“But I’ve been corresponding with a scholar located south of us, in Reshnar. I didn’t tell him the flowers are declining. I said that we—well, you, since I thought telling him the Witch Queen wanted this information would terrify him into helping—want any information the Reshnar archives have on the thayar. He probably thinks you’re planning to use them in a spell or some other evil ritual people make up in their minds.” Nemesia pours a glass of wine and then hands it to me. “He confirmed everything we already know—the flowers only grow in Thayaria, are somehow connected to the magic of the leylines, and are likely the result of so many leylines flowing through and converging here. He suggested he’d love to learn more about the extent of their magic-enhancing properties, but I didn’t engage in that conversation. The only information Reshnar had that we didn’t is a unique drawing of the flowers from an old text.”

She hands me a sheet of parchment. My eyes scan the sketch, and I frown as I study it. It’s a depiction of the thayar flower, done with painstaking detail and perfect accuracy. The top third of the stem looks like it’s been dipped in crimson paint, with dozens of soft fuzzy petals arcing out from the deep green stalk. But the drawing is titled, ‘Depiction of the thayar flower found in Velmara.’ My eyes return to hers, searching for a clue about why the flower that only grows in Thayaria is labeled as found in Velmara.

“The Reshnar scholar believed it was a mistake when the book was transcribed from its original. He asked me to confirm whether we have the same book and whether the drawing exists with this label or not.”

“And do we?”

She nods slowly. “Yes, we have a copy of the book and the drawing. But it’s labeled correctly.” She pulls a large tome from her bag, flicking to a page before handing it over to me. The same crimson and green drawing is depicted, but the label now says, ‘Depiction of the thayar flower found in Thayaria.’

“But…” I prompt her to continue.

“But,” she adds, “his copy is older than our copy. Typically, scholars would assume the oldest copy is the more accurate, as there are less opportunities for translation mistakes. It could just be an error, but we shouldn’t overlook the possibility that it’s correct. If the flower did grow in Velmara, Mazus might’ve found information in Velmara’s archives that explains how it disappeared from Velmara. I’m worried he’s somehow using that information to influence its decline here.”