Second Chronicles of Illumination

by C. A. Pack

  ⌘They have already been threatened Pru Tellerence. Our mission is to mitigate the danger by undermining the continuance of war. If we don’t, who’s to say Lumi won’t be next.

  ◍They would not come here, unless they successfully conquered all the other realms. That would take a great deal of funding, effort, and time. I don’t believe we would have to consider the possibility of an attack on Lumi for at least another millennia. Possibly two.

  ⌘You are correct, of course. For now, we must focus on the twelve realms that make up the Illumini system.

  ★

  For several seconds after Marbol pulled the trigger of his sonic scrambler, nothing happened. Then, the soaring glass window he aimed the scrambler through—shattered.

  A unified roar erupted from the Terrorians who all turned to face the window.

  Marbol jumped off the box. “Stink bombs, NOW!” The boys threw a combination of stink bombs and firecrackers inside the window and then ran as fast as they could. The only one to stay behind was Marbol, who shinnied up a tree and repeatedly fired the sonic scrambler through the window.

  LOI

  CHAPTER 46

  One by one, the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft arrived at the Library of Illumination, and Jackson showed each of them into the conference room.

  At noon, Johanna entered the room, carrying a facsimile of Myrddin’s Memoir. “Thank you all for coming. As I said on the phone, Jackson and I have gone over what little information we have, and we’ve concluded that no one from the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft could possibly be posing the threat to this book. However, your help is needed to determine who is. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to invite you here, so we can discuss the problem directly with Myrddin through his memoir. Please, make yourselves comfortable.” As the wizards took their seats, Johanna looked at each member of the group and saw their eyes were all riveted to the book she held.

  Jackson nodded at her. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Johanna opened the book. “Myrddin, the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft are here to help us find whoever is trying to steal your life’s work.”

  A 3-D image of Myrddin appeared to hover over the pages. “What further information do you seek? I have told you all I know.”

  “Myrddin,” Edmund Beasom began, “how do you know someone is trying to steal from you?”

  “I don’t,” the image answered. “I only became aware of the problem after Cathasach came to me saying the book had been moved. He asked me if I had perceived any astral changes from within.”

  “And did you?” Robert Birk asked.

  “No,” Myrddin replied. “If someone had disturbed my work, it was done quite deftly.”

  Robert exhaled, almost imperceptibly. The tiniest hint of a smiled played at the corners of his lips.

  “Who do you know who would want to steal this book? Veronika Veselov asked.

  “I don’t know of anyone, anymore. Many years have gone by, and my colleagues have all passed on. I am blind to who would want to steal my work at this current point in time. Surely, what is contained within my collection is now archaic, and my spells and elixirs have been far surpassed by more effective charms and potions.”

  “No, my friend,” Mateus Ferrari commented, “your work remains without equal.”

  “Then you must prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, especially if the threat is coming from another dimension.”

  Zendali Zendaga leaned forward in her seat. “What do you mean by another dimension?”

  “Outside of our known world. I have traveled the astral plane, and there are realms, foreign to our own, where threats may lie.”

  Beck shook his head. “As far as I know, speaking with your spirit is the only other dimension I’ve ever encountered. How would we even get to another realm?”

  “As long as you hold onto your notion of earthly bodies, it may not be possible. You must be willing to give them up—to become one with the elements.”

  “Hah!” Edmund Beasom exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to do that for years, but can’t get past the second step.”

  “You cherish your own flesh and blood too much. There is much to behold beyond it.”

  “So what are we supposed to do?” Beck asked. “Kill ourselves to free us from our mortal chains?”

  “It is your mental chains that must be cast aside,” Myrddin replied.

  “Give me an example,” Robert said. “Tell me what I can do to cast away my mental chains.”

  “You must possess the ability to travel as sound and light by clearing your mind and becoming one of those essentialities. Once you control that ability, you can go anywhere.”

