Chapter 70 Ancient Archives

Chapter 70 Ancient Archives
Thessaly had three hours before Malachi's army arrived.

She spent them in the restricted archives.

The room sat deep in the palace, past three locked doors that only Davorin's key could open. Dust covered everything. Shelves groaned under the weight of books so old the leather bindings had cracked and peeled.

"Are you sure about this?" Davorin asked, lighting candles. "You should be resting before the battle."

"I need to know what I'm dealing with. What I am." Thessaly moved to the nearest shelf, fingers trailing over spines. "Ondine said Dream-Walkers were hunted down. I want to know why."

"Knowledge doesn't always help."

"Not knowing is worse."

He didn't argue. Just helped her search until he found a section marked with symbols she didn't recognize. Old language. Older than kingdoms.

"Here," he said. "Ondine mentioned these volumes. Histories of extinct magic."

The books were falling apart. Thessaly pulled one from the shelf and the binding crumbled in her hands, pages threatening to scatter. She carried it carefully to a table, spreading it open.

The text was written in something that looked like language but hurt to read. Letters that shifted when she looked at them directly, symbols that made her eyes water.

"I can't read this," she said.

"Old tongue. Nobody speaks it anymore." Davorin leaned over her shoulder. "But there are illustrations."

He was right. Scattered through the incomprehensible text were drawings. Faded. Crumbling at the edges. But visible.

The first showed a woman standing in what looked like the Dream Realm. Mist and threads surrounded her, and her arms were outstretched like she was conducting an orchestra.

The second showed the same woman walking through a city. But everyone around her was frozen mid-step, faces blank with sleep.

The third showed her burning.

Thessaly's stomach turned. The illustration was detailed enough to show the woman's face, mouth open in a scream, while flames consumed her.

"They burned her alive," Thessaly whispered.

"They burned all of them." Davorin pointed to another page. "Look. There are multiple accounts."

He was right. Page after page showed Dream-Walkers meeting violent ends. Hangings. Drownings. One showed a man being stoned while a crowd watched.

"Why?" Thessaly's voice was raw. "What did they do?"

"Existed." Davorin's jaw was tight. "Power like that makes people afraid. And fear makes them cruel."

Thessaly kept reading, or trying to read. The text was incomprehensible, but she found more illustrations. Dream-Walkers creating nightmares in their enemies' minds. Reshaping memories. Making people forget their own names or believe lies so deep they couldn't find truth anymore.

"This is what I can do," she said. "All of this."

"Potentially."

"No. Actually." She looked up at him. "Every time I touch someone's thread in the Dream Realm, I'm in their mind. If I wanted to, I could change what I saw there. Make them remember things differently. Make them afraid or forget they were ever afraid. I felt it when I was in your nightmare. The power to reshape what I was seeing."

Davorin was quiet for a moment. "Did you? Reshape anything?"

"No. But I could have."

"But you didn't." He squeezed her shoulder. "That's the difference between you and the people in these books who got burned. They used their power. You're choosing not to."

"What if choosing stops being easy?"

"Then we deal with it when it happens."

Thessaly wanted to believe him. Wanted to think that having the power to reshape reality inside people's heads wouldn't corrupt her eventually. But history suggested otherwise.

She pulled another book from the shelf. This one was in better condition, written in a language closer to something she could parse. Not modern, but close enough that she could make out words.

Dream-Walker. Extinction. Keira of the Northern Wastes.

"This is about the last one," Thessaly said. "The woman Ondine mentioned."

Davorin moved closer as she read.

The account was clinical. Described Keira as powerful but unstable. Said she'd ended the War of Three Crowns by walking the dreams of both kings until they believed they'd already lost. Made them see futures where their kingdoms burned and their families died. Convinced them that peace was the only option.

"She saved thousands of lives," Thessaly said.

"Keep reading."

She did.

After the war, people started asking questions. What else could Keira do? What else had she already done? Had she walked their dreams without permission? Changed their thoughts? Made them believe things that weren't true?

Fear spread. The same people who'd praised her for ending the war started calling her a monster.

They found her three months later. Tried to arrest her. She fought back, and in the chaos someone set fire to the building she was hiding in.

The account ended there. But there was a note added in different handwriting. Different ink.

The Walker did not die in the fire. Reports from the Eastern Wastes suggest she survived and fled to the border territories. Last confirmed sighting near the Void Rift. Her fate remains unknown.

Thessaly's blood went cold. "The Void Rift. That's where the Void first broke through into our world, isn't it?"

"Yes." Davorin's expression was grim. "Three hundred years ago. Right around the time Keira disappeared."

"You don't think she—"

"I don't know what to think."

Thessaly turned pages frantically, looking for more information. Found it tucked into the back of the book. A loose page, barely attached, covered in cramped handwriting.

Account from merchant who crossed the Eastern Wastes, transcribed by Scholar Henric:

"I saw her at the edge of the Rift. A woman standing alone, facing down that darkness like it was something she could fight. The Void was pouring through, consuming everything, and she just stood there with her arms spread wide.

I heard her screaming. Not in pain. In defiance. Like she was telling the Void no.

The darkness wrapped around her and she didn't move. Didn't run. Just kept standing there until the shadows swallowed her whole.

I don't know if she died or if the Void took her. But after she was gone, the Rift stopped growing. Like something had capped it from the inside.

The Walker bound herself to the darkness to save us all. And nobody will ever know her name."

Thessaly stared at the words until they blurred.

Keira had walked into the Void. Let it consume her. Maybe died, maybe worse than died. All to stop it from destroying the world.

And now Thessaly was a Dream-Walker facing down the same enemy.

She turned back through the pages, looking for the illustration she'd seen earlier. Found it.

A woman with her arms outstretched. Facing down darkness that had no form. The drawing was faded, but Thessaly could see determination in the woman's posture. Not fear. Not resignation. Just absolute refusal to let the darkness win.

Her fingers traced the illustration, feeling the rough texture of old paper.

"That's my future, isn't it?" she said quietly. "Standing alone against the Void while everyone else runs."

"No." Davorin's voice was firm. "You won't be alone."

"Keira was alone."

"Keira didn't have a bond. Didn't have someone willing to face the darkness with her." He turned her to face him. "Whatever happens with the Void, we face it together. That's what the Unity Ceremony is for."

Thessaly wanted to believe him. But the illustration stared up at her, and all she could see was herself in Keira's place. Arms spread wide. Darkness closing in. Making the choice to sacrifice everything because nobody else could.

"I should go," she said. "The army will be here soon. You need to prepare."

"Thess—"

"I'm fine. Just needed to understand what I am." She closed the book carefully. "Now I do."

She left before he could argue. Before the fear clawing at her throat could turn into something worse.

The archives were cold and quiet behind her, full of histories about people who'd been powerful and feared and ultimately destroyed. People like her.

Thessaly made it halfway down the corridor before Varian stepped out of the shadows.

"We need to talk," he said, and something in his expression made her stomach drop. "About what you're hiding. And why Ondine's been training you in secret for a week."

The commander's eyes were hard. Suspicious.

And Thessaly realized with sinking certainty that her secrets were about to become a lot more complicated