“All I have been able to read are the tomes still left in the Sodality of Setar and the Sodality of Una. Every other coven is a mystery. But yes, there are a few records that survived the burnings during unification, some of which discuss a witch’s ability to communicate, and even harbor, their deity,” Melisina said.
“Is it only those of us with sentimental magic?” Vaasa asked.
Just then, Sachia stirred awake, sitting up and glancing around the room. Her eyes went wide at seeing Vaasa, and she sat up entirely.
Koen, who stood just behind the couch, arched a brow. “Sentimental?”
“Magic pertaining to the spirit or the inner world, instead of magic that deals with the physical,” Melisina said. “These are old terms.”
“It’s what Ozik calls it,” Vaasa chimed in.
Koen furrowed his brows and came around the settee, sitting opposite Reid on the floor.
“So, your magic is sentimental?” Sachia asked. “What would he call mine?”
“Corporeal,” Vaasa said. “Magic that requires an element or physical object present in order to manifest. You can’t manipulate metal that isn’t there.”
“But your magic is fueled by your emotions?” Sachia asked.
“Precisely,” Melisina said. “I never heard Freya classify magic this way, but the witches of Una do. Veragi witches lack even more resources than other covens. We were hunted for centuries, and our histories were burned long before unification.”
Freya was Vaasa’s great-grandmother and the founder of the Veragi coven in Mireh. Before her, Veragi witches had been scattered and on the verge of extinction, considered to be wielders of dark magic and often ostracized because of it. Vaasa couldn’t imagine what the world would look like if the magic-less Icrurians hadn’t burned all their texts and records. If Icrurian unification hadn’t cut the covens off at the knees.
She supposed, though, that it would have led to a world in which the witches ruled, not the magic-less. Icrurian unification had ended the Witches’ War and allowed for the covens’ fragileexistence, even if some cities were still hell-bent on purging their witches.
“I’ve never heard the witches of Una refer to it as that,” Koen said, bringing Vaasa back to the here and now.
“You wouldn’t have,” Reid reminded him. “Even less likely, given your foremanship and relation to the headman. The only people the covens distrust more than each other is the state.”
Koen shook his head. “Foolish.”
“Necessary,” Melisina argued. “The last time witches were weaponized, they almost went extinct.”
“They pitted their own covens against each other,” Koen rebutted.
“Enough,” Reid said, interrupting them both.
This dark side of Icrurian history was somewhat foreign to Vaasa, as she had spent her time in Dihrah falling behind in her classes. What early education she’d gleaned here in Asterya hadn’t been about magic at all—it had been about the Icrurian exchange of power, which was so different from Asterya’s. She let out a small breath, running her fingers through her hair at the same time that Koen pulled his knees to his chest.
Sachia let out a frustrated breath. “So, you believe it’s possible? That Amalie could be carrying Veragi as we speak?”
Melisina pursed her lips, her tiredness apparent in the way her lids started to droop. “Anything is possible. I’ve told Reid from the very start that I suspect this is larger than any of us; this is about something that occurred long before unification. There is history woven into the fabric of everything, and I don’t believe these circumstances are an exception.”
Vaasa had the strange sense of being overwhelmed, much like she used to feel at the beginning of learning about magic. She’d had less than a year of actual studying and training with Melisina. There was so much she didn’t know.
“Tell us what you saw,” Koen said to Vaasa.
Vaasa told them everything about her interaction with Amalie—the white eyes, the relief on Amalie’s face when Vaasa accurately identified her as Veragi. The vision of her mother and Ozik’s affair, the bargain they made that gave him access to Vena’s magic. Then, she told them of the mausoleum and her brother hiding the necklace inside her mother’s sarcophagus.
Sachia tucked her blanket up to her chin. “So, before we can leave, you need to visit the mausoleum? To take the necklace?”
“What do you believe this necklace will even do?” Koen asked.
Vaasa bit her lip. She didn’t know. “There must be a reason my mother left it for me. She said it would keep me safe, and now that Veragi has sent me on the path to find it, I believe it’s a weapon of sorts.”
“Whatever its role, it must be found,” Melisina agreed.
“It’s the last thing I need to do before we escape,” Vaasa confirmed. “And Ozik is away from the fortress right now. I need to act quickly.”
