The plans for the vessel card begin to take shape, the recipe for the ink solidifying more and more confidently in my mind. But the voids in the drawing remain. There are negative spaces between the lines on the card, and I can’t decide if they’re intentional or simply a gap in my recollection. I try to recall everything I can. Mother’s face, outlined by candlelight, her mouth moving…But the words she whispered are gone, as elusive as the shapes she was trying to teach me. I curse myself but carry on, hoping that one day the memories will click back into place.
Eventually I go to Vaduin myself, rather than using Gregor as our go-between for Worldkeeper matters.
His office is cold as always. The fireplace stands neglected. But the man is hunched over his desk—inking supplies scattered—and is wearing only a light coat even though fall is already beginning to seep into winter.
“How is she doing?” Vaduin asks about Arina, his tone compassionate enough.
“As well as can be expected.” Which is to say not very well at all. “Thank you again for lending your healers.”
He nods, and I’m glad that he doesn’t press his point, yet again, that maybe it would’ve been for the best for me to leave her with them. But given what I hear about Emilia digging deeper underground in Eclipse City—wherever she can find an entry—I feel slightly vindicated. It’s good that Arina isn’t being moved constantly.
“You’re not here for her.” His eyes flick my way, leaving his current inking.
“I’m not.”
That gets his attention. He sets down the long-handled brush he prefers to use to ink his cards. “You found it.”
I nod. “I know how to make the ink for the vessel card.”
“You’re sure?”
I nod again.
“What was the missing ingredient?”
“I think my mother would’ve preferred I keep that a secret until I can impart it to the next leader of the Worldkeepers.” I smile slightly, knowing he won’t argue, given who Mother was to them.
“Was it Kaelis who helped you?”
“Yes, actually.”In a way, at least…
He leans back in his chair in surprise. “You still trust him, then?”
“Yes.” Even as I say it, there’s still a streak of doubt in me that I ignore. “Do you think I shouldn’t?”
“I think he destroyed an entire clan with a reversed card.” Vaduin’s words turn harsher than I’ve ever heard from him.
The remark comes out of nowhere. He doesn’t know yet that reversed cards are the secret ingredient for the vessel. Why bringthatup out of all the reasons for me to possibly not trust Kaelis? Unless…
“How do you know it was a reversed card?” I tilt my head and avoid pointing out how strange the comment is. Gregor said he got the card from Ravin’s workshop, but what if that was a lie? Or maybe a half-truth. What if another Worldkeeper was the one to find it? I can think of several ways they could maneuver him for their benefit when it comes to me.
“Everyone knows it was,” he dodges with ease.
I don’t let him off so easily. “You said that with more confidence than mere royal gossip.”
“I had my suspicions…Enough that I conducted my own research into what happened that day.” He taps his desk and shakes his head with a noise of disgust. “You see a card reverse, and you know what the destruction it brings looks like. You should know by now as well as I.”
I don’t let the reference to Jura or Kel throw me off. “Clan Hermit was an unfortunate accident.”
“Not at that scale,” he says coldly. “There can only be one explanation for what happened that day.”
I press my lips into a firm line. He’s going out of his way to sow doubt between Kaelis and me. No matter what, the Worldkeepers will never trust the prince, that much grows clearer to me by the day.
Vaduin aptly assesses that he’s getting no more from me on this, given my expression, and shifts the topic. “Since you have completed the task given to you, we’ll plan for the initiation. All Coins Day is swiftly approaching. We can only initiate new Worldkeepers during the apexes of the seasons, when the magic of that season is at its peak. Gregor is close enough to completing his task as well. We’ll plan to take you both to the Stone Citadel at the same time.”
“The Stone Citadel?” I echo.
“The ancestral home of the Worldkeepers. We risk going there only for initiations…and to ink the vessel.”
