The Shadow of the Crown of Snow [Western Fantasy]

Apart from Hecate's own head, there was probably only one place where bits and pieces of her remained.

After Selene came to the throne, she did not use her father's old study, nor did she touch anything in the room, including her father's collection of books and piles of manuscripts.

Contrary to the impression given by the appearance, Roy, the former monarch of the Nord Kingdom, is a person who likes to spend time in the study. He can even read the most common hero legend novels on the market with relish. Here on the desk is waiting The reviewed documents, over there are thread-bound manuscripts, which Selene used to read with great interest when she was a child. They are full of "Three Gods of the North", "The Story of the Snow Wolf", "The Diary of a Soldier of the Wind Blade Corps" " or something like that.Selene was lucky enough to see one or two books in the bookstore outside the palace. Standing in front of the bookshelf, she snickered at the books that her father had signed with pseudonyms, secretly thinking that they were actually quite interesting.

This is really not a screening that can be easily completed by one person. Selene called Joshua, and the two sat on the carpet in the study together, patiently opening the leather-bound books one by one, lest Roy leave the really important ones. Things were written under irrelevant covers.

Compared with Joshua, who was concentrating on the screening work, Selene stopped from time to time to turn two more pages, recalling the content that used to be her bedtime reading.

What she can be sure of is that Roy will not deliberately hide any important manuscripts too secretly, after all, his illness and death came too suddenly.He didn't think that he would die, and he didn't leave any important entrustment to Selene. He just held Selene's hand tightly when he was dying, and told her with the last bit of strength: "I can't leave anything for you." What useful things do you..."

Maybe there was something else that Roy wanted to tell Selene, but he couldn't say it. The blue eyes that always looked at Selene tenderly closed forever with the last trace of unwillingness and relief. .

After that, Selene ordered the old study to be sealed up, and let a few servants clean it from time to time, so the dust in the room was not serious—as if its owner was still alive.

They had been sitting here since dawn, and it was not until lunch time that Joshua finally found a leather-bound notebook without any label from a pile of notebooks.

If Roy had left his text about Hecate somewhere, it was here.

"Then I won't bother you." Joshua stood up from the carpet and subconsciously patted his clothes, "You can take a look at it by yourself."

This seems to be Roy's diary before his death. The thick leather notebook is full of words, but the part that Selene can understand is only the first few lines.

"The birth of a god comes from its own power and human belief. People in the North used to believe in the God of Vulcan, because there seems to be a power that humans do not possess in the flame, which illuminates darkness, brings warmth, and drives away beasts. Hindley The same is true for mainland China's belief in the God of Light, 'light' does dispel 'darkness' for us, and precisely because of people's hope and yearning for light, light is no longer a simple thing, but has a godhead."

This is not the first time Selene has seen or heard this passage.When she first came into contact with the unfamiliar vocabulary of the God of Light, Roy deliberately asked Raymond to skip this topic first, and then took the time to personally explain to Selene the history of the God of Light and the Church of Light, as well as the Kingdom of Nord and Other kingdoms have completely different attitudes towards the God of Light.

"Among the northerners, there should be very few people who believe in the God of Light, right?"

"Yes. We have always hated being imposed on something, let alone something that is easily disgusting such as imposing beliefs. We have maintained friendly relations with the Church of Light and the Holy Church of Wilton, but that's all .”

It is very difficult to "steal the power of faith without being devout in your heart", either you are deprived of your status as a believer, or you can't stand the temptation and become a believer. The reason why Selene can subtly Mastering the balance is largely due to her father's influence on her.

However, except for the opening paragraph, the following content is all written in characters that Selene has never seen before. She continued to read, but she still couldn't find any useful information.

Selene flipped through the book hastily, and there were only such strange words on every page—except the last page.

On the last page of the notebook, there are only two words written in the Common Language of Hindley.

selene.

Hecate.

The hand holding the notebook trembled slightly, and Selene stared in amazement at Hecate's name being surrounded by a gentle circle, while her own name was pierced by a slash that pierced through the back of the paper, looking embarrassed and ridiculous.

She stretched out her hand and slowly stroked the place where the paper was torn by the pen tip, thinking about it seriously for the first time in her life.

Was the decision my father made 15 years ago really as simple as "abandoning Hecate" after weighing the pros and cons?

The door of the study was suddenly pushed open, Selene rushed to the desk, closed the notebook and stuffed it in the drawer as if nothing had happened, then raised her head, frowned guiltily and scolded Hecate: "Don't you knock on the door before you come in?" ?”

Hecate turned around and gently closed the door, and walked to the desk: "Joshua told me you are here...what's the matter?"

She was sharper than everyone imagined, and she should have seen Selene's panic.Selene tried hard to be perfunctory: "It's nothing."

