Nothing

"Maybe it was her first name not a family one." You say as you put down the last book in your column. Clare was still halfway through one of her own on the other side of the table. Her belly was still a bit distended from all the cum she'd rode out of you but after the fifth book you both realised that fucking through the research, while a wonderful idea, did not work quite so well in practice. She'd actually reached for a book to for clean up but your look of sacrilege made her stop and pout at you for an hour or so. That was three hours ago.

"Please tell me you haven't just been checking for last names." Clare said, dragging her head away from the book to look at you with eye's of the soul on edge.

"No, I've been checking everything, even the occasional nickname that makes it way into these books." You rub your face and yawn blinking away the water it made in your eyes. "Are you sure she's a noble?" She didn't answer, just gave you a flat stare. "Yeah I know, dumb question." You sigh, there is no way Eve wasn't a noble, she's got the attitude, mannerism and education for it. You looked at the remaining books on the shelves. "Given what happened to her, maybe the name was just wiped from history." It was a thought you'd been considering after book number eight.

"It's not just that." She stood up and stretched. "I told you what it would take to **** a wraith."

"A few hundred lives being burned up."

"Yeah. Someone to warrant that mean someone to make a not of. Even if the family had been wipe you'd notice it." She pointed to the pages filled with names. "Family names are passed down through women." She pointed at a marriage and the changed names of the man to the new family. "I don't care how you try to erase someone, genealogist are the most anally obsessive people that have and will every exist they would never not detail a marriage and we know that children were born. Even if her family had immediately been removed from nobility you'd see it in the families they been married to."

"Maybe she's older that five centuries." You say grabbing another book. This one about the family related to history royalty. "Or maybe even as a noble she just wasn't that higher rank, maybe she was the first to have gotten her title." You mused as you started scanning names.

"Or she was a lot higher ranked than we assumed." As the words left her mouth you both stop reading and look at each other. "She does have some very confident opinions on how royalty should exist."

"And she didn't even bat an eye at verbal sparring with Aurora." You both looked back at the columns. "Surely you couldn't erase a royal family." You looked at the books you'd been going over, there were references to the queen constantly, every time a marriage happened the ruling queen was mentioned as approving or disapproving.

"Higher." Clare said looking further down the column. "That red colour." She started walking down the shelves to the end and pulled out a thick faded book that might have once been red. She brings to the table and sets it down. You feel your skin crawl looking at it but when you check for magic you see nothing.

You look at the cover and can't read it. "What language is that."

"Hey Christopher." You look up to see Clare eye the book. "I think we should put this away."

"Why?"

"Watch my aura." She moved her hand to the book, her aura extending beyond into it. When she pulled her hand away her aura had a cut out part but it returned to it's normal shape before you could identify the pattern.

"Something inside it is absorbing cast off magic." You guess looking at it from different angles to try and see the enchantment.

"No, absorbing wouldn't cut it off, it destroyed my aura. Like your fall apart spell but ore focused."

"Well," you looked up at Clare, "now I have to open it." You simply cannot let this go by the way side.

"Fine but," she takes a few steps back, "It could be a bomb."

You hand had been on the cover but stopped. "This seems like a lot of effort if we are wrong. Plus why even make it if you put a bomb in it. It's a genealogy, people were gonna wanna look at it." You don't open it however, "It's like very unlikely it's a bomb." Clare takes another step back. "Your confidence is overwhelming." You let out a sharp breath and activate all the magic you can. If it is a bomb you should be able to out run it.

It doesn't blow up or detonate. It is just like every other book so far, a list of names, dates and the relations, well you assume, you can't ready any of this. Clare approaches cautiously. "Well that is, underwhelming." She motioned for you to start flicking through the pages so she must be able to read it. "I was kinda hoping they'd be more." You kept flicking waiting for her to react. You hadn't found the page that had the enchantment on it yet. "Maybe I'm-"

The cut off was caused by the page you'd opened. You couldn't read any of it but you could see the enchantment. It hurt your eyes. Each letter had inscribed lines of magic so thin you hadn't even thought it was possible. You focused as best you could on one letter but couldn't even count the lines there were so many, and focusing let you see that there were even more lines entwined. "What does it say?"

