Janta smiled a little, amused at my enthusiasm. “For some reason, the relevant page was missing, but, fortunately, we keep a duplicate that was still intact. A mage by the name of Haman ar’Rhea filled out the form about a year before your birth. He came from Castalis to Solantha to study for some months with Jonias Ballos, an eccentric old mage who is well known for his mastery of divination and binding magic. According to the form, Haman ar’Rhea lived in Ballos’s house the entire time. That would have been the only way to learn from him, because Ballos has not left his home in several decades.” Her nose twitched again. “He seems to be something of a hermit.”

“Well, I guess Haman probably didn’t stay in Ballos’s house the whole time,” I said dryly, “or he never would have met my mother.”

“No, I imagine not,” Janta agreed with a sigh. She pushed her spectacles up her nose, then flipped over several notes of research until she came upon a photograph of a man who resembled Coman. He had thick, curling dark hair that brushed his broad shoulders, and his handsome, aristocratic features shared the shape of my eyes and my full mouth. He wore some kind of ceremonial robe with a thick chain across his chest, and looked as though everything he surveyed belonged to him. Smug bastard. So this was supposed to be my father? I wanted to deny it, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

Janta did not notice my reaction. “Ballos cannot have been very stimulating company for a comparatively young mage, used to exclusive parties and entertainments. And perhaps Haman enjoyed the anonymity of a foreign place where nobody knew his ancestry, where he thought he could let his hair down safely.”

Yeah, I could imagine that.

“I surmise that your father visited Rowanville during his stay here, as many tourists do. The experience must have been especially exotic for him, as there are no shifters in Castalis.”

That shocked me. “What—none at all?”

“There never were all that many, and one of Haman’s ancestors, the High Mage of that time, drove them from the country about two hundred years ago. They were given one week to leave, taking only what they could carry. It is in all the Castalian history books.”

“No wonder none wanted to go back,” I muttered. Already, I hated the whole fucking ar’Rhea family.

“It is said the edict was issued in anger at an affair of his daughter with a shifter. The daughter was also exiled.”

My cheeks burned hot with anger, and it was all I could to do hold my tongue. Somehow, this knowledge made Haman’s affair with my mother even worse.