I yawned, bored out of my mind. Nutcracker and I had been in the library for what felt like forever, trying to get me to pick up some of the nonsense he threw at me.

Nonsense like pagontus, which made things stop moving, kinisiv, which actually made things move, and elit, which summoned items to me, no matter where they were.

So far, my favorite spell had been the let's take a break spell that Nutcracker almost screamed in frustration.

That break had been almost an hour.

My mind drifted to the conversation I had with Raoul that morning. In the three days that passed since he woke up, he had done just about everything up to leaving his room, the latter ending in a pile of vomit on the floor four hours earlier.

Nothing much better had happened to me, either. After my swallow of pride the other day, Nutcracker took it upon himself to teach me magic singlehandedly. All I succeeded in doing was setting the rug, chair, and pretty nearly the bookshelf on fire.

Needless to say, it wasn't going well.

"Now what?" Nutcracker asked tiredly.  He was spread-eagled on the forest green carpet, staring up at the glass ceiling.

I sighed. My stomach pushed into the chair I leaned into. "I don't know. I don't really want to set anything else on fire."

"Considering that I'm the one who has to put it out, I don't like that idea either."

"We could eat?"

Nutcracker swung his arms around in the air. "You just did."

That was good. I couldn't eat another bite without pulling what Raoul had done earlier.

"We could... go outside?"

Just the mere thought of that repulsed me. Outside was not on my agenda.

He shared my viewpoint. "Ew, no."

I flipped over so my feet were in the air and the top of my head was barely touching the ground. I stared at the bookshelf in front of me. "We could lay around and try to figure out what to do?"

"Already doing that."

My eyes flicked back over to the bookshelf. Reading was always a good plan, but it felt weird when people watched me read. I'd have to get Nutcracker to leave to room somehow.

Then again, he was staring straight up at the ceiling.

Getting up to go ten feet, then turning around and come back seemed like such a waste of time, so I decided to try magic again. If it failed and I set the bookshelf on fire, the I could at least watch Nutcracker try and put it out.

I focused my attention on a random book. I was past the point of caring what it was about; as long as it had words that I could understand, I'd read it.

Kinisiv.

The amount of movement from the book section was zilch.

I shut my eyes, the exact opposite of what Nutcracker had told me to do. It helped me concentrate.

Kinisiv.

THINK OF THE BOOK. PICTURE IT.

Ow! I winced. The random thing-person inside my head was loud.

Why are you yelling at me?

THIS IS HOW I TALK NOW.

Well, talk quieter.

JUST PICTURE THE BOOK.

I pictured the deep purple cover with silver words on the side.

Now what?

WHISPER THE SPELL.

I sucked in my breath, still keeping the picture of the book in my mind. "Kinisiv."

I braced myself for the heat that was sure to follow the word. None came. Something hard tapped the top of my head. I opened my eyes.

The book hovered at my head.

I grinned and fist-pumped. Nutcracker ignored me. He totally missed it, and there was on way on earth I'd do it again.

Whatever.

The book fell to the ground as I flipped over to my stomach and dragged myself off the chair. The pages stuck to each other when I opened it, resulting in me having to try and peel them apart without ripping the paper.

I stared at the table of contents. It looked like the book I pulled over was on magic. In one section, it talked about spells, another had the history of magic, magic users, magic sicknesses, and what the magic system was.

"Magic sicknesses, page three hundred and eighty-four," I mumbled. I turned to about three-quarters of the way in and stopped. Five different names popped out at me at once, all naming a different illness.

"Hey, Woodboy, come look at this."

Nutcracker sat up and came over without a word.

Wow. He really must be bored.

I pointed to the page. "There's more than one."

He crouched down next to me and studied the paper. "Ilfyn, Zarn, Feyre, Miralis, and Ortaneou," he mumbled.

"They're sicknesses caused by magic," I said, re-reading the words. "They sound an awful lot like names of people, though."

He turned his head to me. "That's because they are."

"What?"

He ran over to the bookshelf and started digging through, trying to find something. "My tutor once told me about the founding of each country. It's a legend really."

"Well, considering that said 'legend' names are in this book here, there may be truth to what she said."

He sat back down next to me, holding a book on lore. "Hang on a second." He began frantically flipping through the pages. "Here."

"It's in Dulcian. I don't speak that language."

Nutcracker sighed. "Basically, it says that the five countries were each founded by one of the five people you named off. Ilfyn founded Dulcia, Zarn founded Zelgwyn, Feyre got Carrielle, Ortaneou got Luschon, and Miralis got Arium. Now, the five to them were childhood friends until they had to go their separate ways, which is never elaborated on. Once power got to their heads, the friends became enemies who sought to destroy the other."

"Did they?"

"Yes and no. First, they all discovered something called 'magic.' I'm sure you're familiar with that term."

I punched his arm.

"Well, Feyre thought magic was below her. She never used it. The legend says that that's why those from Carrielle are the only ones who can't tap into that power. It's also why the sickness called Feyre slowly drains the magic user's powers. Now, the four others, however, may as well have worshiped magic. Especially the new ruler of Arium."

