Blood and Lies

Her brothers had cried themselves to sleep, though they were clinging to her even now, limp fingers curled into her tunic. Her father had shed tears along with her mother, both arguing against but ultimately understanding her choice.

Starfall was pressed tightly against her side, tail lashing in agitation and upset at having to separate for so long, a heavy wing draped over her and her brothers. Her parents' skybeasts were curled close around them, golden and silver-white fur tangling together, and they too were unhappy.

They had watched her grow up, after all, had guarded and watched over her, had taught her and she had cuddled into their manes a lot, crawling beneath their wings with little giggles back before she had found Starfall. She would miss them, too.

"I will do everything I can to come back," Lyca promised her parents. "It's... hm, it will be as though I went and married someone from the Iron Clan and decided to live there with them. Kind of."

Her mother couldn't help but huff humorlessly, eyes still watery with tears. "Not even the Iron Clan is so far as to take you from us for years on end. Such a union would not take you beyond our reach or beyond a Titan's reach." Her voice cracked, anger and grief and worry wrapping around the words like brambles as she whispered, "You will be all alone."

"I know," Lyca admitted just quietly, her own voice going a bit rougher as she swallowed back the sudden sting of tears. While it took weeks to reach the Iron Clan when the Titans were fully spread out in their steady journey, leaving for the other side of the veil was, indeed, very different. No one would be able to come to her aid, nor would she have a sister clan to reach out to for help. "But have faith in me, I can do this."

"We know. We know you can," her father murmured, wiping a hand over his eyes and reaching for a handkerchief, handing his wife one as well, who nodded along with his words. He took a deep breath. "Alright. We will let you go, I just... I wish we could help you, go with you. Or keep an eye on you even from afar, offer our songs as you have offered us yours."

"I will build this instrument in no time so we can reunite," Lyca promised fiercely. She said it to reassure them as much as herself. She offered a smile that wobbled only a little. "And when I'm back, I get to enjoy the addition you're going to build to the house."

Her parents chuckled wetly, then blew their noses. "You definitely will," her father said. "We'll build you a damn palace."

She couldn't help but laugh. "I don't think I'll need quite that much space."

"We could remodel the attic, too," her mother offered. "Create your own little apartment with your own workroom. You can still keep your things here in the living room if you like, but I know that we can sometimes be too loud and lively for some materials."

Lyca felt herself perk up and her parents looked determined to do just as they had suggested upon seeing her reaction. "That would be amazing, thank you," she said.

Her mother took a deep breath, then she got up and curled against Lyca's left side, carefully lifting Liam into her arms and Starfall shifting his wing to make space. She hugged Lyca and the boys close. Her father joined them, squeezing between Lyca and Starfall and the skybeasts shuffled to adjust and soon they were in a big, tearful cuddle pile. Her parents held her tightly and Lyca fell asleep like that, safe and sound.

When she woke, sunlight was falling in through the windows and her family was still asleep. She carefully wriggled out of the cuddle pile, shifting her brothers fully into her parents' arms before she started to gather everything she needed.

She startled when, a few minutes later, her mother appeared at her side to help her, while her father was rummaging around in the kitchen. A glance to the skybeasts showed that her brothers were still asleep, tucked beneath large, feathery wings.

A sudden, clear knock on the door made them pause and since Lyca was closest to the door she went and opened it, her body stilling in surprise. The oldest of the instrument makers, her teachers from various clans, who had accepted her as a student ever since she had been young. Ever since she had toddled after the very first of them, her very soul called to their art. Her art, too, now.

They had shown her how to bend and metal and form clay, how to carve wood, how to create instrument strings and form glass, how to mix paint and select gems and polish bone and horn and sing, sing like never before, to give the gift of magic to an instrument. They had all gathered before her now.

"We can not walk with you," her very first teacher said, a now stooped woman with hair so white it gleamed silver and hands scarred and rough that had taught her with gentle steadiness and unwavering patience. Who had looked at Lyca and had seen the same calling that had once gripped her own soul shining from her eyes. "But that doesn't mean we'll let you walk alone."

With those words she pulled a thick roll of leather from her pocket, unraveling it to reveal the most beautiful and fine, enduring wood carving tools neatly lined up in little leather pockets that Lyca had ever seen.

The wooden handles covered in fine, gorgeous carvings that wouldn't impact her grip on the tools while also showing off the incredible, delicate work of the Forest Clan. It was a piece of home.

"A piece of me will go with you, if you'll have me," her teacher said and Lyca suddenly couldn't speak, her throat closing up as her eyes began to fill with tears.

She reached out, accepting the leather canvas filled with tools so fine she could only admire them.

Her blacksmith teacher stepped forward next, old, wrinkly hands with old burn scars, heavy and strong and ever kind. His arms, shoulders and chest were muscular in a way that was more lithe than broad, a power to his body that could only be found by dedication to a life-long craft.

"A piece of me will go with you, if you will have me," he rumbled through his ash-gray beard, head shaven and his dark skin covered in black tattoos that ran up and down his neck to downright clasp around his temples like an ancient, inked helmet of lines that spoke of magic and dedication.

