Chapter 78

A memory flashed through Alex's mind as he watched Oz prepare a drink.

'It's nothing personal kid.'

'It's just that you are standing in the way of something bigger than you can imagine.'

'Hah, what could be so big that you would drag me off to a dark and damp place to end my life? Wyatt, how much more further from righteousness will you fall? Go ahead finish me off in this dark place and then head back up and preach to everyone how they must follow the light.'

'Oh I will Alex, and they will believe every word of it, they will eat it up and pass it around for others to hear. You know why? Because there is an overwhelming number of stupid and gullible people living out there. Show them something with a tiny bit of truth and they'll believe it wholeheartedly.'

'So that's your only excuse? They're easy to deceive?'

'Exactly, but it wasn't always this way. When it's all over, we will be back to the way we should be. A supreme race of humanity, no apparent weaknesses only strength.'

'I wouldn't have expected such a thing to come from your mouth, your parents must be proud. so when did you enter a cult?'

'Shut it! Listen Alex, you've read the true book, have you not seen the whispers? Long ago we lived forever. The ground which is so hard that it can break the legs of the common man with a small impact, crumbled as we used our bare hands to till the soil. There is so much you still don't know, impossible architecture like the pyramids was easily assembled without the aid of magic.'

'I don't care about what your master told you, now be a good errand boy and finish the job.'

Alex sighed.

'I've seen these unrestrained humans, they are nothing like you think they are.'

The strange words that Wyatt had at one point spoken to him, were once cryptic, but now Alex could tell that they did indeed have a shred of truth.

He shook himself out of his thoughts as the librarian walked over to him.

"Here, take this." Oz said, handing him a cup.

"I'm guessing you have a way to send me home." Alex said before using his spacial energy to help him drink the cup.

"I do, I even have a method to create a permanent bridge between our worlds, but before you go, I brought you here because I need your help."

"I doubt I would be of any help, but I can try."

Oz shook his head.

"Of course you wouldn't be of any help, even if you have complete control of dummy over here's domain, he wasn't able to help either." Oz said getting a grumble from the shadow person.

"So?"

"So, just sign here. When the time comes and you are strong enough to help, you will be reminded of your promise to help."

"How does this work?" Alex asked as he signed the paper.

"Magic."

'Sure.'

"Good now I just need a bit of hair to test these rifts you came through." Said Oz, after taking the sheet back and looking over it.

He reached out and pulled a few strands of hair from Alex's scalp, causing him to recoil.

"That hurt."

"I know, but at least now we know your back in good condition." Oz said as Alex massaged his own head.

Alex stood up and stretched as he got a good look at place he was in.

His spacial energy washed over the entirety of it, and Alex realized that his dark affinity was indeed a lot stronger than normal. The scope of his power felt endless at this moment.

'Miles and miles of endless books.'

His focus settled on a book on podium. The familiar sight of runes from earth decorated it, not broken runes which he used everyday, but completed ones he had discovered back on earth. They seemed to be in a specific order and although Alex couldn't read them, when he focused on them, words seemed to appear in his mind.

"The book of life."

Oz coughed as he heard what Alex said.

"Enough snooping around my house."

"What is that that you are playing with?" Alex asked as his attention was drawn to the strange looking portal.

"These are the rifts you came through. Now tell me how you know the books name."

Alex paused for a moment, the portal was clearly visible, and so was the energy forming it. 'I can see them now.'

"The book? It's name was written on it."

'It's written on it. In a form that only a few people could possibly understand, But why, was it in the exact form that i could understand it?' The circumstances seemed too fishy to Alex.

"But I don't know why I can understand it."

"A very true statement, that I hope will be answered at some point. In the meantime, things aren't looking good for you, but also not that bad."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked as he walked closer to the portal and Oz.

"This world and your own are not set in the same time. The rift, knows this and actively tries to correct this."

"In other words I sent your hair through and it came back shorter."

"What does that mean?"

"Anything, but more than likely this rift will age, or de-age you depending on the circumstances. I can easily select whichever point in time though."

"Isn't this good? If we get it right, I can return to the exact moment I left."

The dark figure laughed from the side of the room.

