Page 166 of Between Soul and Vessel
Ezra . . . how I missed her.
“It smells so good,” Artemesia crooned as she selectedtwo cups, offering me one of them. The act pulled me from my wistful thoughts.
“Thank you,” I said, taking it. It was hot against my fingers. Steam danced from the golden-colored water, swirling and twirling. Artemesia and I sat down on one of the settees beside one another.
“What kind of tea is it?” Kaleb asked as he took one of the cups and sat down across from us.
“It’s called dragon’s delight. It’s a blend of different spices, but it’s the rubrum draco aroma that makes it so highly sought after,” she answered.
“It comes from the red dragon tree,” Von said, emerging from the shadows. I glanced at him, wondering if he had remembered something.
“Indeed, it does. There was once a time when you were quite fond of it,” Naia answered, reaching forward and picking up a cup. She offered it to Von.
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” he said, taking it as he sat down beside me. I shifted closer, yearning for that constant contact. The pull I felt to Von was gravitational—always tugging me toward him, like the river to the ocean. The tide to the moon. My soul to his.
Naia picked up another cup, extending an arm toward Folkoln as she asked, “What about you, dear?”
“I’m not a tea drinker,” he said, declining her offer as he sat beside Kaleb.
“You are missing out,” she spoke in a teasing tone. She withdrew the offered cup, taking it with her as she returned to her chair. Her attention swung to me. “Now, Sage, dear,I’ve been meaning to ask—have you thought about what we discussed yesterday?”
“I have. I’ve decided I’m going to hold off on it for now,” I replied, resting my cup in my lap. Out of respect for my mate, I wouldn’t put him through that, feeling my pain and suffering as I was cut into. Perhaps Von was right, perhaps sometimes, I could be too trusting.
“That’s completely understandable,” she answered, nodding slowly as she blew on her tea, scattering the swirls of steam.
“There’s another reason why we came,” Von started. “We were hoping you could tell us about this.” Shadows pooled in his flattened palm, conjuring the necklace he had gotten from the giant.
“May I?” Naia asked, setting her cup down beside her on the end table.
“Of course.” On the breath of his wind, he sent it over to her.
“It is a travel stone,” she said as she studied it, rotating it around. “I believe around sixty-five percent of travel stones came from the Elswaina mines. Due to the stones’ inactivity, the mines shut down. Now, they are nothing more than a relic, just like all the other energy stones floating around out there.”
“What caused the stones to become inactive?” Folkoln inquired, tipping his head ever so slightly in that confident, superior way of his. The act was taken straight out of Von’s own book, titledBetter than Thou.
“Originally, they were tethered to Alaric. When hedied, they stopped working, like so many other things in this realm,” she said, sending the stone back to Von.
His shadows swallowed it. “I thought Alaric died at the end of the War of the Creators.”
“He did,” Naia stated, nodding as she twisted toward the end table and picked her cup up.
“But how can that be?” Von challenged. “The giant who used this very stone to travel to the Three Realms, where we are from, did it centuries after the war ended.”
“Ah, that’s because my sister found a way to make them work for a brief time,” she replied. “Although whatever method she used clearly was not sustainable, because they didn’t last very long.”
“Why did she want them to work again?” I wondered.
“Because she needed a way to send her venum stoomics out to all of the realms to look for a soul and send it back to her,” Naia answered. “Their souls, due to their size, require a lot more magic to send to another realm in comparison to ones like ours, hence needing the energy stones.”
“Whose soul was she trying to find?” Kaleb asked curiously, leaning forward in his seat.
But I already knew the answer—it was the same reason she had sent my soul to the Three Realms. “She’s after Von.”
“Correct,” Naia replied, taking a small sip of her tea.
“Why?” Folkoln asked. “Why is she after him?”
“Only my sister can tell you that,” Naia stated, taking a deep breath.