He lifted a sack heavy with smithing tools and as he opened it, he showed her tools that must have taken an entire night of nonstop work to make, sleek and gorgeous and carved with beautiful lines, showing off the artistry of the Iron Clan. It was all made in a size that fit her perfectly.

By now the tears spilled over as she accepted the sack, arm straining with the heaviness of all the tools within.

One by one her teachers stepped forward, each of them offering tools of immaculate make, each clan giving her something that represented them, that gave her what she needed to build the instrument. Each one gave her a piece of themselves, of their history, of the art she was a part of.

They gave her everything she could possibly ask for to fulfill the daunting task ahead.

By the end she was openly crying and her teachers smiled at her, proud and trusting and full of faith and worry. Lyca knew they would have taken her place if given the chance, but most of them were not instrument makers. They had taught her their art, how to create something out of metal and stone and gem and glass and wood, but her one teacher who had taught her how to make instruments themselves, she was too old to go.

"We will see you soon," her teachers told her. "Be it next month, next year or ten years from now, you will return to us."

"I will," she promised through her tears and a smile that trembled only a little and a heart so full it ached in the best of ways.

Her teachers bowed their heads, a silent grace and dignity to them, a show of respect to her that choked her up anew and then they departed, climbing atop skybeasts just as old and just as powerful as them and they took flight, returning to their clans.

With an arm full of tools, their weight making her strain and stagger, Lyca toed the door closed and turned around, her parents holding each other as they looked at her with pride and tearful eyes.

"Our darling girl," her mother murmured, stepping forward to take some of the weight from her. "As brave as she is creative."

Her father stepped forward as well to take more of the tools from her. "Come, I recently made a new backpack that these will fit into nicely."

He had, Lyca remembered how proud he had been of it, of the embroidery on it, the hints of their family woven in and the shells sown on top, shimmering and pretty and the pearls hanging from the top flap, pearlescent and blue and pink and black.

"But –" Lyca began to protest when he already turned around to present her with the backpack that had taken him months to make, sweeping skybeasts soaring along the top flap and the sea below, fish jumping up and on each fish was one of the members of his family, himself included. Glittering shells arranged in different shapes filled spaces between to represent the Titans.

"A piece of me will go with you, too," he said, quiet but warmly firm. "If this is all I can do to help, I will do it without hesitation."

Lyca could do nothing but accept the backpack and start stashing away the tools, finding many pockets along the sides and within. He helped her and then she threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Thank you," she whispered and he gave her a squeeze.

"Always," he whispered back. "For as long as I draw breath."

Just as Lyca had let go and turned around, she saw her mother holding a dress that looked too fine and beautiful to be anything but a gift saved for later. Likely for her birthday. It was beautiful, made of soft, flowing fabric, dyed in her favorite colors and richly embroidered. It had the sort of skirt that would flare out perfectly while spinning in circles.

It wasn't a dress for riding skybeasts, but it was for their celebrations, for showing off and being admired and feeling grand and beautiful. It was something special.

"Will you take me with you, too?" her mother asked with a shaky but determined smile. "I wanted to give it to you for our next celebration, but now I want you to take it with you. So you can feel special and at home even in foreign lands."

Lyca sniffed and blinked back tears again, accepting the dress with careful hands and soft gratitude. Her mother hugged her for a long minutes before they parted reluctantly and continued packing.

At last Lyca stood there with two bags, the big backpack which was filled with the tools she'd been given. The tools she would need to start building instruments from scratch, and a smaller bag, also decorated with shells and pearls, with her clothes and other necessities. Her father then brought her a large satchel filled to the brim with food and drink. It looked like it might burst at the seams at any moment.

"The journey will be long, no doubt," he said. "We will not have you wanting for as long as we can help it."

The twins were still asleep, but she managed to rouse them enough to say goodbye. They were bleary eyed but stubbornly remained awake now, sullenly quiet and, for the moment, all cried-out.

"Look after Starfall for me?" she asked and her parents hugged her tightly again. She closed her eyes against the sting of tears and swallowed down the urge to cling to her parents longer. To hold on until the world was right again, until the power of love won against evil, until her faith in the goodness of the world prevailed and she could continue on with her life as before.

But waiting only drew out the inevitable and she was still determined to go. To save the Titans and her people.

The moment they let go of each other, Starfall was there, rumbling and rubbing his big head against her shoulder and she hugged him tightly, as well. She missed them all already.

"Look after them for me," she whispered into her skybeast's ear and he pulled back enough to press their foreheads together, rumbling deeply and reassuringly. It was a promise she knew he'd keep no matter what.

They left the house and she climbed atop his back. Starfall took a running start, leaping off the platform in front of their house to soar up into the sky and Lyca desperately soaked up this moment with all she had.

The feeling of the wind, his powerful body beneath her, the sound of his wings, the feeling of flying, of thrilling freedom, the feeling of home.

Starfall carried her to the Titan's shoulder, her parents following on their own skybeasts, with the sleepy twins sitting in front of them. The moment she landed, however, she saw that the Titan's hand was lined with the chiefs of the clans.