"What?" Alex asked.

"You have no concept of what time is, that is what is funny." It said as it's inhuman laugh somehow echoed throughout the library.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what happens when you travel to the future?"

"You skip time and appear in a new place?" Alex said after thinking for a moment.

"You skip time and therefor, you forfeit any experience that would've been possible in the time between."

"And once you reverse it?"

Alex understood what he was getting at. "You lose the experiences that you did have."

"I will forget everything." Alex said before looking down at his… T-shirt.

"All of my belongings, were they destroyed?"

A sack appeared in Oz's hand. "Not all of them, I managed to repair your books. I couldn't call myself the keeper if I had let them go to ruin."

"At the very least you won't have to worry about them. I also have a plan to send you back, it will require a lot of work on your part though." He continued, only halting his speaking as he noticed Alex was staring off into nothing.

'A door? Has it always been there? It's the same feeling that I've always had, it felt so far away but I can see it.'

Alex reached out to the door, and as he did the door slowly moved towards his hand.

The two gods watched in wonder as grass and dirt began to appear, replacing the wooden floor without a sound.

'This is my mind affinity, I can understand what I'm seeing somehow.'

'It's not time, not yet.'

After a moment Alex turned back around. "What do I have to do to get back?"

"Err, ahem, you will need to help create a copy of your memories." Oz answered after he watched the grass and dirt that Alex summoned fade away.

"I can create a barrier that will protect them and allow them to resurface when time catches back up to you."

The dark figure cleared his throat.

He paused for a moment. "Oh and you have to give back his power, most likely it will be lost to the rift if you don't."

"That's easy enough. Can you transfer the power back to that dark place where we met?" Alex asked the shadow man.

"Of course I can."

Alex nodded and a dreary feeling settled in the room. Darkness cascaded from the shadow man suddenly, and a small grunt from him told Alex that maybe he was overestimating himself.

"I'll be going now, I've got my hands full." The now darker figure said before disappearing.

Oz turned back to Alex a happy smile on his face.

"Okay, my turn. I'll need you to focus on everything from your time here Alex, and while your doing that I'll do my thing."

After a few moments of thinking, Oz told Alex that it was done. "Phew, I wasn't expecting this much, but it certainly makes sense. Your memory is astounding."

A ball of energy with crystal formations appearing and disappearing within, floated in front of Alex.

"Now I'll just add a barrier, and done." Oz said as the ball disappeared.

"That's it?" Alex asked.

"Yup, come back soon." The librarian said as a rift opened up around Alex.

The familiar bright place did exactly what Oz said it would do as Alex's vision became blurry. After a few moments, he was unconscious. The ball of energy inside of himself, was unfazed by the energy of the rift and everything was going well.

Until chains shot out from Alex's soul and swallowed it.

The copied memories were further locked away as they disappeared within his soul.

After a while however, a few runes exited from within him and surrounded his body. Halting the process that the rift was going through to erase his mind. However if his now once again short hair said anything, most of what had happened, was gone from his mind.

——————

Alex sat up suddenly as he remembered what happened the night before.

'I'm alive?' He looked down to his uniform to see the damage that elf had caused.

"A T-shirt? Shit, I've been robbed!"

He looked around for a moment before he found a sack set down next to him.

'My books. I guess they weren't able to understand them, and just left them here.'

'Here.'

His spacial energy spread out as he looked around. 'I know this place! But that can't be. Did I die from the poison?'

'There is only one way to find out.'

Alex slung the sack over his shoulder and moved closer to the place where those strange beasts came from. From where he was tossed into another world.

- - - - -

A note: The book of life in this story reflects a dream I had which led me to writing it. A dream where I found myself being pulled out out of bed as I looked up into the night sky. Two nearly imperceptible masses pulled me into space with their gravity, and as I looked into each of them two words appeared in my mind 'Seven Years'. Of course the impending feeling of doom and the clear message, made me move towards something I wouldn't have ever done otherwise, write. I never had or even still have the time for it, and yet that dream still haunts my mind and I find myself wanting to finish the story even quicker. The use of many of my dreams and nightmares that are common for me and everyone else stem from this stories origin.