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Outside, in the street, I heard voices They seemed far away, another lifetime from this moment

When I was finished at last, I studied the e at it It was beautifully carved; the as n A brilliantly intricate design

I sighed, running er over its lovely, ornate surfaceand that hen the world around me shivered My vision blurred, and for an instant I are of nothing but the sensation beneath ain, stroking the details of the carving, feeling roove as I realized that this was no ordinary design

This was a language A tactile language

And it spoke toit toerratically within my chest I suddenly wanted to take back that siht brush of my skin over the surface of the mended box I wanted to unlearn what I’d just discovered

Because it wasn’t just an eraph, these men who looked so much like my father, and like myself

It was a seal A crest

Belonging to a long-banished royal fa froht on top of me

I was almost too stunned by the disturbance to breathe, let alone acknowledge that we--ertip felt as though it had been blistered by the fla worse that had burned it Knowledge of so that should have remained hidden, buried beneath floorboards I’d walked upon ht Of that I was almost certain

My father was a descendant of the throne The original throne

And that elina and I

The first female children, wasn’t that what Xander had told ain, I cursed the fact that the lock had been broken We were trapped in here, and I juelse elina safe

Behind my back, I clutched the iron fireplace poker that I’d kept close for exactly this purpose I was prepared for anything, I tried to convince ht my way out of here

But as it turned out, I was not at all prepared to face the person who stood inside the doorway, filling out the fraraphs and papers strewn aboutto the crest atop the poorly repaired box Then his eyes landed onin the defeated expression onlimply at my side