Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
I don’t press it to my temple yet—each magic artifact has its drawbacks. I must be careful not to use any of them too long or too often, lest I lose pieces of my soul and mind. Overexposure to Shadow Magic can cause madness.
Sadly, this is how my mother died. She would have lived many more years if only she had not become addicted to the Mask of Many Faces. I stop to look at it now, resting in its glass case.
It appears to be a simple porcelain mask—the right half smiling and joyful and the left half crying with misery. It allows the wearer to “become” anyone they have ever met or seen—including their voice and memories. However, each use frays the user’s own identity, making it harder and harder to remember who they truly are.
My mother loved to wear the mask to the City of Night, where most of the High Born of my kind dwell. It amused her to listen to gossip and sow discord among her enemies—of which she had many. But she became addicted to her pastime and wore the mask more and more. By the end she was many people—none of them herself. Ranting and raving, she threw herself from the top of our tower before I could stop her.
The memory is ten years old, but it still saddens me. And the Mask of Many Faces is one artifact I will never use, no matter how dire my need. I will not risk the magical addiction that leads to madness and death. It consumed my mother but it will not consume me.
Indeed, I’m very careful with all my magical artifacts but the greatest one—The Heart of the Eclipse which is the jewel of my collection—is not even on display here in my tower. That is because it is being held in the Queen’s Royal Collection in the City. She is the ruler of all Nocturna, though lately she does little but sit on her throne and stare into the Glass of Distraction all day. It tells her stories of far-off lands and distant worlds—stories of people she has never seen and will never see in real life—stories so engaging she cannot look away.
I believe our Queen to be as addicted as my mother was, but at least the artifact she chose is less harmful than the Mask of Many Faces. It won’t cause her to go mad—it will simply draw her focus away from the necessary duties of running her kingdom. Which is why Kraven gave it to her, I believe.
Yes, my ex-Blood-Partner—the one who tried to kill me—is the Queen’s most trusted councilor. I doubt he would be if she knew the truth about him, but I cannot risk telling her. She probably wouldn’t hear me anyway—she is too caught up in the various dramas the Glass of Distraction shows her.
At some point, I must go and take The Heart of the Eclipse back. It is too dangerous and powerful an artifact to be left where Kraven might access it. I pray he does not yet know that I left it in the Queen’s collection. I had meant only to loan it to her—she was curious to see it and learn its properties. But that was before she became distracted and addicted. I hope it is still on the pedestal where I left it. For if it falls into the wrong hands…
I don’t want to think what might happen and to be honest, I don’t really know. There is a rather cryptic prophecy which lends itself to various interpretations. Some claim that The Heart will bring ruin to us all. Some say it will cause rebirth and regeneration. And some scholars think it might even hold the key to ending the endless war between ourselves and our barbarian neighbors in Solaris.
I don’t know the answer—Queen Valenna was going to try and find it. But now I know she never will. I should go back to the City and recover it and keep it safe. I look at the empty case where it once sat on a velvet pillow. I never should have risked taking it out in the first place. Now, I feel responsible, knowing that something so dangerous is out where unscrupulous hands might put it to deadly use.
But I can’t go back alone—I need support. I need someone to guard my back and watch for Kraven and his allies, who would be happy to finish the job he started. He knows if he could Drain me completely, he would have access to my tower and my collection—I cannot allow that.
For now, though, I must put aside these worries and go out to meet the Paladin who has taken such great pains to find me. My spies, the ravens, brought me word that he was searching for my tower—which he must not find. Instead, I will meet him at the ruined temple of the Old Gods. There I will lay my trap. Once I snare him, I can use the Jewel of Knowing to find out why he’s seeking me.