As Starfall landed upon a fingertip and started walking forward, towards the palm of the Titan, and the first one stepped forward.

"Please accept our gratitude," the chief of the Iron Clan, looking exhausted after the whole ordeal of their Titan falling and their voice was a little rough from singing for hours on end. They offered her a long chain with a metal medallion dangling from one end.

It was a token of kinship, of being considered blood of their blood. An offer made to welcome her into the clan, instead of welcoming her as just a friend.

"You will always find a home with us, a warm hearth and kind welcome," they said and Lyca accepted the token with aching awe. She so desperately wished she didn't have to go, but she would. For them. For all of them.

As Starfall stepped forward again, the chief of the Shining Clan stepped forward, offering a medallion of stained glass depicting their Titan.

"You will always find a home with us, a warm hearth and kind welcome," she offered and Lyca accepted just as reverently, carefully hooking the medallion onto the chain before Starfall moved on.

One after another the chiefs of the clans gave her a medallion, a token, to show she was of their clan, of their kin, of their blood. One of them. An honor that was usually bestowed upon those who married into a clan or who did a clan a great and honorable favor, like saving the life of one of their own or helping them invent something great.

Lyca added seven more medallions as Starfall kept moving towards the Titan's palm. She received a braided one from the Weaving Clan, an eternally frozen one of the Blue Ice Clan, a medallion made of glittering gems from the Jewelry Clan, one made of red stone and inlaid with sunset colored gems from the Canyon Clan, a medallion made of various types of polished marble pieces from the Stone Clan and a colorful silk one from the Drifting Clan.

At last her own chief stepped forward to add a medallion of petrified wood, carefully carved and painted. "So you don't forget your roots," he said with quiet seriousness despite the small smile he gave her. "You're making us proud."

With those words he stepped back and the chief's departed the Titan's hand on their skybeasts and Lyca found herself turning towards the forest Titan, heart starting to beat faster in her chest. She was scared, but she was also determined and that was what bravery was, wasn't it? Fearful determination. She would do this.

"Are you ready?" the forest Titan asked, voice carrying in an impressive rumble as always and Lyca took a deep breath before she nodded.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she answered and the Titan raised her hand to bring Lyca close to her face, waiting until Starfall carried her right up to the Titan's forehead, which was partially covered in moss.

They pressed their foreheads together and Lyca felt a surge of magic flow through her from the Titan. A melody took shape in her mind, a weaving of music she had never heard before. The Call was a call, she realized. A call made to be heard across the entire world and nothing could stand in its way.

A call to guide the Titans through the veil, creating a glimmering path for them to follow. The music had been woven by souls that had wanted nothing more than to cross the horizon once more to lands they had once known. To lands they had yearned for until their dying day.

It was a call to come home, made with such desperate hope and love and a searing protectiveness over all the souls displaced and left behind that it made her tear up. She could almost taste it on her tongue, how her ancestors had felt, pouring their entire existence into that one melody.

How they had remembered the person that had willingly stayed behind and had died for them, facing their fate with their head held high. With dignity and pride and a deep, unwavering trust in their people, their Titans, that their sacrifice would be worth something monumental one day.

How that person had embraced death knowing it would not be the end, that their sacrificed heart ensured a gateway could be opened one day, no matter how briefly. That one day, at some point in the future, someone would bring everyone back home.

"We will send you beyond the veil now," the Titan said quietly when Lyca pulled back again.

The Titan of crystals and gemstones now stepped close to hand over the stone needed to complete the instrument for the song.

Lyca was still reeling from the new music that settled into her mind like all the other songs she had learned and created. And yet it felt different. It was a song no one but her would ever get to sing and even she would only sing it once if she succeeded.

"Unless you'd like another moment to say your goodbyes?" the Titan of crystals and gemstones offered, kind and understanding, glancing past Lyca at the people gathering on the forest Titan's shoulders.

"No," Lyca made herself say. She couldn't stop herself from glanced back at her family one last time, however. If she walked over there now, she had no idea if she could make herself leave after all.

Her brothers were crying again, while her parents gave her encouraging nods, sadness and worry and upset and hope and trust warring on their faces. Swallowing heavily, she reluctantly got off of Starfall's back. He pressed his big head against her, making a low, unhappy noise and she clung to him for a moment, hiding the two tears that fell in his fur.

"I'll be back before you know it," she whispered, her voice thick. "Don't forget me, alright? And look after everyone for me. Make sure the twins get up to no good and that their cubs grow well."

He pressed his head a little firmer against her, still gently enough to avoid shoving her to the ground and she hugged him a little tighter, sinking her fingers further into his night-dark mane.

They separated reluctantly a moment later and he turned, stopped and looked back and for a moment she thought he would try to go with her anyway, despite the fact that only a single soul could travel to the other side. Only she could go.

The next moment he took a running leap, though he did not join her family, just circled above, watching her even now, ready to act should she call. Ready to be at her side if given half a chance.

Lyca looked away from him and pulled out leather straps to wrap up the stone so she could lug it around. She'd still have to use songs whenever she was alone to move it, or she'd travel at a snail's pace at best.

