Chapter Eleven

When I wake up the next morning, Desolin won't tell me a thing about himself or what he is doing here. He said, "Let me eat first. You'll know afterward." So, for the entire morning, I ate and sat in the tent waiting for Jaylin to get done.

He is taking forever. It's been a whole twenty minutes, and he is just now finishing.

Jaylin walks into the tent and sits down next to me, grabbing his bag. "I am only telling you what I know, Okay?" Nodding, he takes out pieces of paper from his bag and sets it down.

"I am from the West but live in the South. And, uh. My name isn't Desolin." Blinking my eyes at him, I sit there staring at him for a second. "Um. What?" A grin forms on my face as I point my finger at him. "I was right! You were lying!" He frowns. "Not about everything… My proper name is Jaylin." Waving my arms around, telling him to go on, he glares at me before continuing.

"I'm here because my father committed a crime. He did something he wasn't supposed to and I am here paying for his crime. But none of that matters. When I left, I stole some papers of the kings." He picks up the papers and moves beside me so we can both look at them.

"Look at what the king wrote." He points towards the bottom, showing me a brief paragraph. Jaylin reads the papers to me as I freeze when I read the first paragraph.

"The solstice, the place round-ears call earth, they will all be mine. I know what I have to do. I can destroy the realms with magic. Magic is the key to everything. No one will get in my way. The central region will be gone first. Turning to Jaylin, I swallow hard, making a split-second decision. "I have to go back."

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In Zion's room, he feels like he is water….

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It feels like I am underwater. Everything is so.. What's the word? Soft? No.. That's not it. The way I feel is too complicated to explain.

The feeling I have, it's like I am drunk. But I am, in fact not. Closing my eyes, my thoughts fade away, a battle scene coming into view instead.

There are screams, they are the voices from before. People are screaming for help but I can't help them. I am stuck, looking down at them as if someone is telling me to stay in this exact spot.

I am on a cliff, people screaming below me in a pit of fire that is engulfing them. The fire is coming to me now, getting ready to consume me. All of the people are long gone, that's for sure. I'm the only one left.

Waking up in a cold sweat, the feeling from before is gone and the screams of help are disappearing from my head. Glancing around, I launch myself from my bed and run out of my room. Servants jump out of my way as I sprint towards the library.

Running in, I run to the back and take the keys off of the librarian, unlocking the restricted section. Dashing down the stairs and to the underground library, I grab a lonely book that is laying on its side. Throwing it open, I flip through the pages until I find what I am looking for.

"There you are..."

Dreams of the future. Book one.

"Let's see what you have in store for me." There's a crash from behind me just as I was about to open the book.

Turning around, a guard and the librarian are standing there glaring at me.

"Zion? What in heaven's and hell's sake are you doing?" Smiling awkwardly, I look around. To my heavenly luck, an old violin is layed down on the floor.

"Just wanted to try and fix this up?"

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At the resting place, Jaylin is filled with fury...

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"What do you mean you're leaving, Lilac?" She throws up her hands and turns to me. "I mean exactly what I said! I'm leaving. My people are in danger and they don't even know it!" Reaching out, I grab her wrist and pin them to her side.

"This is one of those big decisions I was telling you about a second ago! You can't leave. If you do, your people will die along with everyone else." Lilac turns to me, tears forming in her eyes. "I need to be with my people, Des- Jaylin."

"Lilac! You can't leave. More people will die if you do. If we get to the South soon we have a chance of saving everybody! Including your people."

Lilac walks down the dirt road before stopping halfway to the corner. She stands there, letting her bag drop to the floor before turning back to me. Tears are streaming down her face.

She looks back at the road and back to me before picking up her bag and stomping back towards me. Everyone already left -including the trader- so thankfully, no one is here to see our fight.

Lilac pushes past me and back towards the tent, starting to take it down.

"You have to carry the tent." Grinning, I nod and help her take it down.

After we get it all packed up, we start down the road.

"We don't have a plan yet." Lilac shrugs. "The plan is to make it to the South, is it not?" Nodding, I look behind us at the sun coming up from the north. "What a beautiful day for an adventure."

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Back in Cadences' house, he can't get the feeling of dread out of him...

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The book of history, a book that is full of rubbish and things that aren't true, Probably. My father gave it to me for my birthday last year. He hasn't given me anything for my birthday this year, but that's okay. We haven't talked, what should I expect?

Glancing down at the book in front of me, I can't help but be filled with dread. My father said to never open this unless I needed to know the truth. Now that I do know, there's nothing I can do with myself but sit here.

The history of the realm I grew up in is so different then what I was told. Round-ears are called humans! My whole life everyone said they didn't know what they were called. So, we called them round-ears.

And the place they live on! It's called earth. Earth of all things. What is that even supposed to mean?

Everything I knew, everything I was told was just a big lie. Did the king know about this? He couldn't have. At least, I don't think he did.

Frowning, I walk to the door when there is a knock. Opening it, Zion comes rushing in.

"Cadence, Where is that pendant?" Shaking my head, I shut the door. "What do you mean? I told you, it's an heirloom." Zion shakes his head and starts to go through my things.

"No, it isn't. It's a weapon! Where is it?"

"I-I gave it to my dad! He has it." Zion turns slowly to me in a very calm way. "What?"

"My dad has it!"

Zion yells and picks up a knife, throwing it at the wall. It wiggles for a second and makes thud before standing still in the wall.

"Zion! What is going on?" He looks around and sees the book. "You have. it? YOU HAVE THE BOOK AND DIDN'T THINK TO NOT GIVE YOUR FATHER THE PENDANT!?"

"I didn't know if I should believe the book!" Zion rakes his hand through his hair.

"That pendant is the end of the world, Cadence! If we don't get that back, the Southern king will win this war. It is full of magic! He can take over all seven realms!"

"There's seven?"

"Yes! There's seven! There won't be if we don't get the pendant back!"

"We can't just take it. We need a plan for the gods sake!" Zion grins, a grin I haven't seen in a long time.

"Oh, I have a plan."