Page 126 of Into the Isle

Plus, I could compare class notes from History & Tomes—about the renowned legend of the King Who Saw, King Dannon—and dates started to match up.

I read in my book to the right, traced a finger down my yellow notepad to the left, and found an entry I had been missing. “Here we go,” I murmured to myself, bending down and writing a name.

Magnus glanced over at me, hearing me speak for the first time in hours. “Found something, silvermoon?”

I nodded. “More names. I’m getting close.”

“You still haven’t told me what you’re looking for, after all these weeks together.”

I looked over at him. “Neither have you.”

He grunted. “Touché.”

Magnus and I were working alone, together. There was a big difference between that and working in unison. We weren’t building or searching for the same thing.

I felt a sense of longing for the pale man, with his mysteries so plainly spoken on his skin for all to see.

That being said, after the Lunar Night with Grim, our red-hot tryst, and then our dangerous escape from the Torfens, I’d had enough of men for the time being. I wasn’t sure I could handle much more. And I still hadn’t unpacked that night entirely, either.

After that night, the next evening I spent studying with Randi for an upcoming test in Runeshaping Basics. I still couldn’t do a damn thing to prove my magic, and it was starting to worry me. Midterms were coming up, and even though they weren’t technically in the middle of the term, they were important.

Failing those tests would only show I wasn’t making the necessary improvements that would allow me to stay after this term was over.

The night after studying, I came back to Mimir Tomes to resume my research. Magnus chastised me for not showing up the prior two nights, and his sullen attitude only made me smile, realizing he had missed me. He wouldn’t admit it, but his expression told the truth: Now that he had me researching with him, he didn’t want to go back to being alone in Mimir Tomes.

I was more energized now to move forward than ever before. More hopeful about finding a true answer to my generations-old problems. I still didn’t know too much about my family heritage on the whole, yet it was the people around my family that interested me.

It was the “friends” and “allies” of my ancestors who would be the ones tarnishing and destroying our family bloodline.

Early on, I noticed my research kept bringing me back to the King Who Saw. I had a pretty firm understanding of his history with the Deceiver in Gold, Lord Talasin, thanks to my history class with Hersir Thorvi. I knew King Dannon and Lord Talasin had been allied through a marriage between Dannon and Talasin’s sister, Lady Amisara.

At some point, a great backstabbing happened between the two lords, with the elves betraying the humans and bringing mass destruction to our people.

That was all well and good. I knew that part. What was interesting to me, however, and beneficial to what I was learning, was how all the other players in both lords’ courts interacted and played the game.

The kingdoms, after all, were not simply led by two men. There were countless dukes, noblemen and women, lords and ladies, who made up the armies and alliances with those two leaders. Diving into the histories and record books had shown me how those names connected.

I kept running into a few names that surrounded my family’s line. My mother’s kinfolk went all the way back to those medieval days. The women in those days hadn’t been any special ladies or queens, yet they had been servants, workers, and maids of the court.

That discovery in itself had been groundbreaking.

There was still a blind spot in my research, however. I could only go so far back before the histories cut off. I didn’t know where my people before the King Who Saw and Deceiver in Gold came from.

As it stood, there seemed to be a four or five families ingrained in my family’s story during those times. They were friends, comrades, and even rivals at court. Maids who wanted better positioning, and would stoop to subterfuge and betrayal to get it over my family. Servants who wanted lateral movement from the sculleries to the lords’ chambers, and weren’t above besmirching and lying to get it.

The histories left out many specific stories, yet they alluded to a lot of goings-on during those days. Now, I had started to trace the families associated with my own, working forward to present times.

It was a big zigzag: I started in the present, working my way back to my medieval family line. Then I found the families associated with my ancestors. Finally, I worked my way forward, back to the present.

Once I had these last few names, I would understand their motivations better based on what their families had done. My work would be complete. And I’ll finally be able to exact justice.

It was hard work, reconciling all this. One misstep or wrong name could send me spiraling off in the wrong direction for days.

Luckily, Magnus kept me focused. When I asked how his research was going that night, he told me he was almost finished.

“I’m getting close to figuring out what I want to know,” he said, cryptically.

“Same. Shouldn’t be too many more days now,” I replied. “Maybe we’ll figure it out on the same day. Wouldn’t that be something?”

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