A Court of Chaos and Coral (Amren x Varian)

Chapter 5: Varian

The song of the chapter is:
Circles - Post Malone

The Dawn Palace proudly flaunted an enormous library, featuring works from Thesan's personal collection.  Robin had lead Varian to it silently, with a scowl. Varian knew better than to inquire about the males constant state of annoyance, but he was curious. It must have had something to do with his missing feathers. He had know Robin before he lost his feathers, and he had been such a happy male. Whatever caused the bitterness stemmed from under the mountain, for certain.

"You may access Thesans personal collection, it is on the top level. It is warded, do not try to let anyone else in." 

"Wouldn't dream of it." Varian chuckled. Robin fixed him with a hard stare. 

"You asked for medical records and textbooks, which you will find on the second level. The banned books are on Thesans level. Do not mess anything up." He hesitated. "Whatever you and Amren are up to, if you cause any problems for my mate, I will flay you." His face was completely serious.

Varian smiled comfortingly. "Rest assured, we mean now harm."

"Good." Robins face softened, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "You and I both know something is wrong with Eris. I take it you have some idea of what's happened, and that is why you are here?"

Varian nodded.

"If you need anything, come to me. No one else needs to know the the High Lord of Autumn is about to die. Don't disturb Thesan. He's in his office, doing his own research."

Varian raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care? Why do you want to help, it's not your job."

Robin smirked. "I have my reasons, Prince."

Varian didn't miss the way he looked him up and down, and he didn't notice the way he looked through his lashes when he spoke to him. 

He patted the Peregryns shoulder gently as he walked away. "You're married, Robin." But the corner of his mouth kicked up.

"Eh, I don't think Thesan would mind." Robin gave him a quick wink as he began to walk away. "Remember, come to me!"

~

Many hours had passed of flicking through medical records, slowly making his way through the stacks, slowly approaching Thesans section. The library was relatively quiet, except for a group of young apprentices of Thesans, probably studying for some test. They looked about that age.

"They like you." Varian leapt out of his skin, dropping the copy of A Study of Curses and Genetic Mutations in Xian on his foot.

Nesta stared at him, unblinking, expressionless. 

"What the hell, Nesta!" He cursed as he lent down to retrieve the book. 

"Hello, Varian." She looked him up and down. "What are you doing?"

Varian cleared his throat. He had never been a good liar, a curse that had got him in much more trouble than it should have. "Reading."

"Hhm." She walked a little closer. "I ran into Amren earlier."

He raised his eyebrows. "Nice. Love it when that happens." He slid the book back onto the shelf and turned to Nesta. "What do you want, Nesta? You have clearly sought me out, which you never do. I know you aren't here to borrow a book, we all saw how many you bought, and no one reads that fast."

Nesta worked her jaw. "She told me what's going to happen to Eris."

He shifted on his feet. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid, Varian, it isn't your colour." She scoffed.

Varian glanced over at the table of students, who were, in fact, eavesdropping. Nesta gestured to the underneath of one of the spiral staircases to the mezzanines. The fit was tight, just tight enough that no one could see them.

"What are you so angry about, anyway?" He snapped.

"She isn't going to tell Azriel! And I'm angry with you because you agreed with her! Don't you think he deserves to know?"

"What do you want her to do, tell Azriel that he is about to witness his mate die a death so brutal it has only happened once in the history of Prythian?"

"He deserves to know!" She cried. 

"No. He deserves to spend his mates last moments without being scared. And anyway, what do you think I'm doing here? I'm not here for fun, this shit is disgusting."

Nesta gave him a puzzled look. 

"I'm trying to find a cure, Nesta!"

"How would there be a cure to this? Amren told me about Caramie. She died, you stupid prince, and she took out half the city with her. The best healers in Summer couldn't figure out what caused it."

"How hard do you really think they tried? Caramie was an anomaly. Hardly anyone has ever heard of her. After they gave up the first time, no one ever went back to it. No one needed to find out what happened."

"What, do you think you're smarter than hundreds of healers? You might have had a royal education, but I'm sorry Varian, you aren't much more than a pretty face!"

"First of, rude, second of, I have a theory. Now that you are here, you might as well help me."

Nesta bared her teeth, but relented. "Fine."

~

"What is your theory, anyway? You still haven't told me."

Varian ignored her, staring at the spell history textbook in front of him.

"Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall." Nesta scowled. 

"Shut up, Nesta, and I'll explain."

She mimed zipping her lips.

"Thank you." Varian leaned back in his chair. "Before she fell into the coma, Caramie was stabbed in the shoulder by a basic knife. Supposedly, the stab wound was what sent her into a coma, but that doesn't make any sense. I've seen tons of people get stabbed in the shoulder and pull the knife right out. So I thought, what if there was poison on the knife?"

Nesta furrowed her eyebrows. "Surely the healers would have found poison in her system, though."

"That's what I thought. And anyway, Eris had no trace on poison in his system. So, I thought- do you know anything about witches?"

Nesta smirked slightly. "I did my research after I was called one."

Varian raised his eyebrows. "A lot to unpack there, but anyway... Witches have been extinct for thousands of years. But, when they were alive, they had it out for the Fae. They thought they were greedy, for keeping all the magick to themselves."

"So they decided to punish the Fae for it..." Nesta sat up straight. "They cursed a knife to give any Fae so much power that it killed them. Caramie was stabbed with it, and after, when the knife disappeared, Beron came into contact with it, kept it for his own without knowing what it was, and used it to fight off Eris!"

"Yes! Yes, that's it!" Varian could have laughed. "Gods, a curse that significant would have been insanely hard to conjure..."

"Y'know, they never worked out were the witches went." Nesta grinned. "We may have just solved the biggest mystery of our time."

Varian rocked back in his chair in relief. "Now we just have to find a way to stop the curse."