When his voice dipped to a level barely above a whisper, Arabella could feel the pain pouring out if him with each word.
“Then, as now, they chose death, either consciously or by their deeds, but in a way that caused them to bear grudges for all these eons. It was as if that damned staff put a curse on all of us. Well, at least it’s gone for good now. Mother wanted me to leave it behind to be swallowed by the cataclysm when we took the ship to escape, but I refused. Another foolish error on my part. This time I would have cast it away, as far and hard as I could throw it! Somehow, though, I felt as if it wouldn’t allow me to touch it.”
Marisol straightened in her chair and looked at the others, almost as if she was coming out of a daze. “The wand—it had a power of its own, didn’t it? I k
