Page 293 of The Daughters of Avalon
Like Avalon,Sylphkindwere like chimeras… here one instant, gone the next… ephemeral and without constant form. And yet, Morwendidhave a physical form.
Sylph?
Truly?
Nay, it couldn’t be… and yet… she knew the ring of truth when she heard it.
In the darkness, she was moved to examine her own hands— solid, with distinct human form. She had never once—not once—had an inkling she could shift her form. And yet, she, too, must have Sylph blood running through her veins—her sisters as well—though Rhiannon bled like anyone else.
More to the point, so did Morwen.
A memory filtered into her mind—her mother slicing a finger, not on accident. Using her daggerwith the obsidian handle, she’d bled herself for a spell—bloodmagik, so she’d said. Only now that Rhiannon recalled… that dagger also glowed blue in Morwen’s presence, like Rhiannon’s manacles… and the key. The glow for Rhiannon was faint, more like a shimmer, but it was nevertheless there.
She tried to remember what her mother had said about the glow when asked… Rhiannon was four, watching, as her mother’s blood dripped into a chalice. “What are you doing?”
“Can’t you see I am busy, child? Go away!”
Much to Rhiannon’s detriment, theathamehad already captured her attention, and curiosity compelled her. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the ancient blade.
“Why does it glow?”
Her mother’s sigh was disparaging. “Because it sees my true soul,” she’d said, annoyed.
“Does it see mine?”
“Nay.”
“Why not?”
Morwen’s amber gaze sought her then, eyes slitted, and burning like coals. “Because you are imperfect,” she’d said meanly. “Plain, ugly. Have you never looked into a mirror, child? Only a blind man will ever claim you with that affliction.”
Disheartened, Rhiannon’s lips had turned down at the corners, but even then, she’d refused to weep. One did not show weakness in front of Morwen.
Instead, a four-year-old’s burgeoning fury had welled up inside her as her mother shouted for Elspeth. “Elspeth! Get this brat out of my sight, right now! Else I’ll think better of it and drain her pitiful body of the blood I need for my spell.”
Elspeth had rushed over at once, removing Rhiannon from her mother’s proximity, whisking her out of the apartment and down into the castle kitchen to pilfer a sweet cake from the cook.
It sees my soul.
Did theathameleech from Morwen, like those manacles?
Nay.Nay.
Somehow, those two were the same, but not the same, because her mother still carried theathameon a chain about her neck. Therefore, the manacles must be changed by the binding spell etched into the metal.
Tenetur in argenteas
A capite ad calcem, tace, et sile
Bound in silver,
From head to toe, silent and still
Something about those words spoke to her sense of knowing, just as something about the blue shimmer of the metal seemed relevant to their cause.
It sees my soul.
Will it see mine?
