Page 287 of Elemental Becoming
His fingers brush over the worn page.
“But there are notes in the margins. References to records that no longer exist. Mentions of entire sections being removed.”
My fingers tighten against the edge of the table.
Hidden. Of course it was hidden. Or worse, forever lost.
If this bond was meant to lead us somewhere, if it was always meant to be a path toward something, then whoever erased the Shadow Warden history wasn’t simply hiding the past. They were hiding a destination.
A purpose.
An ending they never wanted anyone to reach.
Valen exhales sharply and flips another page in the journal. The dim firelight catches the tension in his expression.
“It was never about rebuilding.”
I frown, leaning closer. “What do you mean?”
He looks up, his gaze hard. “The war. The Fire Clan’s war against the Shadow Wielders. It appears it was never about rebuilding after sealing the Shadow Realm. That was the lie they told the world.”
Bit by bit, the pieces begin to shift inside my mind. The missing records. The erased names. The stories that never quite fit together. My stomach twists as the truth starts to take shapebeneath the surface, my mind resisting it even as the pieces align.
“Valen, what are you saying?”
He taps a passage in Sylas Veyne’s journal.
“I kept thinking we were missing something. We assumed the Fire Clan turned on the Shadow Wielders because they were afraid of them after the Unmaking. That it was about protecting the realm.”
His voice drops, rough with anger.
“If these records are genuine . . . ” He hesitates, the words clearly costing him. “ . . . then it may never have been about protection.”
His gaze locks on mine.
“It may have been about extermination.”
The words hit like a blade to the ribs. I stare at him, my pulse hammering.
“Extermination?”
He nods, turning the journal towards me again. The ink is jagged and hurried, carved into the page with sharp, angry strokes.
“They claim we are corrupted. That we are cursed, dangerous. But it is a lie. A manufactured war. They seek not to protect the realm but to erase us from it. Our knowledge, our history, our very existence.”
I suck in a breath. The words burn into me.
Our knowledge.
Our history.
Our very existence.
Not defeat or imprisonment.
Erasure.
“Valen—” My voice barely works.
