"I suppose I was listening. I was trapped in a prison of my mind and while I couldn't concentrate or even know what I was hearing, I was nonetheless always close by my father. Despite my so-called madness, he loved me and I felt his love. He kept me close, and he would often read to me from the books in his great library. I suppose during one of those sessions he must have shared the Valisar history with me. I think I learned plenty during those years without anyone realizing it, least of all myself."
"But you were such a young child! Even a healthy, normal five anni old wouldn't grasp what you did...surely?" Greven asked, his loathing momentarily set aside as his fascination with Piven's past sucked him deeper into his secret.
"Young in years, perhaps, but as we can both tell, I am endowed with a mind far more mature than is normal for someone my age. Even at five I suspect I was drinking in a lot more information than a normal child of that age, despite my incapacity."
"And no one knew?"
Piven sighed and shook his head. "Not even I. But you must have felt something, Greven. If I've understood what my father discovered from the writings in his library, an aegis is aware of his power and is drawn to the Valisars like a moth to a flame. You knew, and still you came to me. You didn't fight it."
Greven held his head. He had guarded the knowledge for so long that the opportunity to finally admit his great secret served as a catharsis to the anger he'd harbored for all of his life. It cost him nothing to be honest with Piven for he was now bound to this young man until he died. He took a deep breath. "It takes enormous willpower to resist the pull of the Valisar magic. It's like a sickness. I yearn for it and yet I know I must fight it with every part of myself. It's instinctive - no one had to tell me, I've just always known this. I kept testing and improving my resistance. Over the years I'd trust myself to get a little closer to the palace, constantly checking and double-checking my addiction to the calling but never wandering too close or too quickly. I practiced and practiced. I even once tried to stand on the fringe of the huge crowds gathered for one of the royal walks in the midlands. That went badly; I only just managed to escape the notice of King Brennus. As you rightly say, he wasn't endowed with any useful magic of his own but even dormant Valisar sorcery reacts to the presence of its own aegis. And only its own, I might add. I remember how distracted Brennus suddenly became that day, looking around him...looking for me! I was standing on a hill and could see him clearly, but fortunately I was shielded by a crowd of other wellwishers. I was able to get away. I never got that close again." He looked up at Piven, a fresh gust of loathing washing through him. "But, it seems Brennus's cunning and ingenuity caught me in its web all the same. I'm surprised you knew that you could trammel your father's aegis."
"My Valisar magic was shielded and continued to be so while I emerged from my prison."
"True," Greven agreed. "I sensed your magic at the beginning, but told myself I was imagining it, or that it was a shadow of you being around the Valisars for so long. I was confident of my invulnerability. I could, to some degree, control the call to the magic around you because I was not born for you. My reaction to your father was immediate - I sickened instantly, lost my bearings and most of my control. But I don't feel this reaction to you, nor did I with your brother."
"I see. So the burden is on the Valisar to find his aegis?"
"Correct...or an aegis. It's actually far easier for you Valisar heirs to find your own because your magic and the magic of your aegis respond so dramatically to each other, as I've explained. Leo seemed to have no idea who I was and even if he did register something, I think he was in shock anyway; it would have easily slipped by him. I should add that I'm still very glad he spent the night in the crawlspace beneath our hut, however,