her face?
00:17:31Stop dreaming, you wretched thing.
00:17:36The Duchess herself said it.
00:17:38If he doesn't recall, then Seraphina nursed him.
00:17:43Crawl away before you ruin her moment.
00:17:46They crowded the bedside, and I saw it arrange themselves to block his view of me, so the waking lord
00:17:51could not find me in the room.
00:17:53The Duchess pressed my shoulder in apology and stepped forward.
00:17:59Enough.
00:18:00Stand back, all of you.
00:18:02Do not crowd, my son.
00:18:04Seraphina withdrew, reluctant, and the Duchess took Lucian's hand, weeping with joy.
00:18:09My son.
00:18:11You strong, stubborn boy.
00:18:14The priests are calling it a miracle.
00:18:18Your home.
00:18:20All will be set right now.
00:18:22Newly awoken and frail, Lucian silently watched his mother to conserve his strength.
00:18:26Scribes pressed in to sketch the scene, a display of security the Duchess desperately needed the realm to see.
00:18:31A nameless outsider.
00:18:33I was shoved further and further from the bed.
00:18:37But I would not leave.
00:18:39Not yet.
00:18:40Edged aside, Seraphina panicked.
00:18:42She had waited for days just to claim credit the moment he woke.
00:18:45If the scribes recorded it, her marriage was sealed.
00:18:48And it was slipping, so she turned her venom on me.
00:18:51Elara, why are you still standing there?
00:18:56Still dreaming your little dream of marrying up?
00:18:58Look at you.
00:19:01Death-touched, ill-omened.
00:19:03A stain on the air.
00:19:05Get out!
00:19:08Even if I refused him, it would never be your turn.
00:19:13Something in me, long buried, finally bared its teeth.
00:19:19Don't crow yet, Seraphina.
00:19:22Whether you marry him at all is still very much in question.
00:19:27My parents gaped as if I had grown horns.
00:19:33You dare talk back?
00:19:36Your wings have grown, girl.
00:19:40Come outside, I'll teach you better.
00:19:43The three of them seized me and began to haul me toward the door.
00:19:46I fought and lost, my heels dragging across the stone.
00:19:50Then Lucian dressed his mother's hand aside, his gaze locking onto us.
00:19:56Stop.
00:19:58Every body in the room went rigid.
00:20:01Seraphina and my parents flushed with the same ugly mix of shock and resentment.
00:20:04They exchanged a look.
00:20:06Then Seraphina threw herself in front of me again, reckless.
00:20:10Pay her no mind, my lord.
00:20:13She's only a chamber of recovery dread who wandered into Gork.
00:20:19I'll have her removed.
00:20:20She dug her nails into my arm and hauled.
00:20:22But Lucian looked clearer now, and his voice came stronger.
00:20:30Let go of her.
00:20:32His voice was low and hard, unlike the tender ghost of the past half year.
00:20:36This was the rumored cold air.
00:20:37I realized the waking lord and the sleeping soul were two different men.
00:20:41Before I could dwell on it, he lifted one unsteady finger and pointed it straight at me.
00:20:48You, come here.
00:20:51Seraphina panicked.
00:20:52She glared at me with naked threat.
00:20:55Don't you dare.
00:20:57Take one step and I will end you.
00:20:59Have you forgotten the last twenty years?
00:21:02I have a hundred ways to make you suffer.
00:21:05Stay where you are.
00:21:07Lord Lucian is not for the likes of you to covet.
00:21:10For once, something rebellious rose in my chest.
00:21:12I shoved her hand off and stepped forward.
00:21:22And what if I do go?
00:21:24I would not let Seraphina rule my fate one more day.
00:21:27So I raised my voice on purpose for the whole room to hear.
00:21:32Can't you see the lord is calling me?
00:21:34You fought so hard to keep me from his side.
00:21:37What is it you're so afraid I'll say?
00:21:39The words landed exactly as I meant them.
00:21:42The scribes turned, suddenly hungry.
00:21:44And in Lucian's eyes flickered a spark of suspicion.
00:21:47Seraphina's cheeks went red.
00:21:48She reached for me again.
00:21:50Then the duchess spoke, her voice flat and finally-
00:21:52Let Alora come.
00:21:53I caught the conflict in the duchess's face and understood.
00:21:56She herself had not decided whether to give Lucian the truth.
00:22:00Which meant my odds had just climbed.
00:22:02I pressed down the wild hope in my chest and walked slowly to the bedside.
00:22:05Lucian narrowed his eyes and studied me in silence for a long moment.
00:22:11What is your name?
00:22:14Alada.
00:22:15His brow furrowed.
00:22:16That pained, straining look a man clawing after a memory that would not surface.
00:22:20My heart lurched between hope and ruin with every second.
00:22:23In the dead silence, his face suddenly eased.
00:22:26He looked at me, then at Seraphina.
00:22:29What is it I want most to eat right now?
00:22:34My breath caught and then my eyes began to shine.
00:22:37He was holding out a secret.
00:22:39A password only the one who had heard his soul could answer.
00:22:42I ran back over our six months together.
00:22:44The answer rose to my lips at once.
00:22:48Seraphina shoved me aside.
00:22:50Rough and frantic.
00:22:51You never spent a day with him.
00:22:53You know nothing about him, Alara.
00:22:56Step aside.
00:22:58This is my place.
00:22:59She planted herself in front of me and launched into her performance.
00:23:03Voice trembling with feeling.
00:23:04We courted three years.
00:23:06No one knows him as I do.
00:23:08And I know exactly what he craves.
00:23:10It's the honeyed porridge I cook with my own hands.
00:23:13When you fell ill last winter,
00:23:16I made it for you.
00:23:18And you wept and called it the finest thing you'd ever tasted.
00:23:23You told me you wished to eat my porridge every time you were sick, for the rest of your life.
00:23:29And she squeezed out two glistening tears, then turned to whisper to the scribes that this, surely, proved her love
00:23:35was no fortune-hunting lie.
00:23:36My parents eagerly joined in, backing up her lies.
00:23:39Yes.
00:23:40Seraphina was raised like a princess.
