“Uhummm,” his smile widened into the most kissable grin.
I stretched up on my tippy toes and took hold of his lips in mine. It felt so right, as though we fit together like two perfectly matched puzzle pieces.
He slid his hands down and intertwined his fingers with mine as we kissed. It didn’t last nearly long enough before he pulled at me to follow him into the house.
“I’m sooo tired,” I yawned.
“It’s the country air,” he said. “Does it to me too, but you can’t sleep just yet.”
“No?” I wondered what was next on his list.
“We’ve got some writing to do and we still need to meet up with your friends. Shall we?”
“Yes,” I grinned.
“Alfred!” Henry hollered. “Wake up and come quickly! We have work to do.”
We entered the study and Henry quickly got to work, taking a pad of paper and starting what appeared to be a letter.
“I saw your assistant Valen tonight,” I said.
“Hmmm,” he mumbled, not looking up from the paper as he wrote.
“You knew he was meeting up with Ludo tonight, didn’t you?” I asked.
“It’s always sad knowing that the path they’re choosing will ultimately cause them so much hurt.”
“Then why didn’t you stop him?” I asked.
“Because then I’d be taking away his choice, and as far as I remember you don’t like the idea of being directed against your will,” he said. He took an envelope from his desk, folded the letter and placed it inside.
“Well I don’t think I’d mind if I knew I was going to do something that would hurt me.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” he said looking up at me. Standing up from the desk, he tucked the envelope into his vest pocket.
“Did you get the Troth?” Alfred got straight to the point as he hurried into the room with his hair especially frazzled and still wearing his pajamas.
“Yes, twice,” Henry glanced at me. “Although, I’m afraid she may come looking for it, or the owner of the shoe.”
“Shoe?”
“Yes, the one that set her palace ablaze!”
“Ablaze?”
“As in fire!” Henry assured. “It seems that Lady Tali didn’t quite understand the concept of less is more,” he flicked a sarcastic glance my way. “But we haven’t much time to converse, as we have yet to seal Ludo’s fate, and Tali needs some rest as you can see her day has long been spent. Go fetch the key to the laboratory, will you? And send Willow in, as I need to go over some details with her.”
“Yes of course,” said Alfred and he scurried down the hall, singing a tune that faded as he left. “La da da, yiddle diddle dum, the mother of the deep sea is said to hold the study key, is said to never frighten me, diddle yiddle dum....”
Henry then motioned for me to sit in his chair. It was oversized and matched his desk with talon feet at the end of each leg. It was exactly like the chair I had sat in back at the school that day that seemed like a lifetime ago. I lowered myself down into its plush red leather and slid my hands into the familiar wood groves at the end of the arms, just as I had done before. I remembered wondering what kind of man it was that owned such a chair. Wonderful, I thought glancing up at him. The man who sits here is altogether wonderful. I felt oddly unworthy of sitting in his place.
“The chair becomes you!” he said, gently pushing the chair and I towards the desk where the Troth sat. “I am going to dictate some words to you.”
He leaned over my shoulder, reached across to open the book and flipped through the large pages until he came to a blank one. “You must write down the words exactly as I tell you. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said quietly. “But I think it might be easier if you write it yourself.”
“Easier is not always best,” he smiled. “I’m going to teach you how to write with Spiritus.”
“Your pen?” I asked and my breath hitched as he slid his finger unexpectedly over my shoulder and along my neck. Goosebumps covered my body and I felt an electricity between us as he pulled at the chain from around my neck and lifted the pen up from under my corset. The pen glowed white as he lowered it into my hand, just as it had glowed back under the water of Lily Palus.
“Yes,” he whispered near my ear. It was unfair the way his voice teased, causing all the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. “You will hear me for a while and then Spiritus will take over. When it does, let it.”
“Is it even okay for me to use your pen without the Myth here?” I whispered.
“Hmm,” his breath swept past my ear. “I suppose we’ll soon find out.”
He slid a metal container in the shape of a bat towards me. I recognized it from the study back home. Lifting the hinged lid revealed an inkwell that was filled with black ink. Henry cupped his hand around mine and guided me to dip the tip of his pen into the dark well.
“Notice how Spiritus draws the ink up into itself,” he said, pushing my thumb against a slightly raised area on the side. The button acted like a plunger, pulling the ink into the pen’s hollow silver base. Henry slowly directed Spiritus to the top of the blank page, but before it touched the book he let go of my hand and a drop of ink fell from the pen’s tip, splotching onto the paper. The black liquid bled into the fibres of the page that was lit up brightly from the glowing pen. He whispered, “Lustro Basilicus.” Spiritus immediately began to move. It was as though it too had ears to hear and a will to write the words of its owner.
“Created by my imagination you were a light to this world.” His soft voice resonated through me like a wave of sad music and I closed my eyes to fully listen.
“Given a choice, however, you have stolen yourself away and have taken advantage of my love for you, turning all I have given you against me.
You are no longer Lustro Basilicus the Queen of Light, but with trickery you have become Ludo, authority of deception.
