“No.” Silene’s face relaxed. “Not really, but you are a bit of a conundrum, Captain. I can see the Lady’s hand, but there is also another. One I cannot see clearly.”
“Well, let me know when you find out what it is.” Jerrol grimaced. “I think the Lady’s influence is enough to manage for now. Last night...” Or was it this morning? He shook the thought out of his head. “When we last spoke, you said you thought magic was leaking back into the world. How is that possible?”
Silene sat at the table opposite him. “Captain, as you know, the Lady’s Veil is what separates the Lady and the Ascendants from this world. It is a barrier that was erected by the power of the Lady and the sundering of the Bloodstone. Legend says that the Ascendants have been trying to find ways to breach the barrier for centuries. On occasion, they find something that can penetrate, and they focus on trying to widen the gap. Their goal is to bring down the Veil and ascend to power here.”
“Wait, you mean the Ascendants are still alive? I thought they all died when the stone was destroyed.”
Silene smiled at him sadly. “A common belief, but mistaken. The Ascendants certainly exist, but whether you would call it alive in the manner of our people, I’m not sure. The Guardians and the Ascendants were cut from a different cloth to us and had very different powers. Remember the Lady is our deity, worshipped from afar, our only link to the civilisation that existed here all those centuries ago.”
“The Ascendants were not so different to us, and nothing like the Lady,” Birlerion said, his voice low.
Silene stared at him. “I keep forgetting you know what actually happened. What we know we pieced together from those early records. You will rewrite history.”
“I’ll leave that to Serillion. He was the historian.”
“And what were you?” Silene asked, suddenly intent.
“Just a Sentinal doing the Lady’s bidding,” Birlerion replied with a wry twist of his lips.
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Silene murmured. She turned to Jerrol. “Captain, I fear you will need to return to the Chapterhouse in Old Vespers and search for that old civilisation. If they found a way to penetrate the Veil, you’ll need to find a way to prevent them from returning. The Watch Towers above Velmouth is another important location. The Veil Watchers are underestimated and often forgotten.”
“Silene,” Jerrol asked, “have you ever heard of a Veil-shredder?”
Silene’s eyes dilated as her face drained of all colour; she leapt to her feet and took a step back. “Who mentioned such a thing?”
“Sylvie said she would tell me about them, but she didn’t have a chance.”
Silene sat at the table with a thump. “We try not to speak about them; the less said, the better.”
“What are they?”
Silene bent her head, her lips tight. “If Sylvie mentioned it, then she must have been concerned.” She looked up. “The Veil can be damaged. Some people have the power to reach out with their minds: those who have trained their skill to such an art that they can reach the Veil. They try to force a breach, to split the weave. The Veil Watchers should be watching for it, though; it’s their job to repair it.”
“The Veil Watchers can repair the Veil?” Jerrol sat forward, watching Silene.
“They used to. I’m not sure if they are capable anymore,” Silene admitted. “They have become forgotten, lost in time. I doubt they are even aware of what is happening around them. They are so old. I doubt they know how anymore.”
“Shouldn’t we be keeping them alert and watching? To protect us from this very occurrence?” Jerrol’s stomach dropped at the thought the current difficulties could be their own fault.
“It’s been over three thousand years,” Silene said. “People forget, things don’t seem so important when the threat is non-existent. The purpose of the Towers has long been forgotten, the people inside a distant memory. Not everything is passed on as the people forget its purpose.”
“The Watchers are three thousand years old?” Jerrol slumped back in his chair in shock.
“What’s left of them,” Silene said.
“They were first instigated when the Lady created the Watches,” Birlerion said.
“But how?”
“Much like the Sentinals, I would think. The Lady blessed her guards with her protection,” Silene said.
“The Lady said they were stirring, that I need to awaken them,” Jerrol said, squeezing his eyes shut as if he could block out the idea. He had to waken Sentinals and the Watchers?
“Then you should wake them,” Silene said, watching him open his eyes, which gleamed silver. “Captain,” she finished softly.
His eyes widened. “How?”
Silene shrugged. “I am sorry, Captain, I do not know, that is your job.” She turned to Birlerion. “Tell me, is it true the Lady Leyandrii and Lady Marguerite lived in the palace in Vespers?”
“Where else would they live?”
“I knew it. What was Marguerite like? There is so little written about her. What happened to her?”
“She was a beautiful young lady. Mischievous and full of life. Very attuned to the Land. She spent much of her time in what is now called Elothia. She supported Leyandrii at the end, did what was needed.”
“Is it true she bonded with the Land?”
Birlerion stilled. “What makes you ask that?”
Silene patted his shoulder as if to reassure him. “I am attuned to the Land as well. And sometimes I think I sense her.”
“You would be in no doubt if you met Marguerite,” Birlerion said with a small smile. “As I said, she did what was necessary.”
Jerrol sat stunned; he didn’t know why he felt so shocked, but he did. It was if every myth he had heard had stood to attention and proclaimed they were real. His mind couldn’t grasp the enormity of it. And yet, the Lady had told him, not in so many words but if he had listened the message had been there. He rested his
