Chapter 19 #2
“It’s not exactly bothering…” I brandish the medical journal.
“I found a book with records of patients treated here at the temple all the way back during the Great Retribution. The devout who wrote it witnessed some of the events firsthand and spoke to other witnesses. It proves that we’ve been completely mistaken about the riven. ”
Tinom’s eyebrows shoot up. “How so?”
I have to fight to keep myself from babbling in my urgency.
“They’re not a punishment the All-Giver inflicted on humanity for daring to attempt scourge sorcery.
They were vessels chosen by the gods themselves to channel divine power!
No one’s ever really explained how the gods managed to rain down all that hail and fire when standard theology states that the godlen can only encourage people and other creatures to follow their will, not act directly on the mortal world.
I always assumed the All-Giver’s power allowed it under desperate circumstances. ”
The magic advisor’s expression hasn’t shifted, but his stance has stiffened. “Vessels,” he repeats. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
I wave the journal. “The first riven felt their souls torn open and heard divine voices telling them their service was needed to punish those who threatened the gods. Then magic rushed through them—calling down the hail, sparking the fires, shattering the buildings… And once the Great Retribution was finished, their souls stayed open like that—like a conduit. The devouts here tried to heal them, but they had no idea what to do.”
“Perhaps it was a punishment as well then, that the gods let the effect linger.”
I frown. “That wouldn’t make sense, unless we believe the All-Giver and the godlen are purposefully cruel.
Why would they punish the people who helped them the most?
As far as we know, they never imposed their will on any person that strongly before…
It could be that there simply was no way to reverse it. ”
Tinom holds out his hand, and I offer the journal automatically. He flips through a few pages. “This is all really conjecture.”
“I don’t think you’d see it that way if you read the accounts. The way the patients describe what happened to them, the witnesses confirming that they never displayed gifts like this before—none of them had any significant madness yet despite being adults.”
Another memory flashes to the front of my mind. “Ivy’s even told us—when Kosmel talked to her last, he said something about making up for the damage the gods have done. We didn’t understand what he was referring to. He must have meant her being riven at all!”
Tinom grunts. He drifts through the room, still considering the journal, and stops by the hearth.
I only have an instant for panic to kick in before he’s tossed the aged book into the flames.
A yelp bursts from my lips. I throw myself forward, already reaching toward the fire, ready to burn my hands as badly as my face if I can retrieve the precious pages.
Tinom steps in front of me and shoves me backward. I trip over my feet and only catch myself on a side table just in time to avoid landing on my ass.
When I launch myself at him again, this time he eases aside. But we both gaze into the fire to see the book has already disintegrated into embers.
“What in the realms are you doing?” I demand, my voice rasping up my throat. “We needed that book to prove—”
Tinom speaks with an unsettling calm. “There’s nothing to prove. All we had was potentially biased reports and speculation.”
“Biased reports? Those were eyewitnesses to the catastrophe—at the very least, they confirm that the first riven weren’t born that way. They were transformed directly by the gods for a purpose. We could have had clerics appeal to the gods for further signs to support—”
“To what end?” Tinom asks quietly.
I stare at him for a moment before I recover my words through my rage. “How can you even ask that? So we can tell the world that people like Ivy don’t deserve to be shunned. There’s nothing shameful about how they came to be. They should be helped, not executed.”
The magic advisor lets out a soft huff. “It sounds to me as if you’re thinking with your groin rather than your brain, young man. If you weren’t entwined with one of the riven, would you even care?”
The accusation stings because it comes with a jab of guilt. I can’t say the subject would matter quite as much to me if Ivy wasn’t in my life. But all the same...
“Perhaps I wouldn’t care as urgently, but I would still want the truth to be known.
They aren’t criminals. They don’t deserve what they’ve faced.
If we were prepared to help them adapt to their riven souls rather than executing them on discovery, they might make this world better rather than worse. ”
Tinom shrugs. “There are far fewer of them now than there ever were. The fear runs deep. Telling people a thing can’t erase their ingrained emotions. We’re dealing with enough troubles without confusing all Silana’s people over their beliefs, making them feel guilty for a past they can’t change.”
I have to pry my gritted teeth apart. “What about the people who’ll keep getting hurt? You’d consign Ivy to that fate after everything she’s done for the kingdom?”
Tinom fixes me with a look so unwavering it sends a chill coursing under my skin.
“I accept your paramour because she’s amply proven that, for now, she has her magic under control, and because she could make the difference between seeing the Melchioreks retake the throne and letting Lothar win.
That doesn't mean I trust her for more than the next few days.”
As I grope for an effective retort, he spins on his heel. “If you care about peace in Silana, you won’t mention what you just told me to anyone. Not even your lover.”
He stalks out of the room, leaving his last statement ringing in my ears like a threat.