Page 82 of Veinblood
We both fall silent. I take a sip of water from the skin, washing down the bread and meat, my mind going over everything I’ve seen here, everything I’ve heard.
“The dreams you sent me. How did you know I was here?”
“I felt the disruption when you were pulled to Meridian. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, then Kalliss came to me with a vision. A voice proclaiming ‘In sunlight and shadows, the storm has returned.’ As a Windvein, I have the ability to reach through dreams. I searched, hunting for a sign that it meant you were back in Meridian. At first, I didn’t realize you had found the Vareth’el. Only that you were here, and that the prophecy might finally be unfolding. I needed to send you the visions Kalliss had, and hope that you could decipher them.”
“It would have been easier if you hadn’t spoken in riddles. Why not just tell me exactly what you needed me to know?”
“Because that’s not how visions work. They show what matters, but rarely how it all connects. The visions Kalliss had showed the bracelet glowing during a storm, it saw you standing in silver light. It gave the importance of remembering what lay hidden. But the meanings? That comes through living it, not through the visions themselves.”
Her explanation makes sense, even if it frustrates me. Magicseems to resist straightforward communication, wrapping truth in symbols that only become clear in hindsight …
A little like Sacha himself.
“And you couldn’t have just told me that Veinbloods still survived?”
“No. Like visions, dreamwalking doesn’t work that way. It can only show pieces that need to be assembled.”
“I understand some of it, I think. The bracelet was the anchor that brought me here safely.” My hand touches my wrist. I haven’t seen it since returning. I don’t know if it was lost during the crossing, or if it’s still in Chicago. “The storm was my power awakening. But I still don’t understand the ‘what lies beneath.’ Can you explain that to me now?”
“I can tell you what Ithinkit means. That the truth exists beneath the Authority’s lies. That Sacha Torran was not executed, that the Veinbloods survived, and that there is still hope.”
“And the crystal? What were you trying to show me with that? Who were the cloaked people that were killed? What were they doing with the crystal?”
“You needed to understand what the crystal actually was. It was designed to combine all Veinblood powers together for more challenging undertakings. It took all four bloodlines working in harmony, alongside the Shadowvein Lord who would channel the combined force. Without that balance, attempting to use it was incredibly dangerous.”
“The Shadowvein Lord … but I don’t think Sacha knows any more about the crystal than I do.”
“That’s because he never had the chance to find out about it. Lord Torran’s father would have known about them, and been responsible for the Keepers protection. When the Authority killed him, that connection was severed. The Keepers were left without their protector.”
“Those people in the robes gathered around it … those are the Keepers?”
“Yes. A secret order tasked with protecting the crystal. They answered only to the Shadowvein line. The Authority discovered their sanctuary and slaughtered them while they attempted to use the crystal to protect them, but without the Shadowvein Lord’s presence, they became easy targets.” Her voice turns bitter. “The Authority spent years experimenting with the crystal, learning to corrupt its purpose. Instead of amplifying combined powers, they made it steal them.”
“And that’s where I come into the story.”
“That’s where you come into the story,” she repeats softly.
The scope of what the Authority has done. Killing the Keepers to steal the crystal, corrupting its use, hunting down every Veinblood they could find. The destruction of an entire people and their knowledge. It’s staggering. But it also raises questions about how they managed it without having any power of their own.
“There’s something bothering me,” I say finally. “Sacha can tear through twenty Authority soldiers without breaking a sweat. How did the Authority manage to overthrow an entire army of Veinbloods?”
Vorith’s expression darkens. “It was surprisingly easy. They turned people against each other at first. They made ordinary people believe their Veinblood neighbors were dangerous. That magic itself was evil and unnatural. They spread stories about Veinbloods losing control and hurting innocent people. They used accidents that occurred with young Veinbloods just coming into their power and made them seem like evidence that all Veinbloods were threats.”
“And people believed them?”
“Not everyone. Not at first. The Authority started small, opening small meeting halls in villages, and gaining followers, before spreading to cities. Once they gained enough traction and influence among people with more power … that’s when they started pushing for Veinbloods to be monitored.” She pauses. “Then came the rewards. Gold for information about hidden Veinbloods. Land grants for families who reported their neighbors. The Authority made betrayal of our kind profitable. People fought against it at first, but when the alternative is being labeled a traitor, and when harboring Veinbloods is punishable by death? Then yes, they believed … or pretended to believe.”
“They isolated you before you were attacked.”
“Exactly. The majority of our kind were living in cities and villages among regular people. We were cut off from support before we could respond. When the Authority finally moved openly against Veinblood families, many were alone, surrounded by people who had been slowly conditioned to see them as monsters.”
“But you still had your abilities. They couldn’t take them away without the crystal.”
“Yes, but magic has limits. A Flamevein can maintain a small fire indefinitely, but creating a wall of fire to hold off soldiers who are attacking you will drain you faster. An Earthvein can sense weak points in stone constantly, but actually reshaping structures without a break will exhaust them.” Vorith’s voice turns grim. “The Authority learned to force Veinbloods into using their powers at maximum intensity, until they collapsed from exhaustion. Then they’d simply overwhelm them with sheer force.”
“But Sacha is different.”
“The Vareth’el has Voidcraft as well as Shadowvein abilities. That’s a form of magic that doesn’t follow the same rules as ours, but it has its own weaknesses. It’s why it took betrayal to bring him down. They couldn’t exhaust him as quickly as they did others.”
