“It is called the Alcazar,” she said. “Wherever the tether plants itself, it creates an Alcazar to protect it, to enclose it. Each one looks different, depending on the planet. This one was very large and very beautiful at first. But it has crumbled into ruin.” Wyllin’s eyes grew sad and distant. “There is power here, yes, but not the way humans expect. The tether cannot be claimed by anyone, not even a Cerulean. But it has the power of connection and the wealth of life. Are there no more important things than that?” She looked again at the fine chain. “How I would love to return to the City Above the Sky. To walk the shores of the Great Estuary, to wander the moonflower fields and eat honeycombs fresh from the Apiary.” Her expression turned so mournful Leela felt her own heart ache. “And yet I cannot go back. Everything I have to give I have given to this planet and to the tether. I am the tether and the tether is me.”

“But—sorry,” Agnes said, “if the moonstone is connective and it was the way Cerulean used to travel between the city and the planet, then why hasn’t Sera just been able to go home already?”

“She was not strong enough,” Wyllin said. “Not if her magic had been weakened.” She half smiled. “It is easier to fall than to fly.” She and Sera exchanged a look, then Wyllin turned back to Agnes. “It takes great intention to travel. And who is to say Sera was not meant to come here to learn this? That there was not some deeper meaning to your journey?”

Leela felt a tingle run up her spine as Wyllin addressed her and Sera. “I must show you the truth before you go, before I die. For I feel my death coming now, as certain as sunrise.”

“The truth?” Sera asked.

“About the Great Sadness. About what really happened on that planet so many centuries ago.”

Leela and Sera looked at each other and Leela felt a sinking dread creep all the way down to her toes. Perhaps the biggest of all the High Priestess’s lies was about to be revealed.

Wyllin extended a hand to Sera. “I will need my moonstone. My magic is too weak. The moonstone contains my heart, my memories, faint remnants of my magic. As it will contain yours now.”

Sera quickly removed the necklace and gave it to her.

“What’s going on?” Leo asked.

“I am going to show these Cerulean a piece of their history,” Wyllin said.

“Is that like the memory sharing?” Agnes asked.

“I have blood bonded with both of these humans,” Sera explained. “They have my magic in their veins.”

Wyllin’s lips parted in surprise, but Leela already knew this. “Blood bonded with humans?” Wyllin gasped. Sera nodded, unashamed.

“They see what I see,” she said.

Wyllin hesitated.