Ashes Unwritten: Oblivion's Heir [Volume 1 Complete!]

Rowan sat in front of an array of lights—a smaller one he'd set up in his room for times when the library was full. It happened more often these days, and he'd been forced to move much of his research equipment back to his own rooms, with the storm encouraging people to seek other forms of entertainment. The manor had a few underground pathways leading out to a tavern or two, at least. Not everyone was a reader.

He'd had this array recently filled by Kess, and it crackled a dark blue when he flipped the switch. He itched to ask Liam for his more muted orange Fulminancy—the boy had recently discovered his own powers, and spent most of the time in the warehouse, trying to emulate Kess. His mother was simply worried he'd become another statistic, lost to the Uphill, and forbade him from using it entirely. So, Rowan was left with Kess's blue glow.

It was comforting in a way—like having a tiny part of Kess back at the manor with him. He saw her less often these days, and with his sword arm still stiff and painful, Rowan knew he'd mostly be a liability out in the storm. Instead, he spent his days frustrated and buried in research.

He was Fulminant, in a manner of speaking, but it did little to aid Kess or improve his own situation. He'd been in disbelief when he'd stumbled upon a section in one of the Archives notebooks that described his abilities in exact detail. It had been listed under a variants section, though frustratingly, most of it had been smudged in the rain of that horrible night. Given what Rowan now knew about old Fulminancy, he figured he must have an elemental variation different from Kess's or Claire's.

Still, he seemed to lack Fulminant abilities that others had. Whether it was due to a lack of training or a lack of ability, Rowan didn't know. He'd hoped to use his own Fulminancy in the lights to solve his problem with Grandbow, but on the rare occasions he could see his power at all, it was a dark, muffled sort of shadow—terrible for lights. He'd tried mixing his own powers with Kess's in his array, but the lights snuffed out immediately, like a candle being blown out.

But, perhaps if Rowan could solve the Fulminancy transfer puzzle, he could follow his original plan of using someone else's Fulminancy to stabilize the lights. It was worth a shot, at least, and it was all he had.

To think that I believed having Fulminancy would make things easier, Rowan thought, smiling faintly. Perhaps this was why Kess was always complaining about her powers—they just seemed to complicate things.

Rowan was deep in thought, nose buried in a tome, when he heard a thump at his door. Kess burst into his rooms, hair still damp, arm in a sling, and a plate of food in her other hand. She shut his door with her foot, and let the plate clatter to the table, barely looking at it.

"Kess, what happened?" Rowan shut his book and walked over to the chaise in front of his hearth. Kess sat there, looking a bit forlornly at the food in front of her.

"Claire said I had to eat."

"Not that," Rowan said, trying to be patient with her. "The rest, Kess. The sling, the look on your face. What happened?"

Kess let out a little sigh. "We spoke with Wyatt. He's going to send one of his family members to look into the Council and what my brother might be doing with them. On the way out, he mentioned some sort of shadow attacking people and asked me to look into it."

Rowan snorted, though his eyes fell on her sling. "Well, that could be anything out in this storm. You can't see more than a foot in front of your face." When Kess didn't respond, he ran a hand through his curls, nearly at the end of his patience. Kess didn't withhold, exactly, but sometimes she was reluctant to share everything with him of what happened out in the storm—particularly since the Archives. "That still doesn't explain the sling."

There was a moment of silence before Kess spoke. "Something was out there, Rowan. Rae and I went to check on the Stone Market, but I stayed behind. This…thing came up behind me on top of a building. When it touched me, something strange happened to my Fulminancy, and I just…fell."

In spite of a dry set of clothes, her face was pale and drawn, and her meal still sat on the table in front of her, untouched. Granted, she was always pale these days, but tonight seemed worse.

"It wasn't the same as when I do it, was it?" Rowan asked.

Kess shook her head. "Much worse."

"Are you sure you aren't just letting Wyatt's request get the best of you?" he asked. "Maybe something odd happened with your Fulminancy, or maybe you're just exhausted, Kess." He leaned against the hearth, letting the heat seep into his arm, to melt away some of the dull pain. Kess shook her head.

