Chapter 77 The Whisper
The air inside the library was cool and smelled of old paper and dust. It was a relief after the humid, sticky air of the neon jungle outside.
We walked down a long spiral staircase that went deep underground. The further down we went, the quieter it became. The roar of the monsters and the hum of the drone ships faded away.
Below the last stair, there hung a thick wooden door, seemingly sealed for a hundred years.
"This is the Archives," whispered Kael, raising his datapad to display the entrance into the archives. "This is where the Old World kept its most dangerous secrets-not weapons but books."
Rhykard pushed the door open. It creaked evilly.
The enormity of the room captivated the mind: it seemed like a cathedral. Tall stretching rows of bookshelves stretched out into the darkness. Each shelf was piled high with books, with scrolls, and filled with data crystals.
It was peaceful-now quiet.
But the peace was short-lived.
Ryker stumbles. He grabbed the end of the table, which served him as support for stopping from falling. His breathing rang out as loud and ragged.
"Ryker?" I asked when I have rushed to his side.
"Stay back," Ryker growled. His voice sounded deep and rough, like two stones grinding together.
And he moved away from me. He walked to behind the room into shadows. Sat on floor with his head on his hands.
"The voices," Ryker whispered. "They are so loud."
"What voices?" I inquired gently.
"The beasts." Ryker replied, "Every monster in this city. I can hear them confused, hungry, asking me for orders."
His gaze rested on me. His violet eyes flashed again.
"Hard to say no," he admitted, "feels good to have them under control." It feels-right.
Cold shiver slithered down my spine. The magic we had unleashed-Overcharge-was changing him turning him into a King of Monsters. If he lost, he would no longer be my husband. He would be a warlord.
"Fight it," I pronounced decisively, "You are Ryker. You are a Wolf. You are not a monster."
"I'm trying," he gritted his teeth, "But you should stay away, just in case."
I wanted to hold him, but I knew he was right. At the moment, he was dangerous.
I turned my back to the others.
The Commander sits upon a pile of books. He looks as though he could be shattered at any moment. The human coalition-his own people-attempted to kill him. He removed his helmet and threw it onto the floor.
"They left me," the Commander mutters. "Thirty years of service. And they fired on me like I was a bug."
"Welcome to the real world," said Vane, leaning against a bookshelf and bandaging his arm. "Loyalty is a lie they tell soldiers to make them die quietly."
"We need a plan," Kael ranted back and forth. "We can't hang here forever. Plants are going to grow down here eventually. Or the Coalition will bomb the building."
"We need answers," I said. "After all, we made this mess for turning the magic too high. Now we need to know from where we came."
I looked around the enormous library.
"The answers are here," I said. "This is the Archive. If anyone knew about the Origin Stone, they wrote it down here."
I closed my eyes.
I didn't look. I saw with the Stone.
Drained as it may be, the Origin Stone is still connected to the magic in my chest, and books about magic have a special feel. They hum.
I walk down that middle aisle, letting my intuition guide me.
Left, right, straight ahead.
Then I stopped in front of a shelf, covered in spiderwebs, with only one book on it.
It was a huge-black book made from some kind of warm-feeling leather. On it, the title was written in golden letters but had some ancient language. "Kael," I called out. "I found something."
Kael dashed over. He adjusted his glasses. He looked at the book.
"This is Pre-Empire," said Kael, his eyes going wide. "This is from the first age. Before the walls were built."
He opened the book. The pages were frail.
"Can you read?" I asked.
"It's a mix of Latin and... some other language," Kael muttered. "Wait. I know this symbol."
He was pointing at a drawing on the page. A circle with a line through it.
"The Origin Stone," Kael claimed.
He began translating.
"In the beginning, the world was full of magic. But magic is chaos. It has no shape. Therefore, the Ancients created two Anchors to hold the world steady."
"Two?" I questioned.
Kael nodded and continued reading.
"One Anchor that Gives. One Anchor that Takes."
He turned the page.
"The Stone of Origin is the Giver. It is the Sun. It creates life. It fills the empty places. It is the White Light."
That's me. That's the stone stuck in my chest.
"But a Sun without a shadow burns the world," Kael read. "Life without death is cancer. Growth without limits is a plague."
We stared at each other. That was happening outside. The growth of the jungle was immense. The animals were mutating. Too much life was burning up the world.
"To balance the Origin, there has to be a Twin," Kael read. "The Stone of the End. The Void Heart. It is the Moon. It takes. It quiets. It gives the sleep."
"The Void Heart?" I whispered. "But the Spirit Engine was in Vespera. Was that the Void Heart?"
"Definitely not," Kael said, fast-skimming the text. "Vespera attempted to build a machine to replicate the Void but failed. The book states that the true Void Heart was lost."
He pointed out a map in the book. It had two places marked.
One was in the North- where I was born. That was the Origin Stone.
The other location was deep in the South. In the Deadlands. A place where nothing grows.
"We have half the equation," Kael realized, "Elara, you are the battery. You generate energy. But we have no manner of grounding it. We have no off switch."
"So the world will just keep on growing until it explodes?" Vane asked from the other side of the aisle.
"Definitely," Kael said. "Unless we can find the Twin. If we bring the Origin Stone and the Void Heart together, they should cancel each other out. The magic will stabilize. The mutations will cease."
"So we're off to the Deadlands," I said.
"That is a suicide mission," the Commander snorted. He had walked over to listen. "The Deadlands are a thousand miles away. Across the neon jungle. And the Coalition controls the skies."
"We don't have a choice," I said.
Suddenly a low growl from the corner.
We froze.
Ryker stood up.
He was not just sitting. He was standing tall, casting an enormous shadow on the wall.
"Ryker?" I asked nervously.
He glided toward us with feline smoothness.
"I hear it," he whispered.
"Hear what?"
"The Twin," Ryker said. He pointed southward. "It is calling. Not to me. To the beasts. It is singing a song of sleep."
He turned to me, intense with violet eyes.
"The monsters want to go there," Ryker said. "They are tired of the noise in their heads. They want the silence of the Void Heart."
"So we have an army?" Vane asked.
"No, we have a race," Ryker clarified. "If the monsters get to the Void Heart before us... they might destroy it. Or eat it. If they eat it, they will become unstoppable."
Ryker stepped into the light. He was looking at the Commander.
"You have a radio," Ryker said. "Can you contact your ship?"
"Why would I want to contact the ship that shot me?" the Commander asked.
"Because we need a ride," Ryker said. "We can't walk to the Deadlands. We need to fly."
"They will shoot us on sight," the Commander protested.
"Not if we give them a target they can't ignore," Ryker smiled that grin, the wolfish, dangerous kind.
"What do you mean?"
"I am the Alpha now," Ryker declared. "I can summon the beasts. I will summon them all. Every Sky-Terror, every Mana-Beast, every monster in the city."
He clenched his fist.
"I will instruct them to attack the Coalition fleet. While the humans are busy fighting a war in the sky... we will nab a ship."
It was a crazy notion. It was dangerous. It was bound to make for an explosive fight.
"In other words, you want to start a war to steal a car?" Vane snorted, laughing. "Count me in."
"The only way," I said. I looked at the book in Kael's hands. "We must find the Twin. We must balance the world."
I switched my gaze to Ryker.
"And maybe... the Void Heart can cure you," I whispered. "If it is able to calm magic, then perhaps it can calm the voices in your head."
Ryker's gaze met mine. For a moment, he appeared vulnerable.
"I hope so," he muttered. "Because I don't know how much longer I can keep the door shut."
He turned to the Commander.
"Get your radio ready, soldier. We're going hunting."