Page 47 of Ties of Deception

My mouth dried. “Is this plant common knowledge?

He shook his head. “Few outside of the Unseen Lands will have ever heard of it. Still, I would be on your guard. We don’t know who might have a link with my country.” He sat back. “You also need to think about what weapons you’re willing to use against the others. I wouldn’t put moon blossom past any of them.”

I leaned back into the sofa and tried to keep my distaste from my features. “My intentions might not be transparent—since I don’t intend to actually marry the prince—but I still intend to follow the rules as much as possible, even if nobody else does. The trick we did today with making the branches bloom made me…uncomfortable, though I understand it was necessary. If this is indeed a contest showing how I would best take on the role of empress, I want to demonstrate honesty and the benefit of hard work. Besides, it will mean that my enemies will find it hard to use anything against me, while I only have to prove one of each of their transgressions to shame them.”

He chuckled, though I heard little humor in the sound. “Things might not be as easy as you think, but it sounds like you intend for intelligence to be our weapon. In that case, we need as many eyes in the palace as we can.” He grinned and tilted his head. “Lucky for you, I already have quite a few.”

I nodded. “We need to know the other goddesses' actions and intentions. Especially Charity’s and Constance’s.”

He pressed a thumb into his lower lip. “They’re the hardest to guess, but we’ll piece together what we can. Hope and Patience have been with Constance in her rooms all afternoon. You are still very much on the outside of her circle. You may, with time, become more privy to information yourself.” He shrugged. “But at the moment, Prince Sebastian will be summoning each of you for conversation. Nobody knows the next stage the empress has planned, so I can’t imagine anyone has detailed plans for it yet. Instead, I predict minor plays of power to make the other goddesses seem less attractive to the prince and empress. Spreading rumors for example, maybe even things as simple as tripping somebody up or ruining their dress.”

I raised an eyebrow in a skeptical expression. “You can’t be serious?”

He chucked and folded his arms. “I wish I wasn’t.”

I rubbed my forehead. I could handle a few petty gestures and small accidents. “Any more information about how they’re stealing souls from the Unseen Lands?”

He sighed. “Not exactly, but we’ve almost finished our search of all the libraries in the city.”

I straightened, curious. “What exactly are you looking for? Did you find anything?”

He tilted his head. “It’s not so much what we’ve found as what is missing. From our records back home, souls started to go missing from the Unseen Lands about one hundred and seventy years ago. Every history book or book about gods and goddesses more than a hundred and fifty years old has pages missing. Every single one. It’s truly impressive how thoroughly they have erased their own history and knowledge.”

I nodded. “Pris showed me an old book about gods and goddesses from their household library. It was incomplete too, and she wasn’t meant to have taken it out of the room.”

Ethen continued. “The librarians seem very cautious about people analysing these books and so forbid anyone from removing them. All the books that claim Graces were present all the way back to antiquity were published in the last hundred years. Though we did find this.” He reached into his coat pocket and handed me a thin scrap of paper. “One book in a small library had a fraction of a torn page still present.”

I took the page and turned it around until I realized it was the bottom of a drawing in exactly the same style as the book of gods and goddesses Pris had shown me, complete with the gold accents. The drawing showed a pair of women’s feet in gold sandals and the bottom of a cream dress. It wasn’t much. But if it was a drawing from a book similar to the one Pris had… I met Ethen’s eyes. “Could this be another type of goddess?”

He shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe the early Graces were a bit different and called something else? I don’t know. Initially, I thought the pages were missing just to obscure the fact that Graces were created instead of always existing in Atos, but now I wonder if they’re hiding something else too.”

I stared back at the sandaled feet. Apart from pale skin, this scrap of drawing gave frustratingly little detail to go on.

Ethen rolled his shoulders. “Regardless, the age of the tampered books confirms our suspicions that as soon as souls were stolen from the Unseen Lands, they became Graces in Atos, even if we didn’t realize it until my father found his Fated here. Initially we believed the souls were simply disappearing. It’s one of the reasons Father took so long to find her. Neither the Aidis nor Aida aren’t normally welcome here, and news reaches the Unseen Lands slowly. But they did accept my father’s request to find a bride among the Graces all those years ago. And they accepted mine. Of course, they like this hold they now have over us. The empire knows we can’t continue our line without a Grace. We give them riches in return.” His mouth twisted in disgust.

I frowned. “And when did Hassia invade Atos? They used the Graces as their excuse, didn’t they? They said the Graces were originally vulnerable to pirates, but now the empire could protect them with Amazones and be Blessed in return.”

He scoffed a laugh. “I see you’ve read some of the modern history books—or been taught by somebody who has. I don’t believe the Graces existed back then. The Fated Grace used to come back into her original body in the Unseen Lands. I suspect Hassia wished to use the Amazones to expand to lands that were already naturally fertile. They like to portray it as using their strength to protect the weak. Whatever they use to steal souls was discovered later here in Atos—something that the empire was so desperate to hide that they invented an entire history to cover it up.”

I ran my teeth across my lips in thought. “Maybe it's so nobody can stop them from continuing the practice. Having Graces is a huge benefit to the empire. They can not only Bless their agriculture and give politicians good fortune, health, and long life, but the empire can control rich families with the promise of giving them a Grace, or threatening to take them away.”

Ethen smirked and slouched back on the couch. “You’re catching on. Graces are used as a currency here, keeping the empress and emperor-consort firmly in control.”

I pinched my forehead. There were so many facets to this problem that it was hard to view them all as a whole.

Ethen scooted along the couch to my side and rubbed a hand up and down my back. “Don’t let this overwhelm you. It’s a lot of information for somebody with only three months of memory. We have a plan, let’s stick to it. You’re right. The empress, and likely Prince Sebastian will know the answer to all of this and getting it from them is far more effective than searching for dregs of information. We’ve still got people watching the priests, but they won’t let Aida into the temples. Sneaking around them at night is uncovering nothing.”

So he was relying on me. The souls of the Unseen Lands were relying on me. I gave him a fierce look. “I’ll find out.”

He smiled and brushed my cheek with his thumb, such a simple, tender gesture, yet it felt as intimate as a kiss.

He hesitated. “Would you…would you like to meet the Aida who are here? In private, I mean. They really want to see you.”

An unexpected jolt of nerves made me hesitate. Things seemed more manageable when it was just the two of us. Ethen’s faith in me seemed unwavering, but now I felt the pressure to win over his friends who risked so much to be here and help him find me. It would be awkward if they didn’t find me worthy. I licked my lips. “Can we do so safely?”

He gave an unconcerned shrug. “I can invite them here. They can climb up. Well, some of them can tonight anyway. I have five companions from the Unseen Lands. Tamel, Ben, Elsen and Skanal are Aida. I also brought one mortal—your oldest friend, Ava. She insisted on coming along.” He looked away and grimaced slightly. “You loved her fiercely, but…she and I don’t always get along. I just wanted to warn you. I almost didn’t bring her because I know she’s angry about all of this. I didn’t want her to upset you or tell you horrible things about me.” He laughed without humor. “But then, I realized she has a right to be here, and you have a right to hear her. It’s only fair.”

The nervousness in his eyes made me wonder what on earth had gone on between them, and whether I was about to be confronted with another, uglier side of Ethen.

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