Meleri clasped her hands together over her knees, spine straight, ever mindful of manners, even here. “Please, Caris. Sit with us.”
“I want to know where my parents are. I want to know what’s happened to Nathaniel. We’re all in this position because you put us here.”
“That’s an unfair accusation. Everyone has a choice to join our cause or not,” Dureau protested.
“Yes, and if they decline, you send a magician skilled in mind magic to take their memories of that offer,” Caris bit out.
“Too many lives are at stake to not take such precautions,” Meleri said.
“I’m only worried about three.”
“And it’s my duty as Fulcrum to be worried about all of them.”
Caris took a step forward, unable to keep the desperation out of her voice. “Just tell me if you’ve any news on them. They’re myparents.”
“Caris—”
“I want to know where they are!”
Her voice cracked, and so did a place deep inside her. The distant song of the clarion crystals around her cut off as every crystal in the libraryshattered, sending shards flying through the air amidst sparks of starfire. Dureau and Meleri both ducked their heads as Caris staggered from the instinctive use of aether-driven magic.
She locked her knees and stared at the mess of crystal shards embedded in books and wood and scattered on the floor. The song was gone, leaving behind a quiet that did little to settle her nerves.
“Well, that’s a bit of a mess you’ve made,” Blaine said from behind her.
Caris jerked around, staring wide-eyed at where Blaine and Honovi stood in the hallway just outside the doorway, Lore peering over their shoulders. Caris swallowed thickly, trying to steady her breathing. “I didn’t mean to.”
Blaine gave her a faint, encouraging smile, and there was no blame in his eyes when he looked at her. “I know you didn’t. But let’s all sit down and hear what Meleri has to say, shall we?”
The three stepped into the library, and Lore closed the door behind her. “I’ve put Wyatt into a guest room under guard.”
“The inventor?” Caris asked. “I thought he was to remain in the safe house?”
“There’s still a warrant out for his arrest. With everything that’s happened, we thought it prudent to keep him with us,” Meleri said.
Blaine touched a hand to Caris’ elbow and nodded toward an empty seat. Caris followed the silent order, needing to pick up a few thin shards of clarion crystal from the cushion before she sat. She tried to ignore the flush that came to her cheeks at her loss of control, but at least she was still awake, though she could feel a headache building behind her eyes.
She’d been taught better control than this in order to keep her secret, to hide what she could do because she wasn’t ever meant to be a magician. Her mother and father would be so disappointed in her. These days, Caris was finding she wasn’t meant to be a lot of things she’d hoped to be. That her road had so many forks in it she couldn’t be sure which was the true path the star gods wanted her to follow.
At least she was no longer losing consciousness. The outbursts of magic today and during the riot in Amari hadn’t been like at the pub. That eruption of starfire had been more instinctual than her use of it during the riot. The abruptness of casting it after years of not drawing from the aether had left her unconscious. Using starfire was building up a strength she hadn’t known she’d been missing.
But her parents’ warnings about hiding, about not ever casting starfire where people could see, still rang like temple bells in the back of her mind. As a Dhemlan, she wasn’t meant to be a magician but an inventor.
A tiny voice wondered, then, what she was meant to be if she were a Rourke.
“The news out of Amari isn’t good,” Meleri said tiredly once everyone was seated around the table. She appeared drawn and exhausted but held herself with the rigidness of her station and a lifetime of manners that wouldn’t let her wilt. “The loss of the Clementine Trading Company for safe passage of debt slaves is a devastating blow to our efforts.”
“Was the entire family caught up by debt collectors?” Blaine asked.
Meleri nodded, and Caris couldn’t stop the full-body flinch that ran through her.
“The Collector’s Guild has given interviews to the press about their successful execution of warrants. They’ve finally listed the names in the broadsheets.” Meleri leaned forward and picked up the broadsheet with Caris’ image on it and unfolded it. She tapped her finger on an article headline that showed up on the second page. “The Clementines are currently being held by the Collector’s Guild in Amari but are set to be transferred to Daijal. Their company has been confiscated by the Daijal court.”
“More like it’s been confiscated by Eimarille. If rumors are true, she eradicated the Iverson bloodline the same way they eradicated hers. At least, the ruling family,” Lore said.
“She’s consolidating power. I received a report before leaving Amari she’s set to crown herself.”
“In Daijal?” Blaine asked.
