He did. The posture was awkward and peculiar, as if it were a token of devotion. Jaerod bowed his head but said nothing.
Silvan magic rushed up from the floor stones, churning alive and seething with power. It was the same feeling he had experienced in the tunnels of Landmoor, right before the Foretelling had started. The rush of Silvan magic left him breathless and confused, as if it were water filling a basin and that he’d drown in it. He wanted to run away, but the magic locked him in the pose until it completely overwhelmed him.
Then as if a plug had been unstoppered, the magic drained out of his body. He looked up and opened his eyes, not remembering when he had shut them.
They were in a different place.
It was a chamber with facets carved into eight stone walls holding blue stones that shone in the darkness leaving no shadows on the floor. It was a room similar to the one in the deepest reaches of Landmoor, except there were four alcoves leading to other chambers instead of two. A dome curved overhead.
Jaerod stood and stared at Thealos, who also rose.
“I am sorry for your family, Thealos. I’m sorry for you. It is always a heavy burden when we lose those we love.”
Thealos stared at the man as his throat caught with pain bloomed in his chest. “Did you know…” He struggled to swallow. “Did you know it was going to happen?”
The Sleepwalker’s gray eyes said that he did.
Anger. A blast of fiery anger. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
Jaerod squeezed his shoulder. Thealos wanted to shove the arm away, even though the Sleepwalker had just saved him. “I intervene when I can, Thealos. When I must. If I abuse the knowledge I have, I would not be what I am.”
“What sort of man are you! What sort of friend?”
Jaerod squeezed even more. “I am one of the few who are left. I am a Ravinir.”
“My sister, Jaerod.” Tears stung Thealos’ eyes. “It killed my little sister. It killed my brothers. I’m alone…I don’t have anyone...”
Jaerod lifted his chin. “I understand better than you think I do. It was hard for me to leave you that night on the palace grounds, knowing what would happen to you. It is a hard thing to do something like that. But you must understand, Thealos. I did not create the Vocus that destroyed your family. The Vocus that hunts you. It was created by a Sorian. Do you know why?”
Thealos looked at Jaerod helplessly. “How could I know that?”
“Your grief is real, Thealos. I do not mean to belittle it. But I will not always be here to do your thinking for you. Why did the Sorian send the Vocus to kill you?”
“Because I’m an heir of Quicksilver. They don’t want me to enter the warding again and take the Silverkin. They are safe so long as its powers are trapped in there.”
“But how do they know that you do not have it?”
Thealos closed his mouth. The statement struck him as absurd. “The warding fails once it is taken.”
“How would they know that? It isn’t in the records. Only you know that. Why did they create the Vocus to kill you?”
“Because they think I already have it.” By the Three gods!
“You made it inside the warding. You are an heir of Quicksilver. They know these things for certain now.”
“They wanted me to use it. If they have the records, then they know if I use it too much, it will kill me.”
“Surely you would use it to defend your family,” Jaerod finished. He turned around and sighed. “It was your actions in Landmoor that caused the Vocus. The death of your family is a consequence of that. I don’t say this to hurt you. If you had known, you would have acted differently.” He turned back. “Although I may know the consequences, it does not give me the right to intervene in them. All Ravinir are told, by the Mages of Safehome, when and where to intervene. Life is a series of consequences. Those consequences teach us.”
Jaerod turned back to him. “The Rules of Forbiddance are the same. If you tame a cooking fire properly, you are less likely to burn your home down and kill your loved ones. If you abhor ale, you are less likely to become drunk and kill a man for his purse. Consequences. You must understand something, Thealos. You and I, we struggle against things in this world that people do not even know of. We fight against kingdoms created not by kings, but by the creatures in the shadows that puppet them. These creatures…I do not even call them men or women any longer…have ruled this world since the Shae first came here. What is at stake here is more than the life of your family. Hundreds…no, thousands upon thousands of families are the stakes here. This is your chance to help them all. We are so few…left to do so much. Will you be part of us, Thealos? I’m offering to show you the way to becoming a Ravinir too. I have been given permission to do so.”