Awakening Arte (The Eldest Throne Book 1) Read online

  The doors flung open. “Early as expected, which means you’re just on time! Come in, come in!”

  Roun and Sethra exchanged a glance and slowly stepped through the door. Zareus was there, shirtless like always and with a scalpel in hand. The scribe gave them a nod in greeting without commenting at Sethra’s presence and shut the door behind them.

  Roun’s feet sank into lush blue carpets with a color mirroring the banners hanging from the walls, each displaying the shattered targe shared by Avyleir and Rozaria. Shelves and worktables filled the rest of the space, all of it littered with élanic lamps, inkwells and pens, and opened journals with unfinished entries. There were also many maps on both the walls and tables, and stacks of well-worn tomes with faded lettering filled a lot of the floor space. Bits of parchment stuck out between the books.

  A massive oaken desk claimed the room’s center with the two seats placed before it and a smaller table set beside it. An uncovered meal sat on the smaller table now, looking cold and untouched. Only the desk was kept tidy, which Roun found a little amusing.

  What commanded his attention the most, however, was the man Roun could only assume to be Librarian Exarch Kuro. The exarch was currently standing on his desk. A closed parasol as blue as most of the room rested on his shoulder, held in place with a light grip, while his other hand held an engraved tea bowl.

  The exarch was dressed sharply in the closed robes of a librarian, but Avyleir had decorated his in a way that befitted his rank. Embroidery flowed across his shoulders, cuffs, hems, and along the edges of his sash, which also had the same metal plate bearing the emblem of Avyleir that his sash did. There was even golden script worked into the black of his boots. Roun found it all horribly regal, though the excessive attire was the least of it, because Librarian Exarch Kuro was also the most beautiful man Roun had ever seen—there was no other word that better described him.

  The exarch’s skin was flawless, free of even the most mundane or innocuous mark or wrinkle, and he had not a trace of hair on his jaw. His face was similarly smooth, giving him a youthful appearance, something the outline of his lithe figure seemed to also stress.

  Exarch Kuro’s most notable traits, however, were his eyes and his hair, which was a rich, whitish lavender. It fell far down to the small of his back and was bound at the top and near the end with blue strands of silk. The exarch’s violet eyes regarded him with amusement as Roun stared.

  “Greetings at long last, Roun,” Kuro said in a friendly tone, his smile small but sincere. A moment later he nodded towards Sethra. “And to you as well, Sethra, though it worries me that you seemed quite upset when you first arrived.”

  Sethra jerked as if being accused of some great crime and glanced over at Roun. He exchanged a look with her, shrugged, and lowered himself to the ground. She mimicked him, and within moments they were pressing their foreheads against the carpet.

  Roun heard the exarch leap from his desk and felt him land a finger’s width away. The sound of rustling cloth reached his ears, then a hand touched his head.

  “None of that now,” Kuro said. When Roun glanced up, he saw the exarch had tucked his parasol underneath an arm. “I will forever remember how you’ve honored me tonight, but know that Grimoires bow that deeply to Sothis and no one else.” Kuro turned to touch Sethra’s head as well. “Up, now. Both of you.”

  They rose and watched as Kuro again leaped up to his desk. Zareus had moved to the left wall and now leaned against it. His face betrayed nothing as he watched them, scalpel tapping against his jaw.

  “So,” Kuro said, “let’s begin with Sethra’s presence.”

  She and Roun exchanged another look. She cleared her throat and said, “Well, I figured something was going on when Roun mysteriously started getting stronger and figured out his arte all of a sudden, so I butted into his business and found out he was going to see you and forced him to bring me along.” She glanced at Roun with a glance that warned against challenging her version of the story, so Roun kept his lips sealed and let her continue. “Roun admitted he couldn’t tell me any of the details, but that only made me realize it has to be a big deal if you’re forcing him to be quiet about it.”

  “That doesn’t explain why you’re here,” Kuro pointed out before taking a sip of tea.

  Sethra hesitated. “I want you to let me help him.”

