The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

them to be seen and heard, they wore masks carved to
resemble the wolven.”
“In a way, they were mimicking what Nyktos had done,”
Kieran added as he wiped the back of his hand across his
face. “It was obviously a fairly lame attempt, but whatever.”
“How did the wolven feel about that?” I wondered aloud.
“I don’t think it bothered them at the time,” Casteel’s
father answered as Jasper prowled around us, constantly
searching for signs of intruders. “Both the Unseen and the
wolven had the same goals then: protect the deities. Or at
least that was what the wolven believed.”
Had the same goals then. It was obvious that those
goals had splintered and changed.
“The Unseen were nothing like the wolven. They were
more like a group of extremists,” Casteel said. “They would
attack anyone they believed was a threat to the deities,
even if the person was simply raising questions or disagreed
with what the deities wanted.”
“That reminds me of the Ascended.” My bare toes
curled against the stone. “You couldn’t question anything. If
you did, you were seen as a Descenter, and that didn’t end
well for you. But if the Unseen were designed to protect the
deities, then why would they come after me?”
“Because that was how they started. It wasn’t how they
ended.” His gaze briefly met mine. “The Unseen swore an
oath to the Crown and to the kingdom but not the heads
those crowns sat upon. Eventually, they turned on the
deities. What caused it is still unclear, but they began to
believe that some of the deities’ choices regarding the
mortals were no longer in the best interests of Atlantia.”
Immediately, I thought of Alastir and Jansen. That was
what both had claimed. That what they’d done was in the
best interest of their kingdom.
“So they were disbanded,” King Valyn continued. “Or at
least that’s what everyone has believed for at least a
thousand years.”