Quies read the words on the cover of the book, which was written seemingly haphazardly.
"General Applications of Blood Manipulation"
Quies froze. Wasn't this what he had been looking for? Well, not actively looking for, but it was something that would've been extremely useful to him due to the scant knowledge of bloodrend in the world. He caressed the leather-like cover and the paper square for the title. Rubbing the accumulated dust at the top edge of the cover, he opened the book to its first page.
'How interesting is it that I just so happen to find a book about a forbidden attunement in my very own home.'
The first few pages of the book followed the standards of scientific and nonfiction literature, with a title page and a table of contents. However, this book was incomplete. Quies came to that conclusion after noticing an empty page, which he would've assumed to be the page with the publisher's information and all of that jargon. However, the table of contents was also only half filled out. Numbers sequencing from one through four had headings accompanying them, but the rest of the numbers up to ten were blank.
Quies sighed under his breath.
'Well, knowledge is still knowledge, at least… Now why the depths would this book be here in the first place?'
That was a valid question. The only attunement user he knew in his family was his father. His father practiced galebreathing as a part of his work in the Etrean army. It was the standard attunement for all soldiers, and one wouldn't be able to get far through the ranks without it. While he was perusing the library, he noticed a slightly greater ratio of green books compared to the others.
However, the book sitting on the study table in front of him wasn't a galebreathing book. It was a bloodrend book.
'Oh, oh! I remember. Father had been doing some sort of investigation about the true leaders of Etris and the lord regent. As for how that connects to this… I'm not too sure.'
He flipped a page of the book, deep in thought.
'Could he have been a blood user in secret like me? That would explain why I inherited it, if that's how it works. Or maybe… my mother was a bloodrender?'
When he was younger, Quies spent most of his time at home with his mother. She was the one taking care of him when his father was away for work. That was also a major factor for their disagreements when Quies was older…
'If she was a bloodrender… that was… no…'
Quies had a newfound realization. It shook his understanding of what happened to his family, and why that thing in the palace killed his father and mother.
'She was a bloodrender… and they killed her for that too.'
He stared at the book blankly, but his mind was racing with thoughts.
Originally, he had thought that the thing in the palace had killed his father for snooping where he shouldn't have been looking, afraid that the truth… whatever the 'truth' about the lord was… would spread. That was a plausible reason as to why that bastard killed his father, but held less water when applied to why his mother disappeared as well.
'She was killed as well for being an accomplice… which means I would've died if I had stayed.'
Quies didn't necessarily leave Etris on a whim. It was just that the death of his parents was the last straw which pushed him to leave. If he had stayed, where would he have gone? Even if he was able to survive living by himself, or was taken in by others, the Etrean semblance of a government would've found him.
And then, they would've killed him too
So this was it. His previous idea about the death of his parents wasn't necessarily wrong, but it didn't cover the full picture.
'My father was investigating when he shouldn't have, which raised suspicions for my family. While that cretin up at the palace was scheming on how to… kill my father, he found out my mother was practicing a forbidden attunement. That would explain how I inherited bloodrend and…'
Quies' mental ramblings continued as he stared at blank pages. This was a lot of information that he had to process, and unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to do that. All this time, his mother was practicing bloodrend, while simultaneously keeping a family together.
'But why? That… doesn't make sense.'
It wouldn't make sense for his mother to do something so risky without any incentive. Why would she practice a forbidden attunement, knowing that the punishment for doing so would lead to the death of her family.
"Quies, it's almost time… What book is that?"
Valerie walked out of the aisles of bookshelves. Quies had completely forgotten that she was here in the first place. He almost forgot that the reason they were at Etris in the first place was to find out the truth about the lord regent.
"Ah- uh… It's an attunement book."
"Oh… I thought it would've been an enticing romance book by the way you were looking at… empty pages."
"Huh?"
"Nevermind. We should go, the window of time will open soon."
"Has it really been that long."
"No. It's just that you took a while to walk here."
"Great…"
He shut the book, purposely covering the title of the book with the palm of his left hand. He would have to study its contents later, perhaps when Valerie was retrieving the subject.
It was time to carry out the plan.