The Titans all brought their hands together again to form a massive circle of palms, though, one of them now held the limp hand of the volcano Titan up and into place as well.

"Guide us across the horizon, child of the goddess," all the Titans said simultaneously in one voice that made the ocean shudder and ripple outward in growing waves and that seemed to make all the bones in her body rattle. "In you we trust."

As they began to sing in their language, in tones and with sounds no human could replicate, glowing lines began to spread across their palms. They connected into a swirling, beautiful pattern before the world around Lyca became so bright she had to close her eyes.

For the longest second it felt like she no longer stood on anything, that she floated in too-bright nothingness, then her feet impacted on something, hard, and the glow faded to instead turn into murky darkness.

It took her a second of blinking, feeling disorientated, to realize she was somewhere underground. Underground and in front of a slowly beating heart the size of a mountain.

It was green and covered in moss and roots and little mushrooms, a gentle, dim light pulsing visibly with every beat, shining softly from between the roots. She couldn't help but reach out and upon making contact she immediately recognized it as the heart of the forest Titan she had lived on all her life.

She had made it. She was on the other side.

*.*.*

Lyca was very, very glad for the supplies her parents had given her. It had taken two weeks alone to travel past the chambers filled with Titan hearts, dragging both her bags and the big gemstone with her. Without the aid of songs to make things float, to quicken her step to a constantly jogging pace and to heal her feet it would have taken far longer.

A thick, powerful enchantment protected each Titan heart chamber and she could sense the protective spells whenever she passed through without issue. She wasn't seen as an enemy, which was something she was grateful for.

It would have taken days to undo those protections otherwise, which would have left them shattered and destroyed in her wake. Lyca could sing magic into materials, but that wasn't the same as enchanting something. Magic got its shape, its spells, through music and once music faded, so too did the spell.

The magic left behind here was something else, something lasting and constant and it both hid and shielded the hearts from outsiders. If she tipped her head and squinted, she got a glimpse of illusory walls hiding the massive chambers.

In regular intervals along the tunnel those enchantments also hid the tunnel itself as it connected all the chambers and she kept following, hoping to soon reach its end.

She ached all over despite her healing songs keeping her from developing painful blisters and sores and her throat was starting to get rather sore. Honestly, if she hadn't been used to singing for hours on end as she filled various materials with magic, she had no idea if she would have been able to keep going at her current pace.

When she, therefore, finally spotted a faint light in the distance she exhaled heavily with relief.

Lyca was no stranger to mountains and tunnels, she had ended up beneath the ground often enough to dig up gems with the aid of the local clan for her instruments. This was different, however. She couldn't simply leave to enjoy fresh air and sunlight whenever she liked. There were no skybeasts, either, that could swiftly carry her back to the surface.

The constant press and presence of earth and stone all around her had become quite overwhelming and suffocating after just a few days and the songs of her people was the only thing keeping her calm and focused as she trudged on day after day.

The melodies kept her mind clear, though she was still growing weary and she had even started to develop a distaste for her surroundings. She wished to see the sun more than anything, to feel the wind on her skin and smell anything other than cold stone.

She wanted to climb atop Starfall and fly. Fly until her soul soared as high as they did, until she had no other choice but to laugh until she was breathless with the sheer joy of flying together. On the heels of that wish came a piercing of painful longing.

Starfall wasn't anywhere she could reach him and she swallowed down the urge to cry just a little, to rant and rave because fuck this long-ass tunnel and she just wanted to be out of here. To start building so she could go home again.

The last heart chamber right before the exit was surrounded by the fading magic of shattered protections and illusions, of powerful magic that had recently been broken through. The ground also had gotten churned up by countless feet, leaving it uneven and crunchy under her boots.

When she looked into the huge cavern at the side, she sucked in a sharp, horrified breath.

She saw the heart of the volcano Titan, slowly oozing lava with every slightly too slow beat. A weapon was stuck pierced between the cracks of black stone that surrounded the core of molten rock, heat and a low, fiery glow filling the air.

The spear looked like a tiny, barely noticeable splinter compared to the massive size of the heart, but Lyca saw that something black and sickly had spread from the weapon, covering a part of the heart like heat resistant lichen.

As she watched, each beat of the heart seemed to make the sick spread just a little bit further. If given enough time it would cover the heart entirely and, she suspected, consume it. Kill it and in turn the Titan.

She was inside the chamber before she had fully thought about it, leaving her bags and the stone at the entrance. Her back ached and she was relieved to be rid of her burden while she hurried forward on sore legs.

The Iron Clan had taught her their Fire Walk songs in her teens when she had learned how to smelt and shape metal for her instruments from them. She had dated a boy of the Iron Clan for a bit back then, as well, and he had taught her their Fire Dance.

She did not fear the lava as she hummed a melody and stepped onto it, hurrying across the spreading, intensely hot Titan's blood that resembled a lake by now. It grew a tiny bit bigger with every heartbeat.

She didn't dare touch the weapon when she reached it, but she shifted the cadence of the song until she was both safe from the lava and could pull the weapon from the wound as though by an invisible hand. It dislodged after a bit of initial resistance and dropped into the lava.

