Chapter 34

34

RAEGAL

I close the back door of the house and smile to myself when I hear Breela call me handsome. I haven't got a clue what I am doing here. With Eretreya, I find myself doing things I don't expect. Bringing her here is risky for the both of us, but when I saw how deeply she was missing her brothers and the disappointment she felt when she thought she wouldn't get to see them, I knew I had to bring her here.

I walk through the back alley until I reach her house. Entering the yard, my eyes fix on her mother's workshop. Curiosity gets the better of me and before I can stop myself, I reach for the door and step inside. Dust covers the worktops. Shelves line the wall, filled with various bottles and jars of crystal dust. A large wooden workshop bench sits in the centre of the room, the wooden top marked by years of cutting and grinding of crystals. A large sink sits over the small window that looks back at the house, and on top of the stove are various pans, some still containing crystal fragments. Her mother's tools sit atop of the table, and I take a seat on the wooden stool where she would have sat and spent her days. My gaze snags on a large set of drawers and I find myself drawn to them. I open the top drawer, and it contains various tools and utensils. The second draw is full of used parchments and notebooks, and I pull one out and flick through it. They contain notes of her mixtures and which crystal elements mix best to achieve the desired result. Intrigued, I pick up some and flick through them, but it's a battered notebook shoved to the back of the drawers that snags my attention. It looks old and well-used. I flick through the first few pages and pause when I read the contents.

It's a catalogue of observations and meaning of words.

One note reads:

Gaia's day is the Asen festival of honouring the Mother Goddess.

I flick through more pages.

Asen mothers carry their babies in their wombs for eleven months.

It was as if the person who wrote in this book was writing themselves a guide to the realm of Asen and its people. But it's the next page that piques my interest.

Nightmares—none exist, only dreams. Looks like the nightmares ceased when the eternal sleep began.

Eternal sleep I've heard those words before. Reya's mum uttered them as she lay dying that day. She looked into my eyes and said, ‘protect her at all costs, she is the key to ending the eternal sleep, and with it the war.' Words I still puzzle over now. I close the book and pop it into the inside pocket of my jacket. I've been so busy concentrating my attention on Eretreya's connection to the mutts when maybe I should have focused more on her mother. I'll ask Jasiel to do some digging for me when he gets back. I think it's time we find out more about her mother's childhood.