Page 40 of Legacy Ascended

"They gave me a pass," she says, holding it up. It's a buff-colored visitor card with a clip on it. "It only lets me into the academic buildings."

"How's the guest accommodation?"

“The bed's terrible, but the food is great.” She says it excitedly. "Three meals I didn't have to cook. I keep expecting somebody to hand me a bill."

"No, you better not get any bills."

"I know." She shifts the strap on her shoulder, and I notice the canvas case against her hip and the way she keeps one arm over it without seeming to know she's doing it.

"I have something I'd like to show you," she says. "It'll take an hour. If you'd rather do it next week, or never, that's okay and I'll go look at your library instead."

"Today."

"Today's fine." She hesitates. "Who do you want there?"

"Freya," I say. "And Torres."

I pick my suite because the sitting room is big enough and I don't want to walk any farther than I have to.

Freya arrives with a notebook. Torres brings coffee for four people and sits on the arm of the ugly chair beside me, his hip warm against my good arm.

Elise knocks, and Freya lets her in. She carries the canvas bag straight to the coffee table and doesn't release the strap until she's sitting in front of it.

"Before I show you anything, I need to be clear," she says. "Some of what my family knows is written down. Some of it was passed from one person to another."

She opens the case and reaches for the larger folder. I recognize the edge of a family tree before she gets it out.

"Hess already showed me the line from Victoria to Emil," I say. "I've seen the parish records, the marriages, the name changes, and every place the trail nearly disappeared."

"Good." Elise leaves the folder inside the case. "I didn't bring this to prove who you are. You shifted into a direwolf. That's all the proof anybody needs. I brought it because you should see everything we have."

"That folder is our version of the family tree," she says. "It can wait."

"Not forever," Freya says.

"No. Not forever."

Elise takes a clear sleeve from the case. Four handwritten pages are protected inside.

"Marla," she says. "My ancestor. The woman who took Victoria out. She wrote this as an old woman because her grandson asked her to, and it's the only time she put any of it on paper."

"You can read it. You can't touch it. Freya, there are gloves in the front pocket."

Freya has the gloves on before Elise finishes the sentence.

Marla was told to take six-year-old Victoria down the valley and wait until the fighting ended. Everyone expected the Council to arrive and Victoria to be home within a week.

"Why her?" I ask. "There must have been older children."

"She was in the kitchen when the order came," Elise says. "Victoria was small for her age, and Marla had looked after her often enough that she trusted her. Marla could pick her up and leave without Victoria fighting or calling for someone. That's the only reason the statement gives."

"What did they tell her?"

"That they would come for her."

Torres's thumb moves once across my knee.

"When did Victoria understand they weren't coming?"