Cleo’s heart beat harder at the fear that the girl might recognize her for who she really was. She willed herself to remain calm. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sera.”
Sera stared at her a moment longer before she flicked a glance to her grandmother. “Should I set the table?”
“Please.”
They sat down for dinner at the small, rickety wooden table. Cleo was so hungry she couldn’t help but enjoy every mouthful of the hearty barley stew served in a small wooden bowl—something she would have turned up her nose at if she was still at the palace, but tonight for which she was very grateful And, of course, there was wine. If there was one thing Paelsians didn’t scrimp on in their difficult, laborious lives, it was wine.
Cleo had been about to decline the offer of a glass from Eirene’s flacon, but she held her tongue. Wine had led to regrets and unpleasant memories in the past, but one glass wouldn’t hurt. She still nursed her first by the time Nic was on his third. It helped to loosen his already loose tongue.
“You seem like you know a lot about witches and Watchers,” he said to Eirene. “Is there anything you are willing to share that might help our research?”
She leaned back in her chair until it squeaked. “I have stories. But stories are not facts.”
“I like stories. Love them, actually. Most of the time they’re better than facts.”
“What about stories involving goddesses?”
Sera groaned. “Not this again. Grandmother loves to be controversial and tell this story. But no one believes the goddesses were Watchers.”
Cleo nearly choked on a mouthful of wine. “Do you mean Cleiona and Valoria?”
Eirene smiled wickedly. “Are you willing to hear such a scandalous possibility? Or are you too devout in your worship, as most Limerians are?”
Limerians believed that Valoria was an ethereal being who embodied earth and water magic. Cleiona embodied fire and air. They were equally strong, but their violent rivalry caused them to destroy each other, at which time nearly all elementia was shut off from the mortal world. Limerians believed Cleiona was the instigator of this final battle—that she’d attempted to steal Valoria’s power, leading to their beloved goddess’s demise. They viewed Cleiona as evil for this reason, the dark to Valoria’s light.
Auranians—when they were more religious as a whole—believed just the opposite.
“I’m open,” Cleo said, eager to learn anything about the Watchers that might help her. “Tell your tales. We’re grateful for anything you’re willing to share.”
Sera cleared the empty plates from the table. “Tell them about Eva.”
“I will. Patience, dear.”
“She was the last sorceress,” Sera said. “She could command all four elements all by herself. No one and nothing else was that powerful except the Kindred itself.”
For a girl who’d seemed reluctant to hear her grandmother’s stories again, she now seemed eager to tell them herself. Cleo repressed a smile. “So a sorceress is a very powerful witch?”
“More than that,” Eirene said. “Eva was one of the Watchers, the beings that live beyond this world in a protected enclave called the Sanctuary. Watchers, as you may have heard in the old legends, were the protectors of the Kindred, four crystals that held the truest, purest essence of elementia. Obsidian for earth, amber for fire, aquamarine for water, and moonstone for air. The magic could be seen inside the crystals, swirling around if you were to look closely.
“The sorceress wore a ring that enabled her to touch them without becoming corrupted by their infinite magic. For as beautiful as they were, they were also very dangerous. The Watchers guarded them to keep the Kindred safe. But also to keep the mortal world safe from the Kindred.
“A millennium ago, the Western Realm, now divided into three lands, was united as one, and everyone lived prosperously and in harmony. Back then, the existence of magic was as accepted as life itself. Harmony in the Sanctuary translated to harmony here.”
Cleo remembered reading in her history books, when her tutor insisted she pay attention, that Limeros, Paelsia, and Auranos were once one large land with no borders. It had been very hard for her to believe. The people from the different kingdoms were so different now, but once they had been united.
“So what happened?” Nic asked. “I know they say the Kindred has been lost for a thousand years.”
“It wasn’t lost, precisely,” Eirene replied. “It was stolen. While the Sanctuary seemed harmonious and the Watchers devoted to guarding the Kindred—which gifted them with eternal youth, beauty, and magic—there were a few among their ranks who aspired for more.”
“More than eternal youth, beauty, and magic?” Cleo asked. “What’s left?”
“Power. It has always been a strong motivator for some. A quest for power—for ultimate power—is the reason behind most evils the world has witnessed. There were two Watchers in particular driven to take more power for themselves. But I’m getting ahead of myself.”