Chapter 17 #3
“I think… at the time even he didn’t fully understand what the curse would do to the world.
Maybe it was stored just in case things went wrong one day, and they needed to reverse it.
” I shrug. I’ve thought about it many times, and that’s the only explanation I’ve come up with.
“And then the secret of where they went were lost to time.”
“Wait…” Raef says, holding out a dramatic hand. “If the witch cast the curse in the Eternal Pit, how did she get down? The veil formed below that.”
“Probably took some time to form, giving her plenty of time to make her descent. She was seen for many years after, by the king’s side.”
“So, when did you find the account of how the curse was cast? How?” Raef questions.
“I stumbled upon it when I was only fourteen. It was in a dusty journal buried deep in the stacks. I knew I had found something very, very important. And dangerous. I didn’t tell a soul. For a while, I had no plans to do anything. I was merely a na?ve young child, after all. But then…”
I pause to take a drink.
“What?” Raef presses.
“A year or so later, my father took me on one of his journeys. Political stuff that he didn’t really fill me in on. And I saw… I saw how the rest of the land was suffering. Let’s put it that way.”
“Where did you go?”
“Moonstone.”
Their faces fall flat with understanding.
Moonstone used to be a thriving territory where the werewolves lived. It’s basically a giant graveyard now. I’m not even sure why my father took me through there all those years ago, but I still remember the cold, eerie, hollow feelings I felt as we rode through the desolate region.
They couldn’t survive without moonlight.
I nod somberly. “He brushed it off like it was nothing. That’s when I saw how truly terrible everything was.
I mean, I’ve always known things were very, very wrong.
I’m very in touch with Everrynd and all the beauty it holds.
The trees, the flowers the landscapes…” I take another sip.
“And it’s choking. The curse is slowly poisoning the land, and soon it will touch us all, even if it takes another thousand years.
So, I’ve been looking for any scraps of clues for a long time, and I haven’t had many breakthroughs until just the other day, when I found that passage in a cooking journal.
The answers always seem to be tucked away where no one would think to find them.
Makes me think someone did start censoring things for a while. ”
Daegan watches me again with those assessing, cold eyes. “So what, you have some sort of hero complex or something? You want to save the land for the glory? Or do you have plans to take your father’s place and be queen of the continent?”
“N—” I stammer, then pause, pinching my eyebrows together.
“No. None of those. I don’t… I don’t have any plans for after.
I hadn’t thought that far ahead, to be perfectly honest. And I have no aspirations for leadership.
It sounds terrible.” I take a deep breath and glance down into my ale.
“I’m no hero… I don’t even… I don’t think I can do this alone anymore. ”
“Then… why?” Daegan presses again.
“I just told you!” I nearly yell in frustration.
“Why is it so hard for you to grasp that maybe I just want to help people? Help the land? Everrynd is being poisoned down to its very root, and if we don’t do something, eventually everyone will die.
Maybe not anytime soon, but certainly in the future.
Even the elves. And I didn’t go looking for this, I’ll remind you.
It presented itself to me long ago, and I realized I was one of the few people who had a chance to give this a try.
I found probably the only existing documentation of how the curse was cast, and how it can be broken, and it sits deep in the possession of the one species the curse benefits over anyone else.
The people who convinced Ethmarel to cast it in the first place.
I couldn’t trust anyone. Not amongst the elves, anyway. It felt like… this destiny chose me.”
“You could have ignored it. Put it back on the shelf, or better yet, destroyed it and gone on about your life. Marry a handsome elvish knight, have a few elvish babies, and become queen one day.”
I don’t think he believes I’d do any of that at this point, so I don’t know why he keeps poking. Testing me, perhaps.
“That sounds terrible,” I mumble, admitting that to myself as well as them.
“And I would have never forgiven myself for not doing… something. And anyways, it’s rare if an elf has more than one child.
And that wouldn’t be for another… fifty years maybe.
” I shake my head, stopping myself from rambling.
“But like I said, I don’t want that anyway. ”
Something flashes in Daegan’s gaze as he watches me. He and Raef share a look, then hold their drinks up once more. “Allies?”
Daegan says it.
“Wait,” Raef interjects. “We need to offer up something to her. Trust goes both ways, right?”
“I just want to know one thing…”
They both watch me, waiting.
“I need to know that if we actually succeed, you won’t kill all of my people in revenge…” I say softly.
Daegan looks offended, and so does Raef. “Despite what you may think, we’re not murderous monsters.”
I raise an eyebrow at Daegan.
He clears his throat and glances down. “I apologize for the side of me you’ve seen. I’ve been acting out of desperation, and a bit of anger.”
I wait for him to continue, as it seems like there’s a story hanging from his lips, waiting to be spoken.
He locks eyes with me. “My people are dying.”
My mouth parts, and I look at him with confusion. “I hadn’t heard of any reports…”