Even now the armies you collect and deceive to follow you are building up against me. You pillage and plunder until nothing but wasteland remains, initiating a time of storms and unrest.
The storms will rage without ceasing and will wreak havoc upon the land around you. You will feed off the hungry and deceive the weak. Your destructive armies will increase in numbers until you control a force so strong that nothing will dare to stand in your way. The end of Evoluii will appear inevitable and yet remnants of a select few remain; a handful of hope. Small as a mustard seed they will plant themselves in fertile soil. They will band together and muster up good against you, but knowing they cannot defeat you, they will charge their attack against your armies, rendering them useless, as they wait patiently for the Myth to arrive. It will be a time when the sun itself will cry out against you, and refuse to set. Suspended, it waits for the Myth to appear.
You will search for the Myth, but not find her. You will hunt for her life, but she will be gone. You will chase rumours and speculate plans for she has what you want - the key to your destruction.
Now as the seal is torn open, even by your own hands, your ruse is over, as you yourself have unleashed this fate that is due to you.
The Myth approaches. Even now she comes just beyond the trees, as the smell of devastation surrounds you. Look around. Your own army has begun to turn against you, as you enter your last moon. Your fate herein is sealed, hidden for you to now open.”
Then he stopped and sighed. I opened my eyes and looked down at the words my own hand had written. Henry stood back and I turned around to see him. His eyes were soft.
“What now?” I gently asked.
“You must seal these words for a time yet to come,” he walked over to the fire and taking hold of a candle that sat on the mantle he bent down and lit the wick in the fire’s flame. Returning, he placed the candle on his desk, reached into the top drawer and pulled out a
small red stick.
“Fold the page and close the words you have written,” he said.
I folded the page vertically towards the binding, just as he instructed, so that the words I wrote could no longer be read. He held the red stick and the candle over the book, allowing the flame to lick the tip of the stick. The red tip softened as it heated, then dripped down onto the edge of the folded page.
“Seal it,” he said.
I looked up at him, not understanding how. He glanced at the pen still in my hand. I followed his eyes towards the flat circular end with the letters HT&M engraved on it.
I understood what I had to do. I pressed the seal into the warm puddle of wax.
“Easy now,” he whispered.
Lifting it slowly from the cooling wax I saw the embossed image had been reversed.
“Myth,” I read under my breath. “It says Myth.”
The scripted letters on the seal that had appeared as a fancy HT&M now in reverse clearly read MyTH.
“So this was the Myth’s pen all along; not yours,” I said.
“It is both,” said Henry. “Each having its part, we share Spiritus, but I shouldn’t bore you with such matters, and I’m sure you’re anxious to be on your way.”
“Well, yes,” I said, but my desire to leave was not as pressing as before. It was as though I was torn to be both here and there, but I urged my thoughts to the pleasures of home and simply ended with a, “Thank you.”
Willow suddenly appeared at the doorway.
“Ah! Come!” said Henry when he saw her. He motioned for her to enter the room.
“You are a trusted friend Willow Moon,” he said. “Your father Cory Phaeus should be proud. The time of the Myth draws near and I have called you to seek out the Troth and guard it.”
“Where shall I begin to look for it?” she asked.
“Find the Myth and you will find the Troth,” he replied.
“But no one knows who the Myth is, so how will I know when I’ve found her?”
Henry reached into his vest pocket and pulled out the letter he had written earlier. “She has been a mystery for many moons, but a day is coming when the sun will rise red in the east, and she will be made known. Take these instructions I have written for you, and study the prophesies that have been handed down to you and your kind.”
Willow’s violet eyes were wide as she looked down at the folded piece of paper he held out to her. She appeared ambivalent about the task he was giving her, but obediently took the paper.
“Be patient, wise and trust your instincts, for they are better then you realize. You must find her, for she will have the Troth you seek. Remain with her until she is safely hidden,” said Henry. “Then take the Troth and hide it well. Willow...” he paused and she looked up softly into his eyes. “It is with trepidation that I send you to hide the Troth, for it comes as a great burden. Be selective in the guardians you choose and show nothing of this letter or the Troths whereabouts to Valen.”
Willow’s brows lifted sadly, as though she knew of Valen’s downfall, but longed for it not to be true. Henry softly cupped his large hands around her tiny ones and the paper she now held.
“His eyes are not his own now and he cannot see what we wish to keep hidden from Ludo.” He spoke the sad truth without colour or distortion, yet with a gentle assurance in his voice that seemed to lighten her sad face.
“What if Ludo finds out we have it?” she asked.
Henry let go of her hands and the letter. “Remember, the future is written without error, and the seal that binds her destiny can only be opened,” he leaned towards her and whispered something into her ear that was too quiet for me to hear, but I didn’t need to hear it; I had already heard it in the vision she had given me, when her life delicately straddled between death and hope.
“Godspeed,” Henry said quietly, as Willow exited the room and Alfred returned happily singing, “...Yiddle diddle dum!” He had a large smile over his face and his white hair was a menace.