Healing the heart was another matter entirely, however, and she spent hours carefully singing the infection away, making it ooze out along with the lava-blood, before she could seal the wound closed.

The second the wound disappeared the glow of the heart brightened into something strong and fierce, it's beat growing as steady and loud as those of the other hearts.

She was grinning with relief, even though she was sweating all over and she felt thoroughly exhausted. The heart was hale and whole again and, she was certain, so was the volcano Titan.

Lyca looked down at the weapon at her feet. It was not melting in the lava it laid on top of, nor was it sinking into it.

When she directed her magical song to the space around her, changing its tune once again, she got an echo of what had happened here.

Focusing, she shifted her song to draw forth the specters of past actions, to give them a faintly glowing shape. It was easy here, where such powerful magic had been used that pieces of it had gotten imbedded in the earth and stone. It lingered in the air like something sour and rotten.

Lyca couldn't recall the actions of the past anywhere she liked, but where the world had gotten impacted, where some sort of memory, of energy, had gotten pressed into the surroundings, she could make specters rise like a silent play.

She saw glimmering, pale images of people that spent months chipping away at those old, protective shields that guarded the entrance of the heart chamber, doing their best to break through as quickly as possible.

She saw those people succeed at last, entering the chamber to find the Titan heart and bringing in a weapon forged of darkness. A darkness that had nothing to do with a lack of light. It was, instead, made of greed and jealousy, of fear and hatred.

She watched as they sacrificed themselves to the heat of the heart in order to stab the spear in as deep as it could go, their images screaming in soundless pain as they got burnt to ash and bone, their remains slowly vanishing as the heart started to bleed.

The people in these lands truly still feared the clans to the point of wanting them dead. She really wanted to know why. What could have possibly happened in the past for that fear to stay alive so strongly for centuries?

For now, though, she focused on the enchantment of the spear. She would try to find some answers later, if she could do so without giving away who she was. If anything could be done to make sure her family remained safe after coming through the veil, she would do it.

It took her long minutes of carefully adjusting her song until it felt right and she managed to peel back the edges of the enchantment on the spear to the point where it dispersed. Something heavy got released with a nearly audibly sigh of relief. The spear, no longer magical, began to grow hot and it slowly deformed as it sunk into the lava.

Lyca looked up at the heart and smiled, glad that the volcano Titan should be able to recover now. She hoped that it would be a signal to her family and the clans, as well as the Titans themselves, that she had made it safely to the other side. That she'd guide them through the veil as soon as she possibly could.

She bowed in respect to the heart and returned to the entrance of the chamber, eyeing the broken protections. Echoes of magic remained here, too, of the powerful magic the Titans had built them with, the last thing they had ever created before disappearing beyond the veil.

She hesitated for a long moment, before she grudgingly decided to keep walking. She could not afford to stay here for weeks upon weeks, as the seasons tumbled into each other, no matter how much she wanted to guard this place. To ensure no one would come here to pierce the volcano heart again or find any of the others.

She could not rebuild the age-old shields that had been here, not when they had been woven from magic she could not wield. Neither could she create illusions that could take their place, nothing that would last longer than a song, at least.

Music wasn't something that continued by itself, after all.

She hesitated for a moment before she decided to sing her own tracks away. Her footprints left in dirt and dust vanished as though blown away by an unfelt breeze and she left the last heart chamber behind.

She hoped that their enemies did not yet know that the other hearts were here as well. Considering the lack of warriors or even just a lone, bored guard, it was her best guess that the other hearts were still hidden and safe. For now, at least.

Either that or their enemies did not have any more strength and equipment to continue battling powerful shields and wards that had allowed her through with nary a whisper.

Lyca wished she could stay and protect the hearts, but she knew that was impossible. She needed to focus on finding materials to make an instrument, but maybe she could come back here once she had everything gathered. She could build the instrument within one of these chambers.

Hauling her bags along once more on aching shoulders and with a hum in her throat to make the large gemstone float along, she continued walking. The light at the exit had turned orange and yellow and was slowly fading and she quickened her pace.

When she at last stepped outside the tunnel, she saw a very familiar sunset over very unfamiliar lands.

She couldn't help but stop and stare for long minutes, taking in the endless stretch of land, the sloping descent of the mountain she stood on, the small rises of hills beyond that were covered in a dark forest. The forest then turned into green plains which became a distant white sand shore.

She could see the roll of waves ever so faintly, rolling ashore in a steady push and pull, as though the ocean was one massive lung that rose and sank with each breath.

Lyca had only ever known the Titans and the deep ocean, the journey of the sun and moon and the dance of stars across the sky. This... this was everything the storybooks back home had been written about.

Those stories hadn't been tall tales after all, she couldn't help but think, breath caught in her lungs by sheer, overwhelmed awe.

She stared at the surrounding lands, drinking in every detail she could as her gaze slowly swept over everything. She took a sharp step forward when she spotted what looked like tiny settlements, vague shapes of homes and houses visible in the far distance.

