by August Arrea
I’m going to ask him about the Forest, Max’s voice suddenly echoed inside Jacob’s head. The new telepathic way of communicating with one another without having to actually use one’s mouth was one of the more useful things Zuriel had taught them.
Are you crazy? Jacob answered back while keeping his eyes directed forward like everyone else around him. You’ll get us into trouble.
Chill, mate…I can be discreet about it.
How do you discreetly ask about something inside the Silent Forest we’re not even supposed to know exists? Besides, did you forget the promise we made? Just leave it be!
You’ve got to be just as curious about what we saw as I am, Max argued back.
Even though their back and forth came with not one utterance, it quickly became apparent their ping-ponging of thoughts were just as disruptive as if they had been whispering out loud to one another under their breaths when Thaniel suddenly stopped in the middle of a sentence, looked to Max and asked with pointed irritation, “Curious about what?”
Jacob felt the blood drain from his face, especially when he could practically see the gears of Max’s brain churning away like the innards of a clock. He wanted to scream into Max’s head to keep quiet, but he dared not risk Thaniel overhearing any more trading of thoughts between the two of them. All he could do was sit back in his chair, cross his fingers and hope Max was smart enough to bite down on his tongue, and hard.
“Come now, Mr. Kelly, what apparently is so pressing a question to distract you from my lesson?”
“I was just wondering…,” Max began slowly.
Jacob felt his blood pump itself faster through his veins. “Yes? What is it you’re wondering?” said Thaniel.
“I was just wondering…are there any…female angels?”
There came a hushed snickering from the other boys seated around, except from Jacob who held his breath while almost reluctantly glancing back at Thaniel to see his response. The angel stood quiet for a moment with a perplexed look which Jacob had a hard time determining whether it indicated Thaniel was preparing to scold Max for interrupting his lecture with such a randomly ridiculous question, or whether he was crafting an answer for said random question.
“The topic of today’s lesson, Mr. Kelly, is the philosophical lessons of the emperor Marcus Aurelius,” said Thaniel finally, “not the gender of angels.”
It appeared to be the end of the discussion, and Jacob took a breath of relief.
Yet no sooner had he exhaled than Max’s voice sounded itself again.
“It’s just, I was sitting here looking around and suddenly realized that all of us here are…well, you know…men…”
“Boys,” Thaniel quickly corrected, “is the word I think you meant to use.”
There came more giggles, causing Max’s face to flush briefly.
“My point is, I don’t ever recall seeing or knowing an angel or Nephilim that wasn’t a…male.”
“And why, may I ask, do you find yourself preoccupied with the curiosities of sex? Are you suddenly in the market for a prom date?”
Thaniel’s off-handed crack drew even more snickers from the other boys.
“Just curious, that’s all, like any bloke,” said Max.
At first Jacob wasn’t sure what to make of the grin that slowly appeared on Thaniel’s face.
“A teenaged boy whether he be a Nephilim or a plain old mortal child is still just a teenaged boy, isn’t he?” asked Thaniel, and yet it was clear he wasn’t posing a question in need of an answer. “I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with you after class, Mr. Kelly. For now, however, I’d really like to get back to the lesson at hand. Unless, of course, you have any other urgent inquisitions.”
Max gave as subtle a glance as he could back over his right shoulder at Jacob who took the moment to mouth as clearly and succinctly as he could back to Max to SHUT! UP!
“I will take that as a no,” said Thaniel much to Jacob’s relief when Max begrudgingly sank quietly down into his seat. “Now then…”
It wasn’t that Jacob didn’t share Max’s hungry quest to figure out the mystery surrounding the Silent Forest. Truth was he had a hard enough time trying to concentrate on much else than the lady in the water, and it was only when his body slumped down into his seat and he looked upward toward the Library’s surrounding walls of books while silently muttering a prayer of thanks that Max had finally managed to seal his lips that Jacob realized the answers to the questions he was ping-ponging about inside his head were most likely right in front of him. Or rather above him.
~~~
Jacob had planned on going on his fact-finding mission alone later that same night after everyone had fallen asleep. It was well past midnight when he quietly tip-toed his way past his snoring roommates only to find Mist fast at his heels and threatening to blow his cover with a well-timed bark should he think twice of not allowing her to tag along on his secretive outing. Together they made their way through the quiet that had settled itself throughout Havenhid, but just as Jacob descended the stairway leading to the foyer and rounded the corner leading to the main corridor he nearly came out of his skin when he ran face-first into Max who casually stepped into his path from out of nowhere.
“Jeez…you just about gave me a heart attack! And how did you even do that?” Jacob, who could have sworn he saw Max sawing log with the rest of his roommates as he snuck out of his room, screeched breathlessly.
“Bloody oath, you’re a genius! Why didn’t I think of that?” Max replied, ignoring his friend’s inquiry into his Houdini trick.
“Think about what?”
“The Library,” answered Max. “That’s where you’re going, isn’t it? To see if it has anything on the Silent Forest?”
“Will you not do that?” Jacob huffed with exasperation.
“Do what?”
“Read my thoughts. It’s creepy enough when the Guides do it.”