“I think you’ll be needing this,” he said briskly, handing me my knapsack. Seeing our crestfallen faces, he quickly replaced his smile with a pout. His eyes bounced back and forth between Henry and I, and his brows twitched up and down trying to find the most appropriate expression for the moment. Seeming unable to find one, he simply turned and exited the room.
I glanced at the knapsack he had brought me. The top was unzipped and I could see that my clothes and sneakers had been washed, folded and placed inside.
“Shall we go meet up with your friends then?” Henry held out his hand for me to join him. I put my hand in his and let him lead me up the stairway to where Alfred was already opening the secret passage to the laboratory with his key.
Inside, the round window looked out over the land I had become familiar with. A town that had once seemed so foreign now felt like home.
“Will I ever see you again?” I asked.
“You will be seeing me sooner rather than later,” chuckled Alfred. “Although I will be waiting quite a while for that day. I should mark it down so I can put on a pot of tea for your arrival. It seems odd to think I might already be having tea with your friends.”
“Goodbye Alfred,” I said, leaning in to give him a hug.
“Now, now,” he stammered. “We should bid our goodbyes quickly so that our hellos will come even sooner.” Alfred stood by the doorway and motioned for Henry to join him, but Henry didn’t move.
“I suggest we take leave Henry as you wouldn’t want the wind to have its eye on you when she leaves. You’d be taken along with her,” he chuckled.
But Henry didn’t return the laugh. Nor did he motion for the door. “I’m sorry Alfred, but that is exactly what I must do.”
“What in heaven’s name do you mean?” said Alfred. “Leave at this most dangerous time? Ludo will be scheming against us I’m sure.”
“I know what she is up to, but she will not harm you, as you are the only connection she has to finding the Myth. Don’t be fooled; she will be keeping a close watch on you and all you do, and this is why it is ever so important I am gone for a time. Evoluii needs to walk its own path for a while.”
“But I can’t live, what is it... forty-five thousand suns without your help!” said Alfred. “You left me before and I barely managed a few months.”
“That was a different world. A world where you forgot much.”
“I can’t let you go Henry.”
“You can Alfred, and you will because it is written as such.”
“But how will I know what to do and what to say?”
“You will not be left without help, I assure you. When help is needed, it will come.” Henry picked up the Troth. “We will assist from another time, as much as we can.”
Henry took my hand and pulled me towards the window.
“The people must never know of my leaving and Ludo should think I have died at her hand,” he said to Alfred. “It will give her a false sense of safety. The Troth will be safe with us for a time as the seal cannot be broken until the proper hour has come and the Myth has arrived.”
“When will the Myth arrive?” asked Alfred.
“You will know it’s time when Ludo’s army has woken.”
“But I didn’t even know she had an army!” said Alfred looking desperately confused.
“All in good time, my dear friend. All in good time.”
Alfred’s face became somber, as though he knew that there was nothing he could say or do to prevent the departure of his friend.
“Well, let me at least say goodbye then,” said Alfred. “I do not want to forget this time.”
“Not ‘goodbye’,” replied Henry. “Rather, ‘until we meet again in another time’. It will be a new day and we will celebrate together, for the time of the Myth will then be at hand.” Henry hugged his friend and gave him a pa
t on his back, then Alfred turned and left the room.
“Alright then, we need a word,” Henry said as he flipped through the pages of the Troth.
—
We watched as the opposite twists and rotations that had brought us back in time were now going to bring us ahead to the future we had left. The hand whirred back up to the top where it had started and Henry read a sentence directly from the Troth, “Is it safe?”
The window began to turn and shards of glass started to slide out of place just as they had done before, creating the jumbled view of town; like a puzzle whose pieces were yet to be connected. The metal frame kept turning, and slowly the chaotic colours and shapes through the glass became more discernible, until the last shard of glass fell into place and the town of Lockhart was in clear view.
“Is it safe?” came a voice out on the steps. “Safe to come in now?”
“It is dear friend,” said Henry and Alfred stepped out from the stairwell into the doorway with tears streaming down his face.
“You’ve been missed old friend,” said Alfred, as he embraced Henry tightly.
“And to think, I haven’t missed you at all,” laughed Henry.
Just then Justin and Emily rounded the door and ran to greet me with a most welcoming hug.
“I have put on a pot of tea, as we have much to discuss,” said Alfred. “So much has happened since you left so many suns ago.”
“Yes, I’m sure you have much to tell,” said Henry.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Hello and Goodbye
It was a celebration; a reunion with new stories to tell and old memories to share over a pot of steeped tea proportioned plentifully with sugar, and especially large pieces of Ethal’s famous apple strudel.
“What have you been eating?” I asked Justin, who had grown over six inches since I last saw him, which was less than a day ago for me, but I quickly learned they had in fact been busy for over a month. Having arrived at an earlier time, they spent the last month sending Ludo on a wild goose chase through Lockhart. They did a great job stirring up the townspeople with rumours the Myth had arrived in town and Ludo took the bait, nearly catching up to them at one point, but it kept her far away from Demoror Ari where our bodies had laid dormant.
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