Chapter 34
By the time I made it back to the market, the sun had set and the twin moons were on their opposing horizons. Askel had already finished packing and was sitting on the edge of the empty stone fountain, Nala’s reins in his fist.
He peered up as I approached, jumping to his feet. “Oh thank Hel; I was worried.”
I gave him a sad smile, accepting the reins from his hands and guiding Nala toward the exit.
“How did it go with Otho?” he asked once we were out of the main square, which had a tendency to echo secrets to any who wanted to hear.
“As well as can be expected,” I answered honestly. “Otho is still undecided, but he let me leave with the book I’d hidden.”
“And the others?”
“Burned or in Shianp,” I said with a sigh, careful to guide the horse around a loose stone tile on the road ahead of us. “We will have to make do with what we have.”
“And a meeting space?” he pushed and I could feel his nervousness.
“Milo said he will talk to the mill owner; he’s got enough room inside the mill for about fifty people. Beyond that, he can’t think of anything.”
Askel’s lips twisted. “Is your brother well?”
“Yes.” I allowed all of the pressure to drain from my shoulders.
It had been a struggle to face both Milo and Otho in the same day.
“He’s working with Sullie as a merchant.
Helene doesn’t love it, but its work.” I left out the part where Helene had sneered at me the entire time I was there.
It was painfully obvious that she blamed me for introducing Milo to the merchant business, but as far as I could see, the alternative was to starve, so she should be more kind in her reactions.
“Well, at least we’re moving forward, with or without Otho.” He rubbed the non-existent hair on his chin.
“I know, it’s just . . . hard,” I admitted.
“I didn’t really believe in weighteds when I first learned of them, but .
. . it’s a challenge to be in his presence sometimes—to remain angry at him.
” My mind drifted to another thought, one I’d become curious about but didn’t have the answer to.
“Askel, would you be willing to learn to seek?”
His brows furrowed as he glanced at me before looking back to the road. “I thought seeking was a born affinity?”
“It might be,” I said. “But so much of what I thought was real lately has turned out to be the opposite. What if seeking can be taught just as reading can and the early seekers were worried that seeking would turn into a war if too many people knew how to do it? What if all of what we were taught is still merely about control?”
He was silent, and I knew I’d given him something big to think about. “That could be.”
“Until everyone has magic, I’m only trusting what I’ve tested myself, seeking abilities included.”
“Fair enough,” he replied with a smirk. “Well, I’m ready to learn when you’re ready to teach me.”
“We will start tonight.”
We walked in silence the rest of the way home.
The following days blurred into one as we worked to pull everything together for our magic lessons. We’d been offered the mill for a teaching space—seeing as there wasn’t enough work to keep up with what they’d offered during the war—and we’d accepted.
It wasn’t quite as large as I’d hoped, but Askel had gone with me to work out the details, and his face lit up with excitement as I showed him around.
We would make the best of it.
The bulk of our time was split between the garden, which grew far more than we could harvest just the two of us.
We’d asked around town regarding individuals looking for work, and we now had two assistants helping us harvest and sell at the market.
One was Emmett, my former classmate, whom had fallen on tough times since our school days, and the other was a young woman by the name of Cyr, who was barely more than a child, but she was a hard worker, taking every coin she made home to her mother, who was pregnant for the second time since Adis had been eliminated, her father having fallen at the frontlines.
The rest of my time I split between training with Askel, and making clothes from what Signa had left behind.
Almost everything had been repurposed now, and thought I was still partial to wearing breeches, I had made myself a few nice skirts, and a corset top that was cooler on the warm days than the long sleeved shirts I’d purchased in the mountain town.
Training with Askel was a light in the dark nights, when I found myself unable to sleep over worry for Otho, my brother, and the future of the Seid.
While he still trained me in combat from time to time, much of our time was devoted to trying to draw the seeking power out of him and both of our magics.
Unlike me, he struggled to find that dark part inside of him where magic glowed, and I realized that I truly had been blessed with the ability to quiet my mind.
I believed it had something to do with my upbringing, from having to hide myself from the world for too long, but I didn’t vocalize that to Askel.
The rest of the little time we had left was devoted to going door to door, inviting people to learn magic. While almost all of the remaining Seid families met us with enthusiasm, many of the non-Seid families sent us away without an answer.
Which is how we ended up with a mill packed to the brim with eager learners. Not only had the Seid families that remained in Ralheim come as promised, but many of the non-Seid families had decided to attend and see what the magic was all about.
