22

  “Come in.” A voice inside a small corridor down the spiral staircase from Luna’s room shouted. A variety of different colors shined underneath the doorframe. The wooden door creaked with an earthquake rumbling behind it intensifying. Omar turned the knob and entered.

  The bell tower of Belkos echoed at the top of the hour, as its deep chimes were the force opening the door. The sprawling campus fell silent, as morning shifted to afternoon. Omar and Magnus entered the corridor, engulfed by an encased ivy-colored moonlight scattered around the room. The tall windows glowed with a majestic violet reflection and soft candles flickered with magical lights that turned a different color every second. The breeze was cool as the scent of old parchment across the many bookshelves, scattered with the taste of sweet jasmine berries.

  They called it the infinity library at Belkos. Thousands of bookshelves floated through the infinite cylinder room. A brief sigh could be heard from the high shelves that touched the heavens and an echo from the descending bedrock floors. Belkos's infinite library held the key to information and knowledge. A simple adept mage could become elite from the books behind this door.

  “I thought you said she was here.” Omar glanced up, watching a flock of flying bookcases return to their proper place on the shelf.

  “She is somewhere… I hope.” Magnus sighed. He turned his body back to the door, as a small map coiled its hand to shut it. “Her magic.” He pointed to the map unfolding back onto the wall like it never moved.

  From across the mute library, a pair of heels echoed closer to the two of them. “Natasha?” Omar called out, rotating his body. A black-haired woman briskly paced through the many sections of the library, carrying over a dozen books. She threw the books into her satchel, which held small vials of potions, collecting herself. She flipped her curled hair down both her shoulders, moving quickly to the men.

  The woman moved with force as her all-black witch robe dragged with the wind. She pulled out a single tomb, standing inches from both the men. She held the book over her head rolling her eyes. “Where did you get something like this? This is incredible.” Her violet eyes lit up with a bliss of excitement across her pale face.

  “No, hi?” Magnus stroked his beard. “Been nearly a year, and neither one of us are welcomed.”

  The woman rolled her eyes, as Magnus opened his arms to her for a hug. She gazed at him with a look of disgust. Magnus retreated offering a soft approving smile. “Good to see you too, Natasha.”

  “To answer your question. Magnus received the letter from Shay, my friend, a double agent who works with the Specters. He was there the night everything happened to my family.” Omar informed her. He took the tomb and started to analyze her findings. “Goodness.” Omar took a step back. His brow rose at Natasha.

  Magnus became curious and looked over Omar’s shoulder like a toddler. “What of it?” He shrugged his shoulders. About every sentence was a footnote of something from Natasha. It barely was legible to read now. The enormous tomb completely was retraced and rewritten by Natasha’s work. Magnus and Omar both closed the tomb and gave it back to her without speaking further. They just shook their heads at one another.

  “Right.” Natasha looked unamused. Like she hadn’t slept in a week. “Well. I assume you want to know all about this little manuscript you gave me. And it was all in ancient Gaia, so I transcribed.”

  She waved the men over to a small sofa in the corner of the library. “Come.” She ordered, waving her hand with dazzling purple magic flowing from her hand. The magic flowing out of her reorganized the books flying around and the dirty table to be fully furnished. “Ancient Gaia texts speak in riddles. Every symbol is an entire sentence. So whoever held this last either fully understood its meaning, or they took it from someone.”

  “Given Shay is of the Gaia islands, it makes sense.” Magnus asserted himself between Natasha and Omar. He scooted closer to her awkwardly.

  Her eyes retorted around him, leaning to his side to make eye contact with Omar. She cleared her throat. “This belonged to a man named Bashi D. Greybeard.” She handed the tomb to Omar.

  Omar rubbed his thumbs on the tomb gently. His head dangled above it like a loose chandelier. He sighed. “Shay’s father.”

  “Go figure.” Magnus turned to Omar. He stood from the couch, pacing slowly. “I mean Omar, the dark elf. Can we trust him? He is the same dark elf who served my clan. The same elf who was the steward to your father. The assassin of the guild. The man who destroyed everything – “

  Magnus froze. “He speaks true.” Natasha backed Magnus up. “But. I trust this source.”

  Omar jolted a burst of anger. He dropped his head on the tomb. “Shay is like a brother to me. Same you are.” Omar clarified. “Whatever he offers as information, it is valid. Has been on all the raids we conducted. That’s who tipped us off.”

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  Magnus didn’t buy it. He crossed his arms turning his attention to the tomb. “Then what of that?”

  “Magnus,” Natasha called to the frustrated Viking. “From what I transcribed there is no ill will.”

  She took the book and flipped the page over to a group of birds flying around three large black symbols. The page grinded like wet sandpaper with each movement of her fingers. They sat around the library as a group of mage students passed by in their respective robes. Natasha watched as they cleared the library before beginning.

  The dusty yellowed pages were brittle, but everything inside the tome flowed with dark evil magic. Natasha put on a pair of bifocals and began transcribing through her notes on the page. “When evil rises, in the form of an unholy being, shall her name be summoned?” From her soft tone, repeating the transcript, a slow rumble creaked around the library knocking books to the floor.

