Late at night, many hours after bidding goodbye to Caleb, Shana, and Shias’ group, Delilah made her way back to the underground ruins. She used an entrance Marcus had revealed, one that wasn’t crawling with Hunters and Investigators like the normal entrance from Grimoire’s public library.
But she didn’t go straight to where Marcus, Maribelle, and Isabelle were waiting. She didn’t go straight to the ancient underwater city. Instead, she went to the well, the deep pit that looked into the heart of the Earth, where darkness dwelt.
A wry chuckle sounded as Delilah’s footsteps touched the bottom of the steps. “Knew I’d be here, huh?” Alice asked.
“I had a feeling,” Delilah said.
At the edge of the well was Alice, hands in the pockets of her skirt, head tilted down to stare into the well. “I knew you’d know. But I didn’t know how.”
“You looked at it strangely.” Delilah came to stand next to her. “Multiple times. Like you had a feeling about it.”
Alice smirked. “You read my mind off of something so small? Guess you know me better than I thought.”
“So what is it?” Delilah watched Alice’s black eyes, which glistened in the faint light.
“You know the whole thing with Valgwyn?” Alice asked. “And Jormungand? The way that Valgwyn’s arrows… they don’t do anything to me. Or rather… it’s like… I can just absorb it, and then spit out that Darkness, but in a totally harmless form. And it’s all because of what Jormungand did to me. But I was thinking…” She nodded down into the well. “All that Darkness in there. What if I could just soak it all up, or drink it, or whatever, and then spit it out in a powerless form. That would be useful, right?”
“I think… that would probably be a bit much,” Delilah said.
Alice shrugged. “Yeah. I don’t actually know how much I can take. And… well, it can’t be that easy. I was just thinking.” She never looked away from the well. “The Darkness… isn’t it… kind of magnetic?”
Delilah looked down into the well. She didn’t get that sensation at all. Just like when she’d been around the living Darkness in the Library of Solitude, she felt repulsed by the blackness, by the wicked aura it exuded. She couldn’t see it — the Darkness still festered far below, out of sight, ever since Marcus intimidated it. But she could feel it. And she hated it.
“Not getting that vibe, huh?” Alice asked. Delilah looked over, to see Alice finally looking at her. Alice cocked her head to the side. “You doin’ okay?”
“Wh-what do you mean?” Delilah asked, cursing herself for stammering.
Alice chuckled, and her black eyes flickered to white. “You’ve got that sort of look. Like you’re sad, you know?”
“I…” Delilah sighed, slumping her shoulders. “Yeah.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Alice took one step away from the well. “We could stay here if it’ll be long, but the walk to the city entrance is a pretty long one too, so…”
“Let’s walk while we talk,” Delilah said. She started up, Alice beside her. “I… the last time I saw Fae was last Christmas. She’d been getting more and more distant up until then, so I was already kind of… annoyed with her. But then last Christmas… she didn’t get any gifts for anyone. She didn’t say thank you for any of the gifts she received. She barely talked to anyone, and she left long before the rest of us to go back to her dorm instead of staying at Greyson Manor with all of us for the night. And I… I was so angry.” She balled her hands into fists. “It wasn’t long after that, that I gave up on her. I disowned her, as much as the little sister can disown her big sister. When I saw Shana getting ready to go try and reach out to Fae, I snapped at her. Told her Fae shouldn’t be considered part of our family.” She paused, walking in silence for a bit.
“I haven’t… seen Fae,” she continued. “Not since last Christmas. All along my journey, I’ve seen Caleb, and Shana, and Shias, and so many others. But I never saw Fae. I heard about her a little bit, now and then, but not much. But even so… at some point… I stopped being so angry.” She unclenched her fists, letting out a slow breath. “The longer the journey went on, the more I saw the others but never saw Fae, the more I… I started to hope… that I could just… say I’m sorry.” Her voice shook. Tears stung her eyes for a moment. She swallowed, blinked, refused to let them fall. “Then… everyone’s home, except for her. She’s the only one missing, and just when I started to think about her, hoping she’d be there, too… she shows up. But she was… like that.” An image of Fae, bruised and battered in Madeline’s arms, filled her mind. “I almost went to talk to her. They say you can still talk to her, to her soul, and she can respond through the sojourner. But…”
“It’s not the same,” Alice said.