What she didn't expect was that this "nothing" made Hecate as excited as a cat whose tail was stepped on.

"Aren't you the same as me?"

"Varied……"

"Say I don't trust others, don't you do the same?"

She was indeed the same as Hecate.Living in a small closed world that lacks a sense of security, he isolates himself from the outside world with self-righteous suspicion and caution, and almost treats everyone equally.The difference is that Hecate knows exactly who he is, while Selene doesn't.

"I'm sorry." Selene rubbed her temples wearily, "I'm sorry...I know it sounds like I'm trying to excuse myself, but there's nothing I can do—I mean, since I'm In this position, I can't..."

She looked up at Hecate, and swallowed all the incoherent excuses deep in her throat.

"You always care so much about what other people think, and you always want everyone to like you. But how is this possible."

"I'm used to it!" Selene suddenly raised her voice, but she quickly calmed down and resumed her usual polite restraint, "You don't know what it was like when your father died. He only had two daughters , the one who is far away in the Nagrand Empire, but the one who stays in the country is only 16 years old. No one believes that a 16-year-old girl can take charge of the overall situation. At that time, as long as there is a slight mistake, for example, the courtiers of the Nord Kingdom did not So loyal to the royal family in the imagination, such as Raymond is actually an ambitious person...then it must not be me who is sitting here and telling you these things. We will not even live to meet again."

Selene knew Hecate would not respond to her, and could not.comfort?refute?It seems that it is not a reasonable attitude, but silence is correct.

Correct and impersonal.

However, Selene herself did not expect to be comforted by Hecate. At the same time, she realized that both she and Hecate were living in an environment where hostility and plots were always at hand. She used everything to keep everyone shut up. ,

"...So, what is the purpose of coming to you before you asked me to leave?"

There is actually no difference between them, and Selene is not qualified to sympathize with Hecate.

Selene tried to restrain herself from opening the drawer and stuffing the notebook deeper in front of Hecate.She took a deep breath, stood up with her hands on the table, and habitually showed that polite and irreproachable smile: "Come with me."

An unused utility room somewhere in the castle was transformed by Selene into her own private laboratory.The small and dark space is filled with statues of the God of Light and other ritual items commonly used by the God of Light. The table in the corner is engraved with the emblem of the God of Light. If you look at the furnishings alone, this is a room used by the believers of the God of Light , but Hecate felt oppressed and creepy as soon as he entered the door. This room was decorated like a horror story used to scare children.

"You will be on the front line for a long time to come, and you must follow my orders directly, regardless of anyone else." Selene took off her coat, rolled up her sleeves, revealing a white wrist, " This requires a convenient communication between us.”

To put it simply, it is a pair of utensils that have been imbued with divine magic. The power of faith in them builds an invisible bridge, transmitting the voices of the two holders, allowing them to talk even if they are thousands of miles away.

This is something very practical but rarely seen in Nord.On the one hand, it is because few people in the Nord Kingdom use divine magic, and more importantly, it must be made with conch shells.Although the Kingdom of Nord also has a long coastline, they are all blocked by snow-capped mountains. Few people live in the extremely northern land with inconvenient transportation, let alone catch sea snails in large quantities for sale.

"These two conch snails already have magic spells attached to them. Now we only need a medium for them to establish contact. The easiest way should be the blood of the two of us. The blood relationship can make the communication between the sound transmission conch very stable— — Just drop it on.”

Hecate immediately understood her meaning, pulled out the crescent blade and cut a wound on his forearm, and directly rubbed it with the conch.When she looked up, Selene was biting her fingertips to drip blood on it, and then she put down the conch shell to wait for the divine spell to take effect.

Even Hecate felt that the waiting time was a bit strange. Selene picked up the conch and felt it carefully in her hand. She was surprised to find that the power of faith in it had not communicated with the other one at all, and was still spinning around in place.

She put down the conch in silence, and from Hecate's expression, she knew that she understood the problem, but she didn't ask Selene "what's wrong".

"...It's okay." Selene said with difficulty to comfort her, "I'll find the blood of two snow wolves to replace it later."

Hecate stood there with her head down, holding the unsheathed crescent blade tightly in her hand. The movement of clenching the handle of the knife did not bring her any more sense of security. A child who will be punished for something, stands still and wants his existence to be ignored.

"Have a glass of mead." Selene sighed, and opened the barrel in the corner.

Hecate took the wine glass with trembling hands, and simply poured the warm wine into his mouth.

The spiciness and sweetness slipped down the throat at the same time, bringing a pleasant refreshing feeling. Hecate put down the glass with a long sigh of relief, and understood why the Northlanders love mead so much.

The mead softened her fear, but not the thought that had just taken root a few minutes ago and was about to take root.

If she wasn't Selene's sister, the princess of the Nord kingdom, then who was she?