Free Web NovelChapter 499: Chapter 499
The part of town Ragnar had chosen for the meeting was quiet even at this hour, left undisturbed by the midday rush and the evening crowds that would usually fill the nearby streets closer to dusk. The buildings here were old and pressed close together, with the gap between them being just wide enough to have narrow alleyways running along them like hidden passageways.
It was the kind of place no one lingered in without reason. That was precisely why he had chosen it.
He had left the manor while Circe was still asleep, her injured hands resting loosely at her side. He had watched her for a moment before he left, long enough to feel the pull to stay, and then he had eventually forced himself out the door.
The meeting he had scheduled for today just couldn’t wait and he had already put it off longer than he should have. Still, the thought sat at the back of his mind that she might wake before he returned and find him beside her. He didn’t want her to think that he had willingly left her by herself while she was still injured. An injury that he had caused.
He reached the alley and stopped. It was quiet and empty. Not another soul in sight. The distant sounds carried faintly in the wind were his only company.
He stood for a moment, waiting for the other person to show up. All he wanted was to be done with this as soon as possible so he could return back to his wife.
Then as his gaze scanned his surroundings for the second time, a shadow along the wall shifted. It moved with intention, thickening at the edges and then pulling wide. Ragnar watched as the darkness deepened and then parted, and from it stepped Arius, as if he had simply opened a door and walked through it.
Ragnar had seen the man do it a dozen times and it still wasn’t something he had grown entirely accustomed to.
Arius was not a large man. He was lean and unremarkable at first glance, the kind of person who could stand in a room full of people and draw no attention whatsoever. But the moment he came close enough, there was something about his presence that always triggered a reaction in others, like a prey sensing an approaching predator.
His eyes were sharp and quick and they moved over Ragnar now with an assessing look.
"It’s good to see you in one piece." Arius spoke first. His words came out in an easy drawl, like he was merely remarking on the weather. "The riders said you weren’t faring well during the attack, but you look fine to me. Definitely no reason to ask to meet me today."
"Something is wrong with me," Ragnar said. He had come here for answers and he intended to leave with them.
Arius tilted his head to the side. "How so?"
"I can no longer use shadows like I used to." Ragnar told him. freewebnøvel.coɱ
Something shifted in Arius’s face. He was quiet for a moment, and then he closed the distance between them and reached out, taking hold of Ragnar’s hand and turning it palm up.
Ragnar looked at him but didn’t pull away. He stood still and watched as Arius passed his free hand slowly over Ragnar’s upturned palm. Dark tendrils spilled from Arius’s hand as he moved it, curling against Ragnar’s skin like smoke that couldn’t quite settle. They left no sensation, no warmth or cold. Just the faint impression of something pressing lightly against the surface.
The frown that crossed Arius’s face deepened the longer he continued.
"I can sense a block where your powers should be," he said, and it was the most serious Ragnar had ever heard him sound. His earlier drawl was gone entirely. "The work of dark magic."
"How can you be sure?" Ragnar asked.
"Because this isn’t the first time I have seen something of this nature." Arius finally withdrew his hand. "But it was many years ago."
He didn’t elaborate and Ragnar didn’t press him on it, not yet. He was watching Arius’s face, trying to read whatever was moving behind those sharp eyes, when the flame appeared over his own palm.
It rose without warning. A small, steady flame sitting in the center of Ragnar’s hand, burning without consuming. They both went still as they looked down at it.
"That’s quite the skill you have there," Arius said after a moment. His words were light, even though his eyes were yet to look away from the flame.
"I don’t know how I got it," Ragnar said. "It showed up after I lost my shadows."
Arius looked like he was turning over this new information in his mind, seeming deep in thought. "There is a chance this ability was dormant inside you for years," he said, "and it took losing your shadows to force it to the surface. Do you have a relative on your father’s side with this specific ability?"
Ragnar shook his head. "I would have known if I did."
"Then it must come from your mother’s side." Arius paused at that. He looked up from the flame and something shifted in his expression, like something just dawned on him right then. Multiple thoughts fleeted through his eyes at once, too fast for Ragnar to bother deciphering. "Though I can’t say there are many demons with the gift of controlling fire. Or perhaps it isn’t entirely its own thing. Perhaps it is a result of the dark magic blocking your shadows. When one channel closes, another is forced open."
With a thoughtful look, Arius said, "My riders told me they saw you being rescued after the attack from the fenrars. I didn’t believe them at first, especially considering who they said it was that rescued you. But looking at you now, I think there may be more truth in what they said than I gave them credit for."
Ragnar held his gaze, mind churning with several questions.
"Who did they say rescued me?" he asked. But Arius just remained quiet like he wasn’t keen on answering that particular question.
"You ought to answer when I ask you a question. That’s what I pay you for." Ragnar snapped. He pulled his hand back from the man’s grip and the flame died out immediately, snuffed out as though it had never been there at all.
Arius clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "What do you know about the Seven?" He asked instead of answering.
"The Seven?" Ragnar repeated.
"The seven houses that rule Innermost." Arius said. With both his hands now free, he clasped them behind his back. "In the time of old, long before now, when Innermost was little more than scorched wasteland, large winged beasts ruled it from the skies. They were truly terrible things. It was said that to look upon them was enough to push a human mind to madness, and that they spewed fire on everything beneath them. But like everything that has ever existed in this world, their reign eventually came to an end. A new age came, and with it, the Seven rose. Houses Merikh, Neville, Talbot, Mowbray, Ashur, Halyros, and Silhara. Seven families. Seven dukes."
At the name Silhara, Ragnar’s eyes cut sharply to Arius. He thought of Circe’s midwife, the woman who had been tending to her for some time now. Morana Silhara.
Silhara. Could it be a mere coincidence?
"Silhara," Ragnar said the name out loud, after repeating it several times in his mind.
Arius nodded slowly. "The most dangerous of the seven houses. Now led by a duchess, one who secured her seat by murdering her own uncle." There was no particular judgment in his voice as he said it. A knowing smile came upon his face that Ragnar found irritating. "There are those who believe house Silhara carries the blood of the old beasts directly. Others believe someone in their line struck a bargain with the creatures long ago and that is what was passed down. Either way, it would explain why certain members of that house share attributes that made the beasts so feared."
"You are saying my mother could be from this house."
Arius gave a small shrug. "Perhaps. Or perhaps not. I would rather not fill your head with my musings when I have so little certainty to offer you."
"Fine." Ragnar’s jaw tightened. "Then tell me how to get my shadows back."
"The dark magic working against you can only be undone by a dark mage or a spell weaver," Arius said simply. "I imagine someone of your means can find one without much trouble." He offered nothing further. Before Ragnar could press him on it, Arius turned, stepped back toward the shadow from which he had first emerged, and was gone
