36. Leah #3
As I talk, something occurs to me. The ephilium realm has been suffering a lot from a mysterious disaster recently: the blight.
What if the reason they can’t find its source is because it’s coming from somewhere completely unexpected?
Maybe it’s tied to whatever’s wrong with the Dawnheart?
But the ephilium have been keeping the blight a secret, making me hesitant to tell Strickland the details.
“I’m afraid I can’t involve Aradis for the same reason I couldn’t permit Lord Syrus to join us down here,” Strickland says.
“Doing so risks the Concords. If the ephilium knew the Dawnheart was compromised, who knows what they might decide to do? I can’t even discuss this with them, let alone let them anywhere near the collateral if they wanted to examine it. ”
I exhale, seeing the bind that Strickland is in. None of the realms can trust each other, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
“So why am I here?” I ask tensely.
“I have no magic, Leah,” Strickland says, holding up his hands.
“And while there are people in Strata who dabble in such things, it sounds like you know as well as I that they’re dangerous and unhinged.
What I need is someone powerful who I can trust. Someone, maybe, with a unique connection to the power of the Everlight and the shadows of the Abiding Dark.
That could be what we need to find out what’s wrong with the collateral and maybe even fix it. ”
There’s so much to unravel there, but I seize on the first thing that comes to mind.
“You talk about the light and the dark—is something wrong with the Mantle too?”
He nods, moving back toward the box. “I’m worried that whatever’s affecting the Dawnheart is spreading to the Mantle. It’s been sluggish lately.”
I stare back down at the swirl of shadows in the box. “It seems to be moving fine now.”
I can feel Strickland’s eyes on me. “You must have felt it. Both objects reacted the moment you got near them. It proves my theory—your magic is aligned with the collateral. You’re the person to help us.”
He’s right—the collateral responded to my presence, just like I responded to their presence the moment I got deep enough into this house to sense them.
Strickland seems to read my thoughts, continuing.
“When I met you on the stairs the other day, I wondered if maybe you’d been…
drawn there. It gave me hope. I’ve been so desperate for some help in this.
” He drags a hand over his face, and suddenly I think he looks very tired and, more than that, afraid.
Strickland is terrified, I realize, and it makes my heart go out to him.
“And then today the wardens from the walls came to tell me that my house guests were out on the plains, and one of them had done the impossible, combining lightning and shadow.” He drops his hand, eyes shining as he fixes his gaze on me.
“And then it turns out that she’s Stratan, born and raised, and so may have even more of a stake in saving us than I dared to believe. ”
I exhale. “That’s…a lot, Thadeus.”
He laughs, a strained, self-aware sound. “Yes. It is.”
“I want to help,” I say, “I really do, but…” Searching for the right words is hard under Strickland’s desperate gaze.
Finally, my answer just comes spilling out of me.
“I didn’t even know I had magic six months ago.
All of this is new to me. I don’t really know what I am.
How am I supposed to help you save a whole realm when I’m not even sure which realm I belong to? ”
His gaze softens a touch, and he nods. “I’m sorry for putting so much on you, Leah. But you can’t deny that your powers are special—or that there’s an affinity between you and the collateral. Just look.”
He points to the box between us, and I see that the shadows inside are dancing even more now. It’s mesmerizing, and we both watch it for a moment.
“Touch it,” he says, and when my eyes widen, he smiles. “Don’t worry. It’s safe. It would’ve rather defeated the point of the Concords to give us something that would harm us to handle.”
I have to admit, I want to touch the shadow, just like I’ve been drawn toward this chamber.
I dangle my fingers into the box, letting the tips brush against the edge of the swirling darkness.
The prickling of my demon magic shoots into my hand in an instant—and just as fast, the shadows in the box condense and thicken.
I gasp as they transform into a glittering black fabric, slippery beneath my touch, still swirling inside the box like it’s trapped underwater.
For a moment, I glimpse the Mantle properly, the curve of its hood, and the flash of runes embroidered on its hem. Then I jerk my hand back, and it disintegrates into shadow again, curling around the box like a cloud of smoke.
“It’s never done that before,” Thadeus breathes, an excitement beaming on his face that makes me both pleased and anxious.
There was a time I thought I’d turned my back on Strata for good. Now maybe my job is to save it.