Chapter 55
My room was perfectly intact. My bedcloud was perfectly made.
The pillows were fluffed and poised just like I’d left them.
There was my comfy desk chair tucked in behind my glass desk with gilded embellishments.
The washroom door was hanging ajar as I’d left it because I had been rushing.
Even my sprawl of scroll papers where I’d been journaling were still splayed out over my desk like I’d gotten up, planning to return.
And then I didn’t.
My rugs were in order. My portraits were still hanging. My windows were closed and not shattered.
Someone did this with intention. To send a message.
One that was being clearly received.
Slowly my sorrow began turning into unmitigated rage.
Angels had been sent to do this, the way they’d done it, on purpose.
I pivoted from the chamber, rushing for Manmi’s office. Like I’d expected, it was in shambles. Her desk chair had been tipped over. The glass of the desk had been broken. Her scroll shelves were in disarray. But her drawers were still closed.
I floated over, flying past the mess, and positioned myself behind the drawer of her desk. I waved my hand over it, drawing on my starfire so Manmi’s ethèrlock would sense the power.
“Wings high, Safah Eloise Anathelle,” a small voice spoke out from the mist of the ethèrlock. It was whimsical and otherworldly. I wished Manmi was alive so I could learn how she did this. “You may open.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, tugging the drawer back.
It was filled to the brim with scrolls, scrollbooks, and ledgers. A gold mine for anyone hunting for information. What could Manmi possibly have been writing?
I righted the fallen desk chair, and sat in it, crossing my legs, tucking them beneath me. I pulled out one of Manmi’s journals, thankful it was still open. The last page ended in an unfinished sentence. I thumbed through it, landing on an entry she’d written a few cycles before she’d passed.
Thorndawn, Julial 7th, cycle 197, Sixth Age, 7th Cycle
Safah is inquisitive, sharp, and still curious. I have no doubts she will uncover what’s hidden. Evanae follows in her footsteps, even if she doesn’t realize it. Evanae is my wildling. Always a wonderer, never too shy to question. To poke. To prod.
I believe my fifis will be catalysts for the inevitable. I am ashamed to admit it took me too long to see the truth. But I trust them. Their wit. I also trust my bibis. It will be hard on them, but they will do what is right before the Infinite in the end.
Safah doesn’t know about the Star. She cannot.
Her knowledge will lead to exposure. If she is exposed, she will die a painful death dragged through the Ages.
My only prayer is that her true fire remains dormant.
That the bibi of Valoryens finds her. That she learns I lied.
I was wrong. He is the only safe place. He is true. He is hers.
I pray to the Infinite they find their way to each other, and neither kills the other before they realize the truth.
Perhaps Evanae will play a part. Curious little flower she is.
She’s even found an Archived tome: History of the Fallenspawn: the Truth of How They Came to Be.
I love my wingmate, my bibis, my fifis. It breaks all seven of my hearts that I will probably be taken before I can reveal to them the truth.
But where I have failed, may the Infinite finish the way.
Arèmen.
Ileaned back in the chair, wiping fresh tears from my sodden cheeks. My eyes burned from all the endless crying. Manmi had learned something and she’d been killed for it. Stars.
I took the journal, and a few other ledgers, shoved them all into a torn satchel I found discarded onto the floor, and shoved them inside.
She’d written that Evanae had found a tome on the Fallenspawn.
I needed that scrollbook. Racing out of Manmi’s office and rushing to Evanae’s chambers, I scoured through the mess looking for the scrollbook Manmi had mentioned.
Evanae’s bedchambers had been thoroughly thrashed, left in utter shambles. Every piece of furniture was broken. Her bedcloud had been shredded. Every scrollbook was on the floor. Half had been set on fire. There were marks of obsidian majik everywhere.
What in the Hèls did Evanae have that her room had been torn apart like this?
I was about to give up when that little voice from earlier pushed me to check her wardrobe. I plucked up the broken piece of the door, pushing hard so it would pop open. Then I dug in. All I found was a pile of junk. But at the bottom, in the corner, was a lever.
My eyebrows rose to my hairline.
I pulled the lever and marveled as another compartment opened. There were several tomes inside. Including History of the Fallenspawn: the Truth of How They Came to Be.
“Holy stars,” I breathed.
Looking around me, I found I was still alone. My hearts beat wildly as I snatched each tome and shoved them into the bag before someone snuck up on me. I had to get back to the temple with this satchel without getting caught.
A rumbling noise from the backyard spooked me. I whipped around, adrenaline flooding my bloodstream. I looked around, seeing if I’d been spotted.
“Who is there?” I called out, unable to fully see the hall from where I was.
The rumbling happened again. It sounded like something quaking from the back of the garden.
Throwing the satchel over my shoulder, I raced to Evanae’s balcony, climbing over fallen stone and rock that had been cracked from our villas exterior walls. In the distance, I saw the unmistakable shimmering of a star gate.
“No burning way,” I breathed. “Who is that?”
I ran across the balcony jumping into the air. Satchel secured, I raced after the star gate. As I neared, I noticed two angels slipped through it. One had the mark of a thorn embedded into his exposed skin.
“What is one of the Marked doing here?”
You must search diligently, and find the dissenters amongst us, and bring them back with you.
I wrinkled my nose. I’d flown closer, scanning the backyard.
There were trails of footprints, all leading to where I believed this star gate was perched.
I rushed across the landscape, praying the gate wouldn’t close.
As I neared, it began trembling, getting ready to shut.
Without a second thought, I tucked my wings close to my spine, aimed my body, and shot myself straight through the star gate.
The moment I crossed through, the star gate sealed shut.