00:23:43She has never worked a day in her life.
00:23:46Yet for you, she labored in the kitchens, learning to cook just so you could taste her food the moment
00:23:53you woke.
00:23:56The duchess, off to the side, quietly knit her brows.
00:23:59She wore the look of a woman who had swallowed a fly.
00:24:02I wanted to ask her outright, are you truly certain you want your son to wed this two-faced, scheming
00:24:07snake?
00:24:07Plainly, she was no longer certain at all.
00:24:10Seeing the confusion still written on Lucien's face, she cut Seraphina's little play short.
00:24:14Enough. We'll have no theatre in this room. You've answered. Now let Alara answer.
00:24:20She drew me back herself and turned me to face her son.
00:24:23I lifted my chin. Two small words.
00:24:26And I let them fall into the silence.
00:24:28Blue-veined cheese. The one from the West Cellar.
00:24:30The air went dead. Then Seraphina burst out laughing.
00:24:35Alara, you astound me.
00:24:37I thought you might at least invent something plausible.
00:24:41Instead, you sprout nonsense. You've lost your wits.
00:24:44I know him better than anyone.
00:24:46And the one thing he loathes is that reeking, crypt-rotten flilth.
00:24:52He won't go within 30 paces of that smell.
00:24:54You expect us to believe the first thing he wants on waking is cheese?
00:24:58Lucien kept his mouth shut, his face unreadable.
00:25:01For half a heartbeat, I doubted my own memory.
00:25:03But no, I had not misheard.
00:25:05The soul had told me, again and again,
00:25:07that the blue-veined cellar cheese was a secret weakness.
00:25:10The ghost had repeatedly confessed the secret craving,
00:25:12his voice half ashamed and half greedy.
00:25:14Like a boy stealing tarts,
00:25:16he had vowed countless times to devour a whole wheel the moment he woke.
00:25:19A ghost had no reason to lie to a girl who could not even answer him aloud.
00:25:23So which was it?
00:25:24Had my own memory failed me at the one moment it mattered most?
00:25:27Or had the spirit been lying to me all along for some reason?
00:25:30And was I about to make a fool of myself before House Aurelius?
00:25:35In the standoff, the Duchess leaned close and murmured, gently, awkwardly,
00:25:40Child, I have never once seen my son eat that cheese.
00:25:43He guards his noble dignity.
00:25:45He refuses such punch and common things on principle.
00:25:48I understand you feel wronged, but the truth of the matter is plain.
00:25:52Elara, I know your worth, but my son's betrothed is Serafina.
00:25:56Some things are not ours to undo.
00:25:57Let us keep to what we agreed, for everyone's sake,
00:25:59so you are not made a spectacle.
00:26:00The more I heard, the lower my heart sank.
00:26:03So the soul had handed me false coin, and I had spent my confidence on it like a fool.
00:26:07She could not bear to see me humiliated.
00:26:09I think.
00:26:10On the spot she pressed 500 gold into my hands,
00:26:13and promised to send for me later with more once I had gone.
00:26:16It was no small sum.
00:26:17Enough to leave this place behind, to study the craft I had always dreamed of.
00:26:21Perhaps even to travel beyond the sea and learn from distant masters.
00:26:25And yet, looking at that face so familiar and so strange,
00:26:28I felt nothing but a thick, choking refusal.
00:26:30Why?
00:26:31I remembered the ghost at my ear, urging me on through all those long nights.
00:26:35Remembered.
00:26:36To be acknowledged.
00:26:38That is what you are owed, Elara.
00:26:41Will you truly let Serafina trample you forever?
00:26:45If I forget, you stand your ground.
00:26:49You speak the truth.
00:26:50Do not be a coward, and let her steal what is yours, or I swear, I will despise you for
00:26:57it.
00:26:58The memory of those words put a strange new iron in my spine,
00:27:01and just then I saw Lucian narrow his eyes, his lips parting as if to speak.
00:27:07Serafina was too pleased with herself to notice.
00:27:10She grabbed Lucian's sleeve and crowed.
00:27:12You see?
00:27:13The woman's a fraud.
00:27:14Let me have her thrown out this instant.
00:27:16She flashed her parents a signal, and they lunged for me, eager as ever to toss me aside like refuse.
00:27:22Then Lucian, his strength returning by the minute, snapped at Serafina in a low growl.
00:27:27Be quiet.
00:27:28It was the first time since waking that I saw plain disgust in his eyes, and it was aimed at
00:27:32her.
00:27:33That one word put steel in my blood.
00:27:35Lord Lucian clearly has something to say to me.
00:27:40Until he tells me to go himself, I am not leaving.
00:27:43The duchess had not expected such hardness from me.
00:27:46Surprise crossed her face, and beneath it, the first glint of approval.
00:27:50Lucian stared Serafina down until she sullenly gave up her place at the bedside.
00:27:54Then he raised a finger to me again.
00:27:57Come, read me the dispatches.
00:28:00A page or two.
00:28:01Serafina and I both understood in the same instant.
00:28:04He had not believed her at all.
00:28:06He carried a blurred memory enough to doubt, not enough to be sure.
00:28:09So he was staging the scenes again, replaying them to draw up the truth.
00:28:13Serafina nearly came apart.
00:28:16Lucian, what is the point of this?
00:28:17I am your betrothed.
00:28:19The whole realm knows we were vowed.
00:28:21If your own promised wife wasn't at your side, who would it be, some stranger?
00:28:26She came to the chamber of recovery, yes.
00:28:28As a hired drill, I called in to help.
00:28:30That changes nothing between us.
00:28:33Lufian.
00:28:36Be quiet, or leave.
00:28:38This time, the Duchess silenced her, unable to stomach the ugliness for another second.
00:28:43She snapped.
00:28:44I seized the opening.
00:28:46From the bedside table I drew the parchment, practiced insure, and read him the house dispatches
00:28:51without a tremor.
00:28:52Lucian's face betrayed nothing.
00:28:54But Serafina's grew uglier by the line.
00:28:57When I finished, Lucian had gathered more strength still.
