Erivale: The Lost Princess

Chapter 16: Part 1

The repercussions of finding out my parent's true plans were life-altering. Interactions with them were a constant strain; I had to force a smile and pretend like the world had been spinning just as it always had.

Any spare moment and my thoughts were trying to scramble over the complex situation I was at the center of. While I had never wanted to harm the rebels, it was hard to forget the mindsets I had learned even within the short while that I was in the palace. They were not evil, ruthless killers, they were fighting for the betterment of the people.

Even my interactions with Ulric and Gerard had changed drastically since the revelation of their plot. Ulric was dead set on sculpting me into a warrior so that I could defend myself at all costs – training sessions were longer and harder, but I was improving. At least my combat skills were, my magic was still pretty choppy.

When we had informed Gerard of the information, he took a different approach to the threat. To Gerard, it was imperative that we figure out exactly what this sacrifice ritual would be and how it would work. Other than the lack of my participation, how could we stop it? We already knew that Guinevere would be next in line the second I was out of reach. And as annoying as Guinevere could be, I definitely didn't want her to die.

This is why Gerard and I spent countless hours pouring over texts within the library under the guise of more of my lessons. If I wasn't training with Ulric I was with Gerard, a heavy tome in my hands, and my eyes blurring after reading for hours on end.

Today was no different, and Gerard and I were sat around one of the small tables. Stacks of books were closing us in like a fortress. Most of them we had already scanned through looking for any information on magical rituals about power absorption.

Not long ago I felt like the rules and intricacies of the magical world would be too complex for me to ever understand, but after reading book after book on the subject it the laws and sciences of magic felt as comfortable to me as riding a bike. Of course, the application was another issue that Ulric loved to berate me on.

"How can you save yourself if you can't even see a portal?" He would say. It was aggravating, but he was right. I needed to learn how to portal.

A soft sigh from Gerard made me realize I had been staring at the same paragraph for quite some time without ever actually reading it. I looked up to his own tired eyes.

"Any luck?" I asked him.

"No, another volume down, plenty more to go. The information will be in here somewhere, I'm sure of it."

"Do you think it's really necessary to find it?"

"Why of course! We don't know if there's a specific time of the day or night that it is supposed to take place, or a location, or even the way in which it takes place. There's taking someone's energy, just by taking, but something of this magnitude and for this level of power and control likely requires a precise ceremony."

"Well so far all we know is that there are only a handful of recorded cases of individuals taking all the magic down to the life force, but none of them were able to hold onto the magic longer than a few weeks. Maybe we are looking in the wrong spot?"

Gerard ran a hand through his curly hair, tugging on a few strands as he contemplated my words. "We have been focusing our efforts on traditional magic texts, but as you say, something like this hasn't been done in hundreds of years. Maybe our efforts would be better served in the historical and religious texts."

"Gerard, those two sections take up more than half the library on their own."

"Well, then I guess we will have to hope for some luck." He stood up, a stack of books in his hands to put them back in their spots. "I would suggest looking in the religious texts first, see if any of the titles hold any significance to our hunt."