Chapter Fifteen
The shadows were deep in the library, the only light coming from the fire in the hearth and a few candles on tables piled high with ancient scrolls and books. Lily looked up from the thick parchment she had been pouring over for hours. “Marcus! I think I found it.”
Marcus put down his cup of tea and the book he had been looking over and walked over to Lily’s table where she was bent over one of the oldest scrolls they had.
She pushed it over to him and pointed at the passage she wanted him to read.
He adjusted his glasses and read what she had pointed at.
When he was finished, he looked up at her, his eyes wide behind his glasses.
“This can’t be.” He whispered. “Can it?”
Lily pulled her hair back, twisted it deftly, and pierced it twice with the pencils she had been using to take notes.
“I think this is the only explanation. It’s the only mention of a Guardian.
It’s the only thing I’ve found that mentioned that Guardian being able to touch a Sentinel’s familiar in ghost form and bringing it to the physical plane, and the only true entry that explains Sperwa. ”
“But the rest of this, how is this possible?” Marcus sat down heavily, pulling the scroll towards him and rereading the same passage.
He pulled the scroll up and read the passages that came before, then scanned down to read several passages that came after.
He finally looked up at Lily, his face white.
“I think we need to do more research,” he offered.
“How? It seems like this was the only mention of this particular prophecy. You know how rare prophecies are and how much I hate them. I don’t see any other mention of what happened, and we’ve been looking for weeks.
” She showed him the label on the golden ends, The Book of Origins.
She found it on the very last bookshelf in the darkest, least traveled area of the library seemingly by chance just a few hours ago.
She had been walking the shelves hoping to find something she hadn't already examined.
Then, as though it had been waiting for her, the scroll appeared before her, its golden binding pulsing as if it needed her to notice it.
Pulling the scroll back closer to her, she pointed at the illustration that accompanied the passages.
It was two separate drawings, one of a young girl with long hair pulled into a braid, in a fighting stance, her eyes focused on what was in front of her.
“You can’t tell me that doesn’t look exactly like Bréagha.” She then pointed at the drawing beside the other one. This was a phoenix in flight, fire dancing along its feathers and trailing behind it as it rocketed across the sky. “And this is Sperwa Pyre.”
Marcus rubbed his face, taking his glasses off and putting them on the table next to the books.
He couldn’t deny what Lily was saying but he didn’t want to say it.
Saying it made it reality and he didn’t want this to be reality.
He took a deep breath and glanced up at his lifelong partner.
They both had looked after these books for hundreds of years, possibly closer to a thousand.
They’d watched the realms and sent the Sentinels where they were needed, safeguarding everything entrusted to them.
How did this slip past them for so long?
Or had the Garden withheld the truth until the moment it was needed?
“He worked in the shadows, Marcus. It isn’t our fault or anyone else’s, just his. We can’t focus on trying to figure out where it went wrong, but what do we do now that we know it has.”
Marcus couldn't argue with that and nodded.
“When do we tell them?”
Marcus looked out the window at the blazing sunset.
“I’ll go see Drago and Colin now. And see what they think.” He looked once more at the prophecy and shook his head. “If this prophecy is true…then the darkness was never defeated. Only waiting.”
Lily stood up and stretched her back. She felt the twinge of having sat too long and walked over to the window.
She watched the sun set behind the walls of the Garden, watched as the Lumenfae danced through the trees.
She watched the Magic Keepers as they went about their duties, the Soul Keepers as they walked among the Lumenfae and laughed at their intricate dance.
She looked over at the Sentinels who were pushing each other and joking amongst themselves as they headed home.
Finally, she watched her fellow Record Keepers as they took a stroll around the grounds before retiring for the night.
“There’s still a lot of good in the world Marcus, enough to bring us back from the brink, enough to sustain us forever. I believe that with my whole heart. There’s enough goodness just in this precious place to combat anything. Darkness won’t be allowed to take over. Not on our watch.”
Marcus walked up beside his friend and nodded. “Not on our watch indeed.”
Roz popped in with a pink flash. As soon as she felt the energy of the room she paused. “You needed me?”
Marcus smiled reassuringly at her. “Can you take me to Drago’s office?
Then go get that rascal Donegal for me?” With another small, tired smile to Lily, Marcus was teleported out of the office.
Lily sighed, grabbed the rest of his cooling tea, then settled in to read more of the scroll.
There was quite a bit more to read before she could retire for the night.