Page 97 of Crewel (Crewel World 1)

It’s a warning not to put too much faith in my happy little bubble. It can only keep me safe for so long and certainly not long enough to make much difference.

‘Can you move backwards along the time line of the warp?’ I ask, my voice filled with hope.

‘You already know the answer to that,’ she says, shaking her head sadly. ‘You can’t turn back time. We can harvest it, and stop it in the mining fields, but the time lines always move forward.’

‘Then Earth?’ I prompt.

She sits back in her seat and clasps her hands in her lap. ‘There are dead spots in the mining locations where the coventries rest. These are where we capture the time and elements for Arras. The drills create warps in those locations that freeze the Earth around them.’

‘But outside the warped areas, the rest of it is untouched? There could be people there still!’

‘I doubt that,’ she says with a hint of sadness. ‘The only people left on Earth were bent on its destruction.’

I frown, watching Arras spread around me through the wall illusion. What lay beneath it?

‘You know, I promised Enora I would never tell anyone I could weave without a loom,’ I confide.

Loricel gives me a sad smile. ‘She was protecting you. She knew it would mark you as a Creweler, but you must have known the Guild was aware of your talent.’

‘I didn’t want to worry her,’ I admit. ‘And I thought maybe if I pretended not to know they would think they had made a mistake.’

‘Your mentor did the best she could in the situation, as did you.’

Kind, protective Enora. Only o

ne thing I’ve learned today comforts me. ‘So Enora,’ I say slowly, ‘was reabsorbed.’

‘Part of her was,’ Loricel says.

Some part of her escaped. This makes me smile.

‘Adelice,’ Loricel says, breaking into my thoughts, ‘did she say anything to you before she . . .’

‘No.’ I focus on the memory of our last meeting, combing through the conversation in my head. ‘She was acting strangely though. I knew something was different.’

‘Cormac is obsessed with why she did it,’ Loricel confides. ‘He cannot confirm whether her suicide was prompted by the procedure or by her guilt over her relationship with Valery.’

‘Is that why Valery was ripped?’

‘He was angry,’ she says. ‘The remap should have reprogrammed Enora, but Valery reached out to her. He blamed her for Enora’s confusion, but he can’t be sure what caused Enora to act.’

‘Then Pryana tattled.’ It’s the only way Cormac could have known that Valery had approached Enora after her remap. I should have known from the smug look on her face at dinner. ‘I guess a vendetta outweighs someone’s life.’

‘Do not discount the power of paranoia either. If this girl was raised to be an ideal Eligible, she probably bought into all the nonsense the Guild sells its citizens,’ Loricel advises.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I say. ‘Pryana, Valery – they were just pawns in Cormac’s and Maela’s games. They did this to Enora.’ And they’re going to pay, I add silently.

Loricel leans forward and takes my hand. ‘There’s no way to know for sure what happened, because we haven’t found any evidence. No note. No diary. Not a thing.’

‘Are you saying someone else—’

‘No,’ she says. ‘Enora took her own life, but her initial map showed she was conflicted. Her thoughts were unbalanced, but none of her answers indicated that she was suicidal.’

‘Of course,’ I say, dropping Loricel’s hand. ‘She was living a lie.’

‘Perhaps, but, unfortunately, she left nothing behind. We cannot question Valery. If she said nothing to you –’ Loricel pauses meaningfully, as though she’s waiting for me to contradict this – ‘then we will never know.’

Even though I’m telling her the truth, Loricel’s gaze is so penetrating that I start to feel guilty. Shifting back on the divan, I press my lips together, trying to think of a way to change topics. ‘So are you going to train me?’ I ask.