The Aspect of Essence (The Aelfyn Archives, #1)

by Samantha Amstutz

Meandering through the chambers in search of the bath, Jassyn opened a door to discover a study. Detailed maps of the four mortal realms covered each of the expansive walls. Frowning but cautiously curious, he ventured farther into the office. Easels draped with sheets of paper bordered the perimeter of the room. Jassyn wandered to a stand and studied the parchment, which was covered in writing rather than paint. The words appeared to be family names. Human names arranged in trees. That makes no sense. Did these chambers belong to Elashor’s sire? Fynlas Kovaer had disappeared in a wraith attack when Jassyn was young. Fynlas was an archivist, and Elashor always kept that fact about his sire quiet, as if being related to a historian embarrassed him. The general opted to take his mother’s name, despite Fynlas being a confidant to King Galaeryn. And we’re all aware of how close Elashor is to the king.

It was his. Is this…my human line? Jassyn swallowed a disgusted feeling, jerking his attention away from the scores of names below his, written in a different hand. He’d never attempted to discover the offspring he sired even though he assumed a few were at Centarya. Why would an elf trace my mortal lineage? How had Fynlas tracked it? His ancestral tree covered thirty-two generations, spanning all the way back to the apparent arrival of the Aelfyn, judging from the years. Jassyn studied the chart, thoughts wavering like a mirage. What does it mean? Frantic, he dashed to the other easels in the room and scrutinized the genealogies, paying attention to the names close to the bottom of the sheets. He recognized more than half. The circled names belonged to those forced into servitude to the realm, bound with breeding contracts like him. He struggled to grasp why these specific human families had been traced throughout the years. His mother’s line was why the elves wanted him, not his mortal sire’s. Jassyn wobbled on his feet, the blood draining from his head. Was I produced…intentionally? Along with these other people?

Rifling through a tome, Jassyn paused and flipped back the page. His gaze landed on an image depicting a five-pointed star. The ink was so faded, it was difficult for him to decipher. An illustration accompanied each point to the shape. Elements. Fire. Water. Earth. Wind. Lightning. Shamans. Fynlas traced the ancestry of human lines possessing the ancient power. And somehow the elves had curated them, binding those lines to the realm, breeding more offspring. Whirling around, Jassyn scanned the scattered research. Elemental powers don’t exist. Not anymore. The magic had gone extinct, suffering the same fate as the druids and dragons. Surely we would’ve seen evidence by now if humans could manipulate such power. After disturbing the books, Jassyn noticed the top of another family tree buried on the desk. Retrieving the paper, he blinked upon reading the name at the bottom. The blood in his veins chilled like an arctic wind howled through him. It was Serenna’s.

But Velinya’s reaction had Serenna rolling her eyes. “Please tell me you don’t fancy my father.” “I definitely fancy your father.” Velinya straightened her hair and went so far as to loosen the laces of her bodice. “You’re probably not the person I should tell where I’d let him chisel me with that jaw. I can’t decide if I prefer the points of his ears or the width of his shoulders.” Serenna gaped at her friend as a disturbed feeling scratched at her skull. “Maybe if you keep staring like a stargazer, you’ll figure it out,” Serenna snapped as he approached, trying to erase the unsettling images Velinya had planted in her head.

They defs fxked. Back b4 they left her home.

He tried to orchestrate Jassyn and me to…? But why didn’t Jassyn mention that my father offered him a way out of his contracts? Serenna saw the destructive effect the duties had on him. And yet Jassyn had never coerced her into it. He even pushed her away as soon as she showed interest when they met. He’s too honorable. Far more than the male in front of her. An angry fissure cracked inside of her. What gave her father—or any elf—the right to treat the elven-blooded in such a way? They had stripped him of all reasonable choices and subjected Jassyn to injustice his whole life. “If Jassyn is important to you, it shouldn’t be too much to ask,” Elashor said, his voice edged in steel. “He has the modesty of a human, so you two have something in common. But I’m sure with a little convincing, you could change his mind.” His knuckles tightened around the railing. The wood creaked under his grip. “You should have been providing my line with heirs by now, but nothing has gone the way I intended for you.” His voice dropped to a mutter. “At least I secured your sister an acceptable match.”

His face remained frozen, white with anger, as Serenna continued her tirade. “Well, you know what? Maybe I’ll do what my sire wants. He agreed to have Jassyn released from his contracts. That’s more than I should expect from you.” Serenna spoke so fast, she could hardly breathe, honing each of her words with scathing contempt. She didn’t even struggle in her bindings. She let her magic go. Her Essence was nothing compared to his anyway. “All I have to do is to be a good little half-breed and fuck Jassyn to produce an offspring. Isn’t that what you elves—” Vesryn’s power exploded.

She didn’t know how much time passed while Vesryn generated an Essence-fueled storm, splitting the air. His magic eventually flickered and then sputtered as if his fury had run its course. Panting and drawing in ragged breaths, his wild eyes met hers. Vesryn went rigid, blinking rapidly, his awareness refocusing. Serenna had no idea what he was feeling, but she watched shock shift his features as he stared at her. Serenna swallowed, waiting for the dust to settle before she dared to move. When she released her magic, the encircling shield disappeared. Her eyes darted around the empty yard. Everyone else had fled the prince’s frenzied expulsion of power. She took a steadying breath. Another. I need to get out of here. Locking her jaw, Serenna spun on her heel, fleeing toward her residence hall. Vesryn dashed to her side, slicing through the space between them. He snatched her arm. Skidding to a halt, Serenna struggled in his grasp. “What are you doing? Let go!” “No.” Vesryn’s voice carried the weight of a command. “We’re going to talk.” Serenna’s skin chilled, unease clashing inside her head. She couldn’t sense his intentions. “We have nothing more to speak about.” She was in no mood to continue her verbal dueling with the prince. “I’m. Done.”

