Page 143 of Cast in Atonement

“Bellusdeo,” Helen said, “if you wish to continue to converse, feel free to do so—but please don’t attempt to reduce anything else in the room to ash.”

Bellusdeo actually reddened, but her eyes remained copper.

When the door closed, Teela spoke, but not before. That seemed deliberate, to Kaylin.

We have a problem, Severn said.

Kaylin frowned. What is it? What’s happened?

Mrs. Erickson believes that the discussion is something she has the right to hear.

But she said she was tired.

Yes.

“Serralyn offered a partial report. She remains with Bakkon and Larrantin. She thinks Larrantin is actually impressed with the quality of Azoria’s notes, if not the subject of her research itself.”

She is now asking Helen for Helen’s opinion.

I’m kind of trying to listen to Teela right now—you know how much she hates repeating herself.

Helen agrees with Mrs. Erickson.

“He’s probably impressed with the subject as well.” Kaylin could listen to multiple streams of conversation, picking up bits and pieces that caught her attention. She couldn’t competently join more than one.

Teela did not appear to notice. “Serralyn is attempting diplomacy. Please reward it.”

If what we suspect about Mrs. Erickson and her birth is true, she’s probably better off not knowing. There’s nothing she can change—it’s all in the past.

Silence. Severn did not agree.

I do, he said, correcting her. But what I feel—and what you feel—is irrelevant. She’s not a child. You think, because she’s kind and gentle, she’s fragile.

And you don’t?

I think she’s physically fragile, an outcome of age. I don’t think she could be who she is if she were emotionally fragile. But what we think doesn’t matter. Helen agrees that it’s Imelda’s choice. Imelda wants to know.

Teela will stop talking if Mrs. Erickson comes back.

I know.

Kaylin felt Teela’s glare as if it were a spear tip. She reoriented herself. “Was there anything of use in Azoria’s research papers?”

“She thinks they could jointly spend a year going through Azoria’s research and not uncover everything of value. They’ve been trying to pare it down to research involving the dead or the Ancients, but Larrantin and Bakkon tend to become bright-eyed at things that aren’t relevant. Honestly, they’re a bit of a distraction. Her notes about the possible find of a dead Ancient make clear that the Ancient in question did not wake or speak to her. She didn’t suspect he was...whatever he actually is; I don’t think we can call him alive, but the Ancients’ concept of death is pretty poor.

“But she suspected that he could be controlled by Necromancy. She dabbled in it herself, in an attempt to better understand how to bind the dead. Her first attempts involved Barrani, but she couldn’t prevent their names from returning to the Lake of Life. She could, however, drain those names of animating force. The words, according to her research, simply disappeared.”

“Wait, how could she see them?”

“That’s the interesting part. Since Barrani were not as easily acquired as research subjects, she kidnapped mortals of various races and experimented on them instead. She found that she could see their souls, for want of a better word, when she was within her home—but only after she’d connected it to the Ancient’s corpse. Given the reason her family line was destroyed, she couldn’t easily coerce Barrani into her lair, which she found immensely frustrating. Nor could she, at this late date, bear a child of her own and ask that the child be wakened. Again, the scope of her crime was too large, too forbidden.”

“That’s why she wanted a child?”

“It is not uncommon among my people to want children as tools,” Teela said, her voice stiff, her eyes narrowed. “Those children will eventually show their appreciation for this consideration, should they survive.”

Kaylin backed off.

“Her experiments made clear that there was something about the power she was drawing that was qualitatively different; she assumed that this was because the Ancient was dead. Her ability to see the souls of the living, and to trap them upon death, grew, and she experimented further. The ability to possess living bodies came later, and again, through experimentation. She could separate soul from body if and only if she chose to possess that body.”

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