“Then you should train yourself better in blocking what goes on in that melon of yours,” Max whispered in reply. “I can’t believe it didn’t dawn on me, myself. It’s so simple. What do you think you’re going to find?”
“I have no idea,” said Jacob. “There’s something about it. I need to know why it’s forbidden. And who that lady is.”
“You know, we’d probably have the answer now if you would have just let me prod Thaniel about it a little more during Study today like I wanted.”
“And risk him discovering we broke the cardinal rule about setting foot in the Forest? You haven’t exactly mastered the art of blocking your own thoughts, mate.”
Max didn’t attempt to argue Jacob’s point. “And you think the Library is going to have the answers?”
“Why not? There’s like a gazillion books there, and Thaniel said they hold a record of everything in existence. There’s got to be at least one that holds a clue.”
Jacob then suggested Max head back upstairs before the two of them got caught wandering around at such a late hour, but Max insisted on going along.
“You said it yourself. There’s a gazillion books in the Library. You think you’re going to find what you’re searching for on your own? You’d have better luck trying to spot a black cat in a coal cellar,” said Max.
Jacob couldn’t argue such logic. In fact, he welcomed Max’s company and help. If anything, it was his fault for dragging him into the Forest in the first place and opening this mysterious can of worms. It was only fair he had someone to share in all the yawning he would surely find himself dealing with during Zuriel’s class at the Crescent Scar in the morning.
~~~
Like the rest of Havenhid, The Library was noticeably quiet in its vast emptiness. The light was dim, giving the cavernous room an almost somber feel. Eerie even. The only sound to be heard was the scratching of writing coming from the Witnesses as they tirelessly continued to record the ongoing history of all existence. For some time, Jacob and Max stood in the center of the circle formed by the four books and perused
the events as the words miraculously inked themselves to the thick parchment pages.
There came a brief moment Jacob wished one of the books offered some news from home. Even if it was just a sentence or two telling how his grandmother was faring alone. And maybe a few words on Ty and Wray. Especially Wray. Yet he knew the chances were next to nil for such a thing when an entire world full of happenings was being archived before his eyes. Max, too, had a similar quiet look of longing on his face as he stared down at the pages and Jacob wondered what news his friend wished would somehow catch his skimming eye at that precise moment, though he didn’t ask.
“Weird, isn’t it, seeing it all being written down like this?” said Max. “Growing up you’d always hear jokes about some great book somewhere up in the sky keeping tabs on all the things people did. Now, here it is. Only there’s bloody four of them!”
Almost simultaneously their attention then turned to the endless number of books lining the walls in all directions around them and stretching upwards for countless stories. Or at least farther than the eye could see. Jacob remembered when he first stepped foot in the Library and thinking it would take someone a good full lifetime, and then some, to read even a fraction of the books lining the walls. Even one of immortal ilk, with endless years at his disposal, would find it a breathtaking challenge to consume so much knowledge, he imagined. And even if one managed to read his way from one end of the Library to the other, he debated whether any one brain, mortal or immortal, could feasibly attempt to store so much information without at some point imploding on itself. If anything, it made his head hurt just thinking about such a prospect.
Jacob and Max both looked to each other, their faces mirroring the same pained expression brought about by the shared realization of the needle they sought in the massive haystack before them.
“Where do we even begin?” asked Max. “It’s not like there’s any kind of card catalogue we can go to and look up ‘Silent Forest’.”
“Well,” began Jacob, as his eyes wandered upward along the many, many floors circling the Library overhead, “if I remember right, there was a whole section of books about Eden I came across a while back as I was nosing around somewhere around the forty-fifth—no, forty-seventh floor.”
Unlike the other Nephilim who much preferred the excitement of learning how to use their Graces or maneuver a sword to the stuffiness of the Library, Jacob, oddly enough, had come to favor the time spent in the massive hall of knowledge, though he made sure to keep such nerd-like tendencies to himself. While the other boys couldn’t wait to bolt from their seats the moment they were dismissed from Study, Jacob would more often than not linger behind and wander about browsing the endless shelves crammed with books. There was so much to learn, and all of it surprisingly interesting to him, and he found the more time he spent there, the more he was able to slowly memorize exactly the spot in the Library certain books he wished to revisit were kept, just as Thaniel had said would eventually happen much to everyone’s disbelief.
“Forty-seventh, huh?” groaned Max, squinting as he looked upwards at the great distance awaiting them before turning back to Jacob. “You wanna race?”
The challenge caught Jacob by surprise.
“Race? In here?” he replied as though the thought itself was sacrilegious.
“That’s right,” said Max with a sly grin. He then quickly stepped his way to the other side of the Library where a spiral staircase identical to the one a few feet away from Jacob stood. “How ‘bout it? Straight up. Winner gets served breakfast in bed for a week.”
Jacob gave it a quick thought then confidently took his mark at the other staircase. “You’re on!”