Delilah shook her head. “It’s not that. I… I was just too scared. I stood outside her room for hours, but I couldn’t even knock. I can’t… do anything for her. All I can do now is… wait. But once she’s better… I wonder if I… can actually say it, then.”
Alice chuckled, and Delilah stared at her questioningly. “You’ll be able to,” Alice said.
“What makes you say that so easily?” Delilah asked.
“You’re hopeful,” Alice said. “But in a good way. Addie’s all… ‘everything’ll be okay because love!’ and it’s so stupid. Caleb and Shana give off that vibe, too, but I don’t know them well enough. But you… I think you’re more hopeful than they are. You get that hope isn’t easy. That good things don’t happen just because you wish for them. You know what it costs to accomplish the big things. You don’t… take hope for granted. I really like that. You know?”
Delilah found herself smiling, and fighting back tears again. She nodded. “Thanks.”
“I couldn’t have learned to hope from the others,” Alice said. “But I got lucky. Because I hung out with you instead of them, and you… you taught me how to hope. So… I should be the one thanking you.”
As they walked, Delilah noticed Alice twirling the sword-shaped pendant that was a gift from Addie in her fingers. It was the shape of a silver rapier, and the silver color reminded Delilah of Alice’s scissors that she used as a weapon. “What’s that?” she asked, nodding to the pendant.
“Something I asked Addie to make for me,” Alice said, holding it up. “I… was starting to find my scissors distasteful. And Belle-Belle said I needed a sword.” She twirled the pendant once and it pulsed with white light, transforming into a long, silver rapier with a beautiful, elaborate handguard. The blade gleamed softly with its own light that reflected in Alice’s eyes. “Pretty awesome, huh?”
“Really awesome,” Delilah said, gazing in awe at the sword. “Addie made that all by herself?”
Alice twirled the sword a few times, showing off elaborate flourishes with a casual ease. “She can make just about anything, you know? As long as she’s in her house, anyway.”
Totally amazing.
Delilah laughed softly. “Isabelle was right, though. That outfit does look best with a sword.”
Alice chuckled, saluting with her rapier. “It does, doesn’t it?” She twirled the blade once, and it pulsed with light, shrinking back to its pendant form. “And it’s so portable. She did a great job.”
They reached the entrance to the underwater city, where Marcus, Maribelle, and Isabelle waited. “What took you so long?” Isabelle asked, eyeing the girls with wide, curious eyes. “We’ve been waiting a long time!”
“Sister chat,” Delilah said with a smile. Alice grinned beside her. “Sorry about the wait. We’re ready if you are.”
“Come along, then,” Marcus said, smiling as he turned towards the long tunnel into the city. “Let’s see if we can find clues about the Key of the World.”
“You think we’ll really find something here?” Alice asked.
“It’s where I first learned of the Key’s existence,” Marcus said. “We’ll see if anything remains in the old library. Failing that, I have a few other places we can look.”
Delilah, Alice, and Isabelle all craned their necks back as they walked. The tunnel was glass, so they could see into the depths of Grimson Bay through its ceiling and walls. At night, with no moonlight or starlight to illuminate them, the waters should have looked so murky. But the city’s keystone had done more than open the path to the city. It had lit up the whole city with the same blue glow of the walls in certain areas of the underground portions of the city they’d left. That blue glow tinted the waters, and though they couldn’t see far, they occasionally saw small fish flit by here and there.
“This was the Spire of Light,” Marcus said, pausing in the center of the first tower. “It served as the gateway between the tower portion of our city and the tunnel portion, and, when it stood at its full height, it was the tallest structure besides The Gate. At the top was a beautiful domed observatory, its crystal roof filtering in all light brighter and more beautiful than from whence it came.” He tilted his head back, gazing longingly up the tall, open shaft of the ruined tower.
