“…Yes, that makes sense.”
“It does?”
“Yes. But I do wonder…” He let the thought hang in the air for a long moment.
Zayn cleared his throat. “Are you going to enlighten the rest of us about whatever is going on in that frighteningly brilliantlittle head of yours? Or should we just start throwing out guesses?”
Eamon still didn’t answer immediately. But I could tell from the furrow of his brow and the gleam in his grey eyes that his silence wasn’t because he didn’t know the answer; rather, he was trying to remember every detail he could before speaking.
“The Void Order,” he finally said. “It’s a name that’s shown up—alongside this symbol—in a few places throughout the texts and other artifacts that I’ve been studying from this realm. Mostly only mentioned in passing…but in important places. Like in correspondence from the kings and queens of Midna, for example. My understanding is that this Order secretly helped oversee the Vaeloran Cycle.”
“Something like the Keepers of Light?” Aleks asked.
“…It’s possible some of those Keepers were once members of this order, I suppose—Aetherkin who took their servitude in a different direction.” He considered for another moment before adding, “Yes, at least some overlap certainly must have occurred.”
“Were there Keepers of Shadow at some point, too?” I asked. “Or some sort of corresponding group, whatever they might have been called? I’ve always wondered about that.”
“Maybe not as well known, but there were organized sects of Shadow-aligned Aetherkin, certainly. Orin once associated with one of the largest groups I’m aware of—the Umbral Hands. Though these groups all disappeared during the long stretch between Calista’s death and the birth of her next successor. Long before Orin undertook his mission to protect Nova in the Above, in other words.”
He still could have mentioned something about all these things, I thought, bitterly.
But I said nothing; I still didn’t want to talk about my former mentor. I doubted Thalia did, either; she had suddenly becomevery interested in adjusting the jewels on the magical staff she carried.
Eamon moved on, oblivious to any emotional wounds he might have re-opened. He was still talking in an enthusiastic rush, only growing silent whenever he stopped to more closely examine the artifacts around us, searching for more marks from this mysterious order.
“I think this Order was more concerned with the overall cycle of magic than with any individual Vaelora,” he said. “There are references to them beinggod-touched—divinely chosen, just as the Vaelora themselves were. Though not with power, but with wisdom. Of course, whether that was true or not…”
“If the Midnasian leaders were desperate for more help to fulfill their role as balance-keepers, it makes sense that they’d want tobelieveit was true,” I said.
“And they likely welcomed them into the palace with open arms,” Aleks added. “Which would explain the marks.”
“But were they a force for good or evil?” I wondered.
“I need to collect more data before I can say for certain,” Eamon said.
“If one can ever becertainabout something like that,” said Zayn, with a shrug.
“Well, one can always do more research,” Eamon countered, looking longingly in the direction of the main room of the library.
“And you seem entirely too excited about the prospect,” Zayn replied.
While they fell into a spirited argument about the merits, burdens and shortcomings of knowledge, Aleks and I drew closer to the mark I’d uncovered moments ago.
Aleks reached for it first, light dancing from his fingertips and further illuminating the symbol.
I was paying attention to what he was doing, but I was also watching Thalia out of the corner of my eye. She had withdrawn into herself—likely still thinking about the father who had abandoned her.
We’d have to see Orin, eventually. He was too tangled up in the history and magic of our world to be ignored forever. And part of medidwant to confront him and demand explanations for all he’d kept from me—which made me look forward to our reunion with a strange combination of longing and dread.
I jumped as the wall before me gave a violent rumble.
We stared at it, holding our breath, watching a thin crack splitting all the way up to the ceiling.
Nothing else happened.
When I dared to glance away, though, I noticed the top half of the Order mark was glowing—as if it had absorbed some of the magic Aleks had been using to illuminate it.
“…Try adding Shadow magic?” Aleks suggested, pointing to the bottom half of that circle divided by the vine-wrapped sword.
