45. Chapter 45 #2
“When blood is sacrificed, the stronger our magic becomes,” she said as she cut the palm of her hand and breathed in the blood.
Soon she disappeared and materialized next to a guard by the door.
We gasped in unison as she stabbed her dagger into the guard’s neck and breathed in the misted blood before the body dropped to the floor.
She disappeared again before rematerializing behind Fyom with her dagger aimed at his jugular artery.
“The more blood, the more we accomplish.”
“So you’ll kill your own for your own gain?” I asked.
“Only when necessary.” She smiled as she walked back to her seat, her appearance transforming back to what it was before.
“Why blood?” Ora asked.
Addis tilted her head at her. “You’re curious.”
Ora shifted in her seat before I cut in. “She’s not. It’s a simple question.”
Addis redirected her red eyes to me. “Because it’s where magic lies.
Wielding lies within our blood. Defines who we are.
Makes family lines great—or it can weaken them.
You all focus on the hierarchy of magic, but those who know Graevick…
well, he knew magic was true power. But the keys you speak of—that is something we can agree on with The High Seven.
They were created when the original Wielding was broken. ”
Fyom spoke up. “How much truth is there to these tales?”
I wanted to wipe the smile off Addis’s face as she continued.
“You call them tales, but we have a firsthand account. Graevick’s Stone—given by Mother Giantess herself—was the conduit for all Wielding.
She imbued it with the full power of the giants for Graevick to use as he saw fit, creating the first Wielders.
“Your stories focus on his madness, but he was simply deceived. He spent his remaining days trying to unlock control over life and death—and failed, but it wasn’t he who broke our Wielding.
The illicitus was released when the stone itself shattered into separate pieces.
The ripple effect weakened each generation after, leaving us able to control only one aspect of our Wielding ability. A punishment from the giants.”
“And how do you know this is all true? You sound so sure of yourself.”
Addis leaned in, eyes wild. “Deric’s journal.
He witnessed Graevick’s Stone break firsthand and felt the power of both the Life and Death Stones—equal in nature, opposite in force.
One cannot exist without the other. Think of what we could accomplish with them.
Battles won, history rewritten—without waiting for the rare chance a Life or Death Wielder is born.
Theory holds that whoever carries a key controls its essence directly.
The Life Key grants power over life and longevity; the Death Key, over death itself—even without the natural ability to Wield it. ”
She was wrong. Who had the hubris to think they could be one of the giants and wield anyone’s destiny? Where was the balance if a select few dictated life for all? I stood by my resolve that no one should be able to Wield this kind of power.
It helped knowing that we were not searching for actual keys. But knowing there was a rock broken into pieces somewhere made my heart fall. The keys were made from a damn stone? My last remnant of hope crashed all the more when I realized restoring anything was an impossible task.
A strange, cold sensation slithered across my mind, sending chills through my body.
“You said the journal accounts for this, but does Deric mention where he put them?” Ora asked, fiddling with a rogue string on her cuff.
Sun Killer rang again in my head as I looked at her, then quickly shook my head.
“No. Only that he hid them in a cave.”
I quickly looked at Peiro, recalling his story from so long ago. He must have been thinking the same, as his eyes narrowed intensely at Addis. Could it be that Peiro had been in the same cave when he and his men were attacked?
Addis stared at me expectantly as I started to speak. “This journal. We request to read it so we may learn more about the keys themselves.”
“And what do I get out of this?” Addis’s eyebrow flinched.
My fingers twitched in annoyance, my illicitus threatening to surge forward. “What do you want?”
Just becoming someone else’s pawn, the ink whispered in the back of my mind.
Addis quickly turned to Fyom. “Get him to take the Oath and it will be yours.”
“No,” Ora gasped at the exact same time Fyom said, “Done.”
He refused to look at anyone as his declaration echoed throughout the room. I must have not heard him right.
“What? You can’t be serious!” I roared in his direction.
“Pa!” Uriah’s voice shook in disbelief.
“I said it’s done.” His green eyes shone brightly but it wasn’t anger in them—it was determination.
He turned his attention back to Addis as he said, “I will take your Oath, but not until the girls have not only had a chance to read the journal, but have learned what actions to take after they’ve garnered its words. ”
“Fine, but you will be bound to your word by blood.” Addis produced another knife from midair and swiped it across her palm, producing another thin line of blood before handing it to Fyom.
“Fyom, stop.” I moved to his side, panic rising in my voice. “We can figure out something else. We don’t need her.”
“Pa, please. Don’t,” Uriah urged as he pulled on his father’s shoulder.
Our words fell on deaf ears as Fyom sliced his palm and clasped hands with Addis. My heart plummeted watching my friend sacrifice his own way of life to something that would soon corrupt his spirit. I didn’t even want to think of how his eyes would turn from the brightest of greens to bloodred.
“It’s done,” he said again with force. “Now give us the journal.”
Uriah fumed toward Addis. “You’re a bigger bitch than I thought.”
Ora whimpered as her eyes stayed glued on Fyom’s and Addis’s joined hands. From the air, Addis produced a worn piece of bound leather that had seen better days. For a precious artifact, it wasn’t as taken care of as I had expected.
“As promised,” Addis hissed between her teeth and placed the journal into Fyom’s large hand.
He quickly opened the covers, the pages within so brittle that it was amazing it still held together. Immediately his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Pa? What’s wrong?” Uriah leaned over his father’s shoulder.
Fyom looked up at Addis, whose smile gleamed. “The damn thing is written in Feodean. You knew I wouldn’t be able to translate it.”
“Deric was from that time period, obviously.” She huffed.
“You tricked him.” Ora rounded the table and produced a ribbon of magic, sending it to pull around Addis’s neck, the imagery so similar to my shadows turning into their whips. The glowing ribbon tightened as it burned into her skin. Addis hissed against the pain and fought to catch her breath.
“Ora! Stop!” I yelled, throwing my body into her arm to break the connection. The ribbon whipped against my skin, causing a fiery welt to appear. “Fuck.” I looked to Addis and saw her coughing for air as a thick band of red, scalded skin circled her neck.
Addis’s red eyes glared as she stood abruptly, causing her chair to tumble back as she called forth a wind tunnel inside of her palm. Her Wielding felt foreign and called my own to stir uncontrollably.
“Only the Endromeons Wield Sun magic. Who are you?” She hissed in Ora’s direction. I watched in terror as Addis cut into her arm and drew strength from some unknown force we couldn’t see that caused the wind tunnel in her hand to swirl faster, the force pulling the furniture closer to her.
Everything turned gray as my illicitus rapidly rose, ready to take the morphed lifesource within Addis the moment she moved to attack my sister.
“Stop this!” Uriah bellowed and ran to block his mother’s attack, pushing her against the wall.
“Everyone calm down!” Fyom boomed. “She too made a promise, as she completed the chinsaya—she still has to fulfill her part before I complete mine. Now everyone sit down!”
We all righted ourselves but refused to sit. Addis looked at us as she fixed her chair and sat back down, the seared skin on her neck already in the process of healing. She held a shaking finger in Ora’s direction. “Now explain who you are and how you did that.”
“Looks like the ruse is up, ladies.” Peiro’s voice sounded gravely and hoarse, sending the sinking fear deeper that the thing inside of him was taking control. My breath caught the moment he finally braved a look at me; the brown in his other eye now held a ring of silver.
Ora looked menacingly to Addis. “Queen Aurora Endromeon. The pleasure is all mine.”