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It’s getting surprisingly easier to keep up my mental wall and hold a conversation at the same time, so I nod.

“About ten years after the War of the Laurels, a young man from a small village no one had heard of went to work for the Temple of Ethira. He was a good cleric, passing through his acolyte training with impressive speed and climbing his way through the ranks until he was made a bearer working in Qimorna. One day, there was an emergency in the city. A rare solari was running amok, burning things up and endangering people’s lives. ”

I frown. “Why hadn’t he been captured and executed?”

Respen raises an eyebrow.

“Solari weren’t always forbidden in Trova, Princess Morgana. You must know that.”

I did, but I had no idea the ban on them was as recent as the post-war years. I’d always thought of the days when solari roamed free as distant, almost legendary times. The Temple certainly makes it sound that way.

“So why was this solari causing so much damage?” I ask.

Respen shrugs. “He’d fought in the war, and people close to him said the memory of it had driven him mad,” Respen makes a waving gesture with his hand. “But that is not relevant. I am coming to the real point of this story.”

I nod, waiting for him to continue.

“This solari was out of control. No one could get near him. But the plucky bearer was an incendi with a most unusual power. He could burn up other people’s power just by touching them.

He stopped the unhinged man and saved the city.

Two weeks later, the Temple’s Grand Bearer passed away.

As is custom, an election was held among the clerics to choose a new high priest. The vote was almost unanimous.

The bearer who’d saved the city just weeks before became the Temple’s ultimate leader.

And he has been their leader ever since—sixty-five long years, and still going strong. ”

He stops, giving me a meaningful look.

“You’re talking about Grand Bearer Caledon,” I say.

“I am,” he says.

I didn’t know all the details of the story, but everyone knows the name of the most powerful man in the country, including the fact that he’s remained in his position for decades and still looks almost as young as when he was first elected.

They say it’s a gift from the gods, his longevity a sign that he’s divinely blessed and fated to lead the Temple.

To my surprise, the pressure on my mind is gone. There’s no more sensic magic buzzing around my mental defenses. Cautiously, I lower the wall. Respen seems to have lost interest in stoking my fear for the moment.

“Tell me, Princess Morgana, what are your plans for Trova?” he asks, bending to smell a flower in a deep purple shade that reminds me of a bruise.

I pause before answering, considering the sudden change in direction.

Leon had said his grandfather was tricky, but I didn’t expect these kinds of somersaults between topics.

He must have some intention behind it, but what?

Why bring up Caledon’s story? I eye him warily, but I’ve already decided to share this much of the truth with him.

“My priority right now is removing my aunt from power,” I say. “She cannot be allowed to rule when she has stolen her place on the throne using murder and lies.”

Respen sighs.

“I fear that ridding yourself of your aunt will not solve your problem, dear princess.”

“And which problem is that? Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I have rather a lot,” I say frankly.

“Your aunt might have been the one to plan the assassination, but she is not the reason your parents are dead,” he says.

I’m speechless for a moment, then I manage to stutter out two words. “She’s not?”

“No. You’re looking at a symptom of the disease, not the root cause. Your parents are dead because Marek Caledon wanted them dead.”

I try to keep my careful mask in place, hiding my amazement.

If what Respen says is true, I’ve had things the wrong way around all this time.

I thought my aunt was using the Temple to do her dirty work—persuading them to purge Otscold to draw me out—but Respen’s arguing the Temple was in control all along.

“Are you saying my aunt is in the Grand Bearer’s pocket?” I ask.

Respen doesn’t immediately answer me, stroking his long beard with his bony fingers. He looks at me thoughtfully.

“I won’t test you on your Trovian history, Princess Morgana, but just from my story, I think you can work out that the Temple’s banning of solari didn’t come into effect until after Caledon rose to power.”

I resist the urge to bite my lip, embarrassed by the gaps in my knowledge. I’ve read hundreds of history books, but very few covered the more recent past. I have my parents and their need to keep me in the dark about my parentage to thank for that.

“I’m realizing that now, yes,” I say truthfully.

