Serg tapped at it lightly. “This is only a guess on my end, but I believe you are being hunted.”
Everything stilled. “Hunted?”
“Yes, but not physically. I’ve only seen a case like this once, long before I learned my craft. A woman in Aramoor had been possessed, coughed up the same substance, body chilled to the touch. The only difference was that she never woke up.”
“She’s not being possessed,” Kane mumbled beneath his breath.
Erinna snapped her attention to him. “And how would you know? Are you the doctor?”
Kane looked at her with an astounding level of patience. In a few steps, he was at the bed next to Serg.
“I know because of this.” He tapped her hand lightly to remind her of their pact. The piece of her power he held.
“She is not technically possessed, but I think something is trying. And it may be connected to that curse.”
“I see.” Serg frowned and turned to Erinna. “Have you heard of a Realm Walker?”
Erinna shook her head. Great, another term she didn’t know.
“They are people who can glimpse the Realm Beyond, that have an affinity to see into worlds connected to our own. It’s rare but not unheard of.”
“They’re like me,” chimed Inez, earning a nod from Serg. A type of aberrant. A type of diviner.
Erinna took another sip, attempting to ease her nerves as she filed the information away. “What does this mean for me?”
“Well, if you can see into another realm, then something else can see you. The curse may be making it easier for those beyond to find you.”
Erinna’s head swam with the information. She supposed it made sense and explained her Talent to some degree. But it didn’t feel right.
“No.”
Everyone turned to Kane. “She’s not a Realm Walker. She’s a gravewitch.”
That’s right. That’s what Raye called her, the memory coming back in broken fragments.
For the first time, she saw Serg’s eyes widen in surprise. It did not make her feel reassured. “It is far worse then.”
“Okay, enough, tell me what’s happening.”
Serg turned to Kane, and Erinna grumbled internally. It was just her luck that he continued to know more about her own power than she did.
“You not only see into the Realm Beyond, you can touch it, manipulate it. And as untrained as you are, you can get lost in it or bring something worse back with you.”
She hated to admit it made sense. With everything that happened so far, the curse, her resurgence of power, the Weeping Queen, it seemed to be the most plausible explanation.
“So what do I do?”
“I’ll give you more tea. The one Inez gave you was mixed with a small narcotic meant to aid sleep. It can naturally dampen a mage’s power, but eventually the body adjusts. I’ll give you a larger dose, but it is only temporary.”
“A tea to dampen power?” Such a thing existed? How had it not made its way to Tarth’s shores?
“It doesn’t have much effect on a trained mage, and it’s”—Serg looked at Kane—“hard to come by.”
Of course he would have such a valuable item in his collection.
Serg fixed her with a hard stare. “I must stress that this is only temporary. I recommend you find some way to shield yourself against it.”
It was far easier said than done, but Erinna nodded.