The villages had been built in a squiggly line towards the sea, a patch of forest grown between each, but she could not tell if anyone lived there still, for she saw no smoke rising, no fires being lit to see by and no food being cooked.

A road, wide and made of dirt, seemed to wind like one endless rope along the sea, crossing through the settlements and at last it disappeared into a thick forest bigger than any she had ever seen.

At last a slightly bigger building rose near the last settlement like a finger made of dark stone. A tower. They didn't have them on the Titans tall buildings didn't do well with the constant movement as the Titans walked, but she had read about them in the books back home.

Everything here was bigger than she could have ever imagined. Vast and seemingly endless. She wished dearly for Starfall's company in this moment, to climb atop his back and take flight, to see just how much farther the land stretched.

Unfamiliar birds flew past overhead in that moment and she leaned forward and spotted animals traveling and grazing. Of course they had animals on the Titans, as well, predators and prey alike that made sure the ecosystem remained healthy and balanced and everyone would be well fed.

While they mainly had the skybeasts for companions, other people had cats and dogs, as well, along with oxen and horses and donkeys for labor on the fields and to transport carts over the Titans arms in order to trade and bring gifts whenever they met up for celebrations. Not all skybeasts wanted to be beasts of burden after all.

But this was different. All the animals on the Titans were smaller and stockier in order to climb more easily. When Lyca glimpsed a herd of wild horses, she saw that they were larger than the ones back home. Long-legged and slimmer and far faster.

It was a very overwhelming but also already a very beautiful world.

This was the world they had gotten cut off from generations ago. A world that, while unfamiliar and strange, did not feel alien to her. She had thought she would find herself uncomfortably adrift and yet a part of her recognized these lands as home in a way she hadn't expected or experienced before. It felt like a part of her soul exhaled in soft relief, whispering a soft "finally" deep down in the makeup of her being.

A part of her wanted to reach out and touch everything until it was well known to her, until it was as familiar as the Titan's rumbling breaths beneath her feet and the steady brush of wind across her face, the sound of waves breaking against gigantic legs and parting beneath equally gigantic feet.

A part of her knew she belonged here as much as she belonged on a Titan's back. It felt like all she had to do was close her eyes and open her heart and sing and the world would answer, welcoming her home at long last.

She knew she couldn't sing, however, so she just took deep breaths, smelling the clean mountain air after weeks of stale, cold air underground.

It was too late to climb down the mountain safely, but she took the time to pick out a spot to settle down for the night. For the first time in weeks she got to watch the night sky, familiar stars overhead, even if all the sounds were not familiar at all.

Lyca slept at the opening of the tunnel that night, the breeze not smelling of the ocean, but of earth and stone and forest and something cool and fresh. She dreamed of home that night, of Starfall outside her home, staring up at the stars, watching over her sleeping family and missing her.

When she reached out, however, she found she could curl up at his side and he settled, rumbling deep in his chest in a way he had done when she had struggled with sleeping a few times in her teenage years.

When she woke in the morning she felt comforted and settled in a way that made her wonder if the bond she shared with her skybeast managed to reach even beyond the veil. It was a soothing thought.

Gathering her things close she carefully made her way down the mountain, which took most of the day, pausing by rocks and the trees that began to grow up the mountain like a skirt of evergreen, looking for materials to build an instrument out of.

Her throat was sore by the end of the day with how much she was humming at everything she could find, her shoulders and back and feet sore from carrying everything. While the rocks and trees all responded in their own way, some eager and some slow, some strong and loud and others deep and quiet, none of them felt like they were... enough.

Oh, they would have made splendid instruments in their own right, she could have carved and built beautiful flutes and lutes and harps and drums and pianos and fiddles out o them, but she needed something more.

She needed something powerful to allow her to bring down the veil. Something that could be filled with so much magic it would have been absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary for any other occasion than this singular one. An instrument built for only one purpose.

While Lyca had intended to keep her distance from the settlements to avoid being seen as much as possible, as the days passed she reluctantly ventured further and further from the mountains that hid the hearts. She wasn't finding what she was looking for in this forest and she resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to travel and explore until she did.

At the same time, however, a part of her sparked with excitement. An excitement about this new world, about discovering just how deep that sensation of belonging in her chest ran and she was also curious about the people living here.

Maybe, if she had to interact with them just alone to trade for food and other necessities, she might be able to find out more things about what had happened in the past. Why the Goddess of Truth had been slain and the clans' ancestors, Lyca's ancestors banished.

She made sure to hide the stone and her bags before she approached the first village after finding her way out of the woods, only to realize that it was nothing but a big, burnt down ruin.

An old ruin, the largely crumbled stone walls were overgrown and the fields long reclaimed by nature, only a few fence-remnants sticking out of the earth to mark where people had once grown their food.

As she slowly turned in a circle to look around, she spotted skeleton remains among the greenery and realized that no peaceful end had found this place. She hummed quietly and then carefully started to sing as a faint residue of magic began to glimmer over the ruins. They had been razed to the ground with magic.

Even though it had been long ago and the magic used here paled compared to sheer power and effort that had gone into destroying the protective ward in front of the first Titan-heart-chamber, she could still recall the past.

