The Book of Trials || ONC 2019

Chapter Twenty-Three

I cried out, rushing to Lefeli's side. She sputtered, heaving gasps and staring in disbelief at the growing bloodstain on her dress.

"Hold on, hold on..." I lifted her gently from the dirt onto my lap and she tore her gaze from her wound to look at me.

The fear in her eyes. The terror. My heart sank, dread pooling in my stomach.

"Veia," she whispered, her voice so small, "what did I do? Please, tell me... all I wanted was Mother's smile." She drew a shaky breath and moaned softly.

"Lefeli..." I glanced down at the blood that had soaked her whole torso and became nauseous. There was so much of it...

"All I wanted..." Lefeli breathed, her eyes losing focus.

Her body went slack and my heart pounded, panicking. I looked up at Evyne, who shook her head solemnly.

"Where are the medics?" I laid Lefeli down and jumped to my feet, my adrenaline running. "Isn't anyone trying to save her?"

Maestus. I spotted him at the edge of the broken street, his face grim. In his hand was a throwing knife identical to the one that had wounded Lefeli. My breath hitched and my knees buckled.

And as I sat there on the ground, Lefeli's blood on my skirt and an irreparable tear in my heart, I realized that no one was going to save a murderer from her own death. No one would save a rogue magician on the brink of madness.

The fear in her eyes was the last expression she'd ever have.

My own tears mingled with the dust on the broken ground and the dirt ground between my fingers as I made fists of my hands. An uncontrollable sob overcame me.

I had done nothing to help her.

Not a single thing.

+++

I watched Lefeli's funeral pyre burn until all that remained were embers and a distinct feeling of wrongness.

The events of yesterday had drenched my night in cold sweat. After Lefeli's death, my mind and body refused to be consoled and had taken on a relieving numbness.

I sighed, looking at Lefeli's dagger in front of me. Small beads of blood collected in my palms where I'd dug my nails too deep.

After that, I vaguely remember someone coming to fetch me before the night grew too dark, and so I sat silently in the Meekers' parlor instead of in front of Lefeli's ashes. It made no difference to the void in my chest.

"Veia, dear, the book," Miss Mylda reminded softly, sitting on the couch across from me.

Everyone had gathered in the parlor with me to finally dispel the curse on the book. Atlas avoided my gaze and Evyne was entirely unreadable.

I set the book on the table. The curse on the cover only served to remind me of Lefeli. Next, I took Lefeli's magic dagger in both of my hands and the room seemed to draw a collective breath all at once.

Firhetya had told us how to break it. According to him, all I had to do was slash over the exsecratus on the leather and it would be over. But now, as I held the dagger over the jagged letters, my grip faltered.

Evyne placed her hand over mine on the hilt of the dagger. I didn't look up at her, but I felt the resolve in her fingers. I brought the dagger down on the book, dragging the blade across the letters with a finality I didn't realize I had.

A long moment passed as I lifted the dagger back up, and nothing appeared to change in the book.

"Is it... done?" Atlas asked, peering down at it.