The Crow King's Wife (The Elder Blood Chronicles #5)

Leaning to one side Neph glanced at the heavily yellowed pages and frowned. From what he could tell it was a genealogy book of the houses of Delvay. “I know the houses of Delvay. I don’t need a lesson on my own people.” Neph informed him dryly.

Fortune looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and then returned his attention to the book wordlessly. He scanned through several more pages and then nodded faintly to himself before he removed his suit coat and sat back in the chair further. Still silent he began to roll the sleeve of his silk shirt up until well past his elbow. His eyes narrowed and slender ridges rose in his skin forming a spiraling design with a shield near the center. The flesh gradually darkened around the markings until they stood out like a dark grey tattoo against his paler flesh. “Do you know what this is Neph?” Fortune asked as he held up his arm for Neph to get a better look at the marking.

Neph studied the sigil carefully before shaking his head slowly. It was tempting to make a smart ass comment, but Fortune was an Aspect, and due respect regardless of the current situation.

“It’s the sigil of the Guardians.” Fortune informed him quietly. The marks began to fade from his skin as he lowered his arm and his attention turned back to the book before him. “I was with them in the beginning. When the split came to Delvay, before they fled the city. I was one of the first to join the movement actually.” His hand slid slowly across the book in front of him and sigils began to glow softly under his touch. The air above the book shimmered and an image formed of a powerful built man in badly scarred armor with two swords across his back.

Neph stared at the image and then back to Fortune with narrowed eyes. The Aspect had the same coloring as the illusion of the man, with pale blond hair and blue eyes, but that was where the similarities ended. Fortune was wiry and slender where as the man in the book was tall and heavily muscled across the chest and shoulders.

“Kadren Zengael.” Fortune said as he waved a hand toward the image. His brow furrowed and he chewed his lip for a moment before he continued. “Who I used to be, but I can see the disbelief written clearly on your face so allow me to elaborate. I was nearly the only one in my family to follow the Guardians path. My younger sister did as well, but I often wonder if she didn’t simply do it to follow in my footsteps. My brother and my mother were staunch Extremists, were my father still alive when the division came I have no doubts he would have been Extremist as well. I might have been too, but the woman I loved was pure Guardian. I believed in peace, but she was a fanatic about ending all fighting no matter the cost. In the end she was the one that devised the plan to stasis the heroes.” Fortune paused once more and glanced up at Neph.

“I honestly fail to see how this is in anyway helpful, unless of course you happen to know the spell to release them from stasis.” Neph said in annoyance.

Fortune smiled faintly and shrugged one shoulder. “My twin brother Tyvosh as well as my mother were caught in that stasis spell.” He continued as if Neph hadn’t voiced any complaint at all. “Originally the plan was to lock them into stasis and destroy them while they were defenseless. My beloved volunteered to act as a conduit to cast the stasis spell, and they would have used her to destroy those caught by it as well, but she had a fatal case of my sword through her chest before they had a chance. I was supposedly there to protect her while she was defenseless during the spellcasting, but my family was trapped by that spell. It was her or them, and I had already tried to talk her out of it. So I made my choice. With that action I became betrayer in the eyes of Delvay as well as the Guardians, and thus had to make a few changes to myself in order to hide.” He waved a hand at himself and smiled bitterly at Neph.

Neph’s frown deepened and he folded his arms over his chest as he considered what he was being told. Essentially his true father not only snuck into the beds of married woman, but he was a two time traitor as well. The information did not bode well for a good relationship between the two of them. There was only so much respect one was due for simply being an Aspect, and Fortune was rapidly losing what he had acquired on that merit.

“This little tidbit of my life may have you confused, but it explains why Ren kept you alive. He tested you time and time again to try to determine who your true father was, but he kept getting the same thing. His life magic always showed that you were of Delvay blood and nearly identical to him in life patterns. It never once occurred to him that you actually were related to him, because he didn’t know the bit of history I just told you. My little sister who sympathized with the Guardians never actually left Delvay. Her husband was the leader of the country, she couldn’t leave. She had no choice but to hide her affiliation and remain behind. When news of the Barrier arose she helped gather the heroes and did everything she could to help the Guardians trick the Delvay into retreating peacefully. Once the Barrier came up she settled in for what she hoped would eventually be a peaceful life, and finally allowed herself to become a mother. KayDelvayon and RenDelvayon were the names she chose for her children.”