The Butterfly Effect

“Be careful,” Lydia reminded them when they got closer. “This place has definitely seen better days—you should all know what the stuff you probably shouldn’t touch looks like.” They were, after all, Stones; running headfirst into dangerous situations was in their blood. But they were always shown what to avoid to make sure everyone made it out alright. She kind of doubted those kinds of risks were much of a problem here, but she still wanted to make it clear.

There were, really, hardly any walls left—worn away and torn down by the years, it was just the memory of what it used to be. The roof, unlike some of the other buildings, had long caved in and posed no threat to them now. The rubble was the only problem, covering whole pathways to make climbing the only option and making moving through it difficult.

“Normal blood would all be gone by now, wouldn’t it? How would ichor still be around if it’s just the immortal’s blood?” Henry prompted almost as soon as they got started. With no life around except for the four of them, the silence needed to be broken somehow.

“It’s not really ‘just’ the blood of immortals.” Tavin picked through a part of the rubble, cautiously lifting up a lighter piece before setting it back down again. “You know that bracelet Aunt Clare has, the one with the gold-colored eye on it? That eye was made from ichor. It takes on the properties of a metal, almost, once it’s spilt; it hardens, but chunks of it can be melted down and forged. Northern Seothians have made whole statues out of it to honor the men who died slaughtering dragons or manticores to get it… I’m sure Raisul’s got plenty, too. Ichor that landed on the ground would’ve been mistaken for gold and taken by now—if it’s hidden well, though, there might still be some near Achadus.”

“There might be a future grave robber in you yet!” Henry remarked, ruffling Tavin’s hair.

“Oh gods, don’t say it like that.”

Tim smirked while he lifted a few more things. “So, what kind of stuff can it do? It’s got to be able to do something, right, since it comes from immortals and all?”

“Seothians got to the ‘ooo, shiny’ part of the discovery of ichor and completely ignored all else,” Tavin responded simply. “The children of Fleyw Bresh never figured it out because they revere the creatures it comes from and consider experimenting with it the same thing as using human blood.”

Tim glanced at Lydia, seemingly ignoring the last part of Tavin’s explanation. “Do you think we can bring some of it home?”

“I don’t know how I feel about you guys touching the technically-blood of the goddess of Darkness…” she mumbled. “Who knows what that kind of stuff can do.”

“That’s exactly why you have to let me bring it home. For science.”

“You know the more you try to convince me the less I want to let you, right?”

“Not even a little..?”

“If I know that you have some of it, I’m taking away your tinkering privileges for a month.”

“But that doesn’t mean anything if you never know…”

Her eye roll was enough of an answer to prove his suspicions. She was only the responsible one when she absolutely needed to be, no matter where she was. He knew that and, as long as he was careful, neither of them had to do something they didn’t want to.

Henry, after lifting up another piece of rubble, announced, “I think I found it.”

It looked like, once, there may have been a more elaborate resting place; now all that remained was a worn cloth and fragments of skeleton.

Tavin bent down and carefully rummaged through it until he found a small piece of paper. “This is it. ‘Here lies the victim of Darkness, my love, Achadus.’” He continued to rummage until he found a different colored piece of cloth—one with a small lump of ichor—and sat it out in the open. They all pretended not to see Tim not-so-discreetly pick it up and stash it in his pocket.

“You know, she’s got pretty handwriting for the goddess of darkness,” Henry remarked.

“You did not just say that,” Tim sighed.

“Like you didn’t do what you literally just did.”

Tavin ignored both of them in favor of digging through some other things. There was a small book hidden in the rubble and he pulled it out without much of a second thought. It looked like a good portion of it was left blank, though the words were once again something only he could read. They stopped whatever argument they might have had in favor of listening to what it said.

“‘I had been the one to come up with the whole idea; she never would have, always content with staying wherever she was as long as we were together. I wanted something for the world to remember me by, something to keep my memory alive even when I was long gone. Of course, I barely mentioned that part to her—she gets so distressed when she hears me talk about my death. I never get so worried, knowing that even if I no longer walk the earth, my soul has a place with Vriuh. She could always visit me there.

“‘The plans for this have gone on for a long time, barely finished by the time I started putting them into action. I felt that I needed to get it done; that someone would need it and, if I did not complete it now, then they would never receive it. We went through it all once, though I admit it was more of sticking things together in random places. Then we went back and made sure it all made sense, adding hints along the way. I wanted to go through it one more time before calling it complete, but… I needed to return to Kevabel.

“‘My father, long before that, had been ill. Finally my time had come to take up his place, and now I stand as the head of the town. My days of traveling are gone, yet still some excitement remains… She said she had something she wanted to tell me. I would be a liar to say that her excitement in that moment is not rubbing off on me as well.’”

“I think it’s safe to assume when that was written,” Lydia said casually. She picked her way through another pile of rubble. She had a feeling there was something else here, and it turned out that she was right when she found pictures engraved into a set of stones.

She gestured the boys over and let them all see it. “This might help us figure out where we’re going next. At least, it looks like it, and it’s not like we have any better ideas…”

It was mostly trees, rather detailed for being an ancient engraving; around the bases were flowers, closely resembling roses, that then moved on to form a pattern in whatever space wasn’t taken up by trees. In the right angle, it looked like they formed a devilish smile—any other way and it seemed to hold no significance at all.

It was, apparently, ancient runes, if Tavin’s mumble meant anything. “The Forest of Roses.”

“Everything else has been kinda cryptic, then we get this?” Henry remarked. “I mean, it feels like he gave up at this point. I’m pretty sure there’s only one place in either kingdom that has forests and is known for roses. It’s obviously Jaden territory.”

Tim shrugged. “I guess it just shows how it’s one of the few places that hasn’t really changed in what it’s known for.”

“A better way to put it is that there was always something that renewed the reputation. At his time it might have been known for its wild roses. Nowadays it’s considered that for what Lady Zera did to help Saint-King Lucas and the Red Rose as a title.” Tavin paused. “But simply saying it’s a forest in Jaden territory isn’t really enough information; there’s still plenty of those, so it’s not really a definitive this-is-where-you-go.”

“There’s a forest close to Levi Asari,” Lydia remarked. “That’s at least a good starting point. Maybe we’ll be able to find some more information while we’re there too, to see if there’s anywhere else that might be hiding better secrets.” She began to lead the way back out of the ruins and back to town.

“So, are we going to talk to Samone first or just show up at Levi Asari?” Henry prompted, his tone showing he was impartial to the matter.

She sighed. “Samone’s not going to be there so it won’t matter. I’ll try to get a hold of Iris and ask if we can stay with her instead—they live close enough to the city that it should be fine. Not to mention she’d probably just like the company…”