  “And yet you supposedly don’t even know what you want to help him with?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she snapped. “Or at least I don’t think that it should. Roun’s my friend, tower-mate, and fellow Rozarian Grimoire. I couldn’t do much more than encourage him while he was figuring things out, but if you’ve found a way to help him, then I want to help too.”

  Kuro scratched his face with a pinkie. “Do you?” A smile spread across Kuro’s face, then he pointed his parasol at Roun. “And you want her to come along?”

  Roun nodded without hesitation. “I don’t mind. Actually, it’d be nice to have someone to speak to about it.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Zareus’s talkative moods come pretty rarely whenever he’s not lecturing.”

  “Is that so?” Kuro shrugged. “Then tell me everything you’ve experienced since Zareus first sent you out.”

  “Didn’t Zareus already tell you everything?”

  “No, he merely reported on what you’ve told him. I want to hear it from your own lips and with all the little details he was too polite to request.” Kuro shifted his parasol to point at Sethra. “She will hear it too, of course.”

  Is this supposed to be a test or something? Roun remained uncowed as he began and it wasn’t long before the effort of recalling everything locked his attention.

  The two seats before Kuro’s desk went unused, with Sethra instead watching him sidelong with concern. Zareus remained leaning against the wall, scalpel tapping, his gaze forward and lacking focus. Kuro’s own massive chair remained vacant too, with the exarch instead choosing to pace back and forth across his desk, sipping tea and somehow managing to avoid disturbing the desk’s neatness without a single downward glance.

  Exarch Kuro left him to speak, but every so often he stopped Roun and probed with uncomfortable questions; like asking if Roun had considered quitting the Burrow after the hoard aspirant almost killed him the first time. The questions only grew worse over time and revealed Kuro’s eerie talent for insight. It also forced Roun to speak about things he really didn’t want to talk about, let alone remember, like how pleasurable the hoard aspirant’s fear had felt, or how the act of devouring even a chimera’s spirit had left him conflicted.

  Roun eventually looked away from Sethra and wondered if letting her hear everything had been a mistake. When he finished, Kuro was smiling. Zareus remained impassive.

  Sethra, on the other hand, was seething.

  “You seem like you want to say something, Sethra?” Kuro asked.

  “How could you be so cruel,” she blurted out, surprising herself as much as she had surprised Roun. Then she straightened, and her expression hardened into a fierce glare. “You sent him out into the night alone.” She shook her head. “No, not just the night, but a Burrow. A Burrow!” Her voice grew louder and picked up strength as she continued. “Weak and unsure as he was back then, any of us would have been an immense help, but you didn’t care. Not even after he almost died the first time, apparently. In fact, you told him to slay the same damn chimera that almost killed him! And again without letting anyone help!”

  Kuro raised an eyebrow, but Sethra didn’t pause.

  “I can’t even begin to understand why you’d risk a Grimoire like that when I know there aren’t enough around, especially here in Rozaria, but this went beyond risking his life—you also made him deal with all those thoughts and questions on his own.” Sethra paused and squinted her eyes at Roun. “That was what that look this morning was about, wasn’t it? You were afraid of my reaction. You were worried we’d think you were some kind of abomination.” Roun flinched, and she nodded. “Your arte
is pretty unsettling, but I have no problem with fighting beside you, and I doubt Kamil or Laeshiro do either. You’re no more your arte than I am my bō, and I meant what I said earlier.” They both turned back to find a very amused Kuro.

  “Calling me cruel was a little unfair, I think,” Kuro said after a sip of his tea. “But I’ll accept the accusation with grace and will endeavor to do better. For starters, I’ll allow you to accompany Roun.” The exarch nodded over at him. “Sethra isn’t required to join you, but—”

  “You better not go without me,” Sethra interrupted with a glance at Roun. After he nodded, her expression softened, and she added, “Besides, it’ll be good training for me too.”

  “It certainly will,” Kuro agreed. “In fact, it’s probably best to view it that way. Your particular Burrow is scheduled to be dealt with soon, so I suggest you get the most out of it while you can.”

