Page 32 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
This wasn’t an ordinary greenhouse. The energy in the air was too potent, and my own magic flared with curiosity, heating the tips of my fingers as I ran them over the soil, feeling it practically vibrate with magic.
Taeformery. The art of earth magic, a far more refined form than the earth spells written about in Council books. Mostearth-born fey possessed some power over that element, but I’d never seen something like this.
‘Earth manipulation.’ The words fell from my lips in a mixture of amazement and confusion.
‘Not the most impressive of talents.’ William shrugged, running a hand through his hair to try and smooth it.
‘It depends how you use it,’ I corrected, never having seen a spellcasting chamber like this. Every plant in here created by a summoning, grown with spells and given life by his patience.
‘Emrys said these study chambers belonged to his mother. Nothing was alive when I arrived.’ William grinned, stuffing his hands into his muddy apron pocket.
‘She studied Taeformery?’ I asked. Witches didn’t usually waste their time on earth magic – the earth could do us little damage after all. They were more interested in tempting the dark to increase their own hold on magic than growing items to assist in spells and healing.
‘No. She mostly studied the poisons from rare plants,’ he admitted with a worried smile, clearly not knowing all the facts about Emrys’s mother either.
I returned my attention to the boxes, considering the wealth of greenery each contained. Magic that would have been punished outside these walls, fey secrets Emrys had protected.
I rubbed the leaves of a longmore plant, lifting it to my nose to smell the bitter scent. Unable to stop my mind from wandering back to William’s words. Earth manipulation wasn’t revered as much as it should be.
Emrys had seen worth in William’s gift, one others would have dismissed. There where plants here that some would argue should be extinct and, amongst the oddities, the ash-coloured leaves of a plant I had only seen once.
‘Is that thaddeus root?’ I asked. ‘It’s supposed to be extinct.’
‘Yes,’ William said with a grin. ‘Emrys asked me to grow it.’ William grinned.
I’d seen it around Master Hale’s office. One seed was able to detect poison in any liquid by turning it black. Master Hale was always secretive about where he acquired it – just on one of his travels, he’d said. It was a plant I’d tried to find myself and failed, because it had died out long ago. And yet here it was.
Had Emrys had William grow it for him?
‘Why?’ I pressed gently.
‘Like most things involving Emrys, it’s a mystery. I was just happy to be able to study it,’ he carried on, clearly not sensing my suspicion. More worries I didn’t need.
I sighed, realising I should get back to my own studies. If only the pile of papers he’d given me were as easy to understand as the plant.
Seeming to sense my exhaustion, William pushed himself up to perch on the edge of the workbench. ‘What cases are bothering you the most?’
‘The recent killings in the village of Fremby,’ I told him. Not the most pleasant of reading material, but I needed to accept the cruelty of this world if I was to stand any chance of understanding it.
He nodded. ‘It was awful. Most were all killed in the same manner.’
The sketches of each victim had been highly detailed. A dark fiend had terrorised most of the village. The villagers had believed it was a thief slitting throats and robbing what little coin they could find.
All the victims had a laceration to the throat, no defensive wounds and were all found to have been robbed. A dark fiendthat fed on blood and liked to collect shiny objects. Dismissed by the Council as mortal evil.
‘What caused the surge in dark activity?’ I asked. The cause hadn’t been mentioned in the paper. Just the suffering of those who didn’t make it.
‘A businessman was trying to mine close by, digging too deeply into cursed earth. The rock in that part of Elysior contains various gems. His greed was easy enough for whatever dark energy remained to feed off.’
Women and children. Innocent beings murdered for nothing but greed – one of the callings of the dark. Its magic was easy to learn … even easier to lose control of.
‘My mother use to tell me about the danger of the occult and stories of the Verr. I never truly believed such things were possible.’ William spoke softly as he ran his fingers through the soil, breaking up the clumps.
‘Where is she now?’ My curiosity was probably rude, but I wanted to know more about him. How he ended up here under Blackthorn’s care.
‘Dead …’
‘I’m sorry.’ It seemed all our stories were too familiar, especially after the wars. I didn’t want that grief for William, or for any of us, and yet it always found us in the end.