Lyca hesitated, however. She had no desire to see a by-play of death and destruction, so she kept the song light and cautious to conjure only the faintest echoes of what had happened.

She got the impression of countless feet, marching relentlessly and of wordless shouts filling the air, followed by equally soundless screams of death, before they faded away again.

Lyca stared in confusion, about to sing a stronger song to understand better what had happened, before realization hit home. An army had marched through here, as though it had hopped right out of the pages of one of the storybooks back home.

She had read plenty about the destruction and pain and fear armies caused, the way war carved away at every person, be they farmer or soldier, until they became hard, hurt and tired versions of the happier people they had once been. How it brought the worst out of them and cruel people flourished beneath armors of steel.

The Titans had always been very clear that war was awful, that it caused nothing but pain, that it was instigated by people so greedy they stepped on any and every neck they could to get at what they wanted.

Whatever army had come through here, they had destroyed this place, this collection of homes, so thoroughly that no one had come back to rebuild anything or even bury anyone. There likely had been no survivors. Glancing down the road she got the bad feeling that the other settlements were similarly destroyed.

Lyca went back to the forest line to collect her bags and she continued following the road. What had looked like small settlements from a distance were indeed nothing but big ruins as she traveled towards the sea. Each village she had seen from a distance was destroyed and empty, filled with echoes of pain and death.

Some had even gotten destroyed by magic in such a way that it had left the earth blackened and dead and even the skeletons had remained untouched by nature. Lyca didn't set foot into these villages, a chill going down her spine that felt like dread and fear tightly entwined.

Whatever had happened here, something malevolent lingered and she had no desire to encounter it so she skirted around those villages.

She had traveled far enough by now that, as the sun began to sink, she saw the tower loom nearby, tall and broad and dark. Maybe someone still lived there and if not, she would at least be able to spend the night there.

The fact that there was no longer a path leading towards the building made her think that no one lived there anymore and she wondered if the army had killed the residents of the tower, as well, as she tromped into the woods to make her own way towards the building.

She had made it partway there when she suddenly heard the distant thrum of hooves and shouts. Not wasting a second she tossed her bags into the shrubbery, dragging the stone to be hidden, as well. She sang a quick little tune to make the plants hide her things before she pulled herself up the nearest tree, climbing high to hide among countless leaves.

She crouched low with a racing heart, humming softly at the tree as well, who shifted its branches, leaves growing thicker to help hide her better.

She peered down, squinting a bit when a lone rider crashed through the underbrush. He was half slumped over the neck of his brown, elegant horse that was sweating and breathing hard as it ran forward as fast as the forest allowed.

Voices called again, closer this time and the lone rider visibly struggled to look back. He looked hurt and then he was gone from view again, vanishing between the trees. Lyca sat still and silent and a couple of moments later a group of five riders thundered past, dressed in dinged up, partially destroyed armor, their horses sweating just as much and breathing like big bellows.

They were gone as swiftly as the lone rider and Lyca couldn't help but shift and crane her head to look in the direction they had ridden. They had been heading towards the tower and those five had not looked like friends trying to catch up to their injured companion on a wayward horse.

Instead, their chase had looked like a hunt to the death.

Should she help? No, she had no idea why the group was running down the rider and she couldn't risk herself. If she died, so did her people.

Besides, what was she meant to do anyway if she caught up to them? Sure, she had songs outside of dancing with the elements and creating magical instruments and having fun. She had songs that could hurt others, but she had never used them.

Wait, no, she had a song that put other people to sleep.

Her little brothers had been very fussy babes and when she had worked at night she had kept their little cribs at her side so her parents could catch some shut eye for a bit. She had sung to them, a lullaby she had come up with just for them to ensure they fell asleep softly and peacefully.

A song that she had used a couple more times over the years, helping tired friends and later cranky toddlers with finding an easy rest.

However, it took a few moments for the song to take effect and she'd have to avoid being seen or caught as the riders fell asleep. She had also never tried this song on someone who could fight back against it. Her brothers had tried at their most obstinate, but toddlers were no match to adults.

And even if it worked, what was she meant to do after she managed to knock the riders out? Tie them up? And then what? She didn't want to ignore someone in need of help, but she didn't want to risk her own life either, not when everyone back home counted on her.

She really wanted to help if something terrible was going on, but could she?

She growled at herself in frustrated upset and she was about to climb down and at least sneak after the riders, when she heard the sound of hooves and voices once more.

The group of riders returned at a more leisurely pace, the heads of their horses hanging a bit lower as the people spoke and joked with each other.

"Didn't think we'd get the little weasel before nightfall," a man said with a nasty grin on his face, stubble growing in but not yet forming a beard. "Took us long enough to run him down."

"That should be the last we hear of that pesky slate tablet business too," a taller man beside the first answered. He had wide shoulders and he plucked a leaf from his cloak. "Now we can finally return triumphant to our master."

The surrounding riders released a deep, wordless call of victorious agreement. They looked half wild, she couldn't help but think. Similarly to how hunters at home looked after a successful, dangerous hunt.

