Page 62 of Forsaken Secrets

Someone on the Ridge was using and storing tempered relics. But why? Were they forcing people to use the relics, and then letting them loose with the srpyke once they turned? Or was the corruption happening accidentally?

"Come look at this!" Eli shouted. He stood across the room in front of a large painting leaning against the wall.

I walked over, drawn in by the scene. It showed a beautiful woman with long silver hair sitting atop a snarling blue dragon. Five smaller dragons surrounded her, each ridden by a crowned man. "Who is it?"

"The Fallen Queen.” Lynk's voice was barely above a whisper.

I looked at him, brow raised. "A queen? All I know are the five kings."

That's what we'd been taught in school, at least.

I could still remember Mr. Tilbe's droning voice.

"A thousand years ago, before The Fall, mages were the governing body on the continent. But they grew greedy and their magic became corrupted. Many bonded mages lost themselves to the corruption, but some fought back. The Five Kings reclaimed the mainland, trapping the Forsaken on their Isle forever. Those kings went on to establish the Empire in an effort to prevent a similar occurrence from occurring ever again."

It had always sounded too neat.

Eli laughed dryly, "I believe you know The Fallen Queen as The Fall Bringer. A powerful female mage with five bonded men who rode dragons?"

"The Fall Bringer." I said, voice quiet.

He was right. I had heard about her. But in the history we learned, she was blamed for the creation of everything Forsaken.

"Could she have been the one to destroy this room?"

"It's possible. She's the only human mage to use natural magic without a relic," Lynk said.

"Who's to say it wasn't a relic, though?" I said, "I've heard how powerful they can be!"

Lynk shook his head. "Very few relics are this strong, and no creature strong enough to do something like this would bend to the will of men and become a tool or companion. They could never be tempered."

I wanted to ask more questions, but we'd already been here too long. "So what do we do with all these dangerous relics? We obviously can't leave them here, but if we touch them we risk getting corrupted. Do the Reapers have a way to handle them? We wouldn't get much money for them, but at least they'd be somewhere safe."

Eli shifted on his feet. "I didn't know these would be twisted, Kaiya. I'm so sorry. I — "

I held out a hand to stop him. "I knew it was a risk when we went into it. Let's just get them to safety and worry about the rest later."

My stomach twisted. We were going to lose our home.

No. I shook off the thoughts. There would be enough time for them when I got home.

Right now, we needed to make a plan.

I strode towards the relics when something in the back corner caught my eye. The ground looked different there … less melted, perhaps?

Curious, I walked over and crouched down. An area of less melted stone stretched in an irregular circular shape towards the wall. And in the middle of it were four large indents, each separated from the others by a few feet.

Eli crouched beside me, his shoulder brushing mine. It sent a tingling awareness through me, and I glanced over at him.

He stared intently at the stone. "Whatever did this, it must have been at the source."

I nodded. All the melted stone seemed to lead to this one spot. "But why? If it was the Queen, like you said, what did she want to hide so badly that she destroyed this entire library and all the people in it?"

"Who says she was hiding something? Maybe she got too angry? Or maybe her power warped, and she lost control? For all we know, she turned into a wraith right here."

"Gods. I wish there were more records from the Fall," I said, caught up in the mystery. "Can you imagine? Mages free to walk around, to rule, to be happy. Would she have really ruined that because she was angry? No. There had to be another reason."

"The best we can do is figure out what happened and maybe find what was here." Eli gestured towards the door we'd come through. "They obviously didn't bring whatever it was that way. Those doors are nowhere near large enough."

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