Page 79 of Forged in Flame and Shadow

I try to keep my careful mask in place, hiding my amazement. If what Respen says is true, I’ve had things the wrong way around all this time. I thought my aunt was using the Temple to do her dirty work—persuading them to purge Otscold to draw me out—but Respen’s arguing the Temple was in control all along.

“Are you saying my aunt is in the Grand Bearer’s pocket?” I ask.

Respen doesn’t immediately answer me, stroking his long beard with his bony fingers. He looks at me thoughtfully.

“I won’t test you on your Trovian history, Princess Morgana, but just from my story, I think you can work out that the Temple’s banning of solari didn’t come into effect until after Caledon rose to power.”

I resist the urge to bite my lip, embarrassed by the gaps in my knowledge. I’ve read hundreds of history books, but very few covered the more recent past. I have my parents and their need to keep me in the dark about my parentage to thank for that.

“I’m realizing that now, yes,” I say truthfully.

“Before then, the Temple of Ethira had few opinions about celestial magic. I believe it was a little unpopular with some clerics who felt that its special connection to Ralus undermined the importance of Ethira. But solari weren’t considered heretics until after Caledon was elected Grand Bearer. Why do you think that is?”

“Because he saw the damage that solari did in Qimorna, and it biased him against them?” I suggest. “Was that the first solari he’d ever seen in action?” Maybe that incident is why the Ethirans believe solari stole their powers from the gods. They looked at a man who had broken down mentally and thought his power was backfiring on him to punish him for his crime. It seems like a reasonable guess to me, but I know there must be more to it than that when Respen looks at me with a pitying expression.

“My dear princess, Marek Caledon has known solari since the day he was born…because Marek Caledonisa solari.”

My first instinct is to laugh. The claim is too ridiculous.

“A solari?” I repeat. It makes no sense for so many reasons, but I start with the first contradiction that comes to mind. “I thought you just said he’s an incendi?”

“I did,” he concedes. “But only because that’s what he tells people he is. It’s how his family registered his power when he first started showing signs of his unusual ability. At the time,the only solari in the human population produced sun beams. Power like Caledon’s had never been seen before, so people drew the closest parallel they could and compared it to fire, which consumes and destroys. I think Caledon possibly believed this too, until that day in Qimorna. Certainly, he didn’t start putting the celestial advantages of his power to use until after that incident.”

I want to know what he means by “celestial advantages,” but right now I can only focus on the extraordinary nature of his claim. “How do you know this?” I ask.

Respen gives me a withering look, and I’m reminded who I’m talking to. Leon said himself that Respen likes to keep an eye on his enemies, and the leader of the Temple is certainly a threat to Filusia. Respen probably had his spies seek out people from Caledon’s past. Neighbors or family friends who remember his birth and how he grew up. Of course, even now Respen must have people near the Temple, watching the movements of its leader.

“Let’s just say I have made it my business to discover everything I can about the man,” Respen says. “My scholars have spent decades attempting to understand Caledon’s power. At first, they tried to find a celestial body that acts as Caledon does—a fruitless search that wasted many years. Finally, they realized that the force in question was not an object but anabsence.”

“I’m not following,” I admitted.

“When a star dies—when the gods see fit to wipe it from existence—it leaves behind a void, a darkness that can swallow up everything around it. We call it a black hole. I believe that Caledon’s power mimics this black hole and that it’s this which allows him to drain away people’s magic.”

This is worse than Respen trying to get into my head. I feel so bombarded with information that I have to turn away from his pale, calculating eyes for a moment, focusing instead on the deadly flowers.

A darkness that swallows up everything around it.

I’ve seen a darkness like that recently, haven’t I? In Fairon. When I healed him, I had to battle against the darkness that came from a fallen star that was trying to smother his celestial flame. That’s proof enough that a draining force like the one Respen describes could be celestial in origin. It makes more sense than any kind of terrial power I can think of. But for the Grand Bearer to have celestial magic…

“His power kills the people he drains, you know,” Respen continues. “He killed his own mother during his birth, and he killed the mad solari that day in Qimorna. That’s how he discovered his power was celestial.”

I try to keep up, tired of running one step behind Respen’s explanations. When I turn around to face him again, I’m armed with questions. “Why? Did something happen when he used his power against another solari? Something different?”

Respen smiles approvingly, and I know I’ve asked the right question. “He discovered that when he drains the power of another solari, he absorbs it—making him stronger. For a period, at least. We’ve carefully studied the patterns over the decades, and right after a solari is captured and taken to Qimorna, there’s always a noticeable change in Caledon’s appearance and behavior. Reports say he’s more energetic, youthful, and bold. The more dramatic changes eventually fade until he drains the next child, but it’s clear the Grand Bearer’s unusual longevity has nothing to do with the blessings of thegods. No, when he drains the power and life force from his fellow solari, he keeps threads of them for himself.”

A chill slices straight through me as I understand the implications of what he’s saying.

“You’re suggesting he branded solari as heretics because then they could be hunted down and he could, what,feedoff them?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

My mind fills with all the whispers about solari being hauled off to the holy city and never being heard of again. I knew they were being executed—probably even in horrible, painful ways to cleanse their souls—but this is somehow worse. There is no crime against the gods, only a greedy, powerful man murdering to make himself even more powerful.

Fear claws at me. Caledon has the whole weight of the Temple behind him, and now, thanks to my aunt, he has control of the Trovian crown too. How many solari has he killed over the decades, and how many more will die now that his control over Trova is absolute? There’ll be no hiding when he has the Trovian army under his command and unfettered access to the royal territories.

That’s if you’re going to believe everything Respen is telling you.

Underneath my fear, that suspicion lingers. Everything Respen has told me is entirely new. I only have his word for it, which means I have to carefully consider the source. He could be making all of this up. Or, more likely, he could be telling me the truth, but acuratedversion of it. One that tells me only what he wants me to know so he can push me to act in a way that’s most beneficial to him.

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