00:29:00He signaled the attendant to prop him up with several plush, velvet cushions, so he could
00:29:05sit upright.
00:29:06Then he fixed both of us in his stare, and his voice fell like a blade.
00:29:10I'll ask once more.
00:29:13Who tended me these six months?
00:29:16Who?
00:29:17Serafina flinched.
00:29:18And this time, I refused to cower.
00:29:21I had done the work.
00:29:23Even if every soul in this room denied it, the castle's own people had seen me.
00:29:27The truth was on my side.
00:29:29So after only a breath's hesitation, I stepped forward of my own, well, for the first time
00:29:34in my life.
00:29:35It was me.
00:29:39I am the one who stayed beside you.
00:29:42Who tended you these six months.
00:29:48Every day I gave you music.
00:29:50Gave you the operas you love.
00:29:53Read you the dispatches.
00:29:55Washed you.
00:29:57Turned you.
00:30:00All of it was me.
00:30:04Alara.
00:30:11It had wandered far from the plan I'd made but the Duchess, watching me stand brave, let
00:30:15out a breath that sounded almost like relief.
00:30:18Lucian curved his lips, slow and amused, as if my answer pleased him deeply.
00:30:22In the instant our eyes met, a thought struck me.
00:30:26He had remembered the soul's months the moment he woke.
00:30:29He had only feigned the fog, to see whether I would fight for myself.
00:30:33That was why he had dragged it out this long.
00:30:35I only wondered if he had remembered the fortune too.
00:30:38If he had could he kindly order the servants to carry them in right now?
00:30:42Nothing would gall Serafina more.
00:30:44She saw the tide turning.
00:30:46Desperate, she made one last grasp at the wheel.
00:30:49No!
00:30:50Don't listen to her lies!
00:30:55Lucian, you know this sister of mine.
00:31:00She's bullied me since we were girls, always stealing what's mine.
00:31:04Now she'd steal a man.
00:31:06She should have held her tongue.
00:31:08The moment that particular lie left her lips, Lucian's gaze turned to flint as though it
00:31:12had jared loose a flood of other memories.
00:31:14His face went black as a storm front.
00:31:18Serafina, I do not want to look at you.
00:31:22Get as far from me as the world allows.
00:31:25At his word, the Duchess raised her hand and summoned the houseguards.
00:31:29They closed on Serafina to drag her out.
00:31:32Then Lucian spoke once more.
00:31:34Wait.
00:31:38Serafina's face lit with hope.
00:31:40She thought he was relenting, for old love's sake.
00:31:43Instead, he murmured something low at his mother's ear, then lifted his head and smiled at me.
00:31:48Alara, in gratitude for your faithful care, these six months, I grant you a chest of gold,
00:31:57the deed to an estate of your own, and a writ of freedom releasing you from all claim of House
00:32:03Thornwood.
00:32:04Let all present bear witness that they are freely given.
00:32:07These are yours.
00:32:08Take them without fear.
00:32:10In the next breath, at the Duchess's nod, a steward stepped forward and pressed the sealed
00:32:14deed and the writ into my hands, the chest of gold carried in behind.
00:32:18The room spun.
00:32:19I nearly fainted from sheer joy, but Serafina's shriek dragged me back to earth, her face twisted
00:32:26with envy.
00:32:27Alara, by what right?
00:32:29That fortune should be mine!
00:32:32Gaisis, no!
00:32:33If I hadn't handed you the chance, you would never have stumbled into such luck!
00:32:39Give them to me!
00:32:41Give them here!
00:32:42She lunged, claws out.
00:32:44The guards caught her, and my parents with her, and hauled all three away without mercy.
00:32:49Her wild, undone face was sketched by every scribe in the room as small, sweet revenge
00:32:53served on my behalf.
00:32:57Once the scribes had asked their last questions and drifted out, the chamber of recovery finally
00:33:01fell quiet.
00:33:02The Duchess did not scold me.
00:33:04She only gave my hand a kind squeeze and withdrew, telling us gently to talk.
00:33:09And now, facing a living, breathing Lucian instead of a drifting ghost, I felt suddenly,
00:33:15absurdly shy.
00:33:16For six months, I had poured my soul out to his silent form, sharing my darkest secrets
00:33:21and shamelessly eating cheese by his bedside.
00:33:23I had completely forgotten that this man would one day wake up and remember every single
00:33:27word.
00:33:28He watched me fidget and rub the back of my neck, and his eyes glinted with mischief.
00:33:35Alara, how did you know the cheese from the West Cellar is my favorite thing in the world?
00:33:41What?
00:33:42I was still drunk on the fortune, and slow to follow.
00:33:46Lucian gave a cold little laugh.
00:33:47To keep my noble figure, and my discipline, and because Serafina turned up her noses at
00:33:54it.
00:33:54I told the whole world for years, despise, that I despise that cheese.
00:34:00And for the six months you tended me, I could not speak a single word.
00:34:04So tell me, Alara, how did you know?
00:34:08Be honest with me now.
00:34:10While my soul was parted from my body, you saw it, didn't you?
00:34:15You saw my spirit.
00:34:21Well, so his questions had never been a simple password.
00:34:25He had been testing his own wild theory all along.
00:34:29I, that is, you talked in your sleep, my lord.
00:34:33I was in that room day and day.
00:34:35I happened to overhear.
00:34:36My eyes darted everywhere but his.
00:34:39Did I now?
00:34:42And what did my sleep talking say?
00:34:46You said you were starving for that cheese.
00:34:50That the moment you woke, you'd wrap your arms around a whole wheel and devour every bite.
00:34:54I clapped both hands over my mouth.
00:34:57Ruined.
00:34:58What kind of comatose man sleep talks an entire, perfectly formed vow like that.
00:35:02I had let my tongue run wild.
00:35:04He saw the blood rush to my face.
00:35:06Saw me caught between terror and shame and Lord Lucian Aurelius smiled his first true smile since waking.
00:35:12Alara.
00:35:14I suspected from the start that you could hear me.
00:35:18How else?
00:35:20I'd think of that cheese one day and the next you'd carry a wheel to my bedside.
