“Another Guardian,” she concluded. Then she was quiet for a moment. “After tonight, after so many have seen, there will be questions about what you were able to do. So I think I can avoid the rest no longer.”
“The rest of what?” I asked, and was suddenly nervous about how she might answer.
“The pain you feel when Aetheric is near.” She paused, as if preparing herself. “When you were young, a seal was placed upon you. A magical charm intended to protect you. And it protects you still.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Not what, but who. From those who would punish you for your abilities. You know now the practitioner is no Luminae. But you are.”
Twenty-eight
Istared at her. “What?”
“You were born in a village beyond Mount Cennet. You had Aetheric abilities, and that placed you in danger. Carethians admired the Luminae, and the Emperor Eternal is a jealous man.”
“The curate,” I said. “The cataloging.”
She nodded. “The seal was placed to hide your magic and protect you from all of that.”
“By who?”
“Me and other Guardians who assisted.”
“Are there more like me? Who’d been children at the time but with magic locked away?”
She shook her head. “The seal had never been tried before. And then the Aetheric god disappeared…”
“Did my parents have Aetheric skills?”
“No.”
“You know I didn’t remember my mother. I only remembered a bit of my father before he died, when we were stealing. But now I see a place in my dreams—my home, I think. I see mymother’s bloody death. I see my father dragging me away. Is that what happened?”
She looked sad, put a hand on mine. The warmth sank through like a bit of Aether, and it helped. “I was not there when it happened. But from what your father told me, yes. Those images are accurate. Your mother was killed. Your father took you away.”
“You found me and Wren, protected us, because of this?”
She nodded. “Your father did me a kindness. Helped me find a loved one after my death, ensure that he was taken care of. In return, I helped the one he loved.”
My heart pounded hard. “And you didn’t want to tell me the truth about this?”
“The seal had effects we did not anticipate. Its magic extended beyond you, so even my ability to speak of the past was limited. But now that the seal has fractured…”
I nodded and instinctively rubbed my chest, trying to sort my tangled feelings.
“They loved you very much.”
“We had no coins, Luna. No hope. Stealing crumbs so we’d have something to eat, and not even a memory of her to help me through. Years of servitude to a woman who’d have happily killed me for convenience. Should I be thankful for that?”
“You are alive,” Luna said, each word signed with hard, fierce movements. “So many others are not.”
“I’m grateful to be alive. But there’s still a cost.”
“Nothing is free. Everything in life requires payment. It is only that sometimes we are not the ones who pay it.”
“You placed the seal—is that why you’re the only Aetheric thing that doesn’t hurt me?”
“I suspect so.”
