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“Who gave you which gifts?” she asked. She sat back in her seat and looked up at me.
I hesitated for a moment before answering. “I was born with the shadow element and received fire from Theron. The mind manipulation is from Xareus.”
It wasn’t something I was proud of. The gift of mind manipulation was repulsive, and forbidden for a reason. It was wrong to enter someone’s head and fuck with their thoughts, their memories. But I was a Worthy, a Lord. And since it wasn’t something I was born with, I was able to keep it hidden. Other than those closest to me, no one knew, and I refused to use it unless they gave me explicit permission to do so. Mavris and Hakoa had agreed that I could talk to them through their mind freely and that has proven to be useful over the years, having been in several situations where we needed to speak privately while in the presence of others.
Arra had never felt comfortable with it so I never did it with her.
Unless I needed to—like with the assassin—the only times I have done it without someone’s permission was when it first manifested, and I didn’t know how to control it and when I was first near Kya. I still struggled with the latter, and it took considerable concentration to stop myself from hearing her thoughts.
“Hmm. Have you discovered why? What was his task for you?” she asked curiously. She was so damn cute when she tilted her head to the side like that.
I shook my head with a shrug. “No, I don’t know why. And his task was cryptic, just like they all are.”
“But what was it? Your task.”
“‘Reveal the darkness.’ I have no idea what it means.”
I thought back to when I was in Hylithria, covered in blood—a mixture of mine as well as some of the other contestants—as I stood before Xareus and he deemed me Worthy of protecting his Nation. His task was three fucking words.
Kya hummed in contemplation. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t spent centuries mulling over his words, trying to decipher what his task truly meant, which I was sure she was doing now.
“I guess we’ll find out eventually.”
I smiled at ‘we’. “Yes,wewill.”
We spent the next several hours of me sounding out the words in the dark book while she translated and wrote it down, word for word, hour after hour. We had agreed to stop at the end of the next page when someone rapped on the door. I walked over to answer it while Kya continued with the notes.
Arra stood with another Vaavi, Ragna, when I opened the door.
“Arra. Ragna,” I greeted.
“Lord Ryker. Ragna just returned from Helerie and is here to deliver her report,” Arra said. Her face was hard and emotionless.
I nodded. “You can divulge your account down in my study. The warriors are handling them and sorting through them.”
“Actually, I thought you ought to hear this yourself,” Arra said quickly. “And your ma—um Worthy Kya.”
My eyebrows raised, and I stepped aside to let them in. Kya stood and bowed her head in greeting.
“Ragna, tell them what you told me,” Arra commanded.
Ragna cleared her throat. “I was stationed just outside Helerie to keep watch on an organization we’ve had our eye on for some time. Just before the Glaev occurred, I noticed a female in robes walking sluggishly along the perimeter of the city. It wasn’t unusual until she made her third round. I followed heras she made her fourth round, staying out of sight. She made two more rounds and each time, she stopped at what looked like some kind of markers, would stand there looking at the city for a moment then move on to the next one. She eventually left, venturing away from the city, and I went back to my post.
“It wasn’t until after the attack, and I had joined up with the Noavo recovery forces, that I learned that there were specific points outside the city where the Glaev was concentrated to form a ring around the city. I did confirm that those points were where the female had stopped at the markers.”
No one moved. No one breathed as we listened to Ragna.
She looked to Arra who gave a nod of her head in permission to continue. “The female had white hair…wearing Sage robes.”
“And there’s only one female Sage with white hair,” Arra stated.
“Vicria,” Kya spat.
Arra and Ragna nodded.
My body began to tremble with rage. That was all the evidence we needed to prove that she was the dark magic wielder.
“I… I think I know how to stop her,” Kya whispered. She rushed over to the book and I followed. “Read this word right here. I think I know what it means by context alone but I want to confirm.”
