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Claire felt very tired all of a sudden at the thought of having to look through the Academy building by building, stone by stone, to find what her mother had left. She let her body fall backwards onto the bed and pulled her knees to her chest. They didn’t have that kind of time to search the Academy for that long. The Council would definitely find out where they were by then and probably try to interfere or make another play for Claire. Or if they found out her friends were here helping her, they would probably try and grab one of them for leverage.
But why though? Why was the Council so fixated on Claire? Was power really that big of a drug that they would do everything to gain more of it? What about the Fae and Elves prevented them from gaining power? That had to be part of the reason the Council was sowing dissent and trying to turn the Realm against them? Was it the whole Council or just a few that had gotten greedy? Claire had only met Vanya, Roland, Maxios and Arran. Well, and Desmond’s father Frederick. Frederick and Arran were elected Councilmembers from after the Great War though. So were the main ringleaders the other three? Maxios hadn’t struck Claire as a mastermind but she would be foolish to dismiss him because of that. He was on the Council for a reason even if he inherited his seat.
Claire rolled over in the bed, facing the wall as she tried to puzzle it all out. Her magic pulled insistently in her gut trying to get her attention. Claire frowned. What was it? After the mountain incident where her magic reacted outside of her control, Claire had been hesitant to use it as often as she had before. The incident left a sour taste in Claire’s mouth. Instead of protecting them, Claire had almost hurt them because of her magic. It was not taking kindly to being ignored though and tugged harder. There was something it was trying to tell her.
She double checked her bonds with her Triad and Puck were layered over it as a measure of control before letting a little bit out. Her Energy Reading abilities sparked open as her magic fed into them and the stone in front of her began to glow.
She wanted to smack herself. Her vision or lack thereof wouldn’t have been the only thing that Winona would have known about Claire. She would also have known about her Energy Reading abilities most likely especially if her father had them. The answer was literally right in front of her and she would not have seen it unless her magic had insisted.
The glow in the stone began to falter and Claire let out a little more magic. It glowed brighter then settled, leaving a rune burned into the stone in its place. The stone was even with Claire’s head, where Winona would have laid her head as well when she slept. Did she get these visions when she was asleep too or only awake? Did she get this one of Claire and immediately place the rune here? Too many questions and the one person that could answer them had left this clue instead.
Claire called up her magic out of her center, keeping the strand small as it curled around her wrist and up to her fingertips. She traced the rune with her fingertips, hovering inches from the wall. After the rune was traced, she took a breath before sending the magic into it to activate it. The rune glowed brightly before floating to meld with the one etched on the wall. The stone absorbed the rune Claire drew and then the stone began to glow. As Claire watched, the stone next to it began to glow as well until there was a path of glowing stones heading out the door.
She pushed herself up from the bed and followed the trail of stones. They led down the hallway to the staircase but instead of going up they went down. Claire frowned but followed the spiral staircase down to the basement of the building. The glowing stones led to a doorway and down a dark tunnel, illuminating it softly with their glow. It had to be an old servant’s tunnel of some sort. The darkness made Claire pause but the stones glowed brighter at her hesitance. Why did it always have to be tunnels, Claire thought as she ducked into it. Luckily, the tunnel was short, it must have just led to another building. The glowing stones dead-ended at a blank wall.
Claire pulled up short. No, that didn’t make sense? Why go through all of that to hit a blank wall? She reached out and touched it tentatively, the wall felt soft, spongy even and Claire could have sworn her fingertips went right through it at first. A fake wall? As if things couldn’t get any stranger.
She shook her head. “I’m either right or going to get a concussion from this and never live it down with Malcolm,” she said wryly into the empty space. She took a breath and closed her eyes andwalked through the wall.
Her eyes flew open as the familiar feeling of barrier magic brushed over her skin as she walked through it. She was in a large room filled with what looked like random things. Stacks of books were piled against one wall. Various weaponry covered another wall, some of the pieces looking ancient and rusty. A table with the lone lamp sat in the middle of the room. The lamp illuminated a rolled up sheet of paper that Claire had a feeling was for her.
Nerves tightened her stomach as she crossed the room to the table and recognized the familiar scrawl of her name across the front of the paper. With trembling fingers, she unrolled the paper and began reading.
My Dearest Arielle,
Although my visions are often fragmented, one of the clearest visions I have ever had is you ending up here in this room reading this letter. So I’ve thought for a long time about what to write here. While this vision was clear to me, other visions were not so I don’t want to influence your path forward. I’ll start with a few confessions then so this hopefully makes more sense for you.
Before I left the Academy grounds permanently, I left enough magic to send two letters. One was your invitation to the Academy. The hardest part of leaving you was not being sure where you would end up. I hate that you had to grow up in that coven orphanage, unaware of how much your father and I loved you but it was the safest place I could see. I hoped it would never be permanent, that your father would find you but if he didn’t, the invitation to the Academy would ensure you made it to where you belonged.
The second letter I left was to a young professor at the time, Andrea Brandlevine, with instructions to be at a specific location on the dragon lands to save a young red Dragon, Malcolm Stormborn, from a Council attack. I did this to ensure that young Malcolm would receive a Fae-made dagger from his father Roderick who was gifted the dagger by a Fae prince Erick, your father. That young Malcolm would grow up to meet his Triad brothers Desmond and Everett, and they would attend the Academy together and be there when you arrived so Malcolm could give you that dagger. A dagger that would unlock the bindings I had to place on your magic at the sacrifice of your sight.
This was always the clearest vision for me and I take solace knowing that if you are standing here and you are reading this then all has come to pass as it should have and you are surrounded by your Triad and as many safety measures as I could have put into place for you.
You are standing now in the Postulationem, one of the Academy’s hidden secrets. This room has everything you need to move forward. When you are done receiving its gifts, it’s time to go to the Fae lands, your father has something for you.
I know you go by Claire now but you will always be my little Ari. Be safe and remember my warnings from my visions,
With so much love,
Your mother, Winona
26
It felt like Claire’s brain had been overstuffed as her thoughts raced over each other, tripping and colliding until her head ached. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, breaking the letter into digestible chunks so she didn’t accidentally trigger the Triad bond with her overwhelmed feelings and have them go into a panic. She didn’t even know if they would be able to find her here in this room anyways.
First, the Academy invitation. Claire understood that her mother’s visions saw paths in the future and that Claire was probably going to end up at the Academy sooner rather than later. Learning that Winona set up the letter though made Claire feel a little bit like she was a fraud and that she hadn’t gotten into the Academy on her own merits. Sure, maybe if her magic had grown loose of the bindings she might eventually be registered as powerful enough to need the Academy’s instruction but it still felt a bit wrong to have gotten in the way she should. But if she hadn’t gotten in, she would have never met her Triad or experienced the cascade of events leading to this moment so maybe Winona was right to interfere as she did.
And speaking of interfering, Claire’s eyes widened again as she thought of the severe interfering her mother had done to save Malcolm’s life. She remembered that story from Roderick about the accident that Malcolm had as a child and his suspicion it was intentional. But learning that Andy saved Malcolm’s life? That she was the reason he survived that day…
Did Andy know who she was saving and who sent the letter? Or had she acted in blind faith? Did it matter? Winona had clearly believed that Claire would need Malcolm and the rest of her Triad to see this through to the end. After spending the last year with them, Claire couldn’t imagine having made it this far without her Triad. Winona’s interference made it possible for Malcolm to survive and for Claire to meet her Triad. Maybe her interference to get Claire into the Academy wasn’t a bad thing even if it wasn’t on her own merits. Winona had clearly seen that Claire needed to come here.
And eventually into this room, Claire thought. Winona, even in her death, was trying to protect and guide her. Claire had grown up wondering what would make a mother abandon her child. She created stories in her mind that alternated between good and bad endings. But now, with every letter and piece of information that Claire uncovered, she was uncovering the real story. A heartbreaking story of a mother’s great love.
Claire sucked in a breath. It was like the realization stripped away her barriers and now grief threatened to cave in. She had been trying to avoid her grief by shoving it deep down, forcing herself to focus on finding answers about the Realm instead of learning about her mother. But everything kept coming back to her mother and with each of these letters, a new part of the story was revealed. A story of great love and also great grief. And whether she liked it or not now, it was her turn to pick up the story and see it through.
Claire’s own tears fell next to old tear stains on the paper. Claire hadn’t been able to fathom how a mother could abandon her child but now she wondered if Winona had seen the alternatives and had made the best choice she could. She certainly had put into place as many protections as she could and probably more than Claire would ever know. Wasn’t that what love was?
Her knees threatened to buckle under the overwhelming grief that Claire wasn’t able to experience that love in person. She would never be able to thank her mother for the sacrifices she made, never feel what it was like to be held by her. All she had now were letters, not even memories.