  A moment of silence ensued as everyone pondered Myrddin’s answer. They had all tried to master the transmogrification spell—purportedly with limited success.

  Johanna stared at Robert. “Robert, I believe you have had the most success with that spell.”

  He looked up at her, his eyes filled with fire, and then ice. “No more than anyone else,” he said quietly.

  “I think you’re lying,” she replied.

  ★

  The Romantican library doors swished open more loudly than Natalia Dalura expected. She prayed whoever had invaded her cupola, was too preoccupied to hear it. She slipped out to search for Dame Erato.

  The former curator was on her knees, pruning the fragrant blossoms that bordered her garden. She heard frantic footsteps and looked up just as Natalia rounded the corner of her cottage.

  “Dame Erato. I think we are being attacked.”

  “What do you mean?” the older woman asked, brushing dirt from her gloved hands.

  “I was locked in the library, about to shelve the last shipment of returned books, and as I climbed to the cupola, I heard footsteps and whispering above.”

  “Perhaps it was the overseers.”

  “No,” the curator replied. “There was a funny odor. The overseers smell like the flowers you grow in your garden. Whatever stood above smelled more like a chemical factory built in a field of rotting flesh.”

  “Terrorians?”

  “I think so. I would contact the overseers, but the Terrorians are in the cupola. What would you do in this situation?”

  “I would use my diary, of course. Horatio Blastoe gave it to me when I succeeded him as curator of this library. Come inside. We’ll contact him and he will ask the other overseers what we should do.”

  Natalia breathed a sigh of relief. Having an ally who was once an experienced curator helped lessen her burden.

  Several minutes passed before an answer appeared.

  We are aware of the breach. The libraries will soon be sealed, as will the portals. The invaders will be stranded.

  ★

  The overseers who traveled to the Romantican and Juvenilian libraries completed their assigned tasks from the cupolas, without having to engage the invaders. As they retreated, they sealed the portals causing a slight temporal rift, since the portals had not previously been sealed at that precise moment.

  ★

  No sooner had Johanna called Robert Birk a liar, than the whole room seemed to waver. Everyone’s gaze zigzagged from her to him and then back to her, until Jackson broke the tension by saying, “Ten will get you twenty Nero 51 just used the time machine to invade another realm.” All eyes suddenly diverted to him.

  “Time machine?” Matteus asked. “What is this, some kind of hoax?”

  “No, it’s…” Jackson turned to Johanna and caught her glaring at him. “Just a joke.”

  “Actually, it’s quite feasible. Haven’t we discussed this before?” Cathasach asked.

  “We talked about time travel,” Beck answered. “But not about a specific piece of apparatus or time machine that would make that type of travel easy.”

  “Who’s Nero 51?” Veronika asked.

  “He, uh, stole the time machine we borrowed and is using it to storm the portals of the Libraries of Illumination so he can invade them?” Jackson’s voic
e trailed off. He looked to Johanna for help, but she only glared at him.

  “This is ridiculous,” Robert Birk said. “We’re not accomplishing anything here. I’m leaving.”

  ★

  “Running away … Odyon?” Johanna asked. “You can’t, you know. The door’s locked.”

  His eyes narrowed for a moment, and then his face froze. His image wavered and Johanna pulled out the black cube, but her movement was awkward. Open, she commanded telepathically and suddenly Robert disappeared, but that didn’t startle her as much as what happened next. At nearly the same moment, Alianessa Anjou faded into wisps of gray smoke that were immediately sucked into the cube before the top slammed shut.

  “What just happened here?” Mateus demanded.

  “What happened here,” Johanna said quietly, “is that Odyon, the person responsible for trying to steal Myrddin’s memoir, got away.”

  Veronika pounded on the table. “What happened to Alianessa?”

  Johanna looked at the black cube in her hand before closing her fingers around it. “She’s in here.”

