“I was deep in training to become one,” she said. “But proper procedures and tests are trivial when war begins, and so my uncle declared my lessons complete, and I took up the sword and shield for Thanet. I believed, I truly believed, our god and goddess would protect us. Even after my parents were murdered, I held faith. When Endarius died, I clung to my faith even harder. This was the dark time before the glorious resurrection, I told myself. This was the pit the heroes find themselves in near the end of the stories, the final test of resolve prior to victory. We would charge the stage, save Lycaena, and then destroy the empire with a blaze of fire from her brilliant wings.”

She breathed in the salty sea air and then sighed.

“Well. You were up there on that stage. You saw how it went.”

That he had. The failed assault, the knives piercing the goddess’s flesh, the way she’d screamed in pain and sorrow as the life bled out from her…

“It haunts my dreams still,” he said. “And I wasn’t close to Lycaena in worship. I can’t imagine the pain of one of her paladins. I… I’m sorry, Keles. I’m sorry you ever had to suffer through something like that.”

“Bold of you to apologize on behalf of an entire empire.”

Cyrus was starting to believe he could never say anything correct when in the woman’s presence. Acting on that belief, he fell silent and watched the waves crash far below upon the white sand shore. Perhaps Thorda should have spent a week or two teaching him how to speak and act in various social settings amid his years of training, especially if his master intended to throw him headfirst into these types of parties.

“What happened afterward?” he asked. “Did you keep fighting?”

“Afterward?” Keles laughed, with a bitterness far too heavy for her age. “I was captured trying to escape, and spent a month in a prison cell. Normally I’d have been executed, but with Lycaena’s death, the Anointed One made an overture at reconciliation with her grand forsaking ceremony.”

Forsaking ceremony? Cyrus had heard of no such thing while safely tucked away in Thorda’s mansion. His frustrations with his master grew. First the Joining Laws, now this. What else had been kept from him?

“I’m afraid I don’t know what that is,” he admitted.

“The Uplifted Church sought to press upon Thanet that the war was over, and a time of healing had commenced. The forsaking ceremony was when any worshiper of Lycaena and Endarius could publicly disavow their faith and swear to never lift arms against the empire. In return, all their crimes would be forgiven. The war was over, and so, too, would its bloodshed be forgotten in a quest for unity.”

Keles shook her head.