Free The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) by D.K. Holmberg Page B

even that was no longer. And she was never your family.” Della took a sharp breath. “Your family is this wonderful woman, Brusus down at the tavern, even Haern, though you struggle with admitting that you have a connection with him. They are your family, the ones that youhave chosen , and who have chosen you. That is who you have an obligation to, not the blood line that thought to abandon you long before you ever met them.”
    Rsiran stared at her, unblinking. “If that is true, I should have left Alyse. And I refuse to believe that would have been the right thing to do. Regardless of what you might think, there is something to the blood connection. I refuse to believe that it is irrelevant, something easily denied.”
    Della smiled at him. “But you had a connection with Alyse before. That is why she could be redeemed. Perhaps your father and mother, too, though I do not See them clearly. But Evaelyn… Evaelyn made her choice long ago, and you had no family obligation to her, to try to help redeem her.” She sighed. “As to what I hid from you, there are many things that I have needed to keep from you, but the fact that you—that we —are related, trust that I wasn’t even certain, not until only recently.”
    “What do you know about your brother?” he asked. “Why was he exiled?”
    “Not for the same reason as Evaelyn, if that is what you fear. His fault was one of compassion. He forgave too easily and wanted to help those who were exiled. In that way, I think that you would have gotten along well with him. Like you, he cared about his family. And when Evaelyn was banished, he thought he could find a way to redeem her. Danis was always able to see the good in people. But once someone is banished, the council does not forgive, and they do not forget. So when he went after Evaelyn, thinking that he could help her, and possibly find a way to bring her back to the city…” Della sighed. “It was the beginning of the end for our family.”
    Rsiran frowned. “I thought you are Elvraeth.”
    She nodded. “I am. Was. But we are not all part of the same family. Some of us descend from a different branch of the tree.”
    “Like me with smith blood.”
    Della shook her head. “Even that is different. With you, it is like you are a crossing of two different types of trees, a pairing that together is hardier than either alone would have been. The combination of smith blood and blood of the Watcher has been sought for years, and promised to come. I had never expected to see it.”
    “What makes him special?” Jessa asked.
    Della laughed. “I thought you would know the answer to that.”
    Jessa flushed. “Why do they all want him ?”
    “Because there are some on the council who have sought the crossing for years. They would control it, thinking that it would be the key to power. Those of the Forgotten would have wanted the same. But Venass… Venass wants only power. They do not care how they acquire it, only that if they believe that you have it, they will chase it. And you, Rsiran, have abilities that they have never seen before. That makes you desirable to them.”
    “We know all this,” Jessa said.
    “No. You know that Venass has chased Rsiran, but you do not understand why the pairing is unique, and why it must be protected. That is something that neither I nor the guild has shared with you yet.”
    Della made her way behind the counter and returned with a small stool and sat on it facing both Rsiran and Jessa. “The blood of the Watcher. It means the abilities that we often associate with Elaeavn. Abilities like Sight and Listening and Reading. These are the abilities that our people claimed were first given to us by the Great Watcher himself. Those on the council who know of the crystals believe they came from a time when our people first claimed the crystals. That holding the crystals was the reason that we gained our abilities. And having held one of the Great Crystals myself, I cannot