Inside the door was a long hallway that seemed to be bathed in sunlight, despite being inside. The Librarian walked briskly in front, with Hayle indicating that Lierick should go ahead. Vox went next, and the hounds flanked me, before Hayle brought up the rear.
I rolled my eyes. The Heir to the Second Line was using his psychic abilities on over a hundred people while having a pleasant conversation, and hadn’t even broken a sweat. If he’d wanted to kill me, he probably would’ve done so by now. But still, I humored both Hayle and Vox by walking between them.
The ceilings in the corridor were high-vaulted, and I could see flashes of the glass dome. Long mirrors midway down the stone walls bounced around the light that streamed in. An open door off the hallway showed a small kitchen, and beyond that, a bedroom. Were these the Librarian’s living quarters? I’d figuredshe just made a nest under her desk and slept sitting up, like an owl.
She pushed through another plain door with no obvious handle, and we ended up in a room I was all too familiar with. The official entrance to the library, including the circulation desk.
Enora stopped, and we all halted like little ducklings behind her. “Speak now,” she commanded softly, but once again filled with an authority I wasn’t sure she possessed.
Lierick raised an eyebrow, and that one small gesture told me more than all his confident assertions. He was used to being the one giving orders. He was used to being obeyed.
He really was the Heir to the Second Line.Fuck me.
Turning his attention back to me, his face became serious. “I think it’s best to show her the copy ofA Future History of Ebrusfirst. It will help answer a few more questions.”
The Librarian must have agreed, because she reached beneath the long circulation desk and pulled out two-gold embossed books and a letter. “These came back from Fortaare with Mr. Taeme and Mr. Vylan. It took me far too long to assess and catalog them. It would have saved us all so much grief if I had been faster.” Her eyes flicked to me, then back down at the stack. “The letter is addressed to you, Miss Halhed.”
Frowning, I slid the letter from the top. The handwriting seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. It wasn’t my father’s or brother’s—the script was far too feminine—and honestly, no one else would bother. Especially no one from Fortaare.
Hayle nudged me. “Read it.”
My eyes skimmed the words, my brain tripping over the information. It should be impossible. No, itwasimpossible. I looked at Hayle. “It’s from Ellanora Halhed.”
Our family was once incredibly powerful, Avalon, and you, the Ninth Daughter of the Ninth Line, will be the most powerful of all, if not the one steeped in the most pain. Because the universe is about balance, and the Goddess gifts with both hands.
What I’m about to tell you is of the utmost importance, Avalon. You control the fate of Ebrus. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people rest on your shoulders and will be decided by your decisions.
You are a Recreationist.
A Recreationist. The word reverberated through me, like it was encoded in my blood and bone, so achingly familiar, yet foreign all the same. I knew its definition somewhere, deep in my soul, where we tended to reject the things that didn’t make sense.
Like the feelings I had for Hayle. The feelings for Vox. The dreams. So many dreams that had felt so real.
“Show me,” I whispered, and Enora pushed the top book toward me.A Future History of Ebrus.
The title was a contradiction, and shouldn’t make sense. Yet it did. Even before I opened the first page, I almost knew what I would find.
A child is born. A Daughter of the Ninth Line. This one, more powerful than all those before her, will suffer and succeed. The Ninth. The Ninth. The Ninth.
I skipped through the pages, but when my eyes snagged on a familiar name, I stopped.
Some people are destined to die, no matter how much we wish it weren’t so. Malina Halhed is a sweet soul, someone so purethat even the Goddess favors her. She loves her husband, her children, the people of her Barony.
Her pure heart is the reason she is chosen to keep the balance. A beautiful catalyst. Her fate is tied to that of her beloved youngest daughter. When Avalon stumbles close to the edge of a cliff, Malina doesn’t think; she races to her daughter, pushing her back, but loses her balance and falls to her death.
Summoning the powers of the Recreationist for the first time, Avalon resets the time to the last Swell, a place where she deemed the world to make sense, or a safe place to rest.
She resets to her crib in her parents’ room, Malina waking her with a smile.
It was my dream. One of many I’d had over the years, where I watched my mother trip and fall, her face getting smaller and smaller as she fell to the bottom of the ravine, the maid’s hand on my arm stopping me from falling down after her. I flicked to the next page.
Malina picking flowers with Avalon. Calling Avalon back from too close to the edge of the ravine, she reaches for the large purple epsirialle flower that Avalon wanted. Unfortunately, Malina trips on a rock that has been exposed from strong rains the week before, and stumbles over the edge. The child, Avalon, screams for her mother until time resets. She wakes again in her crib, Malina smiling down at her.
Maid covets the Baron of the Ninth Line for herself. Pushes Malina over the edge.
Malina falls backwards, hitting her head, and in a daze, falls over the cliff. The Goddess must intervene to prevent the infant from resetting the moment over and over. The trauma is staining her soul. Avalon returns home. But her Recreationist powers have activated.
I didn’t understand. My heart was thundering so loudly, I was sure they could all hear it. I flicked to the end of the book, but it was blank. I skimmed back to the middle, and today’s date flashed at me.