00:35:27I'd wish for a certain opera and you'd have it playing before the hour was out.
00:35:32I told myself we were simply of one mind.
00:35:35But it was never that, was it?
00:35:37You could see my soul.
00:35:39So tell me true.
00:35:41Did you hear me promise the fortune?
00:35:43Is that why you leapt forward to take Seraphina's place?
00:35:47At that, I could only laugh.
00:35:49Sheepish and caught.
00:35:50To love gold is only human.
00:35:52Lucian wanted for nothing.
00:35:54Surely he would not begrudge me that one small sin.
00:35:57I scrambled to defend myself.
00:36:00But of all the souls in the world, only I could see your spirit.
00:36:04Only I could hear what was in your heart.
00:36:07That has to count for something.
00:36:09Doesn't it?
00:36:11Fate, even?
00:36:18And as the words left me, I felt the air between us shift, grow warm and close, like the hush
00:36:23before chapel bells.
00:36:24I had, perhaps, overstepped.
00:36:28A death-touched girl, hired off the gutter, speaking of fate to the heir of House Aurelius.
00:36:33I dropped my gaze to my own hands and waited for him to remember himself and the gulf of blood
00:36:37and gold between us and put me back in my place with a single cold word.
00:36:41But Lucian only nodded, as if I had said something wise.
00:36:46You're right.
00:36:47It means the bond between us runs deeper than most.
00:36:51Then, with great effort, he lifted his arm, dragged it across the blanket inch by inch, and closed his thin
00:36:56hand gently around mine.
00:36:58Alara, I like you brave.
00:37:03I like you bold.
00:37:06No one of House Thornwood will ever lay a hand on you again.
00:37:11I swore to settle your account with them, and I am a man who keeps his word.
00:37:16The warmth of his palm traveled up my arm, steady and real.
00:37:20For the first time in my life, the world beneath me did not tilt.
00:37:24And in that same heartbeat, I looked into his living eyes for the first time.
00:37:28Yet it felt as if I had known him for years and years.
00:37:31Night after night, I had read to him, cared for him, and whispered my secrets into his silence.
00:37:36Well, if my Maud swears it, then I'll be watching for the day.
00:37:41You bring the storm down on my enemies.
00:37:44He was the only one who had ever listened.
00:37:46He was pleased, plainly, that there was no distance left between us.
00:37:51The cold air had thawed back into the fretting, tender soul I knew, and he flushed faintly as he made
00:37:56his vow.
00:38:02As for the betrothal my mother promised, the sealed contract, the chapel blessing, when I am whole again, I will
00:38:10honor every word of it.
00:38:11The tips of my ears went hot.
00:38:14I believe you.
00:38:17Shall I go and cut you a slice of that cheese now?
00:38:20He laughed aloud at that, openly, and I could not help but laugh with him, sweet and bright.
00:38:25After all, the fortune was real gold, an estate, my freedom, pressed into my own two hands.
00:38:31The young lord of House Aurelius was a man who did exactly as he said.
00:38:35And he was not finished exacting retribution.
00:38:38In the weeks that followed, Lucian rose from his sickbed by slow degrees.
00:38:42And House Aurelius turned its full weight upon House Thornwood.
00:38:45Before the magistrate, our own servants testified to how I was starved while Serafina was pampered.
00:38:51The sealed writ was drawn, and my name was struck from my family's line forever.
00:38:56Serafina's lies, once carved into the court's record by her own eager scribes, became the noose that hanged her.
00:39:01Exposed as a fraud, she was shunned by the realm, and every noble house shut its gates to her forever.
00:39:07My parents, who had traded their true daughter for an orphan's flattery, lost the favor of House Aurelius and every
00:39:13door it had once opened.
00:39:14I did not gloat.
00:39:16I had a chest of gold, in a state of my own, and a future no one could strip from
00:39:21me.
00:39:21For the first time, the coal clinging to me since birth felt less like a curse and more like armor.
00:39:26It was what let me see the unseen, and stand firm when everyone else fled.
00:39:30But I confess I slept easier knowing the people who had broken me for 20 years would never again sleep
00:39:35easy themselves.
00:39:36And every few days, a sealed letter arrived from the castle, in a strong, impatient hand asking when, exactly, the
00:39:43death-touched girl meant to come back and read him his dispatches.
00:39:50I went back, of course.
00:39:52The chamber of recovery became a sunlit solar, the wasted sleeper became a lord who could walk the long galleries
00:39:57on my arm, slower than he liked, complaining the whole way.
00:40:01We were wed beneath the chapel bells of House Aurelius, in the cold and beautiful hall of his ancestors, with
00:40:06the king's own seal upon the contract and not one thorn would in attendance.
00:40:10On the morning of the vows, I thought of all the years they had called me cursed.
00:40:14Death-touched.
00:40:15Bill-omoned.
00:40:16A stain on the air, a girl her own mother could not bear to look upon.
00:40:21They had been so certain my gift was a punishment.
00:40:24Let them look now.
00:40:25Let them look at the lord who had crossed back from the edge of death and chosen me the only
00:40:29soul in all the world who could see him when he was lost, who could hear him when he had
00:40:32no voice, who had stayed when the faithful one fled.
00:40:35Lucian found me at the chapel doors, pale still, but standing tall, his hand reaching for mine.
00:40:41Are you ready, my lady?
00:40:43I've been ready since the day.
00:40:46I haggled my way into your house, for a chest of gold.
00:40:52And now?
00:40:54Now I'd marry you for free.
00:40:56Don't let it go to your head.
00:40:58He laughed that warm.
00:41:00Living laugh I had once only heard from a ghost and pressed a small wrapped parcel into my hands.
00:41:04The reek of it was unmistakable.
00:41:07Blue-veined cheese, from the West Cellar.
00:41:10So she never forgets how this began.
00:41:12I smiled until my eyes stung.
00:41:14Whoever said that seeing souls was a curse had never seen what I saw.
00:41:18My gift was no curse at all.
00:41:20It was the greatest blessing of my life.
