“Did you find the Well?”

“No, but I think I could. I know where it is,” she said. “The aqueducts that serve the reservoirs, they all come together out in the desert. All I’d have to do is follow them. But the barrier…”

“Tell me about it.”

She gestured uselessly, her hand painting nonsense in the air. “It felt like hitting a wall—not quite like the Curse, and even stronger. I couldn’t cross it, couldn’t even see beyond it. When I tried, the Curse punished me. It wouldn’t let me pass.”

He frowned. “I’ve never heard of anything like that. I don’t know why anything like that would happen.”

“I don’t, either,” she said, but she was groping for an idea on the edge of her mind, one that hadn’t quite taken shape yet. If the Highest were the ones who had stolen control of the Well, and there was some magical barrier keeping her away from it, then…

He looked at her expectantly and finally prompted, “What?”

“I don’t know.” She glowered as the Curse ripped it from her. “I almost had it, but…I think it had to do with the War, and the Closest, and the Curse. It felt like I had been ordered not to cross that barrier and was fighting against it.”

Lord Elan considered that for a moment, then nodded. “During the War, that might have made sense. If the Closest were trying to steal control of the Well, of course my ancestors would have found a way to keep them away from it.”

She examined Lord Elan for a moment, but it didn’t seem like he was lying. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to tell—she had never needed to consider if someone was telling her the truth before. Anything coming from the Avowed was an order; anything coming from the Closest could only be honest. It sounded as if Lord Elan really believed the Highest had crafted the Well.

But they hadn’t, so they weren’t trying to keep control of it with that barrier.

“You look thoughtful,” Lord Elan said.

“I’m trying to figure it out,” Jae said when he looked at her expectantly.

“How to get past it?”

She shook her head and was forced to admit the truth: “Where the barrier really came from.”

“You don’t think it was the Highest?”

“I know it was the Highest,” she said carefully, measured.

“Then…what?”

It was maddening to have him ask her so many questions, pull the truth out of her no matter how hard she tried to twist her words, and though she tried to bite her tongue, the Curse pulled from her, “I’m trying to figure out why the Highest created it, when they didn’t craft the Well, weren’t trying to protect it from the Closest.”

Elan laughed. “What?”

Helpless, Jae repeated herself. “The Highest didn’t craft the Well. The Closest did. But they weren’t called that yet.”

His laughter faded, leaving him staring at her in disbelief. “That’s madness. That’s even more ridiculous than a Closest with magic!”

“I’m cursed,” she reminded him, the words bitter in her mouth. “It’s the truth.”

“You’re wrong.” Disbelief gave way to anger, his voice going low. “My ancestors crafted the Well. Even a Closest must know that.”

She didn’t answer—she didn’t dare contradict him, not when he was glaring like that. But anger sparked in her chest, because she knew. Everything she’d seen, the way her mind had opened to magic, everything only made sense if she was right and the Closest had crafted the Well. Which meant the Highest had started a war over it.

Daring and angry, she looked up and met his gaze.

He clenched a fist and then let it go again, his hand still tense. “My ancestors built the Well, and saved this world—including your traitorous caste. Without them, none of us would be here. You would not be here to be so—so ungrateful. I’ve made allowances for your rudeness, I’ve shown you every kindness. And this is how you repay me, with—”

“If you don’t like the truth I’m telling, that’s your own cursed problem,” Jae snapped, her anger spilling out like water from the mug. “I know what I’ve seen, and I saw my ancestors crafting the Well, and defending it. All I know for certain about your ancestors is that they cursed me—they cursed us, and now you’re leaving us all for dead.”

She didn’t bother to hide her sneer, too angry to care what he did to her for it, because she knew the truth. The Closest’s ancestors, the Wellspring mages, had crafted the Well, and it was their bloodlines that kept its magic bound. If their descendants died out, the Well would die with them. Abandoning Closest to die at Aredann and other estates would weaken the Well, not strengthen it, until it went entirely dry. The Highest’s bloodthirsty lies would finally be revealed when they did nothing to save the Well or the world, because there was nothing they could do. Killing the Closest cursed the whole world.

Lord Elan could punish her. He could kill her. But he couldn’t change that fact.

“I ought to— I ought to—” he sputtered. “I don’t know why I bothered trying to reason with you. You never deserved a moment of my time.”

She glared right back at him. She didn’t want a moment of his time. She only wanted him to leave, to take the Avowed with him. Elemental energy sparked around her, brilliant and flashing. She didn’t know what she’d do with it if he truly threatened her. If she tried to fight back, the Curse would crush her—but she’d rather take the pain of fighting than the hopeless, endless pain of obedience.

But all Lord Elan said was “Get out.”

For a change, she didn’t wait for a pulse of pain from the Curse to remind her that it was an order. She turned and strode out, slamming the door behind her.

Jae was surprised the next morning when she didn’t receive any new instructions from Firran. She didn’t want to go anywhere near Lord Elan and had half expected him to order her back to her grunt work in the garden, but maybe he was so far above her that he didn’t even care that she’d snapped at him. Or maybe he wanted her under even closer control, now that she’d shown she wouldn’t just give him everything he wanted, swallow all of his lies.

Either way, she still woke before dawn to take a quick look outdoors with Gali, and then to set about waking the Avowed. Jae shuddered her way through the task of waking Lady Shirrad and then the minor Avowed, like her advisor, Lord Hannim, and then Lord Rannith. The sight of him on his sleeping mat made her even more anxious, and she quaked as she retreated toward the master chambers.