"Miralis."

Nutcracker nodded. "Miralis loved the power so much she tried to get more of it. After years of trying, she created a serum, that once injected, gave her more magic than she ever thought possible. Eventually, she got to where she shouldn't take anymore, but did. The last dose of this 'liquid magic' created a whole new person out of this magic. It took over her mind and killed her in the hour."

"Thus miralis was born," I whispered.

"Yes. While she was injecting herself, she bore a son. When he was older, he continued down his mother's line of work. He got miralis too. Eventually, most of her bloodline was killed off because of the power they craved, but not before teaching some of the citizens how to control their power."

"That's insane."

Nutcracker shrugged. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

I flipped through some more pages in my book. "Wow," I mumbled. "It's so bad that people started using it as a way to torture people."

He nodded. "I've heard about that. I think it was banned, though."

I glanced down again. A list of names traveled down the page, all under "forced miralis."

"Not before they used it on a few people." I bit my lip and started reading through it. "Charl Iztheron, James Cor, Den Harvey, Dent Arnold, Schwartzen Egger, Brennen Aindreas, and the most recent, Calix Rosen. He got it by--" My eyes widened. "--by injecting himself. Who would do that? What type of--"

"Curly, people do weird things."

I sighed. That was very, very true.

"Is that it?" Nutcracker stretched. It didn't look like he needed to, but he seemed fairly satisfied.

"It looks it.

I started looking under Calix's name. There were more names. A few were under "generals" or "captains." From a war, I guess.

Then one particular name caught my eyes. I froze. My heart started to beat faster. "Nutcracker, my father's name is on here."

"What?" he cried. He pushed me away from the book. "Are you sure?"

"Yes! You think I don't know my own father's name?"

He flipped through a few pages, then stopped. "Was your father a part of the Magic War?"

"I don't know. He's never told me, and I've never asked."

"What about the Vyecher Wars?"

I crossed my arms. "How old do you think my father is? The Vyecher Wars were fifty years ago."

He shrugged. "Just thought I'd check."

I traced over his name. "Woody, it doesn't specify how he got it. What if--"

"Clair, you don't even know if it's him for sure. Calm down."

Calm down. What a joke.

Nutcracker tapped his leg. "Didn't the Vyecher Wars take place in this land?"

"'This land' is the land between Arium and Zelgwyn, right?" I crossed by arms. Geography and history--definitely not my favorites.

Nutcracker bobbed his head again. "I think so. This is where the last battle between the countries was. It's also the point which vyechers originated."

Something nagged at me, but I couldn't place it. It was like a memory that wished to be recalled, or a sentence forgotten in the middle of it being spoken.

"Nutcracker," I said slowly, "do you know if there's a book on vyechers here?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. It'd be relatively recent, considering that the war was twenty years ago. Why do you ask?"

"Can't explain. I just need to find a book. Something sounds familiar."

He got up. "Well then, let's look."

We both started throwing some of the books off the shelf, trying to find something that might mention vyechers. It wasn't that the name didn't ring a bell, because I knew my great- uncle had fought in the war with them. It was something else that was bothering me, like where they came from or what they looked like, I think.

"Curly!"

I froze, about to toss a green-covered book to the floor. Nutcracker waved a scroll around in the air with one hand and beckoned me over with the other.

He rolled it out. "Whoa," he mumbled. He flipped it over so it was facing me. "Lots of squiggles."

A smile tugged at my lips. "It's in Arian. We have a different alphabet than the other countries."

"I can see that." He tossed the scroll over to me. "Translate."

The paper crinkled as I rolled it out. Thick, dark lines swirled on the page, turning to words. I skimmed through it, then paused to read out loud.

"Vyechers were some of the more dangerous creatures known to man. Seeing one of them could cause your greatest fear to come to life. This was the cause of the Vyecher War."

"Awesome," Nutcracker muttered sarcastically. "They sound like the life of the party."

I ignored him and kept reading. "Virtually no vyecher had ever been seen in its true form due to its ability. A few of the weaker ones that were killed had been described as wolf-like creatures or animals of mist. Once creatures of the forest such as deer, owls, or even stray dogs, the vyechers came into existence due to a large blast of magic."

"Creatures of mist?" The scraping sound of Nutcracker sliding his arms against each other rang out through the room. "Sounds an awful lot like a murae."

My heart skipped a beat. A picture of a four-legged animal with black tendrils of smoke curling off its mane was scratched into the page. "That because they are an awful lot like muraes. Look." I turned it so Nutcracker could see, and got the response I thought I would.

He sucked in a breath. "That's unreal."

I looked at the scroll once more. "It says that a few scientists got hold to vyecher blood and started experimenting with it. No one knows their exact goal, but they only killed hundreds of unwilling people. Those who survived were called--"

The words died in my mouth. It couldn't be real. The next two words had to be a lie.

"Were called what, Curly?"

I stared at him and swallowed. "They gave themselves the name of the Lumita Fiannu."

_______________________________________

And this is the part that I try my best to keep track of everything.

If I don't get myself confused or leave out something, I'll be very surprised.