Page 42 of Bound Paths
Rose nodded.
“Well, we do have texts from the period. I’m not familiar with all of these. Others, I’ve been through multiple times.”
“Why?” Carter had told Rose that the Suden were the only court with these histories, but she hadn’t pressed for details. “Why do the Suden have these texts and no one else?”
“You know what my father does?” Aaron asked. She wondered if he was evading her question, but something in his gaze was determined. Rose wondered if this was a small test of how much Luc had shared with her. She would play along to get the answer.
“He teaches magical agriculture methods and works with humans to implement them for a more stable food supply.” Shetilted her head. “What does that have to do with the period before the Flood?”
Aaron smiled. She must have passed. “I realize this was before the creation of the fae, but it held the most advancements in the use of magic for farming.” Aaron coughed. “The humans turned to magical experimentation in their time of need.”
“I see.” Carter and Juliette had made the famine clear, but maybe they’d been unaware that villagers resorted to blood magic to survive. She bent over Aaron’s shoulder to look at the page he’d flipped to. Focusing on their task, she asked, “What did you find?”
“From your brief explanation yesterday, I’d guess you don’t quite believe that the Lady went mad.” He looked up for Rose’s confirmation and then continued. “You are right to suspect. This text is a journal of a villager in Marcil. It indicates the Lady of the Veil gave the governor’s daughter the means to protect her village.”
“What means?” Rose asked, surprised by the difference in the story Carter told about a woman being taken from her village.
“It doesn’t say—just that a deal was struck. I have to believe it has some ring of truth because this journal survived. As you can imagine, most texts from the time were destroyed in the Flood.” He flipped through more pages. “This journal isn’t the only one that mentions something like this. I’m still searching for the journal of the governor’s daughter herself. I swear we had it…” He scratched the back of his neck. “If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it includes even more examples of using blood magic to grow crops.”
Rose was skimming the text. It was open to an entry where the author talked about their food source being destroyed. Celeste, the governor’s daughter, was referenced—a plan to experiment with magic to regrow the crops. “This is a goodstart.” She almost shooed Aaron out of the chair so she could sit down and read from the beginning.
“Does this journal talk about the magic?” Rose wondered how much Aaron would tell her from memory versus what she would need to read for herself.
“No. This villager seemed afraid of it but willing to put their trust in Celeste’s plan. We’ll need Celeste’s journal for details on the magic or the real exchange with the Lady of the Veil.”
“Did you know blood magic could do something like this?” Rose asked.
“Fae have never paid attention to blood magic. We’re spoiled and, some would say, too prideful with our inherent elements. The Vesten Point will probably know the most.” He shrugged. “There are scholars and practitioners of blood magic in the Sandrin library where he studied.”
Rose nodded as she continued to skim the text for more details or mentions of the Lady of the Veil.
“You have some reading to do.” Aaron’s lips curved into a smile as his hand searched his face absently for his glasses.
“They’re on top of your head,” Rose pointed out without looking up.
Nonplussed, Aaron continued, pulling the glasses down to the bridge of his nose.
“I’ve seen the Lady of the Veil… She certainly wasn’t…welcoming when we ended up in her realm. I can’t imagine she would just give someone the ability to save her village out of the kindness of her heart.”
Aaron’s eyes widened at the confession that Rose had journeyed beyond the veil. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
Rose swatted at him. “As if you didn’t expect I’ve already tried to get to him.” There was no need to define the him of who she spoke.
“I expect nothing less, Rose. It’s best I don’t know the details in case the Suden ask questions. I’m a terrible liar.”
Rose hmphed. “Anyway, she seems more of the ‘I’ll take what I want, and you can’t stop me’ type.”
“That may be true now, but this was five or six hundred years ago. A lot could be different.”
Rose nodded. He was right, and she needed to know what had changed. It likely held the key to understanding the Lady of the Veil. Even if the knife worked and Rose could enter the realm undetected, she’d still need to deal with the realm’s ruler when it came to Luc and Aterra.
“I’ll keep looking for other journals. I expect there is more to the story.”
Rose flipped toward the end of the journal—an entry about food and shelter from the elemental storms. She would read this more later. “Thank you, Aaron.”
He smiled. “Don’t thank me yet. I wanted to get you these. I’ll continue searching for the others.” He gestured to the stack of books. “I’ll leave these for you as well. I’ve left bookmarks on the most relevant pages. They’re other villager’s perspectives on the same.”
“I’m glad you’re not one to fold pages down as markers,” Rose said.