He readied a foot on the first step of the staircase and the second Max reached the end of a whispered countdown from five, Jacob set off in a mad dash up the spiral path in front of him. To anyone watching, Jacob would have appeared as nothing more than a blur of motion as he raced at an unnatural speed up the staircase. Within moments he had reached the forty-seventh story of the Library and barely out of breath. Surprisingly, however, Max was already there waiting for him sitting casually and relaxed on the railing of the balcony overlooking the rest of the Library. It was only when Jacob noticed Max was without his shirt that he realized he’d been duped.
“You believe this, Mist?” mumbled Jacob to his wolf companion who had made the long dash in just as equal a blur. “We’ve been outfoxed by a dirty cheater.”
Mist let loose a round of barks in Max’s direction in agreement.
“The bet was who could get here first, not how,” said Max, with a cunning turn of his shoulder to offer a peek of his wings which by now were nothing like the delicate things he first showed off at Broken Earth many weeks earlier. Since then, he’d been relentlessly prodding Jacob to make another attempt to get his own wings, but without success.
“Yeah, well, your stomach’s in for a rude awakening if you still expect to see me playing butler in the morning,” said Jacob.
“Dirty welcher!” grumbled Max.
~~~
With no plan of action of how to proceed except to just dive into the task at hand, the boys wandered off in different directions and began scouting through the endless rows of books lining the shelves. As Jacob stopped to skim through several of the bound volumes, he found he had indeed been correct about the location of the section of books dedicated to an eclectic and fascinating array of varied subjects on Eden. Everything from the different geographical spots to the different animal species and vegetation was documented. More than once, Jacob had to force himself with measurable regret to stop reading from whatever book or another had managed to engross him in order to refocus his concentration on the task at hand: finding something—anything—on the Silent Forest. Yet strangely there was nothing to be found.
After what seemed a good hour or so had passed with no luck, frustration began to set in as well as fatigue. Jacob had finished scouring the floor from one end to the other before climbing the stairs to the next. There he made his way along another balcony landing gently dragging his finger across the rows of spines lining the shelves. His nagging curiosity about the Silent Forest had begun to wane. The books were all beginning to look the same and the sound of Mist’s claws tapping against the floor as she followed alongside was like a metronome slowly making the lids to his eyes heavier with every tick. Suddenly, his feet came to an abrupt halt at the same time his finger came to rest on a particular book. It was almost as though the book was covered in super glue and dried instantly to the tip of his finger to keep him from continuing on in his search.
Jacob slid the book out from its place on the shelf. The worn binding revealed its obvious antiquity and Jacob was careful opening it. The first thing it revealed to him was a painting depicting Jesus hanging on the cross while a Roman soldier was shown running the point of his spear into his side. As he turned the page, Jacob’s eyes grew larger.
“It’s the Sword of Destiny. Just like Gotham showed me that day beneath the Tree of Life,” Jacob mumbled quietly to himself.
He began thumbing his way through the yellowing pages and familiar names long engraved in history jumped out at him: Saint Morris, Constantine, Charlemagne. Hitler.
“It’s all about the history of the sword. Before it became a sword, that is,” muttered Jacob to Mist, who sat watching attentively at his feet. “What are the chances I’d stumble across this without even looking?”
Then he remembered something Thaniel had once said about the books; how sometimes a particular book might find its way into a person’s hand, even when the person wasn’t looking for it. Which left Jacob wondering if this was one of those incidences, or just a spooky coincidence. He closed the book, but instead of returning it back to its place on the shelf, he tucked it protectively under his arm to take with him for a closer read later when he heard a whispering of voices. He moved to the edge of the landing and glanced over the wood-braided railing. Immediately, he was struck by how high up
above the Library’s main floor he found himself; much higher than the flights of stairs he felt he had climbed. The whispers came again, only this time swirling from somewhere higher above him.
“Is that you, Max?”
There was no answer at first to the echo of his voice as it rang through the cavernous room.
“Max…?”
“Up here,” came Max’s voice finally, though distant-sounding, from some unseen place higher above. “You gotta come check this out.”
Maybe he found a book on the Silent Forest, Jacob thought as he took to the spiral staircase once again, but with each passing floor there was no sign of Max. So on and on Jacob climbed, higher and higher, floor after floor, and then many more floors after, until finally he caught sight of his friend.
“Any luck?” asked Jacob. However, he quickly fell silent when he saw he was standing on an open landing where Max stood motionless with an astonished look on his face. And when Jacob followed the direction of Max’s stupefied gaze he quickly understood the reason.
~~~
Hovering high above, the convergence of numerous tree limbs had come together and entwined themselves to form a magnificent domed ceiling. Shafts of bluish, silvery light spilled down through three large oval openings in the dome revealing the moonlit night on the other side and illuminated the highest section of Library to where no spiral staircase extended its reach to the waiting balconies. There, many more books were housed. Only these were far more ancient-looking than any of the others found in the Library. And not just books. There was also entire sections of wall housing thousands upon thousands of papyrus scrolls rolled up tightly and stacked one atop another.
Far more curious, however, was the presence of three large birds. They were raptorial in appearance, yet unlike any species Jacob had ever laid eyes upon. Each was perched on the ledge of one of the openings in the dome, and with their necks craned downward and their fierce-shaped eyes instantly fixed on the two boys, they appeared to be anything but friendly.