Page 16 of A Touch of Royalty

Nothing.

So it was direly important that she do nothing with her flame while the First Wizard was watching. She’d already told him far too much, and he was far too intelligent.

Emryn shook the dread down and looked up at the First Wizard and then across at the prince. “Where do we begin?”

“The Mother named you her Wings.” The First Wizard gave her a penetrating look. “A title not seen in centuries, since the genesis of the Eternal Empire. In order to get to the bottom of this entire thing, I believe we must begin there.”

“I don’t know what it means though.” Emryn managed to get the words out over the knot of nerves in her throat. “I don’t have wings, I never have.”

“It is metaphorical, or at least I believe so.” The First Wizard tapped his chin with one long finger. “If it is not, that opens an entirely different set of problems.”

“So we are operating under the expectation that I’m still sick?” the prince broke into the conversation. “I feel fine.”

“You are being bolstered by Emryn,” the First Wizard said. “Emryn, do stop thinking of me like that. My name is Asan and I prefer not to stand on ceremony.”

“What?” Emryn jolted, eyes going wide. “Are you-”

“You are projecting your thoughts rather loudly.” He smiled at her. “I have no intention of having you removed from the temple or from your vows, so please stop flinging your worries at my head.”

Emryn felt her face pale, and she grabbed the thoughts that had escaped and shoved them rather hard behind her eyes. It gave her an instant headache, but it was better than having the First Wizard hearing her.

He nodded, “better, thank you.”

“Apologies,” she muttered.

The First Wizard shook his head. “We will peruse that train of thought later. For now, if you will grant permission, I would like to look at your pathways.”

Emryn nodded slowly. “If it will help unravel this.”

“It is the first step,”the First Wizard replied, rising and moving in Emryn’s direction.

Emryn forced herself to remain precisely where she was. Her pathways were constructions rather than being natural. Her fire didn’t need pathways, it simmered until she needed it. But all humans had pathways and so Emryn had made herself some.

And they had passed muster with the head healer, he hadn’t been able to tell that she’d made them herself.

Emryn turned inward as the First Wizard stopped next to her chair. “We begin,” he said, laying a light hand on the top of her head.

Emryn waited, and then he was there, standing in her head looking around at the darkness where there should have been light.

“Fascinating,” the First Wizard reached out and touched the closest conduit that should have held her fire. It was cold and empty now, dark and silent, and the First Wizard looked confused.

“Emryn, what did you do?”

“I don’t understand?”

“These-” the First Wizard touched the conduit again. “There is something strange about these conduits.”

Emryn’s mouth went dry. How could he tell that the conduits weren’t right? No one had ever been able to tell before, and she’d had too many healers in her head to count. But then, he was First Wizard to Rodilla, and maybe he was looking at it from a different angle.

“I don’t know- I didn’t do anything to them.”

The First Wizard gave her a hard look, like he was trying to see through her. “Tell me in time, Emryn.”

“Truly,” she stammered. “These are my conduits.”

“And they are not part and parcel of your core.” The First Wizard gestured to the darkness where her fire should be. “But that is not why we are here.”

“Then why?” Emryn asked.

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