“We are both blessed and cursed with this legacy. The visions you’ve seen inside that sacred mountain are truths that have not yet come to pass, Lady Tea. They show the price you must be willing to pay to accept shadowglass.”

“I’m sorry I was not worthy,” I said.

“There was nothing you did wrong. We each have different roles to play. A farmer cannot be asked to assume the responsibilities of the bricklayer. They may not be as powerful in the eyes of others as, say, a king, but they are important to running a kingdom.”

“But what now?” Likh blurted out. “We are running out of time. Even as we speak, war is brewing between the Odalians and the Drychta. Faceless have King Aadil’s ear. Nothing good will come out of this, and they will not stop until they get their hands on shadowglass. How long before they come after you to demand the location of the First Harvest?”

Agnarr smiled. “They have tried in the past and will never succeed. They have connived and schemed for centuries, always seeking a way to push past our defenses. But we will prevail.”

“Will you?” Likh challenged him. “You might have bested them in the past because you outnumbered them, but that’s no longer the case. They’ve rallied other kingdoms to their cause. Drycht was not the first to turn. Odalia came close. Aenah was only defeated through Lady Tea’s efforts. You may have more runebinders on your side, but how would you fare when faced with armies twenty times your size? They will have no qualms about manipulating other innocents to wage their war against you. Can you say the same?”

Agnarr studied Likh with interest until the asha’s ears turned pink. “We will fight, every man and woman, to our last breath,” he said, “but the winters grow longer, and men grow more complacent. There is truth in what you say, Lady Likh. It sounds like you have an alternative proposal for us.”

Likh glanced back at me.

I took over. “We do. I have no intentions of ruling or taking away magic. All I desire is that no one else does until another Dark asha is deemed worthy of the curse. Faceless know the process of both lightsglass and darkglass. What if they ignore the mountain and attempt to create shadowglass on their own?”

“One asha tried. The founder of Kion herself. Lightsglass she discovered on her own, and the bezoars she tried to collect. But when she attempted darkglass within that Ring of Worship the explosion took out much of Drycht and caused the Dry Lands. It was already an arid desert during the Great Heroes’ time, but now nothing grows there. The results will be very much similar to those who attempt shadowglass without our mountain’s benediction.”

I gasped. “Vernasha of the Roses tried to make shadowglass?! But she tried to ban the spell!”