Vivienne’s eyebrows shot up. “Looks likeyouhave some skills to share,” she responded in the same tongue.
“Alright, alright,” Lewis cut in. “Enough showing off. Let’s focus.”
He unrolled the first tracing, the carving of the massive tree with robed figures running toward it.
Vivienne pointed to a symbol. “This word is similar torefugeorsanctuary. The tree likely held a religious or sanctified significance.”
She flipped to another tracing. Elandra, the goddess of love and fertility, weeping, her tears flowing across the land.
Lewis turned to the next image, tiered waterfalls feeding the rivers of Verdance.
“This one’s obvious,” Cirrus claimed.
“If it’s just about water, why the halo marks around the top of the mountain?” Thorne challenged.
Vivienne brushed the tracing with her fingertips. “The surrounding script is close to the Ellacyrian word forsanctified… or the Luxial word forsacrifice.This site could have been sacred, or a place of offering.”
Lewis laid out the final tracing. It was the most cryptic. Moon phases lined the top, the growth phases for a flower below, and, at the center, an owl.
Cirrus scoffed. “I don’t see how these things connect.”
“The moon and the owl are nocturnal,” Owen noted. “The moon and the flower follow cyclical patterns of growth and decay…”
Vivienne, Lewis, and Cirrus stared at him.
“What? You think it’s possible to speak ten languages and not read?”
Lewis frowned. “What’s stranger is the owl. They don’t live in this climate.”
Vivienne’s stomach dropped. “What if it’s not an actual owl? What if it’s the royal emblem of Fendwyr?”
Silence reigned.
“The owl and eight-pointed star became the kingdom’s sigil when Queen Metis took the throne,” Owen murmured. “For it to appear here, Fendwyrian ships would have had to sail to Verdance within the last fifty years.”
“Melodie, Dr. Mercer, estimated the bones at the ruins to be between twenty and thirty years old.” Lewis’ eyes dilated behind his spectacles. “Is anyone else freaking out about that math?”
Cirrus’ expression darkened. “Watch it, Blume. Sounds like you’re accusing the kingdom we serve of something heinous.”
Lewis shrugged. “If the shoe fits…”
A chill crept down Vivienne’s spine. She changed the subject. “These four images were carved much later than the rest of the tower.”
Cirrus narrowed his eyes. “What evidence do you have of that?”
Lewis smirked. “Well,Cici, the plant growth around the original reliefs was mature, the moisture introduced by the flora caused fractures in the stone over time. The newer ones? Untouched by nature.”
“The tools were different, too,” Vivienne added. “More precise, more advanced.”
“We’re looking at two distinct moments in time,” Thorne confirmed.
Cirrus huffed. “For something like this, do the time periods matter?”
Vivienne bristled. “Do time periods matter? Really, Cirrus? Maybe time is meaningless when you’re staring at stars, but it shapeseverythingelse. My entire profession, my family’s legacy is rooted in the progression of time.”
Tension thickened like a storm about to break.
Lewis made a smacking sound with his lips. “How about we all breathe and focus on not dying tomorrow?”
