Ena thanked the woman, who lingered a little too long, looking at her like a curiosity, before she left.
Ena absentmindedly ate the slices of pork and slightly-past-its-prime apple that she’d been given while next reading about the split.
It was written exactly as Heran had described, where daemons, whose Powers were suited to chaos, disruption, and discord, chose to serve Iblis and move to the Underworld for secrecy, and witches, with Gifts of earth magic, chose to serve Gaia and maintain the balance. No mention of the amulet. No mention of the bond to Iblis, and no mention of the way witches had essentially forced daemons into the Underworld by ostracizing them.
She was starting to feel a bit frustrated by this—by the lies, intentionally or unintentionally written in this book—until she caught something. The vaguest passage, which mentioned something she’d never heard of before.
And thus, no longer able to live in harmony with one another, the two races severed ties forevermore, just as the third race, the worshippers of Omnis, had done eons ago.
Omnis? She’d never heard that word before, nor had she ever heard of a third race of magic.
She was still puzzling over this when Ty finally returned, a smiling Turner at his side.
“How’d it go?” Ty asked, looking her up and down as if assessing for injuries and seeming relieved to find her in one piece.
“It went fine,” Ena said, unable to hide her frustration.
“Did you find anything useful?” Turner asked quietly, looking around to make sure no one was listening, which they weren’t.
“Not really,” Ena said. “But I’m just getting started. Although…have either of you heard of Omnis?”
“Omnis?” Ty asked, his dark brows furrowing. “No, what’s that?”
“I’m not sure,” Ena said. “I just found some vague reference to it in this book on the history of magic. It mentioned ‘worshippers of Omnis.’”
Ty looked over at Turner, who shook his head. He hadn’t heard of it either.
“Come on,” Ty said, gently grabbing her hand. “You’ve been sitting in here most of the morning. Maybe a break will do you some good, and there’s somewhere else I want to show you.”
“Really? Will I like it?” she asked, her eyebrows jumping up as a smile spread across her face.
“You will. I promise,” Ty responded with a wolfish grin. “Follow me.”
Chapter Twelve
Ty
AfterensuringNialhadsafely returned the books from Petyr to their hiding spot in his own chambers, Ty led Ena back through the Great Antre to the passageway that led to the fighting ring on the mid-level.
He was itching to get his hands on an ax and hit some shit, especially after dealing with the clusterfuck that was the mines all morning.
Dev was great—he had a wealth of knowledge and good instincts—but he had trouble dealing with Cole. Ty seemed to be the only one who could get the bastard to budge and provide more resources to the miners, or convince him that exploring new areas of the undercaves was a good idea.
Cole had never had a mind for the mines or forge; his exclusive focus was on serving Iblis through missions. And while Ty knew those missions were important for ensuring their Powers were granted by Iblis, he also knew that it came at a detriment to theinnerworkings of the Underworld and all the other important aspects of running an entire community underground.
Lara had told him about the food shortages beginning in the mid-levels already, so they needed to keep up their production of metal goods in the forge so they’d have plenty to trade this winter when Cole sent daemons out on missions. This was, of course, the way Ty preferred to do things, as opposed to Cole, who encouraged stealing from mortals instead. But they couldn’t steal everything, and they couldn’t produce more goods without expanding the mines—certain areas were already depleted.
But the thing Ty resented the most was how necessary he was here, how much of a burden everything already felt, and he knew it would only get worse.
But he wanted to release that burden, at least for a little while, so he led Ena and Turner into the training facility.
It’d been a few months since he’d been here—not only because of the mission he’d been on, but also because before then, he’d been so consumed with research on the amulet he’d barely had the time. He couldn’t describe the relief he felt at having Ena’s help with the research side of things.
Besides, he knew she’d be infinitely better at it than him anyway.
As they entered the sparse space lit by darkrock lanterns, he was pleased to see that it hadn’t changed in his time away. Rows of every kind of weapon imaginable lined the wall—axes, long swords, short swords, daggers, maces, war hammers. Beautiful weapons, made by some of their most talented blacksmiths.
Ty usually brought his own weapons, but hadn’t had a chance to make a new axe for himself since his old one had been taken by the Occidens witches. It would take a while to make a new one anyway, since that axe had been Imbued with runes that triggered hisfurorin any daemon or mortal who used it. Heabsentmindedly hoped the witches never traded it to a mortal, or they’d be in for a rude awakening.
