Page 64 of The Sundered Realms

Liris frowned. “No, those—oh. Oh.”

It wasn’t her seeing patterns that was the problem: she just didn’t know enough yet to see the right patterns.

She’d better learn fast.

Vhannor frowned in return. “Oh?”

He had to be wondering how she’d missed it, but that’s because this time it was him.

Liris pointed at slashes in the stone. “I’m sorry, I was focusing on making sense of the patterns in order and my brain sorted this out. This isn’t natural wear. These are a framing device in Thyrasel.”

Vhannor hopped up on the ladder and climbed up closer to her for a better look. Liris shifted, aware of how both their bodies had to balance precariously together, of the warmth of him at her side. Taking his arm, ignoring how her fingers tingled with the contact, she placed his hand on the wall.

“Here,” she said, “and here. See how it goes?”

“The spell has been edited,” Vhannor murmured, running his hand along the stone. “He hasn’t twisted the whole meaning, but he added another layer of his own.” He jumped all the way down, backing away so he could see the whole of the spell. “Read the Thyrasel strand out to me.”

Liris translated the whole thing out loud, while Vhannor followed along with how it intersected other pieces of the spell, commenting on aspects of how the spell worked so she could adapt.

By the time she was done, Liris understood before Vhannor explained that messages were being intercepted.

“It’s not all of them, just ones with the official seal,” Vhannor said. “Look there. Those get filtered out, rerouted to another location—there must be an enclave of demon servants. They change the messages Hyorem and his colleagues are writing, forge their seals, and then they’re sent on, still with the record of a magical path coming from the correct Gate, so no one suspects.”

“Jadrhun?” Liris asked.

Vhannor hesitated. “Stone carving isn’t the same as writing by hand, so it’s not identical. I wouldn’t swear it’s not either, but—“

“It’s probably at least connected, since I can’t imagine he’s teaching anyone Thyrasel.” Part of the advantage for him was its rarity: with the huge head-start Jadrhun had, given all her years of notes and Serenthuar’s original texts, Liris was still the only one who knew enough to counter his spells using it. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

The timing of Otaryl’s sudden apparent withdrawal of support wasn’t coincidental after all.

“If you’re thinking we now have proof for Nysia and Hyorem that Jadrhun is involved with sabotaging the Coalition of Tethered Realms, and that plot is connected to demons, then yes.”

“This also means Jadrhun has learned more Thyrasel than I taught him, and is actively testing his knowledge,” Liris said.

“And ours,” Vhannor said grimly. “Because since we have a duty to not keep this to ourselves, just as we can measure his progress, he can measure ours by our response.”

“The difference is we don’t know what he’s working toward yet.”

Vhannor’s expression closed down. “Yeah. I’d better get Hyorem out here.”

Once Representative Hyorem had sharply assured Vhannor he’d brought a caster he vouched for with him, the Lord of Embhullor explained what they’d found. The representative’s expression grew increasingly cold.

“There is good news here,” Vhannor said softly.

“Let me guess. Your new partner can teach us how to rewrite our realm’s foundational spells?”

Vhannor looked at him.

Hyorem reflexively took a step back and then scowled.

Liris reflected that not everyone seemed to be as drawn to Vhannor’s icy gaze as she was.

“I apologize,” Hyorem said. “That was uncalled for.”

“You brought a caster with you that you trust,” Vhannor reminded him. “If you have confidence in them, then so do I.”

The representative took a breath. “This does put a different perspective on our previous conversation, doesn’t it?”

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