No, Friederike, comes Holda’s voice, a desperate gush.Destroy this paper.
Destroy this? What is it?
But if Dieter has already seen it—
She trails off, and I feel her panic. Can Otto feel it now too? I look up at him, but he’s watching me with that considering frown.
What is this, Holda?I ask.
Your duty is to show the council and other witches that wild magic is a resource they can use without fear, she says.
Yes, but—
This is not that. The Origin Tree is a cap on magic. It is a dam; this would destroy that dam.
I scowl down at the table.Isn’t that what you want?
I want our people to know that they don’t need the limitations we put on them and that they can access the wild magic that is still outside of the Origin Tree. But this—this would flood the world with all of the magic that has been held back.
This spell, I start, laying each word out slowly,would destroy the Origin Tree?
Another of her infuriating pauses.When we created the Origin Tree, we built in a way to undo it, should it not accomplish what we envisioned. But so much magic is gathered in the Origin Tree that I do not know what the ramifications would be if it were destroyed now. I do not know what a surge of magic would do to the world. The force of the magic being unleashed, for witches and non-magical mortals, could be catastrophic.
Someone says my name. Shouts it, maybe. Cornelia snaps about letting me see a healer first—she hasn’t noticed the absence of my wounds, sees only the smears of blood still on my clothes—but all my concentration is on the goddess.
It’s what Dieter wanted originally, though?
No.Her rebuke is sharp and certain.He wanted tocorruptthe Tree. A crack in its walls to ruin the magic within. This spell—this spell would obliterate those walls entirely.
The Origin Tree keeps a cap on magic. Witches access it by adhering to rituals and spells and ways that the goddesses, via the council, instruct.
Wild magic is that same magic but without boundaries. Without requirements. A free flowing brook instead of a walled-off well.
And the Tree is the dam that keeps that well from flooding the world.
My gut roils, discomfort and unease, and behind me, Philomena is still arguing, Cornelia too, and now Rochus. Their noise builds, my frustration builds, and I snap.
I spin around with the paper in hand. “Regardless of what you think of me,” I push my voice into a shout, “my brother has the knowledge he needs to destroy the Origin Tree. So maybe you should stop trying to find a way to blame me and let the champion go out to stop him?”
11
Otto
The council bickers. The Grenzwache argues. Everyone has a different plan, and yet no one seems to know what to do right now.
But what we need to do is obvious.
“I’m going to go back to Trier,” I say, “and I am going to kill Dieter myself.”
My words silence the room. Fritzi slips her hand in mine. “Weare.”
“Not alone,” Cornelia snaps at the same time Brigitta says, “The guard will join you. We already have some in Trier. They should have reported back by now, but regardless, we’ll reconvene and come up with a tactical plan.”
“We have to move fast,” I say. I can feel the years of training upon me. I was a Kapitän in more than just name. I glance at Brigitta, who nods, allowing me to take charge. “Dieter knows a way to…compromise Fritzi.”
“I know of some guarding spells that will help,” Cornelia interjects.“But…” Her eyes go to the other council members. Rochus ignores her, taking the page from Fritzi’s fingers and scowling at it.
I don’t know how much I trust simple spells against Dieter, and I don’t want Fritzi to have to guard her body and her mind from her abuser.
