Jaw tensed, his gaze drifts to her lips. As swift as a blink, he takes her face in his hands and kisses her, slow and gentle this time. He lingers there on her mouth for a small, quiet eternity, before pulling away and releasing a sigh.
She touches her bottom lip, savoring the warmth. “Why did you do that?”
He gives her a sad smile. “To remember it all.”
When he walks away, it takes every bit of Claudia’s strength not to chase after him, take hold of his hand, and never let it go for the rest of their lives, however long that may be.
After hurrying into her room, she leans against the closed door, trying not to scream.
She needs to collect herself. She needs to tell High Sage Triche to ensure that Cassius begins his own ascension trials in a matter of days. She needs to—
She stops. Time itself stops.
There, on her pillow, is Odette’s whole diary.
November 5th
I found a clue.
We went back to Starlake, and I searched through Cassius’s library again. Finally, I found a book that gave me a shred of hope. It said that the gods can be summoned with their given name. If I could find Sidarphion’s true name—which is easier said than done considering that all evidence of him has been destroyed, and even the MacLeods’ personal library didn’t have an answer on it—I would be able to summon him.
And I knew just who to turn to: High Sage Triche.
He’s the closest anyone has come to godhood. Of course he would have to know the gods’ given names.
But I couldn’t simply ask him. I had to be smarter than that.
As a first-year, I’m not being taught how to cast yet, but I’ve always considered myself more advanced than most. I gave myself permission to learn faster than the others.
I stole a book from Professor Lamour’s classroom on linguistic magic, and I crafted the almost-perfect spell to get Triche to share the names of the gods with me.
For linguistic magic to work, the spell must be multivalent. It has to, in some way, mean multiple things. It can be palindromic, or an idiom, or even a poem. Ambiguity, wordplay, and multiple interpretations are the pillars of our magic. The more meanings or interpretations a phrase has, the more potent (and unfortunately unpredictable) the magic can be.
I’ve heard from the older Cygni that simple, short rhymes are the easiest place to start. Here is what I came up with:What are the given names of the gods? I know the titles are merely facades.
For someone who doesn’t really know what she’s doing, I think it’s quite clever.
I later spotted Triche across the Treaty, and his face was all redand flustered. He was storming out, clearly heading toward something urgent. I leapt from my chair and ran after him, catching up to him in the corridor. When I forced him into a conversation, he was obviously distracted, which was exactly what I was hoping for. If Triche was perfectly focused, he likely would’ve seen through my charm. But something else was on his mind, which meant I had an opportunity to strike.
Like Lamour always says, it’s all about kairos. You must find the perfect timing, and that’s exactly what I did. I watched his eyes flicker and his mouth twitch when my spell echoed in his mind. I knew I had done it. I’ll admit it did not work perfectly. He didn’t give me the names outright.
But he did say this:
- The gods’ given names are not as secret as you might think, Miss Dufort. Look at them closely and you’ll see the truth for yourself.
I spent hours writing and rewriting their names, waiting for something to become clear.
And it did.
Of course.
Of COURSE.
The names of the gods are not names at all. They’re clues carved from their given names.
They’re anagrams.
November 6th
