Page 55 of Jeweler to the Blessed (Champions of Chaos #1)

“When the Glanmores first found the quartz deposits and dug to see how much was here, they used the path in the foothills to haul it out.”

“That must have been … hundreds of years ago. That was Rodric’s father, right?”

Hart nodded. “Phillip Glanmore was a simple explorer once. Sometimes, I wonder if he knew what his actions would eventually bring.”

I turned to face him. “Before his grandson became Themis’s Champion and the Cursed King?”

“Exactly.”

“When you first told me about the goddesses and their champions, I asked if you knew the Cursed King’s story. You said we’d save it for another time. ”

He nodded slowly.

“Will you tell it to me while we walk?”

The Cursed King’s part in this still didn’t make sense. He was a Glanmore. He was Themis’s Champion, but he hadn’t directly attacked me. I guessed he might not know I was Eris’s Champion, but being Jeweler to the Blessed had been enough for the Feared. They supposedly acted in his name.

We hadn’t seen his power unleashed since the night of the Selection Festival. No matter what power I had, I knew that night hadn’t been me. It was too big, too bold, and too connected with the Feared’s escape. Why do it then? Why not use it again since?

While Hart might not have those answers, I’d take anything I could learn about the figure of legend that sat opposite me in this game of goddesses.

Hart tipped back his neck, offering his face to goddesses I wasn’t sure he worshiped. “I’m not sure I could deny you anything.”

His words sent a shiver up my spine that had nothing to do with the forest.

“Phillip discovered the mine and built the city. Rodric inherited the Kingdom. The mines continued to produce, and new settlers joined. Some say Rodric was content with his power. It was his firstborn who pushed further. His firstborn who unearthed mysteries that weren’t meant to be found.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What did he do?”

“He took Order to a new level. Introduced schedules for the mines and grand plans to dig deeper and find more quartz for export. He wanted to inherit a city twice the size his father did.”

“That sounds like what Themis would want in her champion.”

“Ah, but the firstborn wasn’t yet summoned. He pursued what he wanted. The firstborn’s plans were what unearthed the adamas. He is responsible for all of this.” Hart gestured back toward the city.

“How so?” I asked. If this was what the firstborn wanted, why didn’t he sit on the throne now?

“Themis summoned him with his discovery.”

“Still, the firstborn worshipped Themis, right? Wouldn’t it have been an honor?”

“Isn’t it an honor for those in Kavios to become Blessed? Think of how you feel about the mandate Rodric is forcing on you. I know it’s not the same, but … much can lose its luster when required to do it,” Hart said.

“So we’re back to the point—what the Cursed King is known for—Themis’s Champion had no choice in his summoning, which he rejected. What did he do?”

Hart was silent for a beat. “He searched for any way to change his fate. One such path included discovering how to harness magic with the adamas.”

“You’re saying the Cursed King, the firstborn, is responsible for trapping the captive we’re trying to free? And for … creating the Blessed?”

This didn’t make sense. The Cursed King worked with the Feared now, literally on the opposite side of the Blessed. But Hart nodded slowly in answer to my question.

“How did they source the gems? Was there a jeweler before Alaric?”

Something like disgust crossed Hart’s features.

“The firstborn could feel the difference in the stone, much like you. He wasn’t a jeweler, but could work with one to ensure the integrity of the gem.

” Hart shook his head. “At one point, he thought if others could wield Themis’s magic, maybe they could be her champion.

Maybe it would mean he didn’t have to be. ”

It felt like an animal was burrowing into my gut.

I was nauseous thinking about the Cursed King’s choices and what they had led to.

Some part of me understood wanting to escape the mandated fate …

but at what cost? I wanted to ask if there was more to that part of the story, but Hart was already continuing.

“The Kingdom of Linia had already seen Chaos’s Champion challenge Order’s. When the other ideas failed, the firstborn knew the only way out of the summoning was to let Chaos’s Champion take the throne or die. He didn’t want to die, and he didn’t want to wait.”

What hubris of this man to challenge the timing of a goddess? He shouldn’t have survived. Even as I thought it, I knew there was more to the story. The Cursed King wasn’t destroyed. Chaos cursed him, but no one knew how.

“He sought Chaos,” Hart said. “An altar that shouldn’t have existed. A place he was not supposed to be, the firstborn raged against Eris. He wanted to face her or her champion right away. That was his choice.”

I wasn’t sure I was breathing. This was the part of the story I’d never heard.

“Chaos was not forgiving of his actions. He almost died then and there on the altar.”

He really should have died. It didn’t make sense that he was only cursed. “Why didn’t she kill him?” I asked.

“The queen intervened.”

The words held a sadness to them that the rest of the story had not. I waited through the silence until Hart continued.

“The queen was a loyal follower of Eris, though she’d married into the Glanmore family.

She was the one who had made the altar upon which the firstborn stood.

The queen begged for his life even as she offered her own.

Eris wasn’t so cold to dismiss the request of her devoted.

She would allow the intercession for the firstborn, but there would have to be a cost.”

The Cursed King was responsible for a lot of things I hated.

For the fate of magicless citizens in this city, for the captive’s fate …

Whether he intended so or not, whether he now worked against those offenses or not, those sins lay at his feet.

Still, my heart clenched in my chest as I understood the cost of this action.

I knew the weight of a loved one bearing the burden of my calling. It was what my mother had done for me, after all.

“The queen gave her life,” he said. “The firstborn was cursed.”

“What was his curse?”

“I told you the champions don’t need adamas to wield. They wield magic based on their own emotions. Since the firstborn was responsible for discovering adamas, for creating the Blessed, Chaos wanted his fate to match what he’d brought upon others, but with a twist only she could appreciate.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for his next words.

“The firstborn can only use his magic by taking from Chaos’s?—”

I turned to ask why he stopped. Hart was already racing toward me. But a rustle in the trees behind me told me he would be too late.