Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
“Okay?” I wait patiently.
“Much like us, the mystics could create with their affinities, and those with more than one affinity could summon the fates. The conjurers were a different sort entirely. They also had connections to the elements, but they wielded them differently, more subtly. I do not have a good grasp of it yet, but that is not what is important. What is important is that the mystics would summon the fates, who would grant requests that the conjurers would then actively work to counter, causing much friction between the two sides.”
“Are you saying conjurers could reverse what the fates delivered?”
“Not reverse, but quell, for a time at least. They were called curse breakers by the people and revered. The fates did not like that, so they convinced the mystics to wage war on them. In the end, the mystics slaughtered all the conjurers.”
“And more weren’t born?” Zander asks.
“Conjurers are not born, they are made. It is an arduous and painful process to become one and not all survived. With no one left to perform the ceremony, soon there were none left in the realm. Understandably, the nymphs were not pleased.
“Then Malachi decided he would enter this plane and rule. Soon after him, Aoife followed suit, and the two wreaked havoc on the lands. The mystics summoned Vin’nyla and Aminadav for help, and each time, the fates punished them in some way. They realized the mistake they had made, ridding the realm of the conjurers who could have helped offset the many plagues being brought upon them.
“And then an elemental wielder with affinities to all four elements was born. Her name was Nyxalia, and she became the ruler of the mystics. She summoned the nymph elders and pleaded for their help to reverse all these plagues once and for all, and rid them of the fates that ruled in these lands. The nymphs said there was only one way to do this.”
“They had to leave and close the Nulling.”
She nods. “And without the nymph elders here, the fates could not remain.”
“So, you’re saying it was the nymphs who got rid of Aoife and Malachi.” Not a brave warrior or a key caster, or a king. Not even a dragon.
“Yes. But the cost was steep. The nymph elders demanded the mystics’ lives. All of them.” Agatha whispers as if it’s a secret. “As well as their history and their learnings. The age of the mystics would be over. Some other version would come along one day, the nymph elders promised, born from the lands and the elements within them, and they would call the nymphs to return. But, if the entirety of the nymphs had to surrender their freedom, to lock up their power within this realm of Ulysede that they created, then the mystics had to pay the price for all their crimes.”
My stomach sinks. “And the mystics agreed to this?”
“Nyxalia did.” She holds up the book. “We found it tucked away behind a special case. It is all in here, in her own words. She says she deliberated for years and during that time, the masses only suffered and starved more. There was no other way to stop it, so she finally agreed, without ever telling anyone. She was sentencing her entire kind to death, after all, and knew they would try to stop her.
“But her one requirement was that the mystics’ library be preserved here so that one day when the nymphs came back as they said they would, the next age would learn the truth of what happened and be warned against following in the same footsteps.”
“The next age being … us.” The casters.
Me.
“The nymphs agreed. The last entry in this book is on the eve of Hudem, when Nyxalia walks through this grand library, taking stock of her people’s history. There is nothing after it.” She flips open the book to show us the blank page. “But we must assume the world was rid of Aoife and Malachi, along with the mystics, and the nymphs, and beasts stopped crawling out of the rift.”
“I’m sure the people rejoiced.” But Zander’s brow is furrowed. “If only our own people took such care in documenting knowledge as these mystics did.”
“They likely documented it, but it was destroyed in the aftermath. Kings and queens are known to influence what the realm may remember of them and the gods they serve, and sometimes society chooses to erase history as if it never happened rather than confront the dark side of it. Mordain has been guilty of the same. Most have never heard of the knowledge discovered in those tomes from Shadowhelm, and it is because the Primes of the past did not wish it to be known. But—” Agatha holds up the book. “We can be thankful for Nyxalia’s consideration.”
“Yes. Thankful. But this is … a lot to take in.” Standing in a hall as the sun rises, learning the deepest secrets hidden within Ulysede for tens of thousands of years.