00:41:31My first morning as Lady Aurelius, I woke up to a heavy weight pressing down on me.
00:41:36I opened one eye.
00:41:38Lucian had thrown an arm across me in his sleep.
00:41:40Heavy.
00:41:41I'm recovering.
00:41:42You recovered three weeks ago.
00:41:43Relapse.
00:41:44Very serious.
00:41:44Outside, the morning bells rang.
00:41:47Somewhere below, a steward was likely pacing holes into the floor.
00:41:50I shoved at Lucian's shoulder.
00:41:52He did not budge.
00:41:54The dispatchers won't read themselves.
00:41:55Let them stack.
00:41:56Wait half a year to wait beside you.
00:41:57I am collecting interest.
00:41:58Cuddling is not an administrative duty.
00:42:00It should be.
00:42:01I was smiling when the knock came.
00:42:03Three quick raps.
00:42:04Then the steward strained voice through the oak.
00:42:07My lord.
00:42:08My lady.
00:42:10A rider has come from the northern marches.
00:42:12Urgent.
00:42:13Lucian groaned into the pillow.
00:42:16This had better be a war.
00:42:19It was not a war.
00:42:20At breakfast, Cassandra read the letter twice, and all warmth left her face.
00:42:25In a northern village, nearly a dozen people had fallen into a deep, unwaking slumber.
00:42:31No fever.
00:42:32No wound.
00:42:33Their bodies breathed, but their eyes would not open.
00:42:36My hand tightened around my cup.
00:42:39Lucian looked at me.
00:42:40That sounds familiar.
00:42:42Exactly familiar.
00:42:43The court healers who studied your case are gone.
00:42:48No one there will know what to look for.
00:42:50But I would.
00:42:53Lucian's mouth opened.
00:42:54I saw the protective refusal forming.
00:42:57I covered his hand with mine.
00:43:00They have no one.
00:43:02After a long silence, he exhaled.
00:43:05Then we leave at dawn.
00:43:09We rode north with a healer, twelve guards, and a husband who complained I had won the argument too easily.
00:43:15You are getting dangerous good at that.
00:43:16I learned from outwitting a ghost who thought himself clever.
00:43:19I was clever.
00:43:21You were simply underhanded.
00:43:23Efficient.
00:43:23The road thinned into pine forest and cool green hills.
00:43:26For a few hours, with his shoulder brushing mine, I almost felt like a bride on a journey instead of
00:43:32a death-touched girl riding toward a curse.
00:43:34Then we reached the village.
00:43:36The laughter died first.
00:43:38No children ran in the lane.
00:43:40No dogs barked.
00:43:42Doors hung half open.
00:43:43Meals gone cold inside.
00:43:45By the well, an old woman sat slumped on a stone bench, breathing softly, eyes sealed shut.
00:43:50I slid from my horse before it stopped.
00:43:53Do not drink the water.
00:43:54Lucian repeated the order to the guards.
00:43:57I walked past the baker's door.
00:43:59A man lay face down in spilled flour.
00:44:02Beside his body, his soul stood gray and trembling, staring at his own hands.
00:44:07Am I dead?
00:44:09Not yet.
00:44:10Tell me what happened.
00:44:12You can see me?
00:44:13Yes.
00:44:14Quickly.
00:44:14His eyes widened.
00:44:16One by one, I questioned them, the baker, the old woman, a stable boy, a girl who had dropped her
00:44:22pail by the well.
00:44:23Every soul told me the same thing.
00:44:26They had drunk from the well.
00:44:28The well was fed by a spring in the hills above the village.
00:44:31The baker's soul pointed toward the darkening pines.
00:44:35We heard shouting there last night.
00:44:39Then the dog stopped barking.
00:44:41I turned to Lucian.
00:44:44Someone poisoned the spring.
00:44:49And whoever did it is still here.
00:44:58The village well smelled like ordinary water.
00:45:01Lucian drew up a bucket, sniffed, and frowned.
00:45:04Nothing.
00:45:04Of course not.
00:45:05This poison does not touch the tongue.
00:45:07It touches the soul.
00:45:09That is worse.
00:45:10Usually.
00:45:11A scout returned from the northern path before dusk.
00:45:14He had found a camp near the spring.
00:45:16Three tents.
00:45:17A dying fire.
00:45:17Boot prints pressed deep into the mud.
00:45:19Lucian's expression went cold.
00:45:21You stay here with half the guard.
00:45:22And if they put you under, who talks to your soul then?
00:45:28I hate when you are right.
00:45:30You married me.
00:45:32You should get used to it.
00:45:34We climbed through the pines together.
00:45:36The air grew colder with every step.
00:45:38Not with mountain chill.
00:45:39But with the grave cold I had known since birth.
00:45:42Yet this was sharper.
00:45:43Hungrier.
00:45:44There were souls ahead.
00:45:46Not sleeping.
00:45:47Trapped.
00:45:48A bitter smelling pot hung over the fire.
00:45:51Beside it, wrapped in rough wool instead of silk.
00:45:54Serafina.
00:45:55Allura.
00:45:56I wondered when you would come.
00:45:58Lucian's hand went to his sword.
00:46:00Serafina laughed.
00:46:02Don't bother.
00:46:04I am not the one you should fear.
00:46:06A man stepped from the largest tent.
00:46:08Elderly.
00:46:08Silver bearded.
00:46:09Robed in black.
00:46:10Holding a staff top with smoky crystal.
00:46:13The air around him crawled with wrongness.
00:46:16This is Magnus.
00:46:17He understands what you are.
00:46:19Magnus bowed.
00:46:22Lady Allara.
00:46:24The soul's fear at last.
00:46:30Magnus spoke as politely as if we had met over tea.
00:46:33I studied the boundary between body and soul for 30 years.
00:46:37The court called me a herit.
00:46:39Small minds always fear doors they cannot open.
00:46:43The smoky crystal on his staff pulsed.
00:46:46Thin gray threads drifted from it into the spring, vanishing beneath the water-like worms.
00:46:51Lucian's voice dropped.
00:46:53What? You did this to the village.
00:46:55A controlled experiment.
00:46:57And to me?