"I saw it twice," she said, chewing her lip. "Once on the street below, and then right next to me."

"And the one right next to you attacked?" Rowan asked. Kess nodded, her face troubled. It was a rather unbelievable story, Rowan thought, but unbelievable was unfortunately becoming his wheelhouse lately.

"When it touched me I felt like—" She paused, eyes haunted. "Like the life had been sucked right out of me. My heart stopped, the air left my lungs, and then I just…fell." She met Rowan's eyes. "It didn't just take my Fulminancy, it took something else."

"But your Fulminancy came back," Rowan said, frowning. She'd be dead without it, knowing how high she climbs.

"Barely. I cushioned my blow, but there also wasn't much left when I reached for it." Rowan folded his arms.

"And now?" he asked. Kess's eyes took on a distant look as she tried to gauge it.

"It's still not back, but it's better than it was, I guess." She pulled her knees up to her chest, though the sling got in the way. "I feel like the storm is watching me," she whispered. "Ever since that day. Rowan, what if we were supposed to die—what if none of us were supposed to walk away from that, but we made some kind of deal we didn't know about?"

Rowan remembered little of that night besides pain and a vague sense of being dragged through the city by the two women. He wasn't sure how Kess and Rae had spared him, though Kess insisted that just touching him had wiped out what little Fulminancy she had left. It made sense to Rowan that his odd brand of Fulminancy might have protected him, and it had wider implications for his research that he had only just begun to explore.

Little else made sense. How had the three of them escaped with their lives that night? And where had the storm come from? Perhaps it was Mariel's warning come to fruition, though Kess insisted that the storm she'd been shown in her vision was, if possible, more destructive than the one raging outside now.

"What does Rae say about it?" he asked.

Kess frowned, staring into the flames of the hearth. "She says that it's natural," Kess said, though he could tell she didn't believe it. "She says that whatever we did was probably just forgotten Fulminancy and we'll find it in a dusty tome somewhere. But I've tried since then to do the same thing with both Rae and Claire, but in smaller amounts—nothing works."

"Maybe you're approaching it the wrong way," Rowan said, thinking. "There should be a control group at least, and it's possible that you just can't replicate it on a small scale. You'd have to try it with the amount of power you used at the Archives to prove whether or not it was fluke."

"Which is not something I want to repeat." Kess sighed and leaned back in the couch cushions. "I might not be a scientist, Rowan, but it just feels like this is something that we should be able to recreate on a smaller level—otherwise, I'm worried that we're dealing with something we don't understand." She paused, tired eyes on some of his most recent carvings. With his arm still stiff and unnatural, they weren't as intricate as they had been—though they were getting better. "Speaking of which, did you figure out any of that transfer nonsense yet?"

Rowan shook his head, glancing at the pile of books on his desk with a sinking feeling. "Not yet," he replied. "There's a lot to sort through. I can only hope we even grabbed the right tomes."

"And your lights?"

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"The same," he said, sighing. "Little accidents here and there, so far. It seems like the storm is making people a little more nervous about using them, at least."

"Rowan," Kess said. She tugged at her sling as she stared at the hearth thoughtfully. "Have you ever tried snuffing your own lights?"

"Only if I want to sit in the dark." Kess gave him a wry smile, but Rowan could tell her mind was on something else. "Why?"

"Well," she said, "When you use your ability on me, you don't always drain me completely. You always take something, but it's not like a switch. At the Archives you left plenty for me to work with even after those creatures, and you've done it before on other occasions. If you can control it somehow, I wonder if you couldn't just take the edge off your lights? Make them safer somehow?"

Rowan frowned, watching her. "I had the same thought. It's the execution that I'm stuck on," he said. "So far, trying to mix my Fulminancy with yours just shuts the lights off entirely. I'm not sure I can control it with the precision needed to negate particular types of Fulminancy."

Kess nodded absently, yawning, though that pensive look didn't leave her face. He crossed the hearth to sit next to her, his eyes on the full plate of food that sat untouched. Regardless of whether there really was some kind of shadow out there following her again, Kess hadn't been herself since that night over a month ago now. Rowan rarely saw her rest, and she took on each task like she was running from something else. Perhaps Claire was right, and this power was eating her up.

