Page 92 of Cast in Atonement

“Doesn’t stop our time being wasted.”

Both the chancellor and the professor turned glares in Kaylin’s direction; her time was clearly irrelevant.

“We don’t know where Evanton is. I’m going to stop by his store to see Grethan, to let him know that we’re searching, and to see how stable the garden is. I can’t do that until this meeting is over.”

Lord Emmerian nodded. “The Academia is yours, chancellor; I am certain Professor Larrantin acknowledges this fact. He was venerated as a scholar. He may have some light to shed, and we are in growing need of that light. Lannagaros, please.”

The chancellor’s eyes were orange. He closed them for a moment, and when he opened them again, he’d lifted the inner eye membrane to somewhat mute the color. “Very well.”

The library door was a fraud; it was a portal. It was, today, a clever portal in that it mimicked a door properly; when the door was opened, Kaylin could see the library’s occupants on the other side. Serralyn was standing in front of Starrante, her eyes blue, not their usual green. Androsse and Kavallac were standing to the left and right of Starrante. No one appeared to be speaking.

The chancellor entered the library first. Kaylin, Severn, and Mandoran followed.

“Larrantin wishes to join us, but of course requires your permission,” the chancellor said.

The three Arbiters glanced at each other before nodding. Only then did Larrantin follow, with Emmerian joining him.

Kaylin wondered what would have happened if the Arbiters said no.

Killian waited on the far side of the door; she lost sight of him when the doors closed—although closed wasn’t the right word; the doorframe faded.

Silence reigned until the chancellor broke it by clearing his throat. “You have requested the presence of the corporal at her earliest convenience; the Imperial Court has decided her earliest convenience is now. To my understanding, you were furthering your research on Necromancy, with an eye to the quieting of ghosts; this is considered of vital import to my kind.”

“I was not researching Necromancy,” Androsse said. “I was researching the Ancients, with a particular eye to their deaths. I understand the deaths of the Immortals, being one; we have eternity—but we are subject to war, to poison, and to the ambitions that might lead to them. We all have an understanding of death, for all of our kind can die in the correct circumstances. We have certainly seen our share of corpses.

“It has been said that Ancients pass away—even in our time, before the fall of Ravellon, this was accepted as fact. But our greatest scholars, those who chose to devote their lives to a study of the Ancients, could not likewise claim to have seen their corpses; their passing was marked by their sudden absence. The Ancients did not consent to a more rigorous study.

“The corporal suggested that such a corpse did exist, and further, that Azoria had access to it for a period of time whose measure we cannot take.”

Kaylin nodded.

“Yet you, who are not a Necromancer, could speak with the dead.”

She nodded again. “By any standard that I understand, the Ancient was not dead. By their own standards, he was. He could speak. He could move the clouds of the outlands at will; he could create a space that better suited him. While he was considered dead—to himself—he could be trapped and was. I’m not sure he was entirely aware of it.”

“Yes. You said he defined death as the end of purpose.”

“That’s what I inferred, yes.”

“But you believe Azoria was drawing—or attempting to draw—power from the corpse.”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe the dead Ancient conversed with Azoria at any point in time?”

How would she know? She started to say this but stopped. Azoria had been looking for Mrs. Erickson for a long time. The Barrani Arcanist had planted roots in Mrs. Erickson’s house—and spies, although she lost control of the children when their physical bodies died. She had already drained power—and life—from a dozen Barrani. Much of her research was centered around power.

To Kaylin’s knowledge, that power didn’t normally involve the dead—it just caused a lot of them.

She was certain Azoria knew or suspected something about Mrs. Erickson. She’d met Mrs. Erickson’s mother. Had she done something to the baby before Mrs. Erickson was born?

Had she realized that if she had control of that power, she could command the dead? Or was it a gamble? Kaylin didn’t consider the Ancient to actually be dead. But if Azoria had, everything about her interaction with Mrs. Erickson made sense.

Jamal and the children had stopped seeing Azoria when the connection between their bodies and their souls had been severed by death. Azoria could no longer see them and could no longer summon them.

But Mrs. Erickson’s first manifestation of power—if one didn’t include seeing the children at all—had happened when she was quite young; some of the ghosts might still have been trapped by Azoria. She didn’t want to do the math immediately, but the children hadn’t become ghosts at the same time.

Larrantin turned to Kaylin. “We have received a report about the incident surrounding the Keeper. Do you understand why he felt it was necessary to visit Mrs. Erickson’s home?”

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