The roiling of hopelessness and despair in my soul continued. I wished for everything to stop, for time to freeze so I could mend my broken heart. I wanted everyone to wait, to give me leave and to console me. I needed people to understand how difficult it is to be me. I wanted everyone to give up what they are doing and focus on helping me cope with my challenges. But there was no one in the room to hear my appeal for pity, for consolation and understanding. There was only me.
I felt spent. I was empty. Then the darkness came for me.
I saw them again, the multitude of people cowering from the power of the crown... There was a congregation of hundreds of people surrounding a throne sitting above a stage several steps high. The people were on their knees begging to be spared. They were shielding their eyes and faces from whoever was sitting on the throne. Then, the bearer of the crown stood. I could see her very clearly although her back was towards me. Her ashen-gray hair that fell way below her ankles was braided and secured by sparkling diamond stars. On her head sat the Obsidian Crown. She looked down on the people, frigid and devoid of emotion. The dark crown’s sharp and jagged edge glinted in the murky light of the sun. They screamed in agony, they begged for mercy, but she continued to be impassive. I was so close to her that I could almost smell her scent.
I circled around to face her. There was no surprise, no amazement on my behalf. Somehow, deep inside me, I knew what this dream was going to tell me: That she will put the crown on me as punishment. She wore a veil that hid her face.
The King Maker asked me to kneel before her. The people cried louder, shouting for leniency. But I did not cry. I did not beg. I knelt and asked to be given my punishment. She placed the crown on my head.
Then a massive energy burst emanated from the crown. The shockwave spread out like ripples in a pond. The people tried to run but there was no escape from the Obsidian Crown. I watched as the people touched by the blast disintegrated into dust.
When I looked up to her, she had blood trickling down her veil. The vision morphed into my reflection in the mirror of the bathroom the first time I saw the crown. With me staring at my own reflection with blood and water running down my face.
When I came to, I did not know where I was. The vision was so real that I was disoriented. My cell phone showed no charge so I had no concept of time. I realized I was in the Sanctuary.
I pushed the journal and the book away. I tried to get up but my whole body was still shaky and I had a horrible headache. My stomach grumbled as I sat back down on the couch. I leaned over and pulled my backpack. I found a chocolate bar and a soda. I unwrapped the chocolate bar and started to think about what the vision meant. I looked at the book and realized the page was readable to me.
How is this possible? We couldn’t read this before without a light shining behind it? Excitedly, I reached out for the journal and read through the page while eating my chocolate bar. What was the last incantation I looked at? I found the entry. There was no description of what the incantation does. It just said, “illuminare” and to the left of the spell was the word “blood”. I assumed that is the sacrifice that needs to be made. At least I hoped so because next to that hand-written note was a crude drawing of an open hand. This one I thought was the required action.
I grabbed the book again and opened it to where the silver bookmark was. There, on the right corner was a smudge of blood from my fingers from when I touched the page. The content was now in plain English. It said, “The Bearer of the Obsidian Crown”. I quickly read the passage from the page and the writing followed exactly what I saw in my dream. Except it didn’t say Abigail anywhere, and I was very glad for that. It just said the bearer of the crown.
I didn’t know if this was but I needed to try it. I shoved the last piece of the bar into my mouth and gulped down the soda. I looked at the journal again and found an entry for “Combat Strategies and Defenses”. I looked all over the open part of the book and those that were still locked for something that said that but there was not a section by that name. Then I had a thought.
I got up and said, “Illuminare, Combat Strategies and Defenses” and then looked around the room. Nothing happened. I looked at the journal again. Right below the word Illuminare was an entry that said, “Library = Golden Book + name of book”, the word blood and the palm again. I looked around and looked for a golden book. There were thousands of books in this library. I would never find it in time. I sat back down again. Then I remembered the grand golden table with the huge book on top of it. The table where I placed the Kerberian Box when we first arrived here. I grabbed the journal and ran around the fireplace. There it was, in front of the entrance. I looked at my wounded fingers and said, “Don’t fail me now,” under my breath.
I opened the large book, pressed my hand rolling my wounded fingers on the page for good measure, and said, “Illuminare, Combat Strategies and Defenses”. The book’s page turned into gold and the etchings started to glow one by one. Then it opened to the next, then the next. Before I knew it, the pages were flipping so fast I couldn’t see anything except for a blur of gold. It stopped on one page with one etching glowing white. Then the book went back to its normal state.
I wasn’t sure what was to happen next so I looked around and I saw a book glowing orange-yellow on one of the shelves. “Well you can’t be more illuminated than that!” I said aloud and picked it off the shelf.
The book was not translated so I looked in the journal. Right next to the Combat Strategies and Defenses it said, “hair or nails” with an oval with a flame-looking thing sign on it.
I looked at the book and in front of it was an oval-shaped locket with a flame craved into it. I opened the locket. I pulled a couple of strands of my hair and closed the locket. Nothing happened. “Oh this is frustrating. I thought magic is supposed to make things easy!” I said out loud. I looked at the locket again. It had that flame sign on it. I grabbed a candle and lit it up with the fire from the fireplace. Then I tried it again.
