Of Whispers and Daggers ✓ [TLRQ #2]

Chapter 66 - Aster

Ollem helps me to my training room so I can collect materials from there for the spell I haven't figured out how to cast yet. I don't want to leave anything in here that I might need; I don't want to have to come back again. I sit on the stool I had him bring and go through the drawers set into the wall. In a wooden box, I collect extra powder, chalk, and oil, along with a handful of small crystals and a few bars of blackwood.

The last drawer is locked. Surprised, I pull my keys from my cloak. My hands shake as I try to insert a likely candidate into the lock. It fails, and my jaw clenches. Testing each new key is a struggle, and I try several before one works. The inside of the drawer is lined with loose folds of velvet. I peel back the cloth, and my eyes go wide.

A crystal the size of my fist gleams from within the drawer. A raw gem like this is rare, especially one that's not been turned into some sort of artefact. Agraund wouldn't have placed it in here, though, if it couldn't be used for something new. No matter what the spell ends up being, I can use this to help concentrate the magic, like a channel in a diagram.

I wrap the velvet around it again and pick it up. I turn to Ollem. "Will you carry the box?"

He nods and picks it up. I stand and step toward the door, but my balance falls away, and I tumble to the floor. My head hurts where it collides with the stone.

"Milord!" Ollem sets down the box. I groan. "Should I get the physician?"

"No... No. Just help me up." My pride would sting more if he wasn't the one who gave me the poison.

He takes both of my hands and carefully pulls me up. My fingers test where my head hit the stone, and I wince. That'll make a nice bruise. At least my hair should cover it. My hip feels bruised too, and I'm still dizzy. I sit on the stool again.

"Go ahead and carry that to my room. Then come back and help me."

"Yes, milord." He goes, and I lean against the wall of drawers behind me, eyes closed. When he comes back, he helps me to the room. It's slow progress, and I hate every moment that passes where someone could walk by and see what an invalid I've become. Thankfully, these halls are empty.

I take refuge in my armchair, sending Ollem for a couple specific healing magic books. On a whim, I ask for On the Other Realms as well. It's a short work, a copy of one of the first things ever penned about dimensionalism. Xíeme wrote it, and I read it several times when I was fifteen. I was fixed on studying the discipline since I wasn't allowed to try to cast it.

When he returns, I dictate notes to him. Sitting in the armchair, I'm not really in a position to read and write. With the way my grip is, I'm not sure my writing would be entirely legible anyway.

Abruptly, I stop a couple hours before lunch, looking up at Ollem. "I need you to write a note to the Queen for me."

"Uh, yes, milord." He shuffles items around, looking for loose paper, then back to me, pen in hand.

"Selenia. This may be short notice, but is there any way we could have a victory dinner tonight with the Table? I know everything isn't over, but it would be nice for us all to meet together to remember the lost and look forward to our country's revival." It'll make a nice final memory of the court. "It wouldn't need to be anything extravagant—in fact, I hope it isn't—but I still like the idea of it. Hopeful, Astraeus." He pens the last words, and I add, "Would you seal that and deliver it to her?"

He nods. Once he folds it and pours on the wax, he holds it out to me. I press my ring into it.

When he's gone, nerves bundle inside me. Leavi will be here at lunch. If Selenia agrees, then I'll have to face the court at dinner—something I simultaneously desire and dread. If Leavi agrees, then I'll have Antium to pay from them.

I still hope she does.

I force the thoughts away and resume reading, using my finger to bookmark passages I want to make a note on. When Ollem comes back, I look up at him in anticipation.

"She said she thought she could arrange it. She's also going to invite the Retran guests."

I wince. I suppose it shouldn't matter, but it does. That's all the more reason to wish not to go to the event I requested and to fear Leavi's agreement.

But stars, I hope she agrees.

"Good," I say and turn back to the book in my lap. "I have more notes for you."

He hurries to get situated, and I dictate to him. Xíeme talks about how the other realms support their own magical properties and occurrences, as if they have magic in and of themselves. Every realm he visited or researched buzzed like the air here, some more than.

At first, I'm unsure what he means about the air buzzing. Then I remember visiting the blackwood cells.

I tell Ollem what page I'm on, preparing to make a note. I'm not sure that it's helpful, but it is intriguing. And until I find a way to save myself, I have no idea what I'm truly looking for. "A room of blackwood negates the air buzzing. It also stops magic from being cast. What if there's something inherently in the environment that allows for magic, and this material is stronger in some places in the other realms? What if—"

A knock sounds on the door, and we both turn toward it, startled. I glance at the clock. Stars, it's already lunch. I thought I would have more time to prepare than this, and Ollem hasn't even brought the food yet. I gesture at him to help me stand, and he does. I walk without him to the door, but my steps are shuffling, and I balance on the backs of the furniture where I can.

My hand grips the doorknob, but I don't turn it. Answering this door is betting on my death. It's accepting what I've spent all day trying to solve. But I can't simply leave her in the gutter if I die. I can't let her heroism and kindness be forgotten like an ember left to burn out in the ashes of an empty pyre. My resolve hardens. This I do, not for myself, not even for Morineaux, but for Leavi.

I won't be much use to Morineaux for much longer anyway.