Lorne Ashveil's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

The morning after the trap broke, Lorne walked the grove with a heavy step. Damien would not speak to him. The boy sat by the cold fire, eyes hard, trust gone. Lorne had saved him and lost him in the same night. He knew what he had to do now. The vault held everything he had gathered across his long life. He had never opened it for another soul. But secrets die with the man who hoards them, and Lorne was old. He led Damien to a hollow tree deep in the wood. Lanterns swung from its branches. Still pools ringed its roots and glowed pale blue. A rainbow-striped cat sat on a knot of root, tail curled, watching them both with calm, knowing eyes. "Sit," Lorne said. "I mean to teach you the first key. Not steal it. Not lie for it. Learn it." Damien folded his arms. "Why now?" "Because I trust you enough to try." Lorne set his staff against the trunk. "And because I am running out of time to be careful." The cat's tail flicked. Lorne began. He spoke a single rune aloud, slow, and watched the boy repeat it. The pools brightened. For the first time, Lorne let another mind touch what he had kept alone. Then the light in the pools went sick and green. A small fairy dropped from the branches. She landed on the root beside the cat. Green leaves dressed her head to foot. Her face was young and blank, and every living thing in the hollow went still when she arrived. The cat's ears flattened. Even the lanterns seemed to dim. "Titania Greenleaf," the fairy said, naming herself. "Ruler of every fairy born." Lorne stepped between her and Damien. "I don't know you." "You know my law." Her voice was flat and cold. "No fairy gives magic to a human. One of mine broke it. Nyx Thistlewhim. She snared this boy. She summoned a demon to your door." Her eyes moved to Lorne. "I came for her. I found you handing a human my kind's oldest secrets." Lorne did not look away. "These are mine to give. Not fairy magic. My own." "Then you've made yourself my business." Titania's small hands closed. "I punish Nyx today, in front of all fairies. But I do not forget a man who trains a mortal to hold power. You've drawn my eye, old one." She rose. The green light snapped off. She was gone between one blink and the next. Damien stared at the empty root. "What did we just do?" Lorne picked up his staff. His hand was steady. The vault was open now, one key passed, the thing he most feared and most wanted, done. But the price came fast. In saving the boy from Nyx, he had traded one enemy for a greater one. "We began," Lorne said. "And we were seen."