Page 217

"Not much."

"Good." She pulls a fresh sheet of parchment toward her. "Tell me only facts."

I think. "Several reports from the Archive were dated within eighteen months of 417." She writes. "Some described manifestation interruption." Writes. "Some described ward irregularities." Writes. "Some used versions of the broken-circle symbol."

She pauses. "Versions?"

"One drawing Cassian found had a different lower line."

Cassian points toward me from across the room. "I maintain that was my greatest contribution so far."

Nyra ignores him. "Anything else?"

"Professor Neris said official history records nothing important happening that year."

Nyra finally looks up. "That is not a fact."

"She said it." I argue. "That is a fact."

She taps the page. "That nothing happened is an interpretation." I stare at her.

Cassian smiles smugly. "She's terrifying now."

Nyra underlines official history. Twice. "People remember wars." She says. "Famines. Coronations. Plagues." She leans back. "They rarely remember the year something began quietly." Something cold moves along my arms.

For the next two hours we search. Not restricted texts. Ordinary ones. That's the clever part. Public histories. Agricultural records. Trade journals. Botanical catalogues. Student dissertations. Anything the Council considered harmless enough to leave accessible. Nyra's theory is simple. If something happened in 417 it would have affected more than official reports. The world would have reacted. Even if historians didn't.

Cassian finds the first anomaly. Not in a magical text. In shipping records. He slams one finger onto the page. "Here."

Nyra nearly knocks over her tea reaching him. "What?"

"Exports."

I move closer. The ledger lists grain shipments from several villages across Varethia. Nothing unusual. Until..."That's a significant drop." I say.

Cassian nods. "Thirty-one percent."

Nyra's eyes narrow. "Across all villages?"

"No." He turns the book. "Only villages near western ward lines."

Silence. No famine listed. No drought. No disease. Just...Less grain.

"Why?" Nyra asks.

Cassian flips the page. "Official explanation says soil exhaustion."

Nyra is already reaching for the botanical records. Twenty minutes later she finds something else. "There was no soil exhaustion." I look up. Nyra has three botanical journals spread around her. "Harvest reports show normal root health."

"So the crops grew?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Then where did they go?"

"No idea."

Cassian leans over her shoulder. "Pests?" He suggests.