I scan the book titles again, lost in thought. My attention snags on the book on blood magic, and I open it, scanning the table of contents. It appears to be structured chronologically, detailing what various scholars thought about blood magic at different points of history. Sighing, I close the volume. Maybe the gift isn’t as helpful as I thought.

Over the months I’ve been here, my frustration with the archives has been slowly growing. Every book seems to be an anthology or review of other literature, but those primary research texts don’t exist anymore. I have to trust that what I’m reading is an accurate summary of those earlier works, and when you’re dealing with history this ancient, so much can get lost in translation or through the bias of the scholar reviewing the literature. Every day I wake up, do a bit of training in the underground cavern Mazus made available to me, then head to the archives, where I sit for hours and hours reading anthologies of other research. My life unfortunately consists of very little outside of that—I’m relentless in my desire to find information to help Laurel and Thayaria.

After my dinner with Mazus several weeks ago, I shifted my research to the history of leylines as he had suggested, though the same challenge remained. Based on the breadth of writings available in the archives, I’ve confirmed what I already suspected—leylines reflect the magic of our world, and the presence of thayar flowers in Thayaria is because of the numerous leylines that cross the kingdom. The thayar flower seems to be directly related to the magic of our world. I’ve also ascertained that several leylines used to cross the Nivan Desert but disappeared inexplicably. This explains why thayar flowers used to be present in Velmara but disappeared when the leylines did. These revelations are concerning for many reasons, not least of which is that it could indicate the magic coursing through Thayaria is declining. That the decline in thayar blooms is the symptom, not the cause. The history is ancient, dating back thousands and thousands of years, so it’s hard to decipher what’s real and what is only speculation. Several texts even used different names for the kingdoms of our realm. I’ve yet to work out which name corresponds to which modern kingdom name.