“Illuminare, Combat Strategies and Defenses,” I said and then lit up the hair. The locket closed on its own, leaving a fleeting wisp of smoke and the pungent smell of burnt hair. Soon I saw the letters change.
I opened the book to the first chapter, and the page was glowing white. Then the letters began to change into English. “Conjuring Fireballs and Practical Exercises”. Before I know it, I was plunged into darkness again. But there was no time to panic because in a half a minute, there was light once more. As soon as my eyesight was able to adjust to the sudden brightness, i realized it was a subdued sunlight and the weather was that of a mild summer. I was in a training ground. I found a man standing by the target range. He had a bucket full of swords and he was taking them out one at a time, inspecting each one. The he would run his hand over the blade. I could tell the blades were extremely sharp after his ministrations. Not knowing what to do next, I decided to speak with him.
“My name is Dionysios. I run the school’s armory and as the weapons master here, it is my responsibility to teach students Practical Magical Defenses.”
“My name is Abigail. Wait, did you say, school of magic? So are we going to do potions and stuff?” I asked, tentatively drawing from my one and only source of magical knowledge I have.
“Potions? Heaven’s Realm, no child. That would be useless in a real fight. If that is what you’re looking for, you can check out Spies and Subterfuge or The Subtle art of Assassination and Anarchy. This book is for open combat, and this chapter is for conjuring fireballs and learning how to use them. There are many others in this book but they are all techniques and methods for a face-to-face battle. And as far as the school goes, that’s a long story. We had to close the school under the New Dominion. The authorities felt that it no longer served the needs of the new world.”
“Oh...that’s sad,” I said, imagining a world without schools.” Well, how long is this going to take, because I’m really pre
ssed for time.”
“I need to check your basic knowledge first, then prescribe a learning plan. Then we schedule our first class and then you take exams that you have to pass to get to the next level.”
“What? I don’t have time for all that!” I protested.
He shook his head and muttered something that sounded like “Kids...” then abruptly, he said, “Let me see your hands.” I opened my hands and he checked my palms.
Great we are going to fight with palmistry! This is not going well. I really need to go but I also need to know this.
He continued mumbling to himself. “Hmm, born fighter...Extensive knowledge from past lives...” He looked at the back of my hands and then turned them over again, palms up. “Hold them up like that and don’t move.”
He then placed his palms on top of mine and I felt a current pass through between our palms. When he finished, he said, “It’s a crash course but it should get you started with the program. Now, show me how you throw me a fireball at that target.”
“What? I don’t—”
“Just think that you’re going to throw one and throw it,” he said rather impatiently.
I faced the targets and put my palm up and thought I was going to throw a fireball. In an instant, a red-orange flame erupted from my palm. It didn’t burn. It had a warm, tingly sensation, like my palm was being tickled by flower petals. Then I concentrated on the target and the ball sailed across to the target. I was off by several yards. “Aww, I’m never going to learn on time.”
“You can’t have expected you would get it the first try. Even the best marksmen had to study for a long time to perfect the art. Besides, your aim won’t be so bad if you would just stop telling yourself that you can’t do it. Stop fighting yourself. There are plenty other people who’d be happy to put you down. Why are you agreeing with them?”
None of your beeswax! What do you know, you’re a book character! This guy is getting annoying! And I am getting distracted from what I need to do.
“Now, try again.”
I took a deep breath and cleared my head. A powerful blue-white orb of flame emerged from the top of my hand. I looked at the target and pictured Kieran’s face painted there. The ball of flame sailed in a straight line and hit the target.
“Good, you’ve got the basics. Pretty soon you can conjure them by just pointing your finger.”
“I have? I just did two.”
“Someone has really neglected your education, huh? The crash course I gave you allowed for your mind and body to absorb training is extremely fast-paced. Once you get the perfect form, perfect combination of moves, it is embedded in your mind forever. Most importantly, your muscle memory also remembers it, forever. It’s as if you have done this a thousand times already. But two important things you need to know: hitting a static target is not the same as fighting a moving one. And the other is that doing magic is not free. It takes a toll on your body and mind, and in some cases, even your soul. You have much to learn, yet.”
“Thank you for teaching. But I really must go! I will come back. I promise,” I said. I didn’t hear half of the things he said and the half I did hear, I didn’t believe. There was no way someone could learn something that fast. Truth or not, I had no choice but to leave. I was burning precious hours. Ready or not, I needed to go.
“Until next time, Abigail.”
I left without saying goodbye. I’d been distracted for far too long. I must get to my mission.
I came out of the dream still holding the book and standing by the table. I was more exhausted than before. I must have stayed in the book for a long time. I grabbed another chocolate bar and soda and started eating ravenously. The muscles in my back felt like I had thrown a hundred fireballs. But the wounds on my fingers were beginning to heal. I made one bleed a little so I could use the blood for the book.
Somehow I could hear Hailey’s voice in my head, “Hold up. Don’t’ forget to put on the protective spell.”
I raised my hand over my head, focused my mind, and said, “Absