Rising carefully, he grabbed the fur blanket from the other chair and laid a sleeping Opal down on top of it.He went to the wall with the built-in vault and opened it as quietly as he could.There in the back, behind his own documents and belongings, was a heavy amorite box.
The treasure box was of very old construction from back when Zamyra had flourished with magic and created astounding objects from the amorite stone only their mages seemed to be able to work with.A change of rule had stopped that long ago, even before they started killing their mages.
The top panel held an imprint lock.It was a blood lock, another vestige of Zamyra.He’d seen it as a child but had never opened it himself, content to have an heirloom of his father’s close by without disturbing it.
Connor took the box with him and sat in the chair opposite Opal.Nicking his palm with his blade, he took a steadying breath and pressed his hand to the seal.Magic not his own swirled and pushed against his senses.He let a little of his magic rise to meet it.A slight tingle ran through his hand until the lock disengaged.
The air hissed softly as the box unsealed.Opening it, he marveled at the preserved set of personal armor.Leather, embedded with finely ground minerals.Without the flare of light, they looked unusually constructed but otherwise normal.Taking out an arm guard, he moved it around in front of the fire until it caught the light, shimmering like star dust had adhered to it.
It was exactly like Daya’s.Enhanced by the same rare mineral as hers.The same rare mineral as the stone that now hung around his neck.How was that possible?
There was only one person he could think to ask.It was time to fulfill his promise and visit Charmaine.He looked over to see that Opal was awake and watching him.“Want to take Rogue out for a ride this morning?”
A smile bloomed on her face.
Merken Residence, Realm of Calderre
Ryan’smother,CharmaineMerken,sat at her writing desk with Connor hovering next to her.Morning light shone through the windows behind the desk, illuminating the open book she’d pulled from her many shelves.Opal sat nearby, entranced by a large storybook.
Charmaine had been delighted to meet Opal, and they’d had a wonderful visit over breakfast before Connor had admitted his need to talk to her about something more serious.Her workroom was just as he remembered it.Filled with books and scrolls she probably knew by heart.
Her eyes had misted when he told her what he needed to know, and she’d hugged him before searching out the book that now lay open before them.
“The very first project we worked on for your father, Treyvon, was a history of his home realm of Greylon.Oral stories that no one outside the realm knows or remembers.You and Ryan were so young then.Celina just an infant.”
He ran his fingers over the book.“I remember sitting on the floor with Ry, listening to father tell stories.For hours on end, it seemed.That was for this?”
“Yes.We recorded the stories as he told them and eventually crafted this.”
Charmaine gently picked up the arm guard he’d brought with him as if it was a precious artifact.There was recognition in her touch as she examined it.
“My father showed this to you?”he asked.
“Just once, yes, so that I could draw it.I wondered when you’d come asking.Treyvon was certain you would.”She turned to a new section in the book and his father’s familiar script filled the page.“This section, he wrote himself.Moriah was a sacred site in Greylon.”
“What happened to it?”Connor asked.
“It was destroyed during the war.The controversy around magic had swelled, and enough people, especially people in power, decided to force a shift the realm couldn’t turn back from.”
He remembered that… but just in general, not anything specifically about Moriah.Most of the realms had similar stories.A change of power.A disaster.Something that served as a crux point.
“But how?The magic in the earth… how is it even possible to destroy it?”Instinct fed his assumptions rather than any real understanding of how the sacred site worked.
“I don’t know.They burned the earth, and then a few years later began sourcing the natural resources they needed for the war.”
Connor’s head spun as understanding hit.No, it couldn’t be.But he knew he was right from the sick feeling in his gut.“Morvan, the mining site, was once Moriah.”
“Yes,” Charmaine confirmed.
The site was the biggest use of enslaved labor in Greylon.Their criminals served time there, including anyone discovered with magic.The realm’s tentative peace with Calderre hinged on the fact that they hadn’t yet begun purchasing mage labor, only using their own people.At least not that they’d been able to prove.
Something else occurred to him.“They killed Moriah’s guardian, didn’t they?”Destroying that connection would have devastating consequences, he knew it in his soul.
Charmaine nodded.
“Burning the earth didn’t destroy the site.Enslaving their mages and killing their guardian did.”His mind struggled with the logic, but his soul bore the heavy truth.“That darkness bled into Moriah and killed it.”
“Guardians are bound to their site in an elemental way.They can’t exist without each other, not fully.They wiped out everyone, including all the protectors.”