  Exarch Kuro carefully set down his bowl, straightened, and opened his parasol. He spun it slowly as he looked between them.

  “Now then, let’s discuss the real reason you’re here,” he said.

  18

  Kuro stood before his two young Grimoires and thought over everything he would tell them. The truths and partial truths, the evasions and omissions. Even the outright lies. They were a necessary evil, unfortunately, because he had decided that humanity was more likely to rise above a challenge when it thwarted them in person rather than in their heads. I’m proof enough of that, he thought ruefully.

  Kuro walked along the length of his desk, all too aware of the guarded stares of Roun and Sethra, and directed a small gesture at Zareus. The scribe nodded and moved towards the door leading to the rest of the floor’s suite.

  “What I want from all of you,” Kuro began in a gentle tone, “is a slayer coterie. One that will stand unmatched as the crown jewel of Rozaria—and one I intend to personally bring to Sothis.”

  Kuro let the quiet shock settle across their faces, because he knew his statement went beyond arrogance to put it kindly, and he knew that better than they ever could.

  This time, however, his coterie would change the world.

  “I was there when your father Yorin tried to flee with you,” he said to Roun. “He knew a little about my dreams and bought my aid by promising you, though this isn’t how I would have liked things to turn out.” He lifted his free arm, the other spinning his parasol. “Ask your questions.”

  Roun and Sethra exchanged uneasy glances, then Roun shrugged and crossed his arms. “You knew me as a child, then?”

  “Briefly,” Kuro said. “I met Yorin—and Zareus—during my own former service to the Canton of Dawn. I didn’t know your mother well, but Yorin was her bodyguard and assistant for decades, so I assumed she was involved when he approached me with a babe in his arms.” Kuro paused and frowned. “Yorin wanted me to help him flee and refused to enter my care, no matter what I said. Ended up being for the best, I suppose, as the Cantons sent quite the alarming number of eyes to Rozaria for a time, and that’s what turned my half-hearted belief into true suspicion and curiosity, for Yorin had insisted you would become a Grimoire when you came of age and seduced me with knowledge of your latent gifts.”

  “Wait, you’re telling me my father knew I was going to be a Grimoire?” Roun asked. He shook his head. “I thought it was impossible to tell before it happened.”

  “It is impossible, as far as I’m aware.” Kuro gave a careless shrug. “I was hoping you could offer an explanation, but if Yorin never told you, then he’s the only one with the answers we both want. I’ll be blunt and say that I’m not even certain he’s your actual father; Jacira and Yorin were close, but things would make much more sense if she knew the father was a Grimoire, though it’d have to be a Grimoire I’ve never heard of before.” Kuro gave him a bright smile. “Which is very unlikely. Either way, I couldn’t help but have doubts until you manifested the same arte they had predicted.”

  Roun took in the information, his face twisted with thought. “Can you tell me anything about my mother or clan, or why she gave me to her bodyguard and didn’t come with us?”

  “Just that her name was Jacira and that Yorin last spoke of her as if she had passed,” Kuro lied. Based on his probes over the years, she probably was dead, though the alternative likely wouldn’t make much of a difference to Roun. No point in empty hope. Kuro’s next lie snaked free far more easily. “As for your clan… I’m afraid I don’t know that either. We adopt our Canton’s name as both a symbol of our loyalty and proof our clans have relinquished their claim over us. My full name is still technically Kuro of Dawn, though someday I should have the Cantons change it to Unity, the name scribes and librarians are granted. Jacira was also of Dawn, while Zareus and Yorin still bear the name of the Canton of Glory. These aren’t inheritable though, so only Yorin knows which clan you actually belong to, little as it matters now that you’re a Grimoire.”

  The young man nodded, his gaze distant.

  “Jacira,” Roun eventually said, sounding as if he was tasting the word. “My father never even told me her name. He never enjoyed talking about her at all, actually. I understand the danger of it now, but it only took seeing his grief a few times before I just stopped asking on my own.” Sethra frowned and rubbed the boy’s shoulder consolingly. “I said this to Zareus, but my father never spoke of you as an ally, either, though we did come to the Rozarian Demesne in the end.”