"Kess, when was the last time you slept?" he asked gently. "A whole night," he added when she opened her mouth. She shut it immediately, scowling.

"I don't remember."

"And how often are you going out into that storm?" She sighed, eyes still on the fire.

"Every night."

"I'm not suggesting that what happened to you isn't real, Kess, but our minds also have a tendency to play powerful tricks on us when we're exhausted," Rowan said. "I agree that something isn't right about that storm—it's not natural, but I'm not sure it's exactly…sentient either." Kess frowned at that. "Regardless, would it kill you to stay inside for a few days?"

"It might," she groused, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Kess." Rowan reached out and cupped her cheek, his touch gentle. Her skin was on fire, but Rowan was used to that by now. Kess had threatened him with violence, so he hadn't said anything to Claire, but he considered breaking his promise with each day that passed. He was worried. Worried that Claire was right and Kess was killing herself. Worried that Kess was simply overdoing it. Kess leaned into his touch, closing her eyes and placing her hand on top of his.

She'd told him what had happened so many years ago. Far from making him hate her, Rowan marveled that the woman could get out of bed in the morning, let alone use her Fulminancy. He still found himself overwhelmed by all of it, but Kess was still Kess, even as she transformed into something different each night she left for the storm.

Her eyes fluttered open. "Rowan," she said suddenly, her gaze thoughtful. "Can you—" She chewed her lip, fishing for words. "Can you do the thing?" she asked, fluttering the fingers from her injured arm. Rowan snorted, a smile on his face.

"I'd really prefer we come up with a better name for it than 'the thing'," he said, laughing. Kess held his gaze, eyes determined. "Wait, you're serious," he said. She nodded. "Now?"

"I want to test something." Rowan kept his hand on her face, but hesitated. Fulminant or not, his power hadn't gotten more consistent over the months. It was erratic at best, and though he'd learned some subtlety with Kess, most Fulminancers wanted nothing to do with him. After all, no one would want to have their powers negated. Even Kess had complained occasionally.

But as Kess stared back at him with exhausted eyes, her face a searing heat against his hand, he began to understand. Maybe for Kess, the burden was too much. Her acceptance of her powers wasn't out of desire so much as a sense of duty.

He nodded, slowly. Kess closed her eyes, and he let that muffled shadow into his hand, heart thumping erratically. Usually he kept it completely at bay, refusing to use it at all except in emergencies. He wasn't sure if he had the finesse to do as Kess wanted without potentially hurting her, but she trusted him. That made it even more nerve-wracking.

He watched her expression carefully, ready to pull back if something seemed wrong. The tension left her face entirely, and Kess let out a shaky sigh, weaving slightly where she sat. Rowan held her for a moment longer, steadying her with his other hand on her shoulder, and noticed that her skin no longer seared against his hand.

Kess opened her eyes, smiling at him, her eyes tired but more peaceful than they had been before. "Overzealous that time," she said, words slightly slurred. "I'd use less with your lights if you want to use them again." Rowan scowled, taking away his hands to study them.

"And here I thought I was being careful," he replied. Kess shrugged, reaching for the glass of water on the table with her good arm.

"At this point, I don't care if you knock me out cold with it, as long as it works," she said between sips. Something lurked at the corner of Rowan's mind as he watched Kess finally eating contentedly, the difference in her disposition like night and day.

His powers had always snuffed Fulminancy out—that much he knew from interactions with his own family. But there was a different feeling with each person. His brothers had been similar to Kess—like dousing a torch. His mother had been another story entirely. Her Fulminancy was gentle, controlled, and delicate, and she'd always shrugged his curse off easily and without lingering effects—even when he was young and not fully aware of what he did.

"Kess," he said, something occurring to him. She tore off a piece of bread, helped partially by her dislocated arm, though she winced at the motion. "Is your Fulminancy still there? All of it?" he asked.

