Emeron, for a handful of reasons, found that he couldn’t sleep. And yet, he was still the last person in the library the next morning.

Arrika gave him a bright smile. “Good morning!”

“You sound exactly like Mother…” Erryll grumbled with a yawn. “The optimism makes me want to go back to sleep more.”

“Are we going to look at the notebook?” Emeron prompted, choosing to ignore the comment.

Arrika nodded. “I can go ahead and read it. I’ll admit, I already skimmed through a couple of pages—just the dates, though. I… think there’s some things missing from it, which is never really a good sign, but maybe we’ll learn something new regardless.”

She picked up the notebook and gestured for them all to take a seat. She flipped through a few pages, explaining, “A lot of the ones in the beginning are blotched out or completely missing. Ah, this is the oldest entry! It’s from right before New Year’s on the year Merrelle died. I’ll read it.”

“Just don’t get emotional,” Erryll muttered. Quieter, but with more care, he added, “Neither of us want to see you upset.”

She mumbled her understanding, then started to read it. “‘We don’t know what else to do. It seems that all of our attempts have either had no effect or were ultimately made the problem worse. Perhaps that is what he wants: for us to realize we have no other options. We won’t give up, though. Not until we either succeed or lose everything trying.’” Perhaps more to herself, she said, “The author must’ve been talking about Merrelle. Nothing ever really seemed to help her.”

She flipped through a couple of pages. “Oh, there’s a lot more crossed out here than I thought there was. A lot of these just seem to be mentions of how she’s doing—which is to say, poorly—then the entry ends. Is there another entry that’s something more..?” And then she found it. “Here it is! It’s… the last page, actually—or at least the last one that was used. Must have been right before she died…”

All three shared a look between them, and then she started reading. “‘He came to us again. We all knew what he was going to say: that Merrelle would be dead without his intervention and only he could save her. He waited this long just to make sure we knew that. She was the price to pay for our knowledge; our choice would determine if she lived or died. So… we listened to what Caeso had to say.’”

“Caeso?” Erryll repeated, moving over to peer over the notebook himself. “Are you sure you read that right?”

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“Of course I am,” Arrika returned.

“Like the… gryphon Caeso..?” Emeron asked.

Sarcastically, Erryll responded, “No, because there are dozens of other people named Caeso! It certainly doesn’t mean that Caeso!”

“Be nice,” Arrika warned. “Besides, there’s still more. As long as neither of you interrupt me, maybe we’ll get some answers.” Then she kept reading. “‘He told us that she could be a part of something grand, of something that would change the world. All he needed was to be able to shape her future to fit his desires—to use her as his voice. As long as we gave her up, we would save her—and them. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but… we know what must be done. We agreed to his plan and, tomorrow, we will learn exactly what it will cost us. Let’s just hope it’s worth the rewards.’”

She double-checked the next few pages and, seeing as they were all blank, slowly closed the notebook. Then they processed what they’d just heard in silence.

Emeron was the one who mustered the motivation to say something first. “So she… was chosen to be the voice of Caeso..? Kind of like King Zanrel and Lady Elysrainne?”

Arrika shook her head. “That shouldn’t be possible. With my connections, I should’ve heard something at least vaguely familiar. But I didn’t even get a hint about this—not that Caeso had appeared to our parents, not about there being a chance that Merrelle’s alive. We’ve got to be missing something, or—or just misinterpreting something. Right?”

“I suppose we could solve this the old-fashioned way,” Erryll remarked. “You’d remember the funeral more than I would. Did you ever see a body, either that day or sometime shortly after?”

It looked like she was about to give a response immediately, before thinking about it. Then she shook her head. “I… think Father mentioned that she hadn’t been in a good enough condition. I didn’t doubt him—she did look pretty bad the last time I’d seen her. If I remember right… it wasn’t a very big send-off, either. I think only the royal family and a few of Mother’s family members were there. Father didn’t want any reporters.”

“Then that means there’s the benefit of the doubt, at least,” he decided. “Until we can prove otherwise… I think it’s worth considering.” He laughed at the idea. “The fact that our sister might be as important as King Zanrel one day.”

“I feel like that isn’t really a good thing, though…” Emeron mumbled. “King Zanrel founded Aedrisea in order to unite the tribes against the demons, right? And that was a pretty big threat at the time. So… what’s going to happen, that Caeso needed to ask someone else to be his voice..?”

“I suppose we’ll learn when we get there,” Arrika responded thoughtfully. “Assuming there’s still any truth to it all. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that everything should be taken with a grain of salt—everyone has a bias, after all, and humans are prone to exaggeration. I’ll look into it on my own and, in the meantime…”

She sighed. “Well, we’ve already got to meet with Mother and Rayluin for the feast tonight. Might as well see how much they know. If they’re involved in the truth of this at all…”