She had barely arrived home when the door chime rang.
"Well now, Mother asked everyone quite emphatically to rest today," she said in surprise, hurrying from her dressing room to see who it was. She hadn't even had time to change.
It was Lady Lívia, precisely.
"May I come in?" she asked, without any explanation or hesitation.
"Yes," Aisling replied, and immediately deactivated the holo-block.
Lady Lívia was wearing the same long, loose mauve tunic as at the Millennial Oak. She hadn't even sat down yet by the heavy pearwood desk, and she was already explaining, just as quickly and agitatedly as she had been at the Oak, after Rhesus had found that inscription.
"I was the one who wrote it there…"
"Why did you write it?" Aisling asked in astonishment.
Lady Lívia tilted her head and furrowed her brow in thought.
"Well, I don't know. That's exactly what I want to find out, as soon as possible."
"But when did you write it?" the girl pressed on.
"I don't know. That's what I want to find out, as soon as possible."
Aisling no longer understood any of what her mother had done. She didn't ask more questions about the inscription, just waited to hear what Lady Lívia would say next.
"When Rhesus found the inscription, I just knew I had written it."
"But you never even learned runic writing," Aisling noted softly.
Lady Lívia waved it off.
"I didn't write it now."
"Could you have been one of the Brotherhood members?" Aisling leaned in closer to her mother.
"I don't know. That's what I want to find out, as soon as possible."
Now she understood, Lady Lívia wanted to learn what she and Rhys had done: bringing images across from another reality. From Nexoria.
"All right. So you want to see the moment when you wrote it...more clearly, more sharply," Aisling helped the extremely unsettled Lady Lívia.
"Exactly. That's why I sent everyone home for the afternoon."
"Aha, so that's why you sent us home. So you could practice."
"Not only that. I didn't want anyone to start talking about the Tree of Martyrs in front of me now, and influence me in finding the truth."
"But you're not going to learn this in one afternoon," the girl tried to calm her mother.
"But I want to start today."
Lady Lívia wasn't discouraged in the least by the idea that it might take days or weeks to discover when and why she had written that inscription.
Aisling thought for a few seconds.
"But that writing must have appeared long after the Brotherhood disbanded. After the valley had become a city, and the feeble oak had been surrounded by tables."
"We don't know. That's what I want to find out as soon as possible. Until then, I don't want to hear any conversation about the Tree of Martyrs," Lady Lívia again ordered silence on the subject.
"I see. Then it's best if you stay away from all other research for a while."
Lady Lívia nodded in agreement.
"And now you want to practice this afternoon. That's why you came. To ask me how," Aisling offered her help.
"Yes, exactly."
"Did you see images of yourself sitting there and writing?" the girl asked.
"No. I felt that I had written it."
"Well then, focus on that feeling until only that feeling remains. Every other emotion and thought will fade. And then maybe you'll be there, in that time, in that moment when you wrote it, or you'll see images of it."
"Oh, so that's how it works," Lady Lívia noted with satisfaction, and stood up from the desk to return to her quarters.
"You know this is our biggest discovery in two weeks?" Aisling tried to keep the conversation going with her mother.
"Yes, I know. Pleasant afternoon!" she said abruptly and oddly, and stepped onto the holo-gate pad next to the window.
Aisling wasn't offended. When she was practicing these things herself, she had neglected everything and everyone. It was her mother who had accused her of that. And now Lady Lívia was acting exactly the same way.
"She's been studying the Twelve's mysteries her whole life. I wouldn't even be surprised if she were one of the Brotherhood members," she thought.
Only now did she truly feel how much tension she had built up in the past two weeks since Rhys disappeared. She was the only one known to belong to the Brotherhood. And that came with a tremendous amount of pressure and responsibility.
"I'm not alone," she thought, and it felt like that heavy storm cloud of tension was already beginning to dissolve.
As she changed into a pale blue, comfortable tunic, she almost cheerfully began calculating the consequences of what the awakening of another Brotherhood member might bring.
"Now we'll finally find out what kinds of abilities the other Society members had," she rejoiced.
Apart from Kaelen, Mirael, and Xewith, the names and powers of the others had faded into oblivion. In fact, no one would even know about them if Aisling and Rhys hadn't started seeing those visions from the past. They were the twelve leaders who saved an entire city from Drakthor's wrath through their disappearance, vanishing without a trace along with all its inhabitants.
She had just finished changing into the light blue, airy tunic when she heard the door chime again. It was Sophia.
"Can I come over for a bit?" she asked gently.
"Of course, come in."
She immediately deactivated the holo-block again.
Sophia brought tea made of herbs and other fragrant plants in a flowery teapot on a tray. Beside it were two teacups, also decorated with floral patterns. From a distance, Aisling could already smell the sweet, pleasant scent of lemon balm.
Sophia sat down on the same chair where Lady Lívia had recently admitted how she'd felt when Rhesus found the inscription. She smoothed out her skirt politely, then sat upright to apologize. She looked like she had been crying not long ago.
"I'm sorry for bothering you so much lately. I miss Rhys and I'm worried about him."
"I've never been angry at you, Sophia," Aisling reassured her cousin.
"I'll never ask you again to go to Nexoria," she promised through sniffles.
Aisling poured tea for both of them.
"This lemon balm tea will do us good," she thought.
"One martyr is enough. We don't need two going to the Oak, to Nexoria. I never even thought about what it would be like to lose you."
Now Aisling understood what thoughts had touched the girl. She had linked the Tree of Martyrs to Mirael and Kaelen. Or to Rhys and Aisling herself.
"We'll only go if we think it's safe," she promised seriously.
"You're never going alone," Sophia sniffled again.
"You're overreacting to that inscription found today, Sophia. Someone, my mother wrote that long after the valley became a city, and the tables were already being placed near the Oak," she explained. "And of course, all we know about Rhys is that for some reason, he hasn't returned yet."
Sophia quickly stopped sniffling and looked at Aisling with interest.
"Your mother wrote it? How?"
"Maybe more members of the Brotherhood are awakening," Aisling suggested.
"But you said yourself that the inscription appeared when the valley was already a city," Sophia reminded her.
"We don't know much about the Brotherhood. Maybe more are awakening. My mother is trying right now to see when and why that inscription appeared," Aisling gossiped.
"Aha, so that's why she sent everyone home," Sophia concluded.
Then her expression turned sad again. But the lemon balm tea had already begun to work, she didn't start crying again.
"I'm not happy about it. One more person from our family…" she added gloomily.
"Think of it this way, at least I won't be going to Nexoria alone," Aisling comforted her. "Sooner or later, we'll have to go, if Rhys doesn't come back on his own."
"And then there'll be three of you who don't return," the girl projected a dark future.
"Now you're the one overreacting. Sooner or later we'll go to Nexoria, and we'll all come back. With Rhys," Aisling promised.
The door chime rang again. It was Sibius.
"Can we come over for a bit?" he asked cheerfully, smiling.
"Sure, the holo-gate's already open."
"Something important happened," he added, before his hologram disappeared.
Aisling wasn't even surprised anymore. She calmly waited to hear what Sibius and Solveig were going to say. Sibius seemed to be in a good mood, so she wasn't worried at all.