00:46:58Magnus smiled.
00:47:00A trace of tonic in your horse's water.
00:47:02Just enough to loosen the soul from the flesh.
00:47:05I required a noble subject, someone the court would spend a fortune trying to save.
00:47:11You were ideal.
00:47:12For one heartbeat.
00:47:13I thought Lucian would kill him where he stood.
00:47:15Wait.
00:47:19Your husband was only the proof.
00:47:23You, Lady Allara, are the answer.
00:47:26A woman who can perceive a soul parted from its body.
00:47:30Hear it.
00:47:31Guide it back.
00:47:32I have searched for you since the first rumor reached me.
00:47:36A thorn-wood daughter who spoke to empty rooms.
00:47:40You mean the cursed girl hidden in the house?
00:47:43Hidden?
00:47:44Yes.
00:47:45Cursed?
00:47:46No.
00:47:47Valuable.
00:47:49Do not flatter her too much.
00:47:51She has always had a talent for looking pathetic.
00:47:53Come with me willingly.
00:47:55I will wake every villager before sunset.
00:47:58Refuse and their sleep deepens until no prayer, no physician, no husband can call them back.
00:48:03Lucian stepped in front of me.
00:48:08You are not taking my wife.
00:48:12Magnus only lifted his staff.
00:48:14The gray threads in the spring tightened.
00:48:18If I refuse, they die?
00:48:20Not die.
00:48:21Death is crude.
00:48:23They remain exactly as they are.
00:48:25Breathing, aging, unreachable.
00:48:29A mercy, compared with what ignorance does to gifted people.
00:48:32Serafina rose, impatience bright in her eyes.
00:48:35Enough talking.
00:48:36Take her and give me what you promised.
00:48:38Patience.
00:48:40I have been patient for months.
00:48:43You said once she was gone I would have my name back.
00:48:46My place.
00:48:47My life.
00:48:48His silence told me everything.
00:48:50I asked for three minutes to think.
00:48:53Magnus granted two.
00:48:54Lucian dragged me behind the largest pine.
00:48:57You are not considering this.
00:48:59I am considering how to get near the crystal.
00:49:02His face went still.
00:49:04Listen.
00:49:05There are no dead souls in that village.
00:49:07What?
00:49:08Everywhere has a few.
00:49:10Old age, fever, accidents.
00:49:12But here?
00:49:14None.
00:49:15He can force souls out.
00:49:17He can trap them.
00:49:21But I do not think he can kill with that tonic.
00:49:26He is bluffing about permanent sleep.
00:49:30You are guessing.
00:49:33I am reading the dead by their absence.
00:49:37It is a very specific talent.
00:49:39He looked as if he wanted to argue, kiss me, lock me in a carriage, and go to war all
00:49:44at once.
00:49:45What is the plan?
00:49:47I agree.
00:49:49He wakes some villagers as proof.
00:49:51When the crystal draws the soul poison back, we strike.
00:49:56And if it strikes you first?
00:49:58I squeezed his hand.
00:49:59Then catch me.
00:50:01Before he could stop me, I walked back into the firelight.
00:50:04I will come with you.
00:50:05But first, wake them.
00:50:07Magnus smiled.
00:50:08Wise girl.
00:50:10Magnus raised his staff over the spring and murmured words too old for any chapel.
00:50:14The crystal flared.
00:50:16Gray threads curled out of the water and slithered back into the smoky shard.
00:50:19From the village below came a distant cry, then another.
00:50:22Then the confused shout of a man waking to find flour pasted to his face.
00:50:26My throat tightened.
00:50:27Half the village, at least, was stirring.
00:50:30Magnus lowered the staff.
00:50:32The rest when we are safely away.
00:50:34Your word?
00:50:35You already know what my word is worth, yet you still have little choice.
00:50:39Serafina strode to me and seized my arm.
00:50:42Finally.
00:50:43Back where you belong.
00:50:45It was the same grip she had used a thousand times before, in corridors, before guests,
00:50:50behind closed doors where no one cared how I bruised.
00:50:52This time, I did not flinch.
00:50:54Then the crystal brightened again.
00:50:56And I saw them.
00:50:57Not threads.
00:50:58Not light.
00:50:59Souls.
00:51:00A dozen faint figures clung inside the smoky shard like moths trapped in glass.
00:51:04They were old, thin, almost worn away.
00:51:07One wore the face of a merchant I had seen at the village gate.
00:51:10The one who had guided Serafina north.
00:51:13Serafina saw him too.
00:51:14Her fingers loosened.
00:51:18He said that man left us.
00:51:20He did not leave.
00:51:21Magnus used him.
00:51:22Across the clearing, Magnus pleasant masked in.
00:51:25Serafina.
00:51:26Step away from her.
00:51:28She did not move.
00:51:29I caught Lucian's eye and gave the smallest nod.
00:51:32Now.
00:51:34Lucian lunged, not at Magnus, but at the staff.
00:51:37His shoulder struck the shaft.
00:51:39The gray threads lashing the spring snapped clean.
00:51:41Magnus snarled, as if struck himself.
00:51:43Guards poured into the clearing from both sides.
00:51:45Magnus swung the staff in a wide arc, forcing Lucian back.
00:51:48The crystal screamed with a sound no living throat should make.
00:51:53Look at it.
00:51:54Really look.
00:51:55She tried to jerk free, then froze.
00:51:58Inside the crystal, the trapped souls pressed against the glassy dark.
00:52:01One lifted a hand.
00:52:02The merchant.
00:52:03He told me he had moved on.
00:52:05He told you what he needed you to hear.
00:52:07Magnus turned on us.
00:52:09I fed you when the court shut its doors.
00:52:12I clothed you when you had nothing.
00:52:14This is how you repay me?
00:52:17Serafina's voice came out very small.
00:52:19You said you loved me.
00:52:21Magnus laughed.
00:52:24I said you were useful.
00:52:26Bitter, ruined, desperate to hurt your sister.
00:52:30A perfect little tool.
00:52:32Something in her seemed to break without making a sound.
00:52:34I released her wrist.