  ★

  Odyon. His secret was out, but what did it matter. He’d escaped the room in time, traveling as sound through the air vent. Inside the cupola, he used his shapeshifting abilities to change into a book on a shelf near the portals. He was familiar with the portal system. Back at the onset of the Two Millennia War, he had been the curator of the Library of Illumination on Mysteriose and had sided with Terroria and Adventura against the other libraries. When the tide turned against them, he had transmogrified into a book at the Fantasian Library of Illumination knowing they would never knowingly destroy a book. In time, he escaped the library and set out to make his fortune on Fantasia. The portals had been sealed all these years, trapping him far away from Mysteriose, but now, all he had to do was wait for someone with a time machine to storm the portal system, and he would find a way home at last.

  THE PLOT THICKENS ... WITH MORE TO COME

  Turn the page for a preview of the next

  Library of Illumination adventure …

  THIRD CHRONICLES OF ILLUMINATION

  Escape to Mysteriose

  Coming soon from Artiqua Press

  THIRD CHRONICLES OF ILLUMINATION

  Escape to Mysteriose

  Johanna Charette and Jackson Roth stared at the little black box overseer Ryden Simmdry had given them. He’d created it so they could capture Robert Birk, otherwise known as Odyon—a powerful wizard who wished to steal the workbook containing spells and potions created by Myrddin Emrys—otherwise known as Merlin the magician. But Odyon, a shapeshifter, had transmogrified into light and sound too quickly to be captured. Instead, the tiny black box had sucked up the essence of Alianessa Anjou, the French member of the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft —the group entrusted with protecting Myrddin’s legacy.

  Johanna chewed her lower lip. The 18-year-old curator of the Fantasian Library of Illumination had failed. “I wish Ryden Simmdry was here.”

  “No you don’t,” Jackson countered. “Then we’d have to tell him we bungled capturing Odyon and admit the threat against the Library of Illumination is still hanging over us. He’s going to give us one of those disappointed looks, like my mother gives me when I’ve let her down. Let him stay where he is—thinking we’re saving the world.

  The remaining members of the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft glared at her.

  Veronika Veselov walked up to her and tried to snatch the box from her hand.

  “No.” Johanna twisted away from the Russian woman. “There’s only one person who can open this now, and he’s not here. I have to keep it safe until we find him.”

  Veronika turned to the other members of the secret group of eight wizards who had sworn to protect Myrddin’s legacy. “I’m leaving. Anyone who wants to further discuss this debacle, follow me.” She grabbed Cathasach’s arm and dragged the startled man from the room. The others followed, with Beck bringing up the rear.

  Johanna grabbed Beck, missing his hand, and wrapping her fingers around his wrist instead. He twisted and the Illumini constellation on her left palm rubbed against his sigil. Suddenly, she felt lightheaded. Her knees weakened and she thought she might faint. Her lids fluttered as her eyes rolled back.

  Beck’s brow furrowed. “Jackson, there’s something wrong with your girlfriend.”

  Jackson rushed to Johanna’s side and lifted her into his arms. He tried to walk away but couldn’t. “Let go of her.”

  “I’m not holding her.” Beck wriggled his fingers. “She’s holding me.

  “Johanna,” Jackson kissed her forehead. “Let go of Beck.”

  But she couldn’t respond. Waves of energy and power she had never experienced before surged inside of her and her mind became both clearer yet more confused than it had ever been before.

  “What did you do to her?” Jackson asked.

  “Nothing. I was walking out the door. She grabbed me.”

  Johanna didn’t know how much more of the energy surge she could take. Even as the strange new power entered her being, it sapped her own resources, and she felt herself shutting down—losing consciousness.

  Her grip on Beck’s wrist released when she blacked out.

  He pulled his hand away. “I’m going. I don’t know what you two are up to? If it’s no good, we’ll be back. Otherwise, think of this as our final goodbye.”

  “We’re on the up and up,” Jackson said. “This is Odyon’s doing, or didn’t you notice how he magically disappeared when we accused him?”

