Chapter 20
Nova sat there and looked at the notes on her desk. She’d taken more notes this past week than the entirety of high school. Of course, in high school, they weren’t teaching about other realms and beings that lived in them. It was all very surreal but made sense at the same time.
Solrelm was a place the princesses from Alterealm had explained it. She circled the word ‘Princesses’ and smirked. She’d talked to royalty. It made sense. There were royal families in her realm too. Her realm, the human realm. It was a bit of a letdown that there was no cool name for it like, Alterealm or FaTerra. That was another thing that pleased her, knowing there was fae out there, for real. They may not be the cute fairies she was obsessed with as a child, but magical beings were real.
So real, some had plotted to take over all the realms. That still made her heart speed up. She didn’t completely understand it. Something about barriers, but she did get the part that if they succeeded it would have been disastrous. They were still looking for all involved, but the princesses had assured her the main person or mage in this case had been caught.
If the human teachers in the world knew about the realms and their history, there would be a lot more children enthused about history classes out there. Then again, if they knew, the human government would be trying to control that too, as they did with everything else.
She looked at the phone, it was charging. She’d drained the battery many times over in the last week. She never could have imagined she’d actually use the phone when she’d gotten it. Her plans of calling Crissy to ask about her soul’s memories had been the only call she thought she’d ever make.
It was still a bit disappointing that Crissy was not like her. She was certain there was no one out there—in any realm that was like her. She had visions, droves of visions. It had been one of those that saved her life that night when Bastian had called out to her.
Bastian—he wanted to speak with her. Three of the four Alterealm women she spoke to thought it was a good idea. Autumn had been the only one that hadn’t commented one way or the other. She knew she needed to speak to him, that he would have the answers she was looking for, but she still hadn’t been able to bring herself to call him.
She’d done some serious soul-searching in the last few days as well—literally. Sitting in the low light surrounded by quiet she’d closed he eyes and tried to force herself to pull up memories. The ones that weren’t written in the journals. The events that had taken place before someone thought to write them in a book. She had managed to see some things, that confirmed this soul had always remembered, but she’d also been overcome with so many emotions she had to stop trying. In this soul’s memories, she’d seen ships that no person alive today would have seen with their eyes. She’s seen torture and was certain at some point in the past she’d been deemed a witch and likely burned at the stake. The human mindset had changed much over many lifetimes, but they still attacked and persecuted things they didn’t understand.
After her last attempt to recall more, she’d spent an hour soaking in the tub and crying for the pain and hardship her soul had suffered. This hidden homemade so much more sense now than it ever had. Running from the mysterious Bastian did as well. Anytime in the past, her soul’s keeper had gotten close to anyone it had ended in the loss of life of the body protecting the soul.
She’d called that woman Jeri after she’d calmed down. Come to find out Jeri did understand and also remembered many lifetimes. She understood those times of fear and panic and assured her that no one could take her soul as long as she wore the pendant given to her. The pendant came with a warning also, take it off if you’re dying or the recycling of the soul’s life ends.
That good-to-know tidbit had Nova pacing around afterward. What if it was too sudden and she didn’t have enough warning to take it off? Then she’d be responsible for abruptly ending an entity that had endured time. Several hours of research followed that, where she’d looked at various forms of easy-release chains, and even the process at the morgue. The first step was removing all personal items from the body. How long did a soul have to move on after the body died? She had no idea, and it wasn’t exactly something she could just research.
Looking over at the fish, she watched them swim around for a moment. “I think I might have the answers he’s looking for.” She glanced at the journals that had pieces of paper sticking out of them where she’d marked entries that spoke of pieces to a larger puzzle. “And being a soul watcher, I know he can explain what my purpose is, or at least the black souled people.” One of the fish paused in movement and appeared as if it were looking out the tank at her. “I know, what am I waiting for? I need to call him.” She looked to see the battery notification on the phone was at ten percent. “Right now, I guess I’m waiting for the battery to charge.”
Shoving back from the desk, she stretched. She hadn’t slept much in the last week either. Who could sleep with all of this information churning around in her head? It was her own fault really, she wanted answers. She may not have gotten all of her questions resolved, but she had information to questions she could never have dreamt of asking.
Wandering out of the library, she looked around. She wasn’t even sure what time it was. She wasn’t tired at all, so she needed to find something to do to kill time until the phone was charged. The nervous energy of waiting would drive her crazy. Walking to the end of the hall, she looked at the ladder. Cleaning the upstairs would kill time. It hadn’t been dusted in a few weeks.
Moving toward it, she pulled the lever and watched the hatch open up. It wasn’t bright up there, very low light from the lamps she had on timers, so that told her it was nighttime. Too bad all questions weren’t that easy to find the answers for.