Page 100 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
The thought of violating my father’s privacy like that made me feel sick to my stomach, but what if it was the only way?
We already did that, little hurricane. That’s what I was searching for in Alderwick: the truth from your father’s memories.
I stared at him.
You entered Fabian’s mind?
You saw with your own eyes that I didn’t harm him.
I had. Based on how he’d been making cookies with Don, unperturbed, I doubted he’d even known a Mind Manipulator was sneaking into his head at all. I bit back the reprimand I had no right giving him after I’d suggested doing exactly that.
What did you find?
Nothing.
Across the table, Steeler’s face didn’t so much as twitch to indicate that he was currently in my mind, but his consciousness beneath my blockade had settled into a deep frown.
That whole part of your father’s life is gone until the moment he stole you away from the abandoned classroom in the Object Summoner sector. He knows that he kidnapped you and nicked that knife from your mother, but nothing more. Nothing before that. Even his knowledge that he was in love with your mother… it doesn’t have any kind of face or emotion attached to it. It’s just a dry fact.
Someone had erased it from him, then. Fabian hadn’t purposely kept my mother from me, after all—he hadn’t known how I came to be all along.
The realization loosened something vital in my chest. That letter he’d written to me last year must have been his way of sharing the only thing he knew about the incident. That he’d come from that abandoned classroom. That he’d stolen a baby from a female he’d had no recollection of ever seeing.
There’s a way to find out for sure,Steeler said.
Is there?My heart began hammering against my chest.
Yes.Two ways, actually.The first one isn’t really an option, though.We’d have to putyou in front of Old Veracious—a sword on the main ship that tells its handler the absolute truth about the person before it. It’s how we verify the identities of anyone new who boards the ship, make sure they’re not enemies in disguise.
I shuddered.
So if I had come with you all those months ago, if I had boarded the ship, they would have put this sword in front of me—
—and discovered if you were Dyonisia’s daughter for themselves right then and there.
And if IwasDyonisia’s daughter, they would have killed me immediately with that same sword: an act Steeler would have had to watch, maybe even partake in, because of that creepy oath-bound shit.
No. A growl had erupted in my mind, and even the others at the table paused as Steeler seemed to bristle in his chair.I am not an official part of the queen’s military yet, and as for the others…He flexed his fingers against the table.They might havetriedto kill you, but I wouldn’t have let them. Keeping you from that ship was more for their sake than yours.
A cold, creeping calm had trickled down his face.
You mean…?
I would have had to turn them into piles of bones and guts, of course. And then the queen would have put a target on both of our backs. Not a situation I wanted to put you in.
I found myself swallowing thickly.
Okay, so Old Veracious isn’t an option. What’s the second one?
I needed to know. Needed to finally have that truth about my birth and purpose in my hands. Needed to have an idea of what my innate magic might be once it finally exploded into form.
I have an older friend on the ship, Steeler started haltingly.He’s… very close to Nara, the one who makes the pills for us. In fact, he helps her formulate a variety of medicines with his power of Magnification—an ability to see the very smallest of details down to their chains of chemical compositions.
Sounds fancy. That wasn’t even sarcasm. The more I learned about other types of powers out there, the more intrigued I became about the seemingly endless possibilities.What would he do, look at Dyonisia and me side by side and tell us if we’re related just by our… our particles?
Steeler leaned back with folded arms, obviously impressed.
That’s exactly what he’d do. Except you don’t need all of Dyonisia by your side. If you can just steal one of the hairs on her head…
