“That was good! It was very good!” Risna praised. “You picked up warding much more quickly than the other spells. When you are rested, imagine covering different parts of your body until your entire body is covered. If you are spending too much energy on the ward, sayLida. It will extinguish the spell.”
“VardaandLida,” Elizabeth repeated and nodded. “I won’t forget.”
“See you in two days. And, Elizabeth?” Risna held her gaze. “Don’t practice magic when you are exhausted.”
Elizabeth thanked Risna and left the shop.
She met Fiza, and they made their way back down the forest road. The only downside to Fiza coming with her was that they took much longer to reach the castle.
By the time she was dressed in an evening gown and presentable, the sky was dark, and the great hall was empty. She ate alone and contemplated what she had learned the past few weeks about witches and magic.
***
Late in the evening, she was in the library, flipping through history books.
She had worked through a handful of writings over the last two centuries, and still hadn’t found anything interesting. But there had to be something, didn’t there? A reason for the old king to hunt down books and burn them. What secret was deemed too dangerous for the public to remember?
The books she had found so far were mostly just a summary of the different cultures found across the five kingdoms of Asteria. In fact, the only thing that was different from what her governesses had taught her was the occasional mention of witches in a positive light—here they were mostly described as healing and wise women who aided those in need.
Elizabeth pulled another text from the shelf and flipped through it. When she first saw the banned books in the library, she was overcome with curiosity, but now that she had been searching for weeks and still hadn’t found anything, her interest was slowly waning.
She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand.
Prior to the war in Faina last year, there hadn’t been a war in Asteria in over two hundred years. The last war of note was in Israr, a war that was said to have been short and brutal.
Other than those two instances, the entire continent had been at peace for over five hundred years. Before that, their history was marked with many long and bloody battles between humans and witches. It was well known that witches used their magic for the ill and battled humans for gold and resources. After the fighting ended, peace was made between the two peoples, and magic became an unsavoury thing, so much so that it was later made illegal to practice.
Flicking through the pages of the book in front of her to skip to the middle, she read for a little bit and yawned again. Giving up, she closed the book and put it back on the shelf.
As she slid it back onto the shelf, frustrated by another dead end, she noticed some older books, shelved higher up. She could tell they were older because the leather was worn, and the stamped letters on the spine were nearly illegible. Struck by a sudden curiosity, she fished out a chair and pushed it over to the shelf. Climbing onto the chair, she craned her neck and peered at the titles shelved up high.
Pulling out several books, one by one, she checked the publishing dates. All were written in the last two centuries. Huffing, she pushed the chair farther down the shelf and climbed up again. Stretching herself to see, she spotted a thick tome, nearly falling apart from age, and pulled it off the shelf. She flipped it open and, to her delight, discovered it was published four-hundred-and-fifty years ago.
Cradling it to her chest like it was made of glass, she stepped down and placed the book on the writing desk. The leather of the cover was falling apart and torn at the edges, much too delicate to read in a lounge chair. She opened the cover, the title page was obscured by a layer of dust. She leaned in and blew gently across the surface of the page. A cloud of dust flew into the air that made her cough.
She turned a page. The edges of the parchment looked gnawed on and uneven. The ink was spotty and blurred in places. She sniffed the musty pages.
The preface read,
The sixth edition of A History of Asteria was created to highlight recent events involving the demon wars.
Her heart flew into her throat.
Demon wars?
She hurriedly skimmed the table of contents and carefully flipped to the relevant chapter.
Until the year 607 AD, Asteria was plagued by demons and creatures born of evil. Demons would steal into towns to sow destructionand attack villagers, drinking blood and leaving bodies in their wake. Bodies drained of blood were left in alleys and forests, and chaos reigned across the land.
The Great War spanned five years and was a battle of epic proportions that waged between humans and creatures of darkness. Witches came from all over the continent to join the fight, and the war largely became a fight of magic—witches against demons. Also of note were war mages, magic users with gifts of fire and destruction, who led the charge. After a long and bloody final stand, humanity was victorious. Demons were wiped from our world, and peace was had by all.
Shortly after the Great War, leaders and advisors from across the five kingdoms met and decreed practitioners of dark magic—particularly the practice of demon summoning and any form of war magic—were not to be trusted, and that certain measures be implemented for the good of all humanity.
Elizabeth’s head snapped up, shock rocking her back in her chair.
The fighting over five hundred years ago hadn’t been humans against witches—it had been humans againstdemons, and witches had fought fortheirside.
That’s why they had burned the books, destroying the old histories.