She waited until they were gone and she couldn't hear them anymore before she cautiously made her way down the tree. They must've caught up to the rider very quickly considering how fast they had returned.

She peered into the shrubbery for a moment, before she took a deep breath, grabbed her bags and ventured further into the forest.

She hadn't walked too far before she smelled sweet iron in the air and a few steps later, as she rounded half trampled and torn apart bushes, she saw him. The lone rider, lying on his back, his chest caked in blood and mud and his horse laid on the ground a few paces to the side, breathing raggedly as it slowly bled out.

Lyca inhaled sharply and then she hurriedly dropped her bags and crossed the distance to the horse, soothing it with a low tune. It calmed and settled as she sang the wound closed, clapping her fingertips against her legs to create an underlying rhythm to make the song stronger. The horse wasn't too far along towards death to need the sort of healing song she had used to save her mother and the twins back when they had been born, so she was able to choose something softer and gentler.

At long last the horse relaxed with a deep, relieved sigh, slumping for a moment before it sluggishly struggled upright. It still seemed a bit dazed and allowed Lyca to pet its nose gently as she carefully took hold of its reins.

"Poor thing," she murmured. "Getting chased and then losing your person."

She turned to look at the rider, his armor broken and stained red where it had gotten pierced, his blood soaking into the ground. "Poor guy," she whispered with a grimace.

Lyca kneeled down beside the guy, wondering if she should burn him or take off the armor so that nature could reclaim him more easily. She had just leaned over him to get a closer look at the buckles of his armor when she noticed that the body was no corpse.

He was still breathing, ever so faintly.

She didn't really think about it, she just reacted, taking a deep breath and then she started to sing, loud and clear. It was different to the gentle wound-sealing she had done for the horse. The guy had probably only moments to spare before he was done for.

It reminded her of the night her mother had given birth to the twins, how there had suddenly been too much blood, a wound unseen but still spilling red and her mother had been silent and wet with sweat, her skin fever hot.

Her father had been desperate and panicked, his voice breaking as he had tried to sing and Lyca hadn't thought, she had grabbed her mother's hands and had let the magic guide the song. It had felt like it had filled her chest and then pressed outward like it was bursting free, tunes falling from her lips she hadn't thought she was capable of.

She had sung and sung and sung until at last, the cries of two healthy babies had mixed with her voice. She had started to cry, her father weeping as he cradled the babes close with shaking hands. Her mother had been exhausted and covered in sweat and blood, but she had been hale and whole and alive, still, at the end of it.

The man's flesh stitched itself closed rapidly, wound sealing, bones shifting back into proper alignment and smoothly melding into one piece again. Lyca was sweating a little by the time she was done, but the rider's breathing had strengthened, sounding normal and steady instead of weak and fading.

He looked asleep now, instead of dying.

The horse inched closer, gently nosing at his cheek, nudging as though to coax him awake.

"Give him some time, he'll wake up soon," Lyca told the horse, giving its leg beside her a pat. She got to her feet with a groan before she stretched, shaking out her limbs.

Lyca didn't much like healing music, she had to admit. She always tensed up while singing those songs, worried she'd make a mistake, and she ended up feeling sore all over afterwards. Healing little scrapes her brothers got while playing wasn't as bad, but she still left those tasks to her parents if they were around.

Lyca was an instrument maker at her core, after all, an enchanter. She sang and danced and was at her best when she could create. When she could give music to others.

The man groaned in that moment and opened his eyes and Lyca noticed that they were a stormy gray and surrounded by thick, long lashes. The man was rather nice looking and clean shaven, with long dark hair that had gotten partially matted with blood.

"Good evening," she said carefully and his gaze fell to her and he grew more focused as he spotted her, a faint tension taking hold of him. "How are you feeling?"

The man shifted ever so slightly and blinked in surprise before he exhaled with relief. "Surprisingly not dead," he said, his voice soft and warm despite the hoarseness that clung to his words. There was blood visible on his tongue and teeth as he spoke and he lifted a gauntleted hand to his chest as though to check for an injury that no longer existed. "Did you heal me? Or am I in the afterlife?"

"You were lucky I was nearby," Lyca answered, watching as he slowly sat up, pressing a hand to his forehead as though he got dizzy. His horse nosed at his cheek and he leaned a little against the animal.

It made Lyca's chest pang with longing and a quiet niggling of envy. She missed Starfall, she missed flying and traveling with him and tumbling through the air, playing with other riders, flying loops and corkscrews, their skybeasts snapping and pawing playfully at each other.

She missed her home.

"Do you know why these riders were after you?" she asked as she offered the man a hand to help him up. He was wobbly, but he managed to stumble to his feet, leaning heavily against his horse as soon as he let go of her.

He licked his lips and wiped blood from his chin. "They were just bandits looking to ambush travelers," he said and a sensation Lyca had never felt before in her entire life rang through her.

It was a little jarring, as though someone had fumbled in the middle of a song they should know very well, missing notes and struggling to pick the song back up.

She knew immediately what this was, what he had done, as though that knowledge was part of her very heart and soul, the core of her being, even without her ever encountering it before in her life.

He had lied to her.