  “For all I know, he’s stuck in there with Alianessa. You’ve taken on the wrong group if you think you can pull one over on us. We weren’t selected for the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft because we’re weak. On the contrary, we’re the most powerful wizards in the world. Pray we don’t have to return, because if we do it won’t be pretty.”

  Jackson’s voice increased in volume but lowered in pitch. “We didn’t do anything.”

  “Two wizards are missing. If one or both of them are responsible for trying to steal Myrddin’s memoir, we would have dealt with it. Internally. You did do something, and you’ll have to pay for it.” He stormed out of the room.

  Jackson carried Johanna toward the hotel suite, hoping his mother still had some spirits of ammonia left. The wizards were arguing loudly as they crowded the front door.

  “How the hell do we get out of here?” Beck shouted.

  “Illumination,” Jackson said quietly, and the door slid open, allowing the wizards to escape.

  ★

  Johanna felt her blood surging through her veins. Her eyes flew open. “Where am I?

  Jackson knelt at her side with an ampoule in his hand. “The hotel suite in the library.”

  She admired the interior of the George V hotel suite. “I’ve never been in one of the bedrooms before …. Nice.”

  “Are you okay? What happened? I thought Beck did something to you and you were going to die. That’s one of Myrddin’s spells, isn’t it?”

  “I’m fine, I think,” she said sitting up.

  “So …?”

  “Something weird happened when I grabbed Beck. Like all his knowledge and power seeped into my body. He’s studied Myrddin’s spells quite closely, and now I feel like I know them by heart.” Her focus dulled as she searched her memory. “I do.” She grabbed Jackson’s shoulders. “I know them all by heart.”

  “How could you know that?”

  “I just do.”

  “I think you and I should go downstairs and have a little chat with Myrddin.”

  “He told me not to visit him in the vault anymore. He gave me the name of a book to use instead.” She searched her pockets. “Wait a minute, I wrote it down.” She finally pulled out a scrap of paper.

  “It’s a wonder you can fit anything in your pants pocket.”

  “What do you mean? Do you think they’re too tight?”

  He threw both hands in the air, palms facing out. “Don’t change a thing. They fit
you like a glove.” He smiled.

  She made a face. “You can stop staring now.”

  “Just admiring your form.”

  Johanna set the box down on the floor. “I hope Alianessa was telling the truth about not being able to transmogrify for any length of time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to set her free.”

  “I thought only Ryden Simmdry could do that?”

  “Maybe that was true, until now.”

  “Really. You think you’re that powerful—that you can undo the protective charm Ryden Simmdry placed on that box?”

  “Yes.”

  “Even if you can, I don’t think you should.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she’s going to be mad as hell, and may try to take it out on us, and frankly, I’m tired of being defensive.”

  “We have to do something. We can’t just leave her in there.”

  “Maybe you could just tell Mal. You know? Write something in your diary and then say, don’t you agree, Mal? He’ll try to figure out what you mean and might even pay us a visit. Then we can sort this out.”

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “It doesn’t sound very pro-active. It makes us seem like children waiting for a parent’s approval.”

  “Mal has never steered us wrong.”

  “No, he hasn’t,” she agreed, “and I don’t want to tarnish his reputation now, by dragging him into this.”

  “Well, that’s all I’m going to say. If you want to open the box, open the box.”

  ⌘You will find it is not possible.

  Johanna cleared her mind, envisioned a pinpoint of light, and forced it to grow larger before opening her eyes. A swirl of gray motes took form and within seconds, Alianessa Anjou appeared. The dazed wizard stood apart from them—staring.

  Ryden Simmdry inhaled sharply. ⌘Something has changed since last we met.

  “She held hands with Beck from the Eahta Frean fram Drycræft one moment,” Jackson nodded toward Johanna, “and said she knew all of Myrddin’s spells in the next one.”