He perceived the bond-holder significantly closer in the east. Not at the elves’ military base. Gallivanting across the fucking continent again. Did they feel his presence yet? Lykor drew on knowledge of the bond’s intricacies. The other presence had shared such a connection before his access to Essence was first manipulated—before Lykor emerged.

Lykor’s eyes narrowed on Kal chewing the ring centered in his lip. “What’s going on here could be part of their plan to search for the slumbering elemental power,” Kal continued, moving to twist a stud in his brow. “We have no idea. Have you discussed this with him? Do you really think Aesar would risk—” Lykor’s wrath exploded, violent like a volcanic eruption. He would punish the blatant disregard of his command to never invoke the fallen prince’s name. Seizing Kal’s throat, Lykor drove him to the brink of the roof. As if summoned, Aesar stirred in the back of his mind.

It didn’t surprise him there was an absence of documented research pertaining to coercion. But that makes sense since the king is the only one who can manipulate telepathy to such an extent and exert that level of control over others. Jassyn shifted his leathers to scratch the skin on his shoulder that twinged from the thought. The monarch’s heightened abilities only reinforced his status as the ruler of the realm. But what he couldn’t understand was why the magnitude of the king’s power increased over time. That’s not how Essence works. Wells can be stretched to accommodate a greater depth of magic to draw from, but a larger reservoir doesn’t augment magical strength or aptitude—strength is typically relative to the number of abilities we have. The king’s aura was simply more powerful each instance Jassyn was in his presence. As few as those were. I’ll just have to add this to the list of unsolved mysteries.

Does he take other elves abilities making them wraiths? Did Aesar find out and thats why his father fucked with his essence making him part wraith

Jassyn emitted a self-deprecating scoff. She’s manipulating me with knowledge, and I’m desperate enough to find out more. Corrosive slime gurgled in his gut. He’d agreed to her terms. It doesn’t matter. I won’t remember. Maybe I’ll find something useful in those volumes. Judging from the extensive research Fynlas had left behind, there were more secrets for him to uncover about the humans’ ancestries and shaman lines. What is the council up to? Does Vesryn know? Shaking the unsettled feeling off his shoulders, Jassyn opened another book. The contents pertained to a study of an elf who had more than one sense of self and expressed more than ten distinct identities and personalities. Intriguing. But not quite a step in the right direction for coercion.

Like Aesar and Lykor

Jassyn rose from his seat. His limbs shook, expelling an echo of his outrage. Forcibly unclenching his hand, he let the document tumble to the floor. Discarding it. Bracing his knuckles on his desk, Jassyn leaned forward. He saw red, his vision igniting with a wild, incandescent rage. He had no desire to engage in whatever game the prince devised. “So…what exactly?” Jassyn’s chest heaved with disbelief. “I’m to service you now?” Vesryn’s eyes widened before the color drained from his face. He opened his mouth, but Jassyn shoved words between them first. His voice wavered with an unrecognizable hostility. “You claimed exclusive rights to me.” Perhaps Serenna’s statement about his submissiveness haunted him, or perhaps the remnants of that scarlet Stardust made him erratic. Either way, something reinforced him, snapping his composure like an oar breaking in half. Uncalled, Jassyn’s magic erupted. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d lost control. It didn’t matter—the Essence shimmering around him was useless. Just like everything else about him. Jassyn lunged across his desk. Seizing Vesryn’s leathers, he hauled his cousin toward him.

Vesryn reared back. “Nothing. I’m not requiring anything of you.” Jassyn blinked. “Then—” “Your life doesn’t belong to the realm anymore. Do with it what you will.” Vesryn gave a dismissive wave, like he didn’t just reconstruct Jassyn’s reality. Jassyn dropped into his chair, his legs buckling. Bracing his elbows on the desk, he drew his fingers through his hair. His throat closed around the air lodged in his chest. Engulfed with a spectrum of overwhelming emotions, he didn’t even know how to process the moment. He went numb, feeling as if he were treading on ice, threatening to shatter.

“Stars, you weren’t even of age when that female who calls herself your mother drew up those first contracts.” Vesryn shook his head and traced a spade-shaped leaf dangling from one of his vining plants. “I let it happen when I should’ve protected you instead. I just wanted to fix something for once. I…” The prince trailed off. “I’m sorry I failed you for so long.” Jassyn blinked back the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He rearranged the quills Vesryn had disrupted, putting them in order to distract himself from the tight feeling in his throat. Why now? Jassyn had spent his entire adolescence looking up to his cousin only to receive disappointment. Perhaps this was Vesryn’s way of rebalancing the scales. Jassyn couldn’t think of a more significant gesture that would’ve improved his circumstances. Has living with us at Centarya opened his eyes? Jassyn wasn’t quite ready for one benevolent deed to erase eighty years of harassment, but the prince had chosen a side. And he picked me over the realm?