Page 133 of Death of a Mortal

“I don’t think so…” he said gravely. “That wasn’t light, that was… I don’t know what. Best we talk to Sevrin about this.”

Silence pressed in around us for several tense moments as we both looked at the broken stone.

The look on his face made it feel as though the two halves of the stone in my hand had dropped into my stomach, all excitement extinguished.

“Let’s focus the rest of the session on what we do know: fire.” He was trying to keep his composure, but I could tell he was shaken. That worried me.

For the rest of our time together, he gave me various tasks while holding the flicker in one hand.

But I couldn’t help but feel like my anti-light was an issue.

After successfully lighting a match, a torch, and an entire campfire of stacked wood, Bramick’s smile was back.

“You’re definitely a natural with fire. It’ll be no time before you’re casting all kinds of things without the flicker.”

My smile was back, too, but it was halfhearted. I was both eager and dreading my time this afternoon with Sevrin, the Arcanum leader. I couldn’t help but feel that whatever happened in my light trial was tied to the shadows I couldn’t control. The smoke from the glythyr had felt familiar; I just hadn’t wanted to admit it.

Bramick walked me back to the main building and into a small room on the second floor where Kaelor was waiting for me.

“Naci,” he beamed.

“Buzzed Head,” I said back, earning me a heartfelt laugh.

Bramick saluted and left us in the cramped room, which was clearly a tiny classroom. There were a few small desks at the back, and one large desk at the front with a chalkboard behind it. Like the ones my teachers in Briarstead had used.

“So, how is day one going?”

I plastered on a smile, not letting the concerns of my elemental tests with Bramick show. “Great, I know how to burn shit now, so don’t piss me off,” I said jokingly.

He laughed and raised a hand as if to wave off the comment, and I noticed a glow on his palm, invisible if I closed my left eye but glowing white if I closed my right.

Interesting. I really hoped I could find answers to this double vision with the Arcanums.

“Alright…Dray asked me to make sure you had the full picture ofnot only this continent and the rebellion but also all of Caelia and how it all fits together, what’s at stake. Why we’re here.”

My ears perked up. This sounded as valuable as learning magic, so I hung on every word.

He drew five circles on the chalkboard without touching the chalk that was sitting on the desk. I supposed he was using light instead of chalk. Genius.

“These are the five continents.” They transformed on the board from plain circles into exact outlines of each continent, just as I’d seen on maps in school. As he listed off each name, they appeared on the board: Ashenholt, Elyndor, Calyxmoor, Fellendral, and Vydran.

“And the free islands? Caelithar?”

“Those aren’t known to actually exist. They’re merely rumors. No one has ever seen them or met anyone from them. No ships have ever come from them. They’re…wishful thinking.”

Something about that didn’t sit right with me, but I let Kaelor move on.

“You know all about the political warfare happening in Ashenholt, I assume?”

“Yeah…Caedryn wants to purge Ashenholt and ally with Vydran. He wants to take after the Fellendral king.”

“Very good,” he replied somberly. “I should recruit you for the political strategy team in the Pathfinders order. Yes, that’s exactly where Ashenholt and Vydran are headed in the current political climate. We have intel that the kings of these two continents have been in constant communication about an alliance. Vydran would move first on a purge, Ashenholt soon after, and their two kings, plus the king of Fellendral, would form an alliance and attempt to seize control of Calyxmoor and Elyndor.”

“They want to control all the continents? Purge them all?” Fucking males.

“I’m afraid so, which brings me to why we’re here, why we’refighting back. If Vydran falls, the chain of events set in motion would be…difficult to stop and reverse. We could be looking at Caelia becoming an all-fae realm, wiping mortals from existence completely.”

My breakfast squirmed uncomfortably in my stomach. “So why aren’t we focused on stopping the king there? Why is the focus on Ashenholt?”