Page 109 of The Sundered Realms

If not for her, Jadrhun would never have known that Gate existed. She hadn’t made him blow it up, by showing him, by not joining him, and yet it was hard not to feel like his choices were making her a liability.

So much for her bright future. Liris clenched her hands underneath the table to the point of pain but let nothing show on her face.

“We have to assume Jadrhun can detonate any Gate a realm has given him access to,” Vhannor said. “We don’t know what he’s up to, so the first order of business is to work out how to protect people in the places we know he can hit.”

Realm map booklets were brought out, the page for each realm ripped out of its binding so the senior Special Operations casters, researchers, and staff could move them around like cards and attempt to find patterns.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Nysia growled in frustration. “Serenthuar, Tellianghu, Otaryl, Periannolu, Hinsheoress... None of these realms have anything in common. Different biomes, political structures, interests—Otaryl didn’t even want to be part of whatever Jadrhun’s doing!”

Liris pointed out, “Otaryl and Periannolu used to.”

Nysia looked at her sharply. “What?”

“Geographically,” she explained.

The princess was aghast. “You’ve studied pre-Sundering borders? Why?”

“I had,” Liris bit out, “a lot. Of. Time. To. Read.” She glanced at the piecemeal map, dread making all her limbs heavy. “I haven’t memorized every map. But they shared borders with Serenthuar.”

Silence fell around the table.

Vhannor asked softly, “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

Thyrasel is a language from one of the lost realms that once shared borders with the realms now known as Otaryl and Periannolu, she’d said.

Liris closed her eyes. “Jadrhun knew I knew that.”

Of course he hadn’t just wanted her for knowledge of Thyrasel. Whatever he’d been planning had been put into motion before that was ever an option for him. Other casters would catch up with his knowledge, though maybe not quickly enough.

But Liris had also happened to know the whole key to his plan, and she’d had it this whole time and hadn’t seen.

One of Vhannor’s hands covered her own, squeezing. Support, probably. Liris’s face screwed up as she tried to hold in the riot she was now feeling.

“I think I know after all,” Vhannor said, “what Jadrhun is doing.”

That did get Liris’ attention. She made herself breathe evenly and finally looked up at Vhannor.

He was looking at her—she read... pity, fear, anger—

Vhannor said, “He’s planning to sunder Serenthuar.”

Liris’ whole world whited out. For a long moment, she couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t think.

A completely sundered realm couldn’t sustain itself. Even a hypothetical realm with all the natural resources it needed at its disposal but few Gates would struggle due to less ambient magic: the theory was that the paths connecting the realms somehow helped the magic sustain itself. Without any Gates, would the bubble that kept the magic in the realms, and the void outside it, hold?

No way to know, of course. No one from a fully sundered realm could report back. Jadrhun had to know that and was still planning to risk a whole realm—gods, who knew how many realms.

And that hypothetical realm not dependent on any trade whatsoever didn’t exist. At the very least, a sundering would be like an apocalypse, a crumbling-away of everything that made their current way of life possible—

The best case was a compressed version of the dwindling Serenthuar had been experiencing for centuries, choking out its life.

The more likely case was an expanded version of what had just happened to Etorsiye, and if they were lucky, it would be localized to one realm.

Liris was still staring at Vhannor and gradually became aware the table around them had erupted, the sound filtering in through Liris’ shock as the pieces fell into place.

Jadrhun’s passion. Why other realms would work with him.

“He thinks he can undo the Sundering,” she whispered.

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