Chapter 2
1398 Words
2
I blinked at him. "Help with what? Dusting?"
All humor fell from Crates's face as he shook his head. "Unfortunately, the favor I ask of you is quite serious. The gods of the world must be returned to their ancient home."
I arched an eyebrow and looked up at Xander. "Have you ever dealt with a god?"
He shook his head. "None but the fae."
"The fae may be immortal, but they are not gods," Crates spoke up. He half-turned back the way he came, but kept his gaze on us. "Come with me. I have something that will explain what I mean."
He led us across the path to the circular platform that hovered over the void in the center of the library. There, on a pedestal with a book stand, lay a large, thick tome. The leather cover was brown, aged by countless years, and its binding was worn from countless uses.
Crates stepped to one side and gestured to the book. "This is of what I speak."
We stepped up to the pedestal and studied the pages. The book was opened to a wide picture in the style of medieval paintings that stretched across both pages. The right-hand page showed scenes of fields of yellow grain, many rivers, thick forests, snow-topped black mountains, a wide desert, and open plains. The areas all came together around a single silver-colored tower of stone.
On the opposite page were human figures all pressed together and facing the other page. They wore white robes and their heads were surrounded by halos. There were men and women alike in the bunch of two dozen people, but they all had the same expression of longing as they gazed upon the beautiful geography.
Xander set his hand over the part of the right-hand map with the open plains and furrowed his brow. He looked to Crates. "Is this not a map of our world?"
Crates smiled and nodded. "It is. All the realms of the dragons and those beyond your control."
I pointed at the figures. "So those are the gods?"
His smile faded as he again nodded. "Yes. They were tempted by the beauty of this world and came down to reside among its inhabitants in the hopes of alleviating their eternal boredom. That is why they descended from their world to this one twenty thousand years ago."
Xander and I started back. "Twenty thousand years ago?" he repeated.
A smile touched the corners of his lips. "In the life of an immortal that is hardly a day, and in their world that is nothing."
"So where exactly is their world?" I asked him.
"The world you have glimpsed of late, with all its shades of gray at a standstill, is the one in which the gods reside," he explained.
I winced. "No wonder they like our world."
He pursed his lips and nodded. "Yes. Theirs is a dreary world without time or beauty, an empty reflection of all the joined worlds, if you will. That is why this world holds so much interest for them, but their presence causes only harm."
"What harm could they be causing after being among us for so long, and how can we be of use?" Xander asked him.
Crates frowned and raised his hand. The pages of the tome flipped on their own to a spot further back in the book. Another map of our world was revealed to us, but the geography was changed. The plains of Cayden's realm were scorched black by fire. A volcano sat where once the Heavy Mountains proudly stood. The Island of Red Fire was gone, swallowed whole by the ocean.
Xander's eyes widened as he reached out and brushed his fingers over the area that represented Alexandria. The city was a mess of ruins with a tempest in the lake.
I looked up at Crates who studied us carefully. "Is this what could happen, or what's going to happen?"
"It is a possible future should those gods that remain not be drawn back into their world," he explained.
Xander lifted his gaze to Crates and pursed his lips. "How can we do this?"
Crates's eyes fell on me and he smiled. "With your unique gifts."
I held up my hands in front of me. "Wait a sec. You're talking about me going up against gods? My little water dragons could barely take out that psycho red dragon!"
Crates chuckled. "The experience on the Island of Red Fire changed you more than you realize. It has granted you with abilities beyond that of a mere half-fae, otherwise you would not have been able to defeat the Red Dragon in his full form."
I wrinkled my nose. "So I'm what? Three-quarters of a fae?"
He smiled and shook his head. "No, you are something more than a mere fae. I believe in your old world it is called evolution, but that is such a poor word. It cannot begin to recall the immeasurable awakening that has occurred within you, and continues to change you." He paused and furrowed his brow. "I believe the term 'transcended' has a better grasp on what has happened to you."
I looked down at myself and frowned. "I hate to break it to you, but I don't feel 'transcended.' Hell, I don't feel any different at all."
He arched an eyebrow. "Not even a little?"
I bit my lower lip and turned away from his prying eyes. "Well, I. . .I've kind of been hearing these voices."
"And?" he persisted.
I frowned and shrugged. "And what? It just sounds like a bunch of people whispering around the corner."
Xander frowned. "For how long have you heard these voices?"
I shrank from his stern gaze. "Since after we fell into that pool. I just thought I was imagining things."
"What you hear are the voices of the gods, noises which are beyond the plain of normal humans, and even many fae," Crates told me.
"So I'm not going crazy?" I asked him.
He chuckled and shook his head. "No."
My shoulders drooped and I let out a heavy sigh. "Well, that's something, but I really don't understand what hearing voices is supposed to do for me."
"They are supposed to help you save the world."
My shoulders fell and my face drooped. "Seriously? Didn't we already do that?"
Crates shook his head. "No, or rather, you saved this world for but a moment. The threat presented by these gods and their destructive power will lead you over your travels and test your strength as nothing else has."
"How do these gods differ from the fae?" Xander asked him.
Crates smiled. "Fae are mere children in comparison to the gods. A Mare fae may move the tides and a Rus the wind across the plains of wheat, but a god is capable of upending entire oceans or uprooting the ground to create a mountain."
Xander furrowed his brow. "That is a great deal of power."
The librarian nodded. "Yes, and that is why I ask you to do this terrible task."
I cringed. "There's got to be somebody more qualified than me. You know, like some other god."
He looked past me at Xander and smiled. "There is someone equally qualified."
I looked over my shoulder at my Dragon Lord and arched an eyebrow. "Have you been hearing voices, too?"
He shook his head. "No, nor have I felt any effects from the episode in the pool."
"But you were able to defeat the Red Dragon, he who had fulfilled the tenth generation promise of power restoration," Crates pointed out.
Xander shrugged. "His mother was not a true Maiden so he could not be the fulfillment of the tenth generation."
Crates took a few steps back away from us and tucked the book under one arm as he raised his hands together beside his head. "Then I hope I am not making a horrible mistake." He clapped his hands twice in quick succession.
I heard a flutter of wings above us, and a horrible screech echoed down from the lofty heights of the library. Xander and I tilted our heads back and looked up at the glass domed ceiling. The shadowy form of a familiar beast shot downward toward us.
Xander wrapped his arms around me and pulled me away a second before the beast slammed down on the spot where I had just been standing. Its eagle talons dug several inches into the hard stone floor and cracks spread across the stone to where we stood. The creature raised itself to its full height and glared at us with its bright golden eyes.
It meant death, and that death would be ours.
- Writer
