Page 82 of Acedia

Damen sat back down, picking up my hand again and linking our fingers together to rest on his thigh.

He had a very nice thigh.

It was distractingly strong.

Don’t think about that, the king can already smell you.

Ruvyn cleared his throat, and his nerves were palpable, even from here. My impression from movies was that being an academic wasn’t exactly the same as being a public speaker. Perhaps Ruvyn was more comfortable with the former than the latter.

“Um, I would like to thank Prince Damen for inviting me here today,” he began uncomfortably. “My name is Ruvyn. I am one of the scholars at The Itrodaris who has been studying the recently uncovered Torlen Papers—so named for the family estate where they were discovered. These records are many centuries old and were housed in a private library at the Torlen Estate. They have kindly donated them to The Itrodaris for study and preservation. To date, these are our most extant records of the relationship between Shades and what were then known astheHunted. They also point to some evidence of when and why the relationship deteriorated.”

Ruvyn paused for a moment as murmurs of interest broke out among the crowd, and his voice sounded a little more steady when he spoke again.

“The translations are still a work in progress, however, I can share some of what we’ve found so far.” He cleared his throat. “From what we understand, the Hunted mostly resided in Mistwood, Bremrus, and Bolsfort. Now that we’ve started looking in those parts of the realm, we’ve seen a significant increase in the evidence we have available.”

The words meant nothing to me, but they clearly did to the rest of the hall.

“What am I missing?” I asked, leaning in closer to Damen. There was a surge of noise in the room as everyone spoke over each other, and while I couldn’t make out the words, some of them definitely sounded heated.

“Um,” Damen began, sounding more uncertain than I’d ever heard him. “It would appear that the parts of the realm that had the most Hunters are the parts of the realm with the Shades who… er, with the Shades who have the least capacity for channeling power,” he finished awkwardly.

The least capacity…Like the weakest Shades? That sounded logical enough. Hunters couldn’t do what Shades could do. If they’d had children together, then it made sense to me that the shadow-wielding abilities of those children might be diluted in comparison to their Shade parent.

But no matter how much I thought it through, it was clear that I wasn’t getting the full picture because I didn’t understand why everyone was suddenly so agitated.

“One theory is that the residents of these areas share more traits with the group we now call the Hunters due to their shared lineage.”

The noise level in the room increased while Ruvyn valiantly tried to regain their attention.

Share more traits… As in, they were more human? I thought of little Eadlin, curling up in my lap whenever she was overwhelmed while young Shades like Jonan wildly flicked shadows everywhere.

That wasn’t to say that she’dneverhave shadow magic of her own, but from what I gathered, it wouldn’t be as powerful or present in the same way that Jonan’s would.

“So, you’re saying the Hunters dilute our bloodlines?” someone in the crowd called out. “They make us weaker?”

“Shit,” Damen muttered.

“Shit is right,” Allerick agreed dryly.

Okay. I understood the issue a little more clearly now.

“Should we say something?” Ophelia asked hesitantly. “Will it make things worse if I talk right now?”

“It would be very unwise for anyone in this room to take issue with my wife,” Allerick replied darkly.

“What does this mean for the realm?” someone else yelled, their tone slightly more hysterical.

“I’m not quite sure why they’re so upset,” I admitted quietly to Damen, though it was Ophelia who answered.

“There are some Shades who feel that the opinions of those with less ability to channel power are less… relevant. I guess there had been an assumption based on how compatible Shades and Hunters are—with the mating bites and so on—that any children we had would be, well,strong. They might be having some buyer’s remorse about their Hunter queen now,” she finished with a nervous laugh.

“Do not for a second believe that attitude is going to be tolerated in my court,” Allerick replied smoothly, though his voice had an edge to it that I’d never heard before. “I’m going to say something—”

But Damen was already standing, releasing my hand again as he cleared his throat. It wasn’t a grand gesture, but the seriousness in his tone was obvious, even from that. The fact that Damen usually wasn’t so solemn probably helped—the room fell eerily silent in an instant.

“Who of you took a walk around the gardens today?” Damen asked casually. “Doesn’t have to be the palace gardens—any will do from what I’ve heard.”

There were a few strained murmurs.

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