"It took me nearly a century to make the connection between my lack of magic and the Silver Borne." She gave me a wry smile.
"I know.
I had no magic anymore, and the last thing I made was something that was supposed to eat magic.
You'd think I'd have made the connection.
But all I knew was that it wasn't finished .
.
.
and I couldn't remember how far I'd gotten when my father called the wolves.
After a while it was not as important to me--it was only a broken thing that did nothing.
Someone stole it, and I thought, good riddance.
I left it to them, and after a few months my magic returned.
It was then that I first understood I'd succeeded, in part.
It does consume fae magic--but mostly just the magic of the person who currently possesses it." "Why would a fairy queen want it, then?" I asked, then added a belated, "Jesse?" "It eats fae magic, Mercy," said Zee.
"How easy to change a formidable opponent to someone more vulnerable than a human--at least a human knows he has no power.
Dueling is still allowed among the fae." "Or maybe she doesn't really understand what it does," suggested Ariana.
"She could believe it does as it was built to do: take power from one fae and give it to another.
I've heard the stories--and I do not bother to correct them.
Now I have answered a question, I have one for you.
Mercy, did Phin give that book to you?" I took in a breath to answer, and Jesse clamped her hand over my mouth and jumped in.
"It would work better if you ask me," she said.
"Then it would be less likely that Mercy breaks her word." She dropped her hand.
"Did Phin give you the book?" "But what does the book have to do with it?" "Glamour," said Samuel suddenly.
"By all that's holy, Ari, how did you manage to do that? You disguised that thing as a book, and you gave it to your grandson?" "He is mostly human," she answered him without looking his way.
"And I told him to keep it locked away so it wouldn't eat the magic he has." "What if he'd sold it?" I asked.
"Jesse?" "It is my blood that it was born in," Ariana said.
"It finds its way back to me eventually.
Jesse, please ask her.
Did Phin give you the book?" "No.
I might have bought it if I could have afforded--" I stopped talking because she slumped down and put both hands over her face.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Ariana said, hiccupping and wiping her face with her hands.