Page 170 of Children of Fallen Gods

And that was that.Tisaanah and I were to leave the Towers the next day.

Later that afternoon, Sammerin came. He swung open the door — as always, without knocking — and stood there giving me a deadpan stare of utter disapproval.

“I hear that you have had a very exciting day.”

“You hear correctly.”

“Every time I see you, I’m always slightly amazed that you’re still alive.” He shook his head, set down his pack, and set to work on my arm, which still hurt fiercely. But when I pulled up my sleeve, he looked down at the veins on my skin, frowning and silent.

“I know,” I said. “Unattractive, isn’t it?”

“Do you know what that is?”

I paused, Eomara’s words echoing in my head. Now it seemed so obvious that I was amazed that we hadn’t picked up on it sooner. “I think,” I said, quietly, “it’s some form of A’Maril.”

Sammerin’s gaze shot to me, his silence not hiding his alarm at the thought.

“I think that the magic that Tisaanah and I have exposes us. Eomara theorized about it. And even Vardir said some things that implied… the magic that we were Wielding was not intended for human bodies.”

“And that would mean A’Maril,” Sammerin muttered.

“Right.” I looked down at my hands, veins dark, and thought of how much darker Tisaanah’s were. “I didn’t realize until I fed Tisaanah my magic. It felt like it… magnified everything.”

“Wait… you—”

I gave him a weak shrug. “Like you said. It’s been an exciting day.”

Sammerin leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and giving me an expectant stare. I sighed and, of course, I told him the whole sorry thing. When I was done, Sammerin let out a long breath.

“That sounds…”

“Unbelievable?”

“If I didn’t know you were an awful liar, I’d assume that you were… embellishing.”

I let out a rough laugh. “That’s our lives these days, isn’t it?”

Sammerin shrugged, as if conceding. Then he leaned forward, suddenly serious. “Gone.”

“So it would appear.”

“It may be too early to make that determination. If Tisaanah is as depleted as you are, it could just be—”

“Could be. But Tisaanah is certain.”

“If it’s true,” Sammerin muttered, “then I’ll never be so happy to see something die.”

“Me too.”

And yet, I couldn’t shake the sensation that this was… incomplete. Like I was eyeing all the pages that still remained before the end of the book.

“But this…” Sammerin’s eyes drifted back down. He picked up my arm and I felt the unpleasant sensation of my muscles twitching, far beneath the skin. I let out a wordless noise of disapproval, even though I couldn’t bring myself to be actually annoyed. Sammerin was using his magic to speak to the tissue, searching for whatever lay beneath. That was how, for example, he would find a broken bone or a cut tendon, pinpoint the source of an injury. Uncomfortable, but effective.

He frowned.

“What?” I asked.

“It does feel like A’Maril. But I only saw it when I started looking. It’s a strange variant, nothing I’ve ever seen before. It feels more like…an infection…like there’s something foreign…” He trailed off, mouth thinned, brow furrowed. Then he said, “Don’t use that magic for awhile.”

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