“Before then, the Temple of Ethira had few opinions about celestial magic. I believe it was a little unpopular with some clerics who felt that its special connection to Ralus undermined the importance of Ethira. But solari weren’t considered heretics until after Caledon was elected Grand Bearer. Why do you think that is?”

“Because he saw the damage that solari did in Qimorna, and it biased him against them?” I suggest. “Was that the first solari he’d ever seen in action?

” Maybe that incident is why the Ethirans believe solari stole their powers from the gods.

They looked at a man who had broken down mentally and thought his power was backfiring on him to punish him for his crime.

It seems like a reasonable guess to me, but I know there must be more to it than that when Respen looks at me with a pitying expression.

“My dear princess, Marek Caledon has known solari since the day he was born…because Marek Caledon is a solari.”

My first instinct is to laugh. The claim is too ridiculous.

“A solari?” I repeat. It makes no sense for so many reasons, but I start with the first contradiction that comes to mind. “I thought you just said he’s an incendi?”

“I did,” he concedes. “But only because that’s what he tells people he is.

It’s how his family registered his power when he first started showing signs of his unusual ability.

At the time, the only solari in the human population produced sun beams. Power like Caledon’s had never been seen before, so people drew the closest parallel they could and compared it to fire, which consumes and destroys.

I think Caledon possibly believed this too, until that day in Qimorna.

Certainly, he didn’t start putting the celestial advantages of his power to use until after that incident. ”

I want to know what he means by “celestial advantages,” but right now I can only focus on the extraordinary nature of his claim. “How do you know this?” I ask.

Respen gives me a withering look, and I’m reminded who I’m talking to.

Leon said himself that Respen likes to keep an eye on his enemies, and the leader of the Temple is certainly a threat to Filusia.

Respen probably had his spies seek out people from Caledon’s past. Neighbors or family friends who remember his birth and how he grew up.

Of course, even now Respen must have people near the Temple, watching the movements of its leader.

“Let’s just say I have made it my business to discover everything I can about the man,” Respen says.

“My scholars have spent decades attempting to understand Caledon’s power.

At first, they tried to find a celestial body that acts as Caledon does—a fruitless search that wasted many years.

Finally, they realized that the force in question was not an object but an absence . ”

“I’m not following,” I admitted.

“When a star dies—when the gods see fit to wipe it from existence—it leaves behind a void, a darkness that can swallow up everything around it. We call it a black hole. I believe that Caledon’s power mimics this black hole and that it’s this which allows him to drain away people’s magic.”

This is worse than Respen trying to get into my head. I feel so bombarded with information that I have to turn away from his pale, calculating eyes for a moment, focusing instead on the deadly flowers.

A darkness that swallows up everything around it.

I’ve seen a darkness like that recently, haven’t I?

In Fairon. When I healed him, I had to battle against the darkness that came from a fallen star that was trying to smother his celestial flame.

That’s proof enough that a draining force like the one Respen describes could be celestial in origin.

It makes more sense than any kind of terrial power I can think of.

But for the Grand Bearer to have celestial magic…

“His power kills the people he drains, you know,” Respen continues. “He killed his own mother during his birth, and he killed the mad solari that day in Qimorna. That’s how he discovered his power was celestial.”

I try to keep up, tired of running one step behind Respen’s explanations. When I turn around to face him again, I’m armed with questions. “Why? Did something happen when he used his power against another solari? Something different?”

Respen smiles approvingly, and I know I’ve asked the right question.

“He discovered that when he drains the power of another solari, he absorbs it—making him stronger. For a period, at least. We’ve carefully studied the patterns over the decades, and right after a solari is captured and taken to Qimorna, there’s always a noticeable change in Caledon’s appearance and behavior.

Reports say he’s more energetic, youthful, and bold.

The more dramatic changes eventually fade until he drains the next child, but it’s clear the Grand Bearer’s unusual longevity has nothing to do with the blessings of the gods.

No, when he drains the power and life force from his fellow solari, he keeps threads of them for himself. ”