I heard whispers of what happened to the human Silas mated with. Age stole her from him.But… “It can change, Silas. With this book, I can create a rune for you to use, a rune to grant prolonged life, to bind a human to you. You could find love again.”
“I do notwantlove again! To you, love is a cut flower you trap in a vase; you admire it until it wilts, then replace it. I let my flowers grow untamed, refusing to confine them,” he roars.
My knees falter. Before I fall, Erevan grabs me. I urge my legs to stand tall, then I say, “Flowers wilt and perish, but you forget they have seeds. I have never forgotten Lucian. I fight for him even now.” I touch my heart, my chest caving in.
Silas leans forward, his voice but a hiss. “Your lips are unworthy of speaking his name.”
“That is enough, Silas!” Erevan hollers.
Silas tilts his head. “You got what you wanted, didn’t you, Erevan?”
Erevan exhales through clenched teeth. “What is that?”
Silas’s sly smirk feels like scissors cutting thread. I look from Erevan to Silas. The air electrifies, and I step between them. “Let’s stop arguing. Silas, I’m just trying to help. This book does that.”
He angles his head towards me, but for too long, he watches Erevan. Finally, he speaks, “I don’t doubt your passion when you forge items. I doubt your foresight. Rules, laws, and limits are still words you have not learned the definition of. I can not allow that book or anything else you created to come with us.”
Erevan's earlier warning hits home. Once this war has ended, they will all try to cage me. Stop me from using my magic.
My hands yearn for my book. “Your love was of this world, Silas. If I leave the book behind, you damn her lands. There will always be someone who seeks to abuse. They will find my book and tarnish the good the runes have made.”
“Then leave it here in these lands.” Silas stomps his foot. “I will mask this kingdom with a veil of defense. Only the people we trust are here. Those who are staying behind are loyal. My veil will stop others from entering this land. If those inside wish to leave, they can, but the cost will be exile. The weapons we are leaving behind will be safeguarded. You are not the only god who is forced to leave her tools behind.”
“But what if it gets into the wrong hands…”
Silas aims an accusatory finger at me. “That’s the question you should have pondered before you drew the first rune.”
“What questions did you solve when you slept with the human? When she was pregnant with your child! You look down your nose at Erevan and I, but we were not the first to bring magic here! You were!” I shout back. My heart hammers against my armor. “You are to blame for the evil that is growing here. The evil the Genesis unleashed to purge our magic from her lands. A evil that hunts us all down!” This new evil is why so many of the magical creatures here wish to leave and come to Attkris. The only good is that its helped our army grow.
“How does it feel to know you started a war, Silas?” A menacing smile spreads over my lips. Our arrival on Panthas, did have repercussions. But that’s another war story we can’t take part in yet. I dread the day we do. It’s unnatural for a child to kill their maker — for a God to murder a Genesis.
Silas’s neck pulses. He blinks again. Erevan roars, fist pounding, but he can’t reach me. Silas traps me in his shield. I raise my hand, trying to calm Erevan.
Silas steps closer. I hold my ground.
“I asked myself if watching her die of old age would be worth the few years of happiness, of freedom from you all. I asked myself the price our world would pay if I didn’t return, if my absence disrupted the balance. I asked. I answered. I paid the price. For our world! I returned. I left my family behind for you. For our history. You dwell on fixing the past. I look to the future. That book will not be part of it, Amariel.” He flicks his fingers, shoving me back into Erevan’s arms.
Erevan holds me tight. “I think of the future,” I whisper, voice broken.
Silas shakes his head, “If you did, you’d never pack that book. It is a weapon, just as the swords are. It stays behind. Who knows, maybe that book can help stop the evil that has taken root here. The army is ready,” he barks, stepping to the side and staring at us down his nose.
Not once does he lower his shields.
Erevan nostrils flare. “Put the veil up first,” he orders.
Silas’s brow arches, but he agrees. He closes his eyes, jaw set firm. The air shifts as his body takes on a glowing hue of blue fire, like a star shooting through a night sky. The vein in his neck pulses as his muscles strain.
I know he’s only doing this because this is where the love of his life lived. Where his son who has fallen in love with a fae lives. In the lands to the far northwest, under the shade of the mountains.Silas’s first trip proved that leaving doesn’t eliminate our magic from the lands. Magic can transcend distance. Therefore, returning with the book won’t prevent the runes’ effect on this world.
Two years of painstaking work went into copying my runes into a book, which now serves as my rune dictionary. Now, the people here can redraw existing runes. I presented the copied book as a gift to Lord Thalis, the dragon rider. However, if I mustexchange books, those I’ve trained in rune drawing can create more. Runes I have not approved in the original book.
Erevan shifts. His armor is so lethally crafted it makes no sound when he moves. His eyes drift down to the God Sword in his hand.
“Perhaps…” I know what he’s going to suggest before he utters it. “Perhaps the sword can destroy the book. It can kill us, so it should be able to kill our creations.”
“You kill the book, and the runes will vanish. What of the dragon riders, of the humans who use these runes to remain equal? No! That is too cruel,” I choke in horror. That book is like our child. Could he slay it so easily?
Erevan bites his lip. “I did not consider the riders.”
