Fain spares a sympathetic glance toward Lucretia before setting his troubled gaze back on me. “Jules and your mother were from the same Keltish border town. Way downriver. In his youth, Jules was in love with her. But Tessla viewed him only as a close friend. There was never anything between them, and in time, Jules reconciled himself to Tessla’s fasting to his closest friend, your father, Vale.”

Heat pricks at my neck and my gaze flicks back to Lucretia, sorry to have poked at this private pain, even as I’m struck by the remembrance of the odd, emotional looks that would sometimes come over Professor Kristian’s face when he looked at me. How he told me once that I reminded him of someone, refusing to specify who.

“So, all this time,” I say to Fain, “Jules Kristian was hiding an extensive history with my own parents.”

“Elloren...” Fain starts, splaying his palms toward me, as if in supplication.

“I understand,” I say with a slight, halting wave. “I see why he didn’t tell me.” I meet Lucretia’s tense gaze. “But still, I wish my brothers and I weren’t left so completely in the dark.” I turn to Li’ra, who is quietly sitting beside me. “How did you and Or’myr get to the Eastern Realm?”

Li’ra’s lilac-hued face tenses. “During the Realm War,” she says, voice low, “your grandmother found out about Edwin and me. She threatened Edwin and told him...that she’d have me killed if he didn’t send me East and break off all contact.” She pauses, swallowing, as if the words are difficult to voice. “Luckily, she didn’t know about Or’myr, who was a baby at the time.” She pulls in a shaky breath. “Or’myr and I had to leave. You don’t understand what your grandmother was like. She meant it. She would have hunted me down and killed me. And she would have murdered Or’myr too. And because of me, your grandmother had the ultimate means of control over Edwin from that point on.”

“My aunt told me she had only just found out about you,” I say as outrage over Aunt Vyvian’s cruel words scalds through my lines.

Li’ra shakes her head. “Carnissa clearly never told Vyvian about Edwin and me. If she had, your aunt would have never allowed Edwin to take you and your brothers in. But... Edwin and Vyvian did know that Vale and Tessla were murdered for treason. They both knew what your grandmother was capable of doing to hold on to power. And what the Mages, as a whole, were capable of.”

“So, Uncle Edwin stayed in the Western Realm and sent you and Or’myr East to save your lives,” I piece together in a constricted voice.