Chapter 129

MILA

I had no idea how long I had been in the library, but time seemed to pass differently here. The lanterns flickering on the stone walls gave no indication of what time of day it was outside, and no sunlight could penetrate these thick walls.

Despite the pressure to fix all magic weighing on my shoulders, I still continued to explore the library. The stacks were full of books from across time. I wondered if Sofia had somehow been using her power in the void to guide any new information on magic into the library.

There were whole sections on enchantresses and witches and the main differences between them. Apparently, the main way to tell them apart was in the main type of magic said woman practiced in. While witches dealt mainly in potions and cauldrons, enchantresses mainly focused on spells.

And, as I knew from Sofia, curses.

I ventured further into the library–past the shelves on shape-shifters and sprites. The section on Dragon Knights had to be here somewhere, and I wanted to do a little research of my own.

The air further back in the library was a bit thinner, as if I was going even higher in elevation. I had no idea how far back the entire chamber stretched. Knowing Sofia, it could go on for miles.

Once all this was over, once all magic in Fresonia was fixed and powers had been reawakened in people across the kingdom, perhaps I could open the doors to this library. People deserved to have accurate information on their powers. Maybe this could be the start of a new era.

I was dragged out of my daydreaming when I saw an old leather book tucked into one of the shelves. Despite (or maybe because of) its one-word title, it caught my eye immediately.

There it was, in black and white:

SAMUEL

I grabbed it off the shelf immediately and tucked it under my arm. Another few steps revealed a reading chair with a lantern expertly angled to give the perfect amount of light.

Deep down, I wondered if the library was somehow alive, anticipating my needs. I decided that was a mulling over for another day.

I opened the book, its pages slightly yellow with age. It must have been written back in the early days of Fresonia, documenting the life and times of its first King.

Even though this Samuel was not quite my Felix, I was still curious as to what he was all about. I opened to the first page, a map of the seven magical kingdoms.

What I saw there shocked me.

Not only did the kingdoms once have much more land–it appeared that, at some point throughout the centuries, Abernathy had been claiming more and more territory for itself–the map highlighted the places throughout the kingdoms where the magic in the land was the strongest, with the place with the highest magical concentration being the Dragon’s Teeth mountains.

The second-highest concentration of magic was gathered in a tiny village near the Fresonian coast, not terribly far from Carnea. For a brief moment, I wondered why this little area was so uniquely powerful, when it hit me.

This was the village where Sofia was from. Where I was from.

No wonder it was so magical. It had produced the most powerful enchantress to ever live.

As I gazed at the map, I wondered if the areas of other high concentrations were places that had been special or personal to any of my past lives.

Sure enough, as I ran my fingers over the text, flashes of memories came back to me, little by little. Images of the lives I had lived and the places I had loved Felix throughout the years.

There was the lake where Prince Frederick proposed to Countess Sabrina, nestled on the border of Fresonia and Prazole. Magic was bursting there.

There was the artists’ community in the South Smythe Islands that Prince Daniel had taken Cassandra to, and where he ended up proposing to her. I wondered if the magic had any connection with the beautiful art produced in the tiny village.

Madeline Pattersen and Prince Maddox had spent a lot of their time together in a national park near the center of the kingdom. I instinctively knew that the trees there must be full of old magic, just like the mountains.

As I stared at the map, more and more memories from the lives I’d once lived came rushing back to me. I could see the tavern where Alexia and Milo first met, its warm light casting an amber glow across the prince’s face. There was the park where Lady Greta and Prince James had first dreamed of opening her school for girls, and he looked at her like nothing else in the world would ever matter more.

The map of magic in Fresonia made it clear: my and Felix’s love had etched these kingdoms, had grown the land and nurtured the magic even when magic was still kept secret. Everything that was good in the kingdoms, everything that I loved, had been created from our bond.

A drop of water fell onto the map in front of me. I touched my cheek and realized that I had been crying, weeping for my past selves and the pain, fear, and betrayal in their final moments.

I had a second chance now. I needed to put things right for them, first and foremost.

The book on Samuel was fairly straightforward. It spoke of a handsome young man born to a powerful land-owning family in an area rife with territory contests and arguments. It was only through the great wisdom of this brave warrior that Fresonia was created and lines were drawn.

Interestingly, the book did highlight Samuel’s unique power as a Dragon Knight, stating that his abilities gave him a special advantage in uniting the kingdoms. There was no mention at all of any other magic. I wondered if this had been written by some sort of royal advisor as a history for future Kings.

The book did not mention Sofia.

It was only in the last few pages that I got any information on Smauel’s personal life at all, and even then, there were only three lines:

King Samuel was briefly married to a village girl from the coast before she tragically died from a mysterious illness a few weeks into their marriage. After the traditional mourning period, Samuel remarried Duchess Persephone of Wisteria. The two had a long marriage and produced three sons.

So Samuel had remarried. I wondered if Sofia had observed it from the void. She had never mentioned anything about him finding another wife.

The thought of Felix with someone else made me feel ill.

So that was the only trace of Sofia anywhere in the history books. Perhaps she put the book in the library to eternally punish herself for the curse.

In a few years’ time, once everything had settled down and was finally back to normal, I would write my own histories. I would write of the bravery of Sofia, Madeline, Alexia, Greta, Sabrina, Cassandra–the women who had loved the king so much that they died for him.

I just had to fix all the magic in the kingdoms first.

And in order to do that, I had to get out of the library.