After Iris finished breakfast, Char helped her out to the living room. Kelnor and Rath had left the sofa open for them. Rath's blue eyes narrowed slightly when he saw how stiffly Iris was moving, but he didn't say anything. Nobody said anything. They needed to know what the mage - Micah - had done, but Char, for one, was not looking forward to hearing it.

"Sorry," Iris said after she settled on the sofa, as if she had any reason to apologize for her slow movements. "It takes a few days to recover."

The fairies brought another cup of stolen tea to her. Char made a mental note to ask around the barracks about it so he could replace it.

"Thanks," she said to them, taking a sip. "My voice gets better after a few days, too."

"So, the king's mage. Micah," Kelnor prompted her.

"Micah," she repeated with a heavy sigh. "He does talk a lot when he's confident, because he likes to brag about himself, and he likes to shock people and make them suffer with the things he says. I tried to keep him talking, and when I couldn't talk anymore, I tried to stay conscious to catch as much of it as possible."

"Conscious?" Rath asked, his brow furrowing.

"The extraction process isn't very pleasant." She took another sip of tea, her eyes downcast to the amber liquid. "I don't think he's actually a very powerful mage on his own, but he's very smart, and he's obsessed with getting more power. He's been studying how to extract magic from other sources since he was a child. His first human victim was his little sister."

"You're kidding," Rath choked out, his blue eyes wide with shock.

She shook her head. "He was the oldest child of three. Micah, Jonah, Alana. They were all mages, but Alana was too young to fight back, and she trusted him. Their parents caught him torturing her, so he killed them, too. Jonah escaped and came to Father John. And Micah kept experimenting, kept perfecting the process."

"Why didn't anybody stop him?" Kelnor asked angrily.

"He said himself that he's a master of deception and trickery. I'm sure his family never knew anything was off about him until that day. To most people, he's a powerful, dedicated mage. Only his victims know the truth, and they never escape. By the time he got to the magic school, he was so strong that nobody dared to question him."

"Makes sense, unfortunately," Kelnor said. "Which brings me to my next question. Why were you able to escape?"

"To tell you that, I have to explain the extraction process first. Without interruptions." She looked around at them all anxiously, and they nodded. Char steeled himself for what was coming next. She took another deep breath and closed her eyes.

"He learned from using his sister that permission and trust are key to making the process go smoother. So, he finds a way to get that from the subject before he starts. He coaxes them into drinking a potion that immobilizes them and keeps them alive. Without that potion, they would die instantly. He straps them down on a table and starts the extraction. It's extremely painful. If there's a lot of magic, he has to stop before they pass out, give them time to recover, and then do it again, as many times as needed to get all the magic. If not, he keeps going until he kills them."

She stopped, opening her eyes to meet the three pairs of flashing eyes around the living room. "That's what he did to Jonah. He said it took about thirty minutes to extract his magic and kill him. Then he took Jonah's place, so Char and I would trust him. That first night, after I fell asleep, he came to my room and cast a spell on me. It allowed me to be aware of his presence, but unable to wake up, and it made me sick in the morning. Then he came back as Jonah, and I was terrified of being left alone, so I basically begged him to take me with him to his study. He had to carry me there because I was so weak, and he gave me the potion, telling me it was something to make me feel better. So I drank it, and that was it. Permission and trust."

"Monster," Char muttered angrily.

She nodded. "He revealed himself and told me what was going on while he strapped me down, and then he started. I lasted for about an hour, and then he took me back to my room and left me with the fairies to recover until he came back to do it again. And I had to keep giving him permission and trust, or he would kill the fairies."

"How many times did he do that?" Kelnor asked, his voice dangerously low.

"Three times. The second day; a week later, right after Char's first visit; and last night."

"The night before last," Char corrected dourly.

"The night before last," Iris repeated. "I...lose track of time. But that time was different because I made him angry."

"Heard about that from the second team," Kelnor said quietly.

"That wasn't supposed to happen," Iris said, dropping her gaze to her tea again. "Char already knows this, but I can hear the voices of the past bearers of the amulet. They call to me during the extraction process, and when I focus on them, they pull me out of it. Out of my body. They talk to me and teach me until the extraction is done, and then they bring me back. After the second session, I tried to reach them on my own, without the torture, and I found out I could do it. So I started practicing at night."

"To fight Micah?" Rath asked.

She shook her head. "The key isn't defeating him directly. It's restoring the amulet to the original crystal it was cut out of. I've been looking for that crystal. That's what I was doing when I came across that battle, and I knew I wasn't ready to face Micah, but I couldn't let him use my magic to hurt others. So I took some of it back, but it wasn't enough. The past bearers had to pull me out of the fight before he hurt me too badly. When I got back to the tower, I made the fairies leave. And when he got back...I found out how much worse it is without permission and trust. That's why it was different. The past bearers couldn't pull me out that time."

She took another sip of tea, silence echoing throughout the room. Char finally broke it.

"But you were still fighting when I came. I couldn't have gotten us out of there without you."

"I was still awake," she replied quietly. "He was too angry to talk beforehand, but he was talking a lot afterwards."

"But-"

"The amulet doesn't work the way he thinks it does," she interrupted, looking up to meet Char's eyes. "It's not just me using it, and it can prompt me to use it without my knowing."

"What about the original crystal?" Kelnor asked. "You were saying that's the key. What does that mean?"

"It's a bit hard to explain," she said slowly. "Micah said there's a legend about the amulet being cut from a massive magical crystal a thousand years ago, but he doesn't believe that crystal exists. It does, though, and I get the sense that everything is wrong, out of balance, because the amulet has been away from the crystal for too long. Bringing them back together will heal the land, fixing the weird weather and restoring magic to what it should be - a useful tool, not an overpowering weapon."

"But you don't know where it is."

Her brown eyes met his evenly. "I do, actually. It's in the throne room of the king's castle."

Rath exhaled loudly. "Well, that's a problem."

"And there's something else," Iris said. "The real reason for this war. Micah started it to gain control of the dragons. After he finishes with me, he plans to use my power to find out how he can extract magic from dragons. His current process doesn't work on them. It just kills them right away. That's part of why he wanted Char to continue visiting me, other than holding Char over my head to keep me in line. He knew I wouldn't be able to hide what was happening for long, and when Char found out, Micah was going to capture him for his experiments."

"That does change things," Kelnor said slowly. He sighed heavily and stood up. "Time for me to tell the powers that be what's going on. Maybe, just maybe, we can negotiate a truce with the humans so we can focus on bringing Micah down, although I doubt it. More likely, we'll have to come up with a covert operation to get you into the human castle."

"Kelnor-" Char started, but Kelnor held his hand up to stop him.

"It's all theory and conjecture right now. You kids relax and let me do the heavy lifting. I'll let you know as soon as I figure something out."

Iris nodded. "Thank you."

"Thank you," he replied. "You're a tough little lady. I've been scratching my head for weeks now, trying to figure out what this whole war was about, and now I know it's all some power-hungry maniac pulling the strings from the background. Char, Rath, keep an eye on her."

"Yes, sir," they replied in unison.