Fuck. The Matriarch messing with visions was one thing, but if Solace was permanently altering future pathways? That was something else entirely.
“Anything else about the book? Or the artifacts?”
“Glimpses, nothing concrete. Even less so than usual.”
“You think they know?” I asked. It wasn’t often that I asked his opinion, and the slight raise of his brows indicated as much.
“I think that’s an astute guess, Truthsayer,” he said sardonically.
“Fuck.”
“That about sums it up.” He laughed dryly.
I grabbed the back of my neck, pacing the small room and thinking.
“So, the visions are unreliable now. For you or for everyone?”
“We can only pull from the same well. What I see is the same as what everyone else would or could see. Even the Matriarch.”
“So, it is a gods problem, then,” I mused.
“It would seem that way.”
I stopped in front of him. “We’ll never entice them to come here.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, but it would take years, probably. It would be more efficient to go to them, yes.”
“I need to find someone to enter Meru.” The thought dawned on me.
But who? Who could enter the realm of the gods and live?
“I’ll return, Keeper,” I said, striding for the door. “I’ll send your rations down soon as a gift for your time.”
Apparently, I was feeling benevolent today.
Must be the whiskey.
“Truthsayer,” he called as I went to exit the room. “You’ll have to find a descendant if you want to enter Meru.”
I chuffed a laugh. “You’re looking at the last descendant of Kaos, Keeper. And if that’s the case, why don’t I just send you there? Sacrificial lamb and all that.”
He smiled a toothless grin and the glow of the candlelight gave him a skeletal appearance. “Atruedescendant, not a magical one.”
My blood ran cold. The gods hadn’t walked Elyria in centuries. There were no true descendants left, or, if there were, their blood was so diluted it wouldn’t even be potent anymore.
“They exist, Alois. You’ll need to find them and gather them if you truly want to win this war. Although, she already has one and is poised to take a second.”
I ran my hands through my hair before blowing out a breath.
“Any other useful tidbits before I leave, Keeper?” I was annoyed, confused, and beyond irritated at this point. Finding a true descendant would be next to impossible, especially ifshealready had one.
Something niggled at the back of my memory, something that would help me identify another, but I couldn’t recall it.
Fuck. It’s getting worse.
“Don’t bother with the rations, Truthsayer. This is the last time we’ll meet. I’ll be called back to Solace within the day,” he said quietly, and I turned my head to look at him fully.
He seemed at peace with that, though it made my next moves infinitely harder. Without a Keeper to give me visions to extract the truth from, I was literally walking blind in this war.