  “I regret he didn’t.” Kuro shrugged again. “Yorin made it clear that he would only hand you over after you awakened, so perhaps he hoped Jacira had been wrong and you could instead live a normal life.”

  Roun snorted, and a flash of anger passed across his face. “Or maybe he decided he’d done enough and found the opportunity to vanish. After all, becoming a Grimoire would send me here anyway, and he did always tell me I should go to Rozaria City if anything ever happened.”

  “That doesn’t mean that he abandoned you or even that he’s dead,” Kuro said. “Yorin was both clever and honorable, even for a warrior monk. Jacira was also important to him, and your care was her last request.” Kuro continued pacing across his desk while avoiding the piles of parchment and inkwells. “I have a hard time believing his absence was anything but forced, which is alarming—a veteran warrior monk is far more capable than most people think.”

  “He still could have told me about his arrangement with you,” Roun snapped bitterly. “Being clanless wasn’t an easy life.”

  “There are worse Fates, hard as it is to believe,” Kuro said with an old man’s smile, one carved deep by regrets. You’ll learn that for yourself, unfortunately. He glanced over at Sethra, who seemed to be mulling over something, and tilted his head in her direction. “You have an opinion?”

  She frowned. “I was wondering about something else,” Sethra said, her hand still on Roun’s shoulder. “Why do you want a slayer coterie? I thought all Grimoires fought chimeras.”

  “The Rozarian Guard normally handles Copper threats outside of training or special cases. Dedicated hunting teams deal with anything higher, especially those rare few chimeras at the highest threat ratings that devour their kin in order to steal from their bodies and artes.” He nodded as Sethra gave Roun a sidelong look. “Yes, exactly like Roun. We call them the Named, and some are quite powerful—enough that we can only repel them. Even that requires careful planning and strategy.

  “My point, however, is that a library’s coteries need to use their members as efficiently as possible, so most are specialized. Some exist to slay chimeras. Others manipulate or collect information throughout the demesne, as well as analyze things like chimera patterns, apostate activity, and the meddling of rival libraries. The rest become irregular units that aid their libraries in various tasks both home and abroad, and for all else temporary coteries are formed to serve as needed.”

  “And you want us to become one that hunts chimeras?” Sethra asked. Kuro could tell from her tone she wasn’t at all displeased by the notion.


  He shook his head. “No, Sethra. I intend for you to become the best slayer coterie that has ever existed. Enough so that your names will be famous throughout hearth and all the demesnes.” Because the next Incursion will either leave you heroes or all of us dead. Kuro briefly closed his eyes, then focused on a very uncertain Roun. The boy met his gaze. “I know you’d like more answers. I will help you find them in return for your own help. As for everything else…” He shrugged and pointed his parasol at the girl. “My ambitions for all of you are unreasonable, but I do believe you’re capable of fulfilling them.”

  Roun nodded. “I guess that says a lot.” He hesitated before glancing between him and Zareus, then whispered, “Will you tell me what the Imperial Cantons were afraid of?”

  Sethra looked around the room with confusion.

  Ah, it’s probably been on his mind for a while now. Kuro hesitated—for a heartbeat. “I believe it’s because Sethra was wrong when she said you weren’t an abomination.” Roun froze and Sethra gave him a seething glare, but Kuro refused to back down from this truth. “You’re also yourself; a young Grimoire struggling to do his best. They obviously can’t coexist.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Haven’t you wondered if there would be a price for filling your vessel with the spirits of chimeras? Especially those above a mere Copper rating?”

  The boy flinched.

  “Worry not, dear Roun, because your arte has a safeguard that should also make it easier to handle.” Kuro struggled to keep his face impassive as hope lit up in their eyes. It was too late now; refusing Roun would be as heartless as much as a kindness. “I’ll make sure it’s ready for you when you return from a small, unofficial mission I need your help with.”

  Roun and Sethra exchanged glances again, then Roun asked, “A mission?”