Chapter 23
Wren
The days pass in a blur of parchment. My nose burns with the scent of ink. My mind races constantly with my secret obsession. The shame of even searching…
I became a man possessed that night, watching Chiron and Vonetta in their sleep. They were so beautiful, awash in the glow of the fire. Sweat dampened skin, hair scattered like a wind swept through our chambers. And yet, I couldn’t leave the thought alone.
If the last representative of the land could just leave her Trinity without recourse, has a precedent been set for this?
Our origin stories have been recorded for centuries on the Isle of Men, and they always included something about the land withdrawing its bounty if the vows are abandoned.
However, my days in the familiar setting of the Athenaeum in Nerine have brought me nothing but more questions.
More sleepless nights and soul-wrenching guilt.
I knew that morning that I had made a grave mistake pulling away from Netta and Chiron, in refusing to attend their event at the Nephrys estate. Worse still, when I recoiled from Vonetta’s gentle touch. Likely the worst mistake of them all.
Neither of them deserved my refusal. Neither is to blame for the sins of the reigning Trinity.
Yet I have remained apart from them.
I lie facing the back of the settee; I cannot face them. My research has turned up nothing to either prove or disprove that one of the representatives can leave without consequence. That is worse than any answer at all.
So I resolve tonight to tell them. With the sky trial looming, we can delay no longer. The silence between us is growing thick with questions and hurt.
I have often been called singular-minded, my head in tomes and my mind on my academic pursuit.
But there is no question that my choice to seek out the answers to my compulsive question on my own has rifted us three.
We made vows, both at our meeting during the Rite and at every trial since.
No historical record can change that. I still need to know what my choices are.
But it has become clear that I can delay this no longer. No matter what their reaction is, I have to tell them what I’ve been looking for. The bonds at my shoulders grow heavier every day. Stretched thin and weightier than any chains. Tomorrow I will tell them.
Even if I cannot go, even if I cannot stay.