The Curse of Starfall by M. L. Banks

Author:M. L. Banks [Banks, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fox Heart Press
Published: 2023-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

The three of them entered the office to find Cal’in sitting behind the desk, looking over his papers. “Trying again?” he asked.

“We just did!” Robern said, both enthusiastic and slightly confused.

“Nyrnn, you did well,” Namiga said, staying at the door. “I have other things to attend to. I’ll leave you to it.” She backed out of the room.

Nyrnn watched the door. “Just a second,” she said, then pushed through, catching Namiga in the hallway.

The older woman stopped, looking at Nyrnn, eyebrows raised.

“Did you help me?” Nyrnn asked.

“Yes.”

“How?” Nyrnn had asked for help, but she wasn’t sure what that meant. She had been more successful than ever before. It had been easier. Had Namiga done that?

“You did fine, Nyrnn. You’re getting stronger. Now go tell Robern what you saw. He needs some good news.” And she turned away, continuing down the hallway.

“Namiga?” Nyrnn hesitated, unsure of how to articulate her question.

“Some people don’t like mainlanders.”

“How do you know?” Nyrnn had noticed that Namiga avoided Cal’in most of the time. Namiga tapped her temple.

“Now go tell them what you saw.” And she was gone down the hall.

Back in the office, Robern perched on the edge of the desk, as Cal’in prepared a clean sheet of paper. There was a nervousness in the movements from both men, clear to Nyrnn even with the null stone. She supposed that every time she did this, she could reveal the exact clue that they needed. Or she could give them nothing. She still did not understand enough herself to know which it would be.

Nyrnn took a breath. “The attacks were the same as the others. I saw the shard in Alessyano’s memory. I was in the white room again. This time there were a bunch of other people in the room, too. They wore white robes, and they seemed to be working.”

Robern nodded. “The white robes are common among the Orders and some Academies. I think we can assume this is in one of them. The white walls are more interesting. I have not seen them before.”

Nyrnn closed her eyes, trying to recall all the images. “There was a door on the far wall. When I looked at it, I felt afraid. Something bad was being kept back there. In the centre of the room, I saw the strange artifact again. It’s about this big.” Nyrnn held her hands to show about two feet across. “I was also afraid of the artifact, but it was different. I was afraid of what it could do, but also hopeful.”

“Did the artifact look like stonetych?” Robern asked, clearly interested.

“I think so? I think there were crystals… and some strange glyphs on it as well. Does any of this make sense to you?”

“When Expedition teams bring back new stonetych from the mainland, it will often get sent to one of the Orders. Stonetych from the mainland does not always work as ours does, and there have been problems before. This could explain how the Shadowed Ones were created. You’ve said that they are human and yet not quite human.

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