“Yes,” she confirmed.
“You sending your people out there?”
Shea fidgeted as she stared Whelan down. “Yes.”
His exhale was heavy. “At least you’re not as dumb as you look and act sometimes.”
He stood, his back hunched and rounded. He reached another desk, one over-stuffed with papers. He yanked at a heavy, leather-bound book on the bottom, sending the pile teetering.
Wilhelm lunged forward, slapping one hand on top before it could fall.
Whelan ignored him, shuffling back to his desk, before setting the book down with a heavy thunk. He gave Shea a last gimlet stare, as if to say this was all her fault, before cracking open the book.
“Your mother didn’t want me to show this to anyone,” he told her.
“What is it?” Shea asked, stepping close.
“A list of every village in the Highlands since our guild was founded. My predecessors kept a record.” Whelan flipped through the pages. Line after line filled with words. Some crossed out. As the pages went by, the names that were crossed out began to outnumber the ones that weren’t.
“What is this?” Shea asked, her brow furrowed. She reached out and pulled the book to her for a closer glance.
Wilhelm drew near, his face just as puzzled as hers as he stared down at the page. “Why are so many crossed out?”
It wasn’t just that they were crossed out. Dates were written next to each. At first all the dates appeared to be from long ago, the numbering system not the same as what they used now.
Shea felt stunned as she understood what she was seeing. In the first years after the cataclysm, villages were snuffed out as if a strong wind came down from the mountains and carried off several at once. Not to be unexpected. It was a time of upheaval. The learning curve was incredibly steep. Those that couldn’t adapt went the way of their ancestors very quickly.
The further out from the cataclysm, the number of villages that died-off lessened. There were even a few villages that had dates next to them indicating when they were founded. It looked like there was a resurgence in the number of new villages approximately five hundred years ago.
Humanity began to recover from what had happened, putting the sins of the past behind them and moving forward. New progress began taking the place of old loss.
Then about a hundred years ago things seemed to change. The number of lost villages increased. Slowly at first, if Shea was reading this right, and then exponentially. The last ten years saw an overwhelming number of villages disappearing into nothingness.
Shea checked the dates twice before she looked up at Whelan. “What, in the name of all that is holy, is this shit?”
“You know exactly what it is.”
Shea slammed the book down on the desk. “No, I don’t. Because according to this book, what’s happening now started nearly five years before I ever set foot in the Badlands. Maybe even before that.”
“Indeed.” Whelan’s eyes were too large behind his thick glasses, making him seem like a slightly dotty bird.
“No,” Shea said, pointing at him. She turned away and took a deep breath, trying to push down the rage and anger.
“What are you talking about?” Wilhelm asked, looking from Shea to Whelan. “Why are you so upset?”
“She just found out the last few years of her life are a lie,” Whelan said, his voice sympathetic.
Shea shook her head. No. There was another explanation.
“I don’t understand,” Wilhelm said, his eyes still on Shea.
She continued to stand with her back to the men, staring at a giant map of the Highlands. It was more artistic than anything, not a true representation. There were the Dragon’s Tooth ridges. A pair of beautifully rendered golden eagles circled in the top upper corner. Wayfarer’s Keep shrouded in mist on its cliff outcrop, moody and mysterious, while still acting as a beacon for the viewer’s eye.
She’d always admired this piece. It used to hang in one of the great halls. She found herself distracted, questioning why it was here instead of on display in one of the halls.
“Her entire world view is being altered,” Whelan said. “Give her a minute.”
Shea turned around, her face hard. “I don’t believe it.”
