“Calvary-General Rodituller proposes two theories in his Recitations of Field Warfare,” Lucien says. “You either amass an equally powerful weapon of your own or you destroy theirs.”

An idea comes to me. Not a great one, but at this point I’ll take anything.

“It’s like the hunger,” I say. “The hunger binds me to Lucien. There’s a voice—I think it’s the same hunger—connecting the valkerax to the Bone Tree. If we could weaken that bond somehow, like white mercury does—not Weeping but a spell, or…something. I don’t know.”

“Yes,” Fione agrees dryly. “If we could undo an immensely powerful Old Vetrisian artifact with a spell, it’d solve many problems.”

“But there’s gotta be something, right? There was the Hymn of the Forest, and the Elder here has read books about valkerax and their connection to the Bone Tree. It’s recorded. Someone has to know something.”

“Elder?” Lucien looks at the sage. “Any ideas?”

He shakes his old, wispy head. “The books I spoke of said nothing of weakening such a bond. That is knowledge the world of Arathess hasn’t seen in a very long time—from the time of Old Vetris. I can think of only one entity who would know what you seek. The High Witches of Cavanos.”

“You really think they’d help us?” Malachite scoffs.

“Three enemies means two of them are friends,” the sage says. “Princess Varia is using magic against the world. Surely they’d want less of that.”

“The High Witches haven’t been seen in decades. Do you not have Helkyrisian witches who’d know something?” Lucien asks.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, Your Highness, Cavanos has always been the seat of magic. Witches in the rest of the world have not perfected magic as they have, through regrettably constant strife. Ildolia on the Star Continent is perhaps the only rival to Cavanos, but even their magic falls short, and you would find the journey too long, too allowing of Princess Varia’s destruction. Cavanos was the seat of Old Vetris, the very heart that beat outward the blood, and that legacy lingers in your witches.”

The sage leans back, smacking his chocolaty lips with an air of certainty.

“Yes. Yes, I’m quite sure. There is no better place to learn of the magic binding the valkerax than Windonhigh.”

“The last witch enclave in Cavanos?” Fione asks. “The one no human has ever found?”

“Precisely,” the sage asserts.

“My sister’s been there,” Lucien says.

“Then surely,” the sage leads, “you must hurry. If Windonhigh does know how to stop the valkerax, it will be the first place she destroys.”

“Uh, hello?” Malachite frowns. “Breaking the valkeraxes’ bond with the Bone Tree means they’d be let loose on the world. You know, the whole reason Old Vetris banded together in the first place?”

“We hold on to it, until we have a better plan,” Lucien says.