  Natasha’s focus rested on the tomb, while the two men became uncertain about what fell before them as she continued. “In the place, where the shadows carry the burden of secrets, should you find her light. In the chamber of the mother who whispers should you find your Elysium.”

  Natasha flipped to the next page, with ink fading from the symbols, notes of her redrawing them were posted all around the page. “And it continues with more phrases and history of the people of Gaia. But that riddle Shay sent you is it…” She leaned closer to Omar intrigued. “Is it familiar?”

  Omar sensed her intrigue and tried his best to not disappoint. He rubbed his chin while trying to think long and hard about his entire childhood and memories with Shay. “Nothing sticks out.” He winced at both of them. “At least nothing I can remember.” He leaned into the cushion of the couch looking up upon the library.

  Natasha tapped her fingers lightly on the tomb, her brow furrowed in concentration before she rose from the couch. She already came up with a hundred theories before the two even came here. Each thought came across as ludicrous as the last.

  “When evil rises, in the form of an unholy being,” Natasha repeated, brushing her lips together. Her eyes narrowed to Omar, snapping her fingers. “That’s easy. The Diborn and the blades followers.”

  “I feel even a Nord like myself figured that one out, Nat.” Magnus laughed. The library was eerily still, with Natasha dropping a cold glare at him in spite. He tightened up and dropped his sarcastic smile.

  He waved his hand apologizing. Even the flicking chandeliers held his breath, as he now was trying to figure the riddle out himself. The walls closed around him, as he rephrased the next sentence to himself. “Wait a second.” Magnus rose from the couch and walked over to a library section called Nord History. He searched aimlessly as he started to feel the riddle answers on the sliver end of his tongue.

  He grabbed a small tomb, the size of his pocket called “The Mysteries of Eurafalia.” Magnus snapped his finger. “Repeat that second line, Natasha.”

  Natasha nodded. “In the shadows where secrets are carried.” Magnus smiled, opening the tomb to an illustration page with a hermit man in a black hood holding a child hostage. “That would be Gaia, right?” Magnus thought. “It has to be.”

  “What makes you so sure?” Omar leaned forward.

  Magnus flicked the book around, with a crocked smile. “Back when I was a young lad, Merek in his youth read us this book. He told us if we ever held a secret, that Whispering Mother and her hermit Erabusa would come and steal us in the night.” Memories flooded his head with all those he lost. He felt the pain, but a smile brightened as he rubbed the tome softly.

  “Those days are how I met Liona’s mother before she passed. Good times.” He reminisced before it vanished in a flash.

  “That.” Natasha interpreted, but Magnus’s finding left her stunned. “That would mean whatever it is Shay is telling you to find it in the Whispering Mother’s tomb. The only part that confuses me is this Elysium. What is so pure of heart and holy that would be in that tomb?” She asked herself.

  “You’re the expert, right?” Magnus joked. “Surely, I shouldn’t figure that part out before you.”

  Natasha rolled her eyes in disgust once more. Just as he was starting to gain sympathy it all but disappeared. Natasha examined the tome given to her, closing it for the moment. “It will take some time, but let me dig deeper.” She turned to Omar. “If this is going to raise those magic wards up, then you should ask your mother what she knows of our findings, Omar. She is in her office.”

  “It’ll be done,” Magnus spoke on behalf of Omar.

  Natasha pointed at her Magnus, curling her finger for him to come closer. “I said Omar, not you. I need someone else to work on this with me. Give Omar some time alone. That is what Diborn prefers, right?” She sarcastically played. Omar shook his head, followed by a nod. “I suppose a little alone time wouldn’t cause any harm. I can check out what she would know.”

  In response, Natasha sent a wave, as Omar left the library. With a slow feeling of things coming together, the tense burden on his shoulders dropped. He could walk the halls calmly, as he dropped off his equipment before he descended the staircase towards the courtyard. Students passed by, and he could hear the whispers. For he was the Diborn who protected the borders of Edindale.

  “They call him the Soulless Hero.” A student from the warrior class blurted out from across the courtyard. A group of them eyed Omar with a sense of respect, profound upon their faces.

  Omar snickered. “A hero…? Hmph. Me? Perhaps that dream can become a reality.”

  “You have some pep to you today, Pegasus.” A familiar stern tone shifted the air to a brewing tornado.

  Omar’s heart clapped like a bolt of thunder in his chest, for he felt this before. The steady drumbeat drowned all the praise, from the one bolt of despair. His legs wallowed, sucked into the floor, unsteady, and unsure if what he heard was real. The weight of an ancient but recent malevolence evil pressed behind him, suffocating, and watching the Diborn fall ill to his despair.

  Cloaked with the stain of the Lotus Blade’s evil, the dark knight cackled and bent Omar’s will once more. “I have some letters for your mommy. Walk me to her?” Leonidas cackled.

  Omar tried to avoid turning to the monstrosity that was the man who held the lotus blade’s carcass, but his body and mind betrayed him. He turned to face the man he once killed, who also killed him. They were equals in terms of taking each other's lives, but now felt more on a slope of power than Diborn.

  “Leonidas,” Omar spoke in sheer disbelief. “Why have you come?”

  The blade’s vessel could only laugh once more. “Your suffering will never end, monster…”