“It’s still beautiful,” Maribelle said, smiling. “Though empty, though holding only echoes of what once was… it is still beautiful.”
Delilah nodded. The shimmering blue stone rippled and pulsed. The openness let light fill the space, and motes of dust filtering through shafts of light looked like gleaming cerulean stars.
“We continue along the lower paths,” Marcus said. He started towards the left tunnel. “We’ll go this way, through what was once the market district, until we reach the old library. That’s our first stop, and hopefully we can still find some useful knowledge there.”
“This tower’s totally empty,” Alice said. “Not even furniture left. What if there aren’t any books left in the library?”
Marcus chuckled as he led the way down the tunnel. “Don’t you worry about that, Alice.”
“Oh right, you don’t like giving straight answers.” Alice sighed, walking with her hands shoved in her pockets.
The market district saw more of the same from the Spire of Light — empty, gleaming interiors devoid of furniture or any other décor. But the structural design held clues. Wider, more open spaces were well-formed for holding shop stalls and booths, and tunnels were shorter, linking together wide, open areas that often used a multi-tiered design, more densely layered than the open simplicity of the Spire of Light’s ground floor. Tower by tower they continued, and the longer they spent in the market district, the more Delilah could visualize what it had once been. A bustling, open bazaar, full of shops and easy walking from one to the next, full of people. There were no spaces for shop interiors, so all spaces were seamlessly interwoven with each other, making for a place that would have been lacking in privacy, but… perhaps that was the point.
It was once such a lively, wonderful place. Full of life and light, and people who spent their days in joyful harmony.
Marcus…
She watched Marcus’ back as he led the way ahead of her. He walked so calmly, the same pace and stature as always. But…
He hasn’t been back here. Not since it was evacuated, not since the well was sealed.
What… must this be like for him…?
“Just up ahead,” Marcus said as they entered a new tunnel. They emerged from it into the widest tower yet, with two sets of spiraling stairs around the perimeter that crisscrossed each other’s paths as they wound their way up. All throughout the space were seventeen squared pillars that shot straight up, unbroken until they reached a ruined ceiling dozens of stories above.
“This is the old library?” Isabelle asked, trotting out to the center and spinning in a circle, taking it all in. “Where are all the books?”
“We didn’t record our own knowledge in books,” Marcus said, moving towards one of the pillars. “Our methods were less portable. But also much more permanent.” He pressed his hand against a thin line along the wall of a pillar, and a moment later, a vertical slice — about two feet high and less than an inch wide — jutted out. He held that slice and pulled it further, revealing a long tablet covered on both sides with intricate carvings.
“Whoa!” Alice rushed over to stare. “How many of these are there?”
“Accounting for the loss of the upper levels…” Marcus mused for a moment, “Forty thousand tablets remain. Give or take a few hundred, of course.”
“What’s this one all about?” Alice asked, examining the tablet Marcus had extended. “Ooh, it’s got lots of pictures to go with the text.”
“Yes, we always meld words with illustration,” Marcus said. “It’s a more holistic approach to passing on information as accurately as possible. And a wonderful way of crafting fiction, as well. This particular piece is the third in a series detailing the history of the city. It’s this low because it’s considered foundational knowledge. The higher we go, the more likely we are to find what, specifically, we seek.”
“Because we’re looking for stuff about the Key of the World,” Delilah said. “Did your people ever talk about it?”
Marcus nodded. “I only ever heard vague, passing rumors of stories, but they’re enough for me to know that more information must be here somewhere. It wasn’t anything I was interested in at the time, and once I was, it was too late to return here.”
“But you could’ve just done the keystone thing whenever,” Alice said.
“Until now, that seemed too great a risk,” Marcus said. “I thought every precaution was necessary, even with the primary seal broken, to help stem the flow of Darkness.”
“Help us understand how information is organized here,” Maribelle said. “Then we can make more educated guesses about which spots to pull from.”
“How do we even touch the higher parts of the pillars?” Isabelle asked.
