Kammon had spent plenty of time studying from the texts in Riverkeep. At first, he’d been researching things from his past that bothered him. Histories that he had reason to disbelieve. Truths that he learned were not, in fact, truth.

Now, he was trying to understand something more fundamental to his own life and the tragedies he’d been part of. Why had Distria become a war-mongering state? When had it started to fight with its bordering neighbors, and how had war become the dominant state of existence?

With Ezo asleep beside him, Kammon had a more pressing question in mind, though. After Ezo pulled on so much power, he slept almost 12 hours. He’d woke hungry, and they’d shuffled off to the kitchen for food before returning to make good on their earlier promises.

Ezo hadn’t been happy to take another dose of Leria, but he’d fallen asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Kammon was beside him, unable to follow his partner into dreams.

Which was probably best. Kammon’s dreams had been haunted since they’d started the journey toward the Fire Born Castle, and he doubted that would change tonight. He was torn between shaking Ezo to make him understand how scared he’d been and smothering him to keep him safe. He’s settled for lovemaking that rotated between too gentle and too rough in turns because he was still working through what he’d felt.

Kammon slipped out of bed and dressed quietly. He walked through the cold halls to the extensive library. It was ordered similarly to Mountainkeep, but neither could match the pristine shelves of the University.

He didn’t know where to start, so he walked to the far end next to the fireplace and began looking through the books. He piled any books that mentioned the Distrian War-Sworn at the end of the table. When he had a small stack, he stopped and started reading.

He skimmed through the first book, but it was a tedious recital of military engagement at the Nara border. The second and third weren’t much better. Even before Distria’s current military regime, the Seven Nations had been in conflict.

As he opened the fourth book and skimmed, he sat up at the table and leaned in to read. It spoke of the period of peace that held for a thousand years between the Seven Nations. It had ended with the Effigy War. The gods left the Seven Nations, destroying its greatest kingdom and leaving only the Bonelands behind. The countries rebuilt their armies then, and Distria created the War-Sworn.

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Kammon had never heard of the Effigy War before, nor of a kingdom in the Bonelands.

The book went into more detail about the creation of Prasnia’s navy and their ongoing fights with Galif and moved away from Distria entirely. Kammon set the book down and left his current stack of books in search of information about the Effigy War.

He had no idea how long he’d been reading before he heard movement in the hallway outside. Books had been pushed face down on the interesting pages he’d found. He carried three in hand to keep from losing them.

“Did you sleep at all?” Ezo walked in with a mug of tea and set it on the table for Kammon.

He smelled the Leria before he sipped it, but he drank it anyway. He hadn’t stopped for food or drink all night.

“No.”

“I’ll make breakfast while you clean up the mess you made.” Ezo pointed to the stacks and piles Kammon left in his wake. “Then you can tell me what all this is about.”

Kammon watched him go, but he returned to the book he’d found. He didn’t need to learn about the War-Sworn or how they’d come to exist. He had a reasonably accurate education from the university, but the Vow was something else entirely.

Following a trail of history, folklore, and tall tales, Kammon tracked down what might be the origins of the words that all members of the War-Sworn had to speak. He found it in a book on healing, of all places.

It wasn’t enough. Kammon had a headache, and he didn’t like what he was learning. It was another lead to understanding what was happening with himself and Ezo, though.

He’d laughed when Ezo said Alvrey worried they were blending. It was a myth. Just a legend to scare young elementals to keep their powers to themselves. It wasn’t blending, what was happening to them, but it wasn’t a true bonding anymore either.

He and Ezo had been able to do things they shouldn’t from the very beginning. Kammon had put it off to the strength of their magic, believing that to be why their bond was so deep as well. He didn’t think that was true anymore, though.

He’d been able to call on Ezo’s magic since Mason Creek. He hadn’t realized it at first, but he could see it all in hindsight. The way Ember responded to him. Barley said he was touched by the Vow. The way Ezo lost control of his power at the University and blacked out.

And now, the incident the day before. Kammon had felt Ezo each time he pulled the elements into himself. He’d felt Ezo pushing his strength through the bond into the blackness in Kammon’s soul.

What scared Kammon most wasn’t the pure amount of power that Ezo drew. It wasn’t the fear that he’d burn himself out either, because Kammon saw him draw more of the elements in Malla City. It was something beyond that. Something that shouldn’t be there at all.

Buried under the magic and the bond, Kammon could feel the darkness wrapped around Ezo’s very bones.

He had never said the words, but somehow Ezo had taken the Vow.