Page 125 of Amethyst and Iron
“Youarethe strongest. And you will be again. With this transplant.”
“It would be temporary, yes?”
“A couple of months before the cores start disintegrating.”
“Then I’d have to be bound again before the rot resumed, my sickness no longer having a barrier that these cores would provide.”
“That’s the downside. But Remnant doesn’t believe that will be a factor once whatever Scion is has been dealt with. He says it’s the key to a permanent cure for you. And this… the transplant… would be in the interim so that Scion can be defeated. Something you’re uniquely qualified to do apparently.”
Uniquely qualified.Yes, that certainly summed it up whereScionwas concerned.
“To obtain these cores… The Shadowed is responsible for those murders? All to cure me so I could stand against this threat?” Something didn’t add up there.
“No. They merely… saw opportunity in it. They harvested the cores of three necromancers who were found murdered.”
“Harvested them? The cores would have been in death state.”
“They were able to revitalize them.”
I choked. “Excuse me?”
“I can’t get into that. It was the deal I struck. I’m sorry.”
I shoved my hand through my hair. “This is… heavy. A lot to digest. Even for me. The Shadowed has found a way to bring something back from death state—with no necromancers in the mix, on their payroll? This is… it’s no small feat, Lazriel. This is revolutionary.”
“Yeah, I get that this is giving you a major magical-research hard-on.”
“Something, given the extent of his knowledge on me that this conversation alone has demonstrated, Remnant would have already anticipated. Meaning he won’t allow me to be brought into The Shadowed underground for this procedure, yes?”
He nodded with a grimace.
“Just my blood then. So be it.”
“Really? You’re on board? Already? I figured you’d ask way more questions, want answers galore, and then want time to think on it beyond that as well.”
“There are no other solutions. This is it.”
“You realize this is the first procedure ever of its kind?”
“Of course. Isn’t that what I just said? It’s revolutionary.”
“I know… I mean… your quick acceptance… it’s not about the magic, is it? Not just about the magic, anyway? Something else is driving it.” He gestured at my research intoScionall over the floor. “And it’s that. You know what this threat is, don’t you? I couldn’t make out any of the writing. It’s not in a language I understand. Not even Latin, which is taught in bits and pieces even to non-magical beings at Wraeven Academy.”
“It’s my own language.”
“You… what? You developed your own language?”
I nodded. “A safety precaution when I’m undertaking volatile research.”
“I see that safety precaution stance extends to those objects I saw all over your kitchen table when I first arrived, the place where your serum production spell used to be.”
“Yes. Those areSpecus Relics.”
He thought for a moment. “Stand-ins for magical power?”
“I knew you took your studies more seriously than you let on. Wraeven wasn’t all about Graverun for you after all, hmm?”
His lips quirked. But that brief flicker of mirth dissipated all too soon. “Cave.That’s what it translates as?”