“The stairs move,” Marcus said with a smile. “And there are a few other concessions. Allow me to demonstrate. And…” He paused at the bottom of the stairs with a thoughtful expression. “Well, I should really see if everything is still working properly.”
“You do that, gramps,” Alice muttered, her attention glued to the tablet he’d pulled out. Delilah joined her as Marcus started up the stairs.
The carven illustrations showed the early days of this grand city, with The Gate still under construction. It was a beautiful, elaborate display that used the entire table to tell this piece of history. Text was gracefully integrated with the illustration, making for a very engaging reading experience.
“Here we are,” Marcus said, and the girls looked up. He was halfway up the stairs, which warped and slid towards the nearest pillar. Once he was in reach of it, he tapped a mark with his foot, and a stone walkway emerged around that level of the pillar, letting him stand and walk around it to all of the various tablets. And with another tap of a marker, he extended the walkway so that it connected to all seventeen pillars at the same level. “No matter where you are, you can reach all of the pillars at that level and never miss a tablet.”
“That’s amazing!” Isabelle said, racing up the stairs to join Marcus. “What’s on this level?”
“This level is entirely fiction,” Marcus said. “The ones here are akin to folktales and fairytales, stories passed down for many generations before finally being recorded.”
“So where do we go to learn useful stuff?” Alice asked.
I… really want to read the folktales and fairytales of Marcus’ people.
But Delilah knew that they needed to focus on gaining information at the moment. Still, she made a mental note of the level Marcus indicated, in case she had a chance to come back here with free time.
Marcus showed the group three separate levels that might hold the answers they sought. Every single level was marked by a symbol on the pillars, and while many were faded, none of them were beyond discernment. Delilah ended up taking the top level, just below the ruined ceiling, which was marked with a symbol of a compass with wings, which Marcus said marked this level as a place of information on “lands beyond.” Alice joined her, but they spread out on the walkways, Alice starting at the opposite side as Delilah.
“Retrieval” is what Marcus called the act of sliding out a tablet to read — they never detached from the pillars themselves, but they were at a decent height for Delilah to read easily while standing, and they could be rotated on an axis to allow for easier reading if one was taller or shorter. Marcus, for instance, usually ended up tilting the tablets upward, while Isabelle had to tilt them down. Delilah was close to being too short and needing to tilt them down, but she stubbornly refused to do so.
I can handle this just fine as I am.
She retrieved several tablets, replacing them when done. Skimming rather than carefully reading every single bit and looking over every single illustration took a force of will. Each tablet was marvelously intricate and detailed, and so beautiful. A surprising thought came to Delilah’s mind as she browsed for clues.
Fae would love this so much.
The simple thought brought up a dull ache in her heart. Her conversation with Shana, Shias, and Madeline about the Key of the World had done the same. Because…
Fae should have been a part of that. I’m grateful to Madeline for so much, but…
She caught herself on the edge of a sigh. Replacing the tablet she’d been on, she moved to retrieve the next.
Every single one of these is a totally different place. Most are Locations in the Enchanted Dominion, and most are ones I’ve never even heard of. The Winding Road, the Crystal Sigil, Moonfall Gorge, Rainfall Canyon…
But no clues about the Key so far.
She kept everything she knew of the Key in mind. Everything written in the incomplete book, all the clues she’d gleaned from Revue Palace. Looking at all of these various Locations made her think of what Maribelle had mentioned.
The First Bell Tower… it’s a city, but built around the actual Bell Tower itself. And apparently there are three. Somehow they’re linked to the Key of the World.
If we could get clues about those, where they are and how to reach them, that would be best.
Or places of knowledge… there are the many libraries in Starlight Spires, but those could take ages to comb through. I hope we don’t have to resort to that. Maybe Selphine knows something, since she has a lot of books and sources of knowledge.
But even the Library of Solitude didn’t seem to have many clues, and it’s the largest library in the universe. We can’t just run around to every library or repository we can think of. Marcus thinks there could be clues here. So hopefully…
Delilah paused, staring at the tablet she’d just retrieved. Two magnificent giants flew through the skies — giants that Delilah recognized.
