Page 146 of Blood of Ancients

“Well, it was Lord Talasin, the Deceiver in Gold, who betrayedhim. At least in the legends. Dannon saw the treachery in his vision, which styled him the King Who Saw, and saved the humans from certain doom.” I gave her a wistful smirk when I was done, to let her know what I truly thought of that version of events.

“Right.” She scoffed. “We both know that’s bullshit. It was not a cryptic illness that felled Dannon. It was a flesh-and-blood man named Azerot. We call him the Wrathseeker.”

I blinked, nodding with a blank expression.

“I know, being Syndriel’s sister, that Azerot and Syndriel later became mates. It wastheiroffspring, Solzena, where your line can be traced. Solzena is your first known ancestor.”

The name meant nothing to me. Elayina said it with gravity and weight, yet all I could do was shake my head. I wished I was writing all this down.

“But whowasshe?” I asked. “Why is Solzena important, and how do you know she was my first ancestor?”

“Because of the things I saw in your mind when first reaching in and awakening your memories, child. They have only connected once I returned to Alfheim—as I said, with my power returning. The story you saw of Dannon and Talasin when I touched you was no accident. Itcouldn’tbe, you see? It was—”

“Fragments of a life I never lived,” I breathed, recalling that four-part tale where it seemed I had been an outsider looking into the history of King Dannon and Lord Talasin, at different portions of their lives, as it happened.

“Yes. And to confirm my theory, I would like to show you something.”

“So everything you’re sayingisjust a theory? Not absolute truth?” Frustration welled inside me as I bunched my hands into fists at my sides.When will I get a straight answer out of this madwoman?!

She simply smiled in that coy, mischievous way.

In that moment, she looked every much the aunt of mine she claimed to be.

Then, making more cryptic, swift gestures with her hand, the simple door in front of us clicked, and she pushed it open.

Inside was a narrow corridor lit by globes of blue lanterns on the walls. Through the twenty-foot passage, the hall opened into a circular room. And in the center of that room was something that looked like an art installment: a dais with a box-shaped glass over it, and a gray, featureless stone about as big as my palm within the glass.

I blinked, confused—

And then recognition fell over me all at once. “No,” I whispered, realizing where Lady Elayina had taken me.

Elayina smiled, sweeping her hand out. “May I present to you the Runesphere, child.”

Chapter 40

Ravinica

“Thatis the Runesphere?” I crowed, walked in a circle around the dais. “The object of all our troubles? It’s not even a sphere! More of an oval.”

“Rune-oval sounds a bit lackluster, eh?” Elayina chuckled from behind me. “When you say ‘troubles,’ child, it depends who you ask. To humans, it was the beacon of your power. Yes, your people no longer possess it, but the magic of the Runesphere has passed through enough generations of humans to make it a permanent fixture in your runeshaping world. Still think it’s an object oftroubles, knowing that?”

Brow furrowing, I shot her a look over my shoulder.She seems to have quite a lot of reverence for it. I probably should too.

Then again, Elayina was around when the Runesphere was at the height of its power, not pushed away in some box to be forgotten like an artifact in a museum.

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