Magic's Memories

Chapter Twenty-two

Feyla had always found it somewhat comforting that Arilla was just as intimidating a guild leader as she was as a mother.

Arilla propped her chin on her folded hands and stared across the table at Feyla the same way she had when Feyla was a little girl bringing home her marks from school. "Now lovey, tell me what you've learned from that mage."

Feyla fiddled with her necklace, turning the polished gemstone over in her hand. They were all back at the table she and her mother had first argued over Sedgewick at. Daydrel had spread a map of the city out in front of them before sitting down between Delia and her mother. "Why don't we hear Daydrel's ideas first?" Feyla suggested, straining to keep her voice casual.

Arilla set Feyla with a withering look."Tell us what you learned, daughter," she repeated, her tone light but with an edge that brokered no disagreement.

The necklace slipped from her hand as she lowered her head, ignoring Delia's sympathetic smile. "Sedgewick—"

"Pardon?" Arilla asked innocently.

Feyla's lips thinned into a taut line. "Master Alverdyne," she corrected through clenched teeth. "Believes they're still in the city, probably hiding somewhere near the docks."

Delia nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. Desden stole his brother's records, and if memory serves, the guild reintroduced Dormaeus around here. What did the guild rename him?"

"Reiden," Feyla added quickly as genuine concern bubbled up. She might be lying to Sedgewick now, but she hadn't been when she'd told him Dormaeus wasn't alive the way he thought he was. Dormaeus as Sedgewick and Desden knew him had faded away the moment the guild had wiped his memories. "His name is Reiden."

It had been a ...experiment. A wizard who'd murdered people the way Dormaeus had was obviously sentenced to execution. The Healer's Guild saw an opportunity to prevent more loss of life and asked Queen Eleyna's predecessor, King Eldain, to consider another option. So Dormaeus the wizard had died and Reiden the dockworker had been born in his place. Feyla had only been in charge of helping him settle into his new life, but the other healers had told him that his lack of memories was the result of an accident.

Arilla thrummed her nails against the table. "If he's looking for his brother—"

"Then we have a problem," Daydrel cut in. "One of the first places I checked was Dormaeus' job and rented room. No one's seen him in days."

Everyone fell silent as the same question rose to the forefront of all their minds.

Feyla bit her lip and finally voiced it. "How likely is that spell to hold if Desden starts messing with it?"

Daydrel hissed air out through his teeth. "That's a Jaerick question."

Unlike the rest of them, Delia's husband wasn't a battle healer. His specialty was in research and he'd been one of the healers who had worked on the memory wipe spell.

"Go and fetch Jaerick for me," Arilla ordered, waving her hand at Daydrel and Delia.

Feyla moved to leave as well but Arilla raised her hand to stop her. "Patience, Feyla. There's something I wish to...check first." She tilted her head to another chair set apart from the rest with a small table beside it. Sitting on the table was a device shaped similarly to Sedgewick's spell-weaver, a tool he used to hold magic in place while crafting new or more complex spells as well as examining existing ones.

Anger sprouted up like a weed. Feyla stalked closer to her mother and dropped her voice low. "You can't be serious."

"I'd never joke about your health so, lovey. Now have a seat." Arilla took her arm and led her to the chair. She leaned closer. "And don't act like a child about this."