“Let’s take this to the spire room,” Isa said, brandishing the scroll at me.
“Excellent idea, but let’s use my spire, not the one over the library.”
“Why? The library room is so comfortable.”
“Mine is better. I promise.” I led the way upstairs and through my suite. We climbed past my private study to the top level of the tower.
“You don’t have any furniture in here,” Isa exclaimed when she stepped into the room. “How is this more comfortable?”
The spire room was my escape from all duties. When I had decorated it, I hadn’t wanted a desk or even chairs in my rarely used haven. It was also the room I had taken to using when I slept since my transformation.
Cushions, pillows, and blankets covered the floor. I could throw myself down anywhere and feel like I landed on a cloud. I leapt into my favorite nest of blankets over a velvet pillow. “No judging until you try it. Sit down and then tell me that a chair is better.”
Isa lowered herself onto a cushion, her spine straight as steel. I waited, and sure enough, she slouched down, pulling a pile of pillows behind her and relaxing within a minute.
“Told you.”
“Fine, you were right. Now let’s get to work.”
Work was exactly what I had set out to ban from this room, but it was worth bringing it in now. The scroll in Isa’s lap was potentially a breakthrough that could lead to breaking the curse. Seeing her so comfortable in my domain also satisfied me on a level I didn’t want to inspect too closely.
I moved over to Isa’s side. “Let’s see it.”
She unrolled the scroll and began to read.
Aspekts of Binding
He who doth contain the binding, in primary form, if he giveth of hisself unto another in harte or body, by thought, deed, or word, shall confer the inherent aspekts as follows:
The more Isa read, the more apparent it became that this scroll was the answer to how Lady Cecily had used node power. I barely followed the archaic language, but I knew that much. Aspekts of Binding meant a node-tie.
“Tsy save me,” I muttered when she finished reading. “People have been able to gain access to the Truthholder node without a blood-tie for hundreds of years and we didn’t know.”
“I wonder when the knowledge was lost. And how no one stumbled across it accidentally. If I’m reading this right, your mother had a node-tie because she married your father.”
“Why would Valois write this, though? He specifically says only the primary tie-holder can grant these aspekts of binding. He wasn’t married, nor did he have a lover at that point in his life from what I’ve read in Sebastien’s journals. His daughter-in-law wouldn’t have gained a node tie until after he died, when her husband became the duke. And what difference would it have made? She could invoke the Truths he created just by living in the castle.”
Isa let the scroll roll up, tapping it against her leg. “Proxies.”
I blinked at her. “Proxies?”
“In the Contract of Inheritance, it mentions that you have to assign a proxy if you plan to leave Rose Castle grounds for an extended period. Instead of a sibling or cousin, the primary tie-holder could assign the power of proxy to their spouse thanks to the aspekts of binding. I bet that was why Valois wrote it.”
“He wouldn’t have kept it a secret then. So why did the knowledge that the title-holder’s spouse would have a node tie fade away?”
Isa raised a brow. “Because this scroll doesn’t specify that aspousegets the aspekts of binding. ‘Harte or body, by thought, deed, or word,’” Isa quoted. “It doesn’t take wedding vows to trigger this Truth. If everyone knew about it, then any time a random person showed signs of having a node-tie, everyone would know about their relationship with the primary tie-holder.”
“Huh.” That should have occurred to me sooner. After all, I hadn’t married Cecily, and she had gained a node-tie. “I wonder if that is the real reason the family customarily doesn’t hire maids. Not because the castle stays clean through magic, but because my ancestors couldn’t hide their affairs successfully. Or I bet there was a generation where almost every maid gained a node-tie, which would be disconcerting at the least.”
“I don’t think it ever would have been that bad.”
“You have more faith in my ancestors than I.”
“No, I read the scroll more carefully. Only one person can gain the aspekts of binding at a time. Though I suppose it would beequally disconcerting to always know who had shared the duke’s bed most recently. That would have only happened with an unmarried duke, however. I think.” Isa unrolled the scroll once more. She scanned the page, then tapped one paragraph. “Yes, I think this means that marrying someone would trump everything else.”
I read the part she pointed out and shook my head. “I’ll take your word for it. Did you see anything that explained how to retract the aspekts of binding once given? I didn’t, but that doesn’t mean much.”
She shook her head. “No. Apart from conferring the aspekts on someone else, I saw nothing about removing them.”