00:52:37Tools can choose to stop working.
00:52:39If I cannot have the soul seeker, I will have the husband.
00:52:44Let her watch him fall twice.
00:52:46I stepped between them.
00:52:48The gray light struck my chest.
00:52:51Cold swallowed me.
00:52:53Not winter cold.
00:52:55Not grave cold.
00:52:56Something older, hollow and endless, as if the world had been scraped clean of every living sound.
00:53:01For one terrible breath, I could not feel my hands.
00:53:05Then Lucian's arms closed around me.
00:53:09Alara, stay with me.
00:53:10His voice was warm.
00:53:12Living.
00:53:13Mine.
00:53:14I dragged in a breath.
00:53:16The gray light shattered across my skin and vanished.
00:53:20That should have worked.
00:53:21I was shaking so badly I could barely stand.
00:53:24I only knew Magnus did not understand either, and that ignorance frightened him.
00:53:28So I smiled.
00:53:29I have been touched by death since the day I was born.
00:53:31Did you really think your little parlor trick would frighten me?
00:53:34Lucian's arm tightened around my waist.
00:53:37Magnus looked for me to the dimming crystal, and hunger dawned in his face.
00:53:41Not merely sight, then.
00:53:43Resistance.
00:53:44Immunity.
00:53:45You are not a window.
00:53:46You are a shield.
00:53:50And you are out of power.
00:53:53The guards had forced his mercenaries to their knees.
00:53:56Seraphina stood at the edge of the clearing.
00:53:58The staff in Magnus' hand trembled.
00:54:00Its smoky heart had gone dull.
00:54:02Lucian stepped forward, sword drawn.
00:54:06Drop it.
00:54:06For a moment Magnus looked almost old.
00:54:10Then the staff slipped from his hand.
00:54:12It struck the stones.
00:54:13The crystal shattered.
00:54:15A dozen pale souls rose from the shards like mist in morning light, free at last.
00:54:21Magnus was bound in iron chains before sunset.
00:54:24His silver beard was singed, his eyes no longer bright.
00:54:27The shattered crystal's hold on the spring was broken.
00:54:30Below, the village woke in waves, coughing, crying, shouting names across the streets.
00:54:35I heard a child sob into her mother's skirts and had to turn away.
00:54:39Seraphina stood apart from everyone, arms wrapped around herself.
00:54:43No one had tied her.
00:54:45There was nowhere for her to run.
00:54:47Why did you go to him?
00:54:49For once.
00:54:50She had no performance ready.
00:54:53Because I had nothing.
00:54:54Every door was shut.
00:54:56Every noble who once smiled at me looked through me.
00:54:58You had gold, a title, a future.
00:54:59I had scraps.
00:55:01I did not take those things from you.
00:55:03You threw Lucian away.
00:55:04You lied.
00:55:05You tried to steal what you refused to earn.
00:55:09Magnus said he saw something special in me.
00:55:11He saw someone easy to use.
00:55:13A long silence passed between us.
00:55:15For the first time in my life, she looked less like a monster than a ruined girl who had mistaken
00:55:20worship for love.
00:55:21It did not make her innocent.
00:55:23It did not make me forgive her.
00:55:27What happens to me now?
00:55:29I looked toward the road, where Lucian was giving orders to send word to the magistrate.
00:55:33That is not up to me.
00:55:35You could ask them to spare me.
00:55:37I could.
00:55:41But I will not lie for you.
00:55:45Not anymore.
00:55:48We remained in the village three days.
00:55:50The court healer watched over the sleepers as they recovered.
00:55:54The guards locked Magnus' notes, tonics, and crystal shards in an iron chest.
00:55:58His notebooks were filled with cramped diagrams of souls, sleeping bodies, and, on one page that made Lucian go very
00:56:05still, sketches of my face.
00:56:07On the second evening, Lucian found me sitting on the well's stone rim.
00:56:11You are thinking too loudly.
00:56:12Magnus called me a shield.
00:56:14Lucian sat beside me, close enough for our shoulders to touch.
00:56:18He also called poisoning villages research.
00:56:20I would not treat him as a reliable scholar.
00:56:22But the light failed.
00:56:24Good.
00:56:25That is not an explanation.
00:56:27Lucian pulled a warm rye loaf from inside his coat.
00:56:32Did you steal that?
00:56:33I requisitioned it, nobly.
00:56:35I laughed despite myself.
00:56:37The magistrate arrived the next morning, ink-stained and exhausted.
00:56:41He had been hunting Magnus for eight years.
00:56:44Three villages had suffered similar soul-sleep outbreaks.
00:56:47Each time, Magnus vanished before the law came.
00:56:52We never knew what he wanted.
00:56:55Now we do.
00:56:56He looked at me.
00:56:58You.
00:57:00Magnus had heard rumors years ago of a Thornwood girl who spoke to the dead.
00:57:05Only when I married Lucian did my name become visible.
00:57:08So my family's neglect protected me.
00:57:11That is the bleakest silver lining I have ever heard.
00:57:14Please save the marital commentary for after the deposition.
00:57:17Lucian looked deeply offended.
00:57:19Our commentary is valuable.
00:57:20For the first time in days, I laughed freely.
00:57:25Seraphina's questioning took longest.
00:57:27She had not brewed the tonic.
00:57:29She had not known how to bind souls.
00:57:31But she had led Magnus to the village, stood by as he poisoned the spring, and waited to be rewarded
00:57:36for my ruin.
00:57:37The magistrate asked if she had anything to say.
00:57:40She sat with her hands clasped until the knuckles whitened.
00:57:44I blamed Alara because it was easier.
00:57:46I blamed Lucian, the Duchess, my parents, the court, everyone.
00:57:51But I was the one who ruined my life.
00:57:54No one spoke.
00:57:55I felt no forgiveness bloom in me.
00:57:58Forgiveness was too large.
00:57:59Too clean a word for what lay between us.
00:58:02But I understood something I had not before.
00:58:04I had been told I was worthless until I believed silence was survival.
00:58:09She helped us in the clearing.
00:58:10She showed the magistrate the camp.
