Page 124 of To Fight and To Fold

Thea's fingers twitched. She didn't need Vaelen's approval. She was a full-grown woman.

"Anyway," Thea said, changing the subject before she could do something ridiculous like let the ball of emotion in her throat well in her eyes.

"I've got eyes on the ground, searching for any sign of Rolim. Even in Evergale. I will find him. If he was in the wreckage, we would have recovered the body already."

"Evergale took him," Thea guessed, her heart sinking into her stomach.

Vaelen's expression turned grave. "I'll wait for proof before we move. Suspicion is not enough of a reason to start another battle when we are so close to the brink of war."

Thea swallowed sharply. Rolim had betrayed Evergale.

A traitor in the hands of the ones he'd betrayed. One with valuable information.

If he wasn't dead already, he would certainly wish it.

“What do you think about the magic Jarrick was wielding?”

Vaelen’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know, but it wasn’t natural.”

The Great Dragon must have taken pity on her, distracting her from her morose thoughts with a brisk knock at the door. One of the healers slipped inside.

It was Lillian, a talented healer, a natural with magic—not only with wielding it, but detecting it. "Vaelen, there's something I thought you might be interested in."

"Yes?"

She eyed Thea. "It's about the girl you brought in."

Thea sat straight up, alarm striking through her. "What do you mean?"

Vaelen's brow furrowed, and she met Thea's gaze for a moment. "It's fine. Tell us."

"I noticed something particular about her when I introduced myself. Aaryn, right? She carries remnants of… scrying magic. Strongly. Recently," Lillian said, her demeanor apologetic, as if she didn't want to be delivering this information any more than they wanted to be hearing it.

"How recently?"

"Within the last day or two."

Thea practically shook. "What do you mean by ‘strong’?"

"I mean, a scry has different levels of success depending on how familiar the caster is with the target. And if you have items with a connection to the target, that's even better. So, say, a piece of their clothing, or piece of hair. But this was…" Lillian sucked on their teeth briefly and shook their head. "It was stronger than even that."

As Thea paled, she glanced at Vaelen for answers, but she had questions, too. "Do you only see successful scry magic, or do you see the failed attempts as well?"

"Only the magic that has successfully been cast on her."

"Even with something stronger than hair… a scry wouldn't be able to make it past our barriers," Vaelen pointed out. Which meant the spell had been cast on her only when she was outside the safety of the circle's barriers.

Say… when she'd been in Skymore.

Thea watched Vaelen come to the same conclusion and knocked on her desk with tense knuckles. "Thank you, Lillian, I really appreciate you letting me know. I'll handle it from here."

"Of course. How's the arm?"

Vaelen grumbled and rolled her eyes. "It's fine. It's healed already."

"Alright," Lillian sang as she paused by the door. "I'll stop by with some salve for scarring later. Ta-ta!"

The lightness of the mood departed with Lillian, and their gazes met.