"What does what say?" Clare asked looking at the page then at you. "Oh hang on, looking at it through my aura, that's a clear bit of magic." You watched as her aura receded until totally inside her. She looked at the page and blinked clicking her tongue. "No mention of her." She read a bit more. "Ah this is the ancestry of the first kingdom, no wonder it's covered like this. This is when **** contracts were being created and a way to ensure your servant were loyal was to make them sign a condition that sealed all of their magic. Only people sealed magic thought a contract can read it which means if there was, say, an indiscretion in who got whom pregnant, only people who can read this are those with absolute loyalty."

"Oh," you looked at page feeling disappointed. "So this was just a waste of our day?"

"Seems like it." Clare sighed and rubbed her neck. "Well at least I got to ride you for while." She patted her belly happily. "Wanna try one more or just go home."

You give her a flat stare. "Well now we have to check on more don't we." You close the book and look at the shelves. "I'm if we don't then the book we are looking for is going to be stolen or destroyed or something."

"You're paranoid." Clare said as she also looked at the books. "But probably right. Any book calling out to you."

You open your mouth to say no when you closed it and looked at the books. "It can't be that simple. Thetia." As you say the name you hear a fluttering among the shelves. You look at Clare. "Ok now we have officially wasted our time. Thetia." There was another flutter near the end of the shelves and you walked down to it. "Thetia." The dust on one of the books shook free slightly. "Go it." You pulled the book out. "Can't read it." You said walking over to the desk and plunking it down.

"Ah, I wasn't thinking high enough." Clare said. "Congrats Christopher, you're fucking an Empress of well everything. No wonder they made her a wraith, probably the only way they could think of keeping her down."

"What?"

She pointed at the books title. "In glorious service of Thetia, Empress of Calitian, daughter of Ruten, genealogy of the year twenty six to two hundred and twenty of her rein."

"Ok not as much of an explanation as I was hoping." Ruten rang a bell in your head but you couldn't remember what for. Must have been something from years ago.

"It means out dear Eve was born and raised in magical well, you know the things that turned trees into the fully sentient elves just to use magic. Born and raised. That two hundred year period, that was her rein. Thankfully it does confirm one thing, being a wraith and then merging with Delilah made her a lot weaker."

"Ok, sooooo, what now?"

"That's it. I know who she was, I doubt she'll go full conqueror any time soon." She stretches and looks at you. "Think Asune's carriage is still waiting for us?"

"Yeah no, spill what you are obviously keeping from me." You said crossing your arms.

Clare sighed and looked a bit unsure. "Not sure I can. Ok I can't but that isn't because of Eve or you, it's because of my sister. Look you'll probably be able to figure everything if you put in the work, and I," she got a debating look on her face, "maybe kinda sorta can help you but, this is one of those Goddess level things, if I explain and my sister finds out I explained she'd probably consider it cheating and bitch out at me. Just for now, Eve's fine, she might at some point decide that her empire was better than the current scattered kingdoms but I doubt she'll do that for at least a century or so. Oh right, ah she might be harder to kill that you. You can heal as soon as you are hurt because you understand how your body is supposed to go together, she is more a 'fuck off reality I say if I died' type deal." The lack of metaphor in her explanation was more concerning than her attempts at setting you at ease. "You're a debate with existence, she's a self imposed fact on it."

"You checked my aura didn't you." You raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm really not trying to make you worried just wasn't expecting the connection. Kinda threw me for a moment. So about Asune's carriage."

You eyed her for a moment longer but knew you weren't getting anymore out of her. "Let's go see, not like we're unable to get back home in a few minutes even without it." You say with a shrug. Clare grabs the book about Eve and puts it back where you found it. The other books are left stacked on the table. The women would have better ability to put them back in order than you and Clare could so you don't feel bad about the mess.

Making your way out Clare nods at the women who bowed in response. Outside it was turning night and Asune's carriage still waiting for you, driver and all. You both climb into it and it starts rolling along to the academy at Clare words. You feel a bit bad making them wait for you but Clare rolls her eyes at you and points out he is not paid by the fare. It's a fair point.

When you get to the academy you both head to the dinning hall for food. Clare doesn't have a stone but you don't think that would stop her from getting a plate. Sadly there is no food on offer. If you are early or late to dinner you aren't sure since there are people around but they don't look recently fed. You could wait around for dinner, go for a bath or even go to Anastasia's estate for dinner, maybe even see Eve and possibly ask some questions, or you could try and remember that thing about Ruten, it feels like something you encountered earlier so you should be able to figure it out if you think back.

*****

Let me know if anyone remembers the detail about Ruten by the way.