00:58:13That should be recorded.
00:58:15Lucian stared at me.
00:58:17You are defending her?
00:58:20I am being fair.
00:58:22There is a difference.
00:58:23If the sentence came at dawn, Magnus would be taken to the capital, tried before the king's bench, and imprisoned
00:58:30for life.
00:58:31His research would be burned.
00:58:32And Serafina would serve five years in a northern convent.
00:58:36Gardens, kitchens, sick rooms.
00:58:38Honest labor.
00:58:39When the cart came, she paused beside me.
00:58:42I do not know how to be nobody.
00:58:44I remembered a girl shoving me forward before a room of nobles.
00:58:48It suits you.
00:58:50I deserved that.
00:58:51You deserved worse.
00:58:54But I have better things to do now.
00:58:57The ride home was gentler.
00:58:59No poison springs.
00:59:00No screaming crystals.
00:59:02Only wildflowers, bad inns, and Lucian accusing me of cheating at cards every night.
00:59:07You read my face.
00:59:08Then control your face.
00:59:09I am handsome.
00:59:11It has never needed discipline.
00:59:12At the third inn, after supper, he found me by the hearth.
00:59:16The fire painted everything gold instead of gray.
00:59:18When Magnus attacked me, you stepped in front of him.
00:59:21I noticed.
00:59:22You did not know the soul poison would fail.
00:59:24I looked into the flames.
00:59:25I looked into the flames.
00:59:26Then why?
00:59:27Because the answer was simple.
00:59:29It was hard to say.
00:59:30Because you were the first person who ever listened to me, even before you had a voice.
00:59:34I was not going to let him take that from me.
00:59:36Lucian went very quiet.
00:59:37Then he pulled me up and kissed me in the middle of the inn, while the one-eyed innkeeper pretended
00:59:41with heroic failure not to watch.
00:59:43When we reached Aurelia's castle, Cassandra was waiting on the steps.
00:59:47She embraced me first, then Lucian, then me again.
00:59:52By order of the crown, Elara Orosteus is recognized as the realm's first soul witness,
00:59:57with authority to investigate soul sleep and disturbances of the dead.
01:00:01I nearly choked on Pheasant.
01:00:03I am not qualified.
01:00:04You bargained your way into my house for a chest of gold.
01:00:06This is mild by comparison.
01:00:08The guards cheered.
01:00:09The servants smiled.
01:00:11Cassandra's eyes shone.
01:00:12Slowly, I nodded.
01:00:15Fine.
01:00:16But I want a badge.
01:00:18Something shiny.
01:00:20Not cheese-shaped.
01:00:22Cheap skip.
01:00:24The badge arrived three weeks later.
01:00:26It was a silver pin shape like an open eye, set with a chip of clear blue crystal.
01:00:31Lucian had made very sure of that.
01:00:33The king's seal was stamped on the back.
01:00:36I pinned it to my collar and spent the morning catching my reflection in windows.
01:00:40You have looked at yourself 18 times.
01:00:4219.
01:00:44Pruning.
01:00:45I have never owned proof before.
01:00:49His teasing faded.
01:00:51Proof of what?
01:00:53I touched the little open eye.
01:00:54That I am not cursed.
01:00:56That what I see is real.
01:00:59That I was never the stain on the air they said I was.
01:01:03He kissed my temple.
01:01:05You never were.
01:01:06Summer came.
01:01:07And with it visitors.
01:01:09A farmer whose son had slipped into soul sleep.
01:01:11A priest who wanted to know if the voice in his chapel was a ghost or a draft.
01:01:14A noble woman who only wanted to stare at me.
01:01:17A young man from the eastern marches arrived with his 12-year-old sister.
01:01:20Her name was Lyra.
01:01:21And she sat in my solar with her knees drawn up.
01:01:24They said I was lying.
01:01:25They said I wanted attention.
01:01:26What do you hear?
01:01:28Old women arguing in the graveyard.
01:01:30A soldier humming.
01:01:33A boy asking for his mother.
01:01:36I crouched before her.
01:01:38You are not lying.
01:01:41Then what is wrong with me?
01:01:43Nothing.
01:01:44You have the gift.
01:01:46You just do not know how to carry it yet.
01:01:49One year to the day after I first entered Lucian's chamber of recovery, the sanctuary opened its doors.
01:01:55It was not grand.
01:01:56A stone house at the edge of the Aurelius estate.
01:01:59With a garden, Lyra was the first to move in.
01:02:01The farmer's son came next.
01:02:03Then a woman who saw her drowned husband in mirrors.
01:02:06Then an old soldier who drank for 20 years to silence his dead comrades.
01:02:10I visited every day.
01:02:12I taught Lyra how to listen without fear.
01:02:14I sat with the soldier while he spoke to the dead and watched him laugh for the first time when
01:02:19one of them complained that he still snored like a warhorse.
01:02:21That evening, Lucian walked me home through the lavender garden.
01:02:26Fireflies rose around us.
01:02:29Any regrets?
01:02:30The ghost who had become my husband.
01:02:33The man who had listened when he could not answer.
01:02:35The lord who had kept every promise.
01:02:37None.
01:02:38You?
01:02:39One.
01:02:40I regret.
01:02:41I cannot haunt House Thornwood one more time.
01:02:44I had excellent material.
01:02:49I laughed until my eyes stung.
01:02:51The dead still whispered at the edges of my sight.
01:02:54They always would.
01:02:56But the living were louder now.
01:02:58Warmer.
01:02:59Far more interesting.
01:03:00I took Lucian's hand and walked toward home.
01:03:03The life I had built with nerve, stubbornness, and a very suspicious amount of cheese.
01:03:07My gift was not a curse.
01:03:09It had never been a curse.
01:03:11It had never been a curse.
01:03:25It had never been a curse.
01:03:30It had never been a curse.
01:03:30It had never been a curse.
01:03:30It had never been a curse.
01:03:30It had never been a curse.
01:03:31It had never been a curse.
01:03:33It had never been a curse.
01:03:34It had never been a curse.
01:03:37It had never been a curse.
01:03:40You
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