Page 38 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
Selene’s smile was gentle. “Because you don’t need them, my love. What happened when you protected yourself and Axel from the guard, when you actually tried to use magic?”
Harlow remembered the way her spirit body had flown. “I went to the limen in my spirit body—but it was different than it typically is. I think I had wings.”
Aurelia seemed to be tracking what she said in the book, nodding. “The limen is where all aethereal power comes from, it’s the heart of magic.”
Axel settled against her, purring deeply. “That’s what you meant when you said I could use magic at its source. I’m using liminal magic.”
Selene made a humming noise. “Not exactly. The limen is rather large, a world unto itself, with its own magical rules. To use what we typically term ‘liminal magic’ you would have to be a creature of the limen itself. You are simply drawing magic from its most potent source, rather than through the threads of reality. There is no conduit between you and your power.”
Harlow stared at the herringbone pattern of the wood floor beneath her feet. A hundred competing feelings rattled around inside her. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.
Aurelia passed the book to Selene, pointing to a particular passage. “It says here that the lineage sometimes skips two to three generations, but that Striders are typically born into times when their powers are needed most.”
Selene closed the book without reading the passage Aurelia indicated. “Harlow? Are you all right?”
“Sure, Mama. I’m fine. I’m always fine.”
Selene cupped Harlow's face in her warm hands. “My darling, that is not true. No one is always fine.”
Harlow shrugged, looking anywhere but at either of her parents. She wanted to drag Axel off her lap and hug him tightly to her chest, but he looked so peaceful that she let him be. “So what does this all mean? How do Striders use magic if they don’t use spells or weave threads? I assume it’s a bit different from the rest of you, since I don’t know anyone whose manifestation made their fingers turn colors.”
Aurelia’s smile was wide. “Each Strider’s process is a little different, so there’s no methods, no spells. She must learn to trust herself, her intuition. And then, Harlow… A Strider’s power is as strong as her will. There are limits, of course, but each Strider must find the edges of her magic on her own.”
That sounded a bit frightening. “So no one can teach me?”
Selene shook her head. “No, dearest, I’m afraid not.”
There was a rustle of footsteps on the stairs, and a flurry of whispers. “Just come in here,” Selene called.
Larkin and Thea rushed into the room. Thea clasped a second book to her chest. “Larkin found this. It’s the companion to the Merkhov book, a collection of facsimiles of the texts Merkhov worked with primarily to write her book. Look at this.”
Larkin set up a cradle on the coffee table and they gathered round to look at the facsimile of a triptych. The writing underneath each image was indecipherable, written in glyphs Harlow had never seen before. The images themselves were difficult to make out, because of the damage to the book, but she could make out scales in the first two and bodies that looked like snakes. The third seemed to depict something else entirely.
“They almost look like the humans’ alchemical illuminations,” Selene murmured. “Merkhov’s book isn’t about alchemy though. It is about navigating the limen, and those who move between. Thea, can you do anything about the images?”
Meline and Indigo peeked through the door to the back stairs. “Can we come in?”
Selene motioned to them and somehow all seven of the Krane women piled onto one couch together. Selene stroked Harlow’s hair as Thea worked. Axel jumped onto the back of the couch, stretching his long body out contentedly, resting his chin on Harlow’s shoulder as he too watched the oldest Krane sister manipulate reality.
Thea pulled strands of magic quickly, hands darting here and there as she wove them together with expert grace. “I hadn’t planned to start either of these texts until next month. I will get to it immediately, but… yes, there… That’s better.”
The first illumination in the triptych was beautiful. It depicted two snakes, each consuming the other’s tail, encircling a semi-transparent sphere that encased a giant egg. The upper snake’s body had likely been gilded in the original manuscript, while the intensity of the lower snake’s dark blue hue was probably derived from lapis. The originals had to have been extremely costly to produce.
“The color of the snake,” Larkin gasped, grabbing Harlow’s hands. “It looks familiar, doesn’t it?”
Selene’s mouth pressed into a grim line as she gazed at the metallic gleam of the upper snake’s body. Thea continued her work and shortly the first image was much clearer, showing that the gilded snake emitted light, while the lower snake did not. Selene stared into her wife’s eyes for a long time before Aurelia shook her head, worry creasing her brow.
“What is it?” Harlow asked as Aurelia stared off into the distance. “What do you think this represents?”
“A union,” Selene said softly. “Your mother believes this represents a union.”
“Of who?” Indigo murmured as Thea sank to the floor in front of Selene. Everyone shifted slightly as Larkin joined her, spreading out a bit more. Larkin poured her eldest sister a cup of tea, and Thea sipped gratefully. The maters were suspiciously quiet.
“The gilded snake represents the Illuminated, doesn’t it?” Meline asked, though it hardly sounded like a question. “And the blue snake may depict a Strider. It’s not the pure blue of a lapis ink. They must have mixed it with something else to get the darker hue. Maybe tumsole or a bit of vermillion?”
It was a mistake to think that Indigo and Meline only cared about society happenings and their socials. They were as well versed in manuscript production as any of the Kranes.
As if to prove this fact, Indigo nodded at her sister thoughtfully. “Two snakes, locked in what… a destructive cycle? But they’re protecting the egg… What do you think the other two images show, Thea?”
