“It was,” she admitted softly, exhaustion lacing every word and burrowing deep within her features.
The muscle in my jaw jumped in time to my racing heart. I raised my eyebrows expectantly, waiting for her to continue.
Faylinn’s smaller hands came up to rest against my own, her thumbs caressing the skin there. As good as it felt, I refused to be distracted by her ministrations.
“We ran into an issue in the Valley—” she paused, and my impatience reached its zenith.
“Go on.”
Faylinn sighed again. “There was a Seeing Room beneath the main house. They showed me hidden catacombs as far as the eye could see, Rohak. Each filled with books and scrolls so numerous I would need lifetimes to read them all.” The golden flecks in her irises danced with that admission, even the cadence of her speech elevated in excitement.
My lips quirked slightly in response, happy to see some of my Faylinn returning, despite the slightly grayish pallor her skin still held. She was sweating now, too, both from the heat of the fire and the influx of adrenaline. Evenmylegs were wobbling, and I had no doubt we would both crash from it all soon.
“But the Seeing Room required a payment of sorts.”
“What kind of payment?” I asked, already fearing the answer.
A wry, cunning smile spread across Faylinn’s face. She winced slightly as it split her lower lip once more, but nothing could stop the joy she radiated.
“There is power in blood, Rohak. And the ancients are greedy things indeed.”
“How much blood, Faylinn?”
She shrugged. “A bit from my palm to open the door. A bit more to see the visions they wanted me to see.”
My thumbs gently caressed the light tracks of dried blood beneath her nose. They flaked away with my touch as if they’d never been there in the first place. Faylinn’s face softened as I continued to explore with the pads of my fingers.
“That doesn’t explain these.” I gently palpated the puffy and purpling skin around her eyes.
“It—the visions—were a bit more than I could handle,” she whispered with a wince as I turned thunderous eyes on her.
“What do you mean ‘more than you could handle ’?” My voice was deceptively calm, disguising the anger and concern I felt to the very depths of my soul.
“My mind was not built to handle that type of information. I’m not a descendant of Solace. So I had to improvise a little. Knowledge does not come without sacrifice, Rohak.”
“What kind of sacrifice,Faylinn?”
She chewed on her lower lip, wincing when her teeth dug into the cut again. With a huff, I pulled it from between her teeth, covering the slice with my thumb.
“Tell me,” I commanded.
“I died. I sacrificed my life for that knowledge.” Her voice was full of spite, as if begging me to retaliate, to tell her she was wrong.
“Fate brought you back?”
Faylinn shrugged slightly. “My immortality, but yes.”
“Was it worth it?” I asked, voice dangerously low.
She jerked her head once, though her face barely moved with my palms cupping her cheeks still.
“Tell me what you saw.”
“Empires rise and fall, the earth turn and day bleed into night. I saw death and life, lies and truths. Secrets long kept and futures yet to happen. I saw two rise and two fall. I heard prophecies not meant for my ears and gained knowledge no one person should have. My hands itch to write it all, to transcribe the vastness of information imparted from spirits of those long past.” Her voice was pained, but full of awe, her eyes swimming with rapture and exhaustion.
“That’s quite a bit, my love. A burden to carry.”
“I found the last remaining artifact,” she whispered with a wane smile. “And a way to fix the Mage Sickness—a rune to inscribe on Mages.”