"Why would it—" Kess paused, chewing slowly, her eyes unfocused. Then she finished the roll, her eyes widening. "Rowan, what did you do? It's still there! All of it." She frowned. "But then, why do I feel so much better?"

"You don't have less of it?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, it's the same as before—and even though that thing out there took a huge chunk of it, everything still burned. I just—" She paused. "Do you think—"

"Maybe we've already found a form of transfer ourselves," Rowan murmured, glancing at the books. He'd stacked them up on a table in the corner of the room, but they seemed a little sparser than before. "Or the elements present in the original Seats persist better than we initially thought. I was talking about this with Claire earlier," he said. "If elements make up the building blocks of Fulminancy, then it's possible mine just negates yours."

Kess frowned. "But if it completely negated mine, wouldn't it deplete us both?" Rowan folded his arms together, thinking. Kess brought up a good point, but there was so little knowledge on the subject. As far as Rowan knew, he was the only one with this type of power, and even then, his family had cast him out for being a Dud. There was never any talk of his ability being Fulminancy wearing a different skin.

"Well, there's only one way to find out how it all works," Kess said, finishing her meal.

"How?" She met his eyes, hers serious.

"We test it until we figure something out."

"Test it," Rowan repeated. "On you?" Kess nodded.

"Who else? Rae's too attached to her Fulminancy, Claire might need to heal someone, and I don't think you'll find a lot of willing test subjects around here, especially if you're hoping to keep that whole thing under wraps. Which," she added, frowning, "seems like it might be a good idea with the way things are going."

Rowan searched her face for fear, but found none. He was rather uncomfortable with the whole idea, but Kess had a point. They would find out what they needed to faster with practical research. Still, there was one thing Kess hadn't thought of. "What if I drain you and you're needed for Seventh Seat business?" he asked.

Kess waved him off. "Rae can take care of it," she said, something distasteful in her expression. "And for the most part, my Fulminancy comes back fast. It's unlikely you'll put me in a situation where I'm too drained to do a job." She paused, looking out the window at the storm, her eyes distant. "And maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing, to miss some of those."

Rowan watched her, rotating his injured shoulder unconsciously. Arlette had mentioned these 'jobs' Kess spoke of—fights that sometimes involved the brutal murder of Blueblades. They were usually in the midst of some distasteful activity towards Downhill citizens, but even then, Rowan was fairly certain Kess wasn't a murderer. She killed to protect, as Rowan had done before. Still, he knew from experience that it didn't make it any easier. He shook his head, turning back to the topic at hand.

"Fine, but with one condition," he said. Kess cocked her head at him, curious. It was something she'd clearly picked up from Rae, and Rowan smiled at the mannerism. "No stoicism. I need to know how much I've taken away, how it makes you feel, if we're to do this right. We won't figure out anything with you pretending to be fine when you're not." Kess rolled her eyes at him, but she nodded.

"I'll try."

Rowan gave her a look, but it was the best he was going to get out of Kess. The woman was a storm of her own, and she made about as much sense as the tempest raging outside, in Rowan's estimation.

Kess's sharp eyes snapped suddenly to the door, and she held up a finger, motioning for Rowan to be quiet. That done, she got to her feet and padded over silently to the door as Rowan watched, curious. Kess placed her good hand on the knob and yanked the door open with all her might, a snap of Fulminancy adding to the strength of the action.

Someone swore, Claire tumbled into his room, and Kess burst out laughing.

"Spy better next time, you cloudspawned curse," Kess said, still laughing. She crouched in front of Claire, who gathered herself from the floor with little grace or dignity.

"I wouldn't have to spy if people stopped coming home with suspicious injuries," Claire snapped.

"You could just ask, you know," Kess said, getting to her feet. Claire froze momentarily before she mastered her expression back into a pout.

"Like you'd tell me anything."

"I might," Kess said airily.

Claire's swearing was cut off by a set of footsteps at the door—Liam's. The three of them turned towards the door, and the boy shuffled nervously, smiling a little at Kess.

"There's a visitor for Lord Rowan and Lady Kess," Liam said, and Rowan rolled his eyes at the official titles. "From the Uphill."