Askel lined people up on the floor first, then we moved to standing room only, and there was still a crowd outside of the door. We tried our best to fit everyone, but in the end, we sent several home, promising we would have a larger space next time, and I hoped we weren’t lying.
The lesson went well, though some were annoyed that we were teaching them to read instead of reading the magic to them, especially one young woman who wined as we went over the symbols Askel had scribbled on the wall for the “umpteenth time.”
My eyes flickered to Askel before addressing her snide comment.
“As long as the knowledge is limited, it can be controlled,” I explained, fighting to keep the annoyance off my face.
“By giving everyone the information, we make it difficult to control and impossible to eliminate. After all, they can’t kill all of us. ”
Silence dropped over the room, and I chewed my lip nervously.
We hadn’t planned to disclose the next part of our plan so soon, but I knew the people needed to know.
“As soon as we have more readers, we plan to work on acquiring more books and creating a library, so everyone can learn whatever magic they want, when they want.”
“But, ma’am . . .” An older man spoke up from the back, and I deduced he wasn’t of Seid heritage. “We heard the books are limited and no one knows where they come from. How can you acquire more?”
“We are still working on the details,” I admitted, “but besides reading, and becoming what the Seid call a ‘reader,’ there is a talent called seeking, and individuals who are seekers can locate more books. It will take a while to do so, but we plan to have lessons for that too.” My gaze found Askel, who winced, likely at the memory of how slow his own learning was progressing.
A thin, blonde-haired woman about my age, seated in the front, raised her hand and I dipped my chin to grant her permission to speak. “Will there be coven meetings soon?”
I smiled, sadly. “The Seid never meant for magic to be a divisor, or something secret. It was always supposed to be knowledge and tools given to all. Covens have only divided us in the past. We want to move forward as one people where everyone is given a voice, not merely the elite few.”
“But what of the Eastwood’s coven, miss? Do they know of this?”
The voice came from the back, and I took a deep breath, fighting to maintain my composure as I explained, “Not yet. We hope to make a connection with them, and that they will agree with our plan. But we have been unable to locate any members of their coven to speak with.” It wasn’t a lie.
The only Eastwood’s coven member I knew was Leif, and he was still on the run, or in hiding.
“If anyone knows anyone from the Eastwood’s coven, please let me know. ”
Again, the room fell silent and I turned back to the wall, back to my teaching, ignoring the disappointment swirling in my stomach. It was a struggle to etch the symbols on the wooden wall with chalk, but as I walked and pointed to each one, it was inspiring to hear them pronounced back to me.
Everyone was learning.
The rest of the meeting went without interruption, though some individuals did grumble when they left without magic, though we did promise they would have some magic soon.
Askel stood next to me, nodding good night to everyone as they exited. “Maybe next time we should read to them, to quell the discontentment.”
“Maybe.” I tilted my head to the side. “But I really want to have an entire generation of readers that can teach their children. And the children after that. If I read them magic one time, some may not come back.”
“I did,” he argued.
I dug my elbow into his side. “We can’t all be the perfect Captain Askel.”
A throat clearing interrupted us. I spun toward the open door, my throat constricting as my gaze drank in the man who stood there. The only man in this world that I longed for even though we didn’t see eye to eye.
Before I could open my mouth to speak, he held a book in my direction.
“I . . . I lied before,” he admitted with a sigh.
“I burned all but this one. I don’t know why but .
. . it called to me.” He kept his gray eyes focused on the packed dirt beneath our boots.
“I know I’ve said it a lot, Runa, but I am sorry. For . . . everything.”
I accepted the book, raising an eyebrow at Askel, who was inching along the wall toward the exit.
“So, you’ve decided to cross to my side of the line?”
“I have.” His gray eyes met mine at last and I almost melted at what I saw there.
“I still don’t know if the course you’ve chosen is the right one, but .
. . it’s a better one than the path I was on.
” His voice was hoarse with emotion. “You were right. I was choosing the same path that led to a Purge—that led to my mother’s death.
I can’t, in good conscious, pursue that path.
It’s time to try something new, even if I don’t see the benefit now, because it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a benefit down the line. ”
My hand was on my mouth, and I couldn’t find any words.
They’d all escaped me. As had the anger, which had prevented me from forgiving him for his lie of omission.
My lungs, which had been constricted since that day in the throne room, finally expanded.
I inhaled a deep breath of air, every corner of my body and soul relaxing to the scent of Otho.
I didn’t know what to say, how to tell him what him coming here meant to me.
So, I did the only thing I could think of and placed my hands on either side of his head, pressing my lips to his.