Solla. Lunos.
There they were, beautiful and majestic as ever. The tablet itself had some fascinating bits of information as well. There was mention of the two as the “First Summons.” But that wasn’t elaborated on. What did it mean? Alice and Delilah both had thought they were Summons of a kind they’d never seen or imagined before, but what did it mean to be the “first” Summons? There was also a great deal of talk about time and space, the intrinsic link between the two, and how Solla and Lunos had a “unique relationship with time and space due to their original home.”
Original home? Wait…
…time… and space…?
Delilah’s eyes widened. The visions that Solla had shown her. Her appearance to Marcus on the Moon, long before she’d ever been born, when he first gave her the Key.
Solla… did you… really transport me through time and space?
But… that’s… impossible… isn’t it?
What was their original home? Is it…
Delilah strode around to read the tablet’s opposite side, which showed the pair of magnificent giant whales soaring high…
Her eyes widened further.
Solla and Lunos were soaring into the sky, bearing one majestic key that looked as if it were also three keys. And there was no mistaking it, even as Delilah took out the Key around her neck to compare.
That’s… the Key of the World.
They’re… they’re carrying it?
She read quickly, but so much of the text talked in vague terms and heady conceptual musings about time and space. It wasn’t until more than halfway across the tablet that Delilah found something more substantial.
Solla and Lunos were… involved in the forging of the Key of the World? “For the Key was forged in their home with their aid, and they then bore it from there to places where the Key would be safe and secure from those who might seek to use its power for evil.”
Forged in their home… time and space…
But what is their home? Where was it forged?
Delilah read all the way to the end, but was left hanging. She stared for a while longer, re-reading sections. But there was nothing more to learn here. She retrieved the next tablet, and the next, all around that pillar, and then all around the adjacent pillars, but not a single one was even tangentially connected in its contents to Solla, Lunos, or the Key.
“Marcus!” Delilah called down. “I found something, but… it’s incomplete. Where would I find anything continuing this story?”
Marcus hurried up, and everyone else joined as well. Marcus read over it, and then his expression fell. “What is it?” Alice asked.
With a sigh, Marcus indicated a small crest at the inner corner of the tablet — a pair of wings intertwined, as if in an embrace — and then pointed up at the ruined ceiling. “The crest denotes where the story’s continuation is, and unfortunately… that continuation no longer exists here.”
“It’s… gone…?” Delilah asked, gazing up at the ruined ceiling.
“Well it’s underwater or something then, right?” Alice asked. “So we just go for a swim and find it out there.”
“Everything that has been ruined is lost forever here,” Marcus said. “The old library was once three times this height. But now… where we stand is the top level. All else has been lost, save what still exists in memory.”
“And you never read this or the others related to it?” Maribelle asked.
Marcus shook his head. “As I said, I had never read directly about the Key before the city was evacuated. Now more than ever I wish I had.”
“So it’s a bust,” Alice said.
“No,” Maribelle said. “This is valuable information. We can speak with Solla and Lunos and see what they can tell us. And Belle-Belle and I found information about the Bell Towers. We know the location of the second and third, and were likely about to learn the location of the first before we were called up here.”
Delilah placed her hand against the tablet, gazing longingly at the incomplete tale it told. The truth was so close, so near, and yet she’d come away with only a fragment of it. A useful fragment, but…
No. I mustn’t lose heart.
This is a big step forward. And Solla and Lunos are around, just like Maribelle said.
She thought of the great underwater city, so many places she still had yet to see, so much left still to do. She thought of Grimoire, of her home, of how everyone else had left but her, and once she left, her parents would be alone again.
But the wider universe was calling, already, so soon after she’d said goodbye to everyone else.
I can’t be conflicted now.
Mom and Dad understand. They’ve been so kind and supportive of all of us. And they’re doing a lot here to help Grimoire handle and prepare to fight back against the Endless Night.
We’re separated, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t united.
She clutched the Key around her neck, turning back to face her group with a resolute stare.
This is my role in all of this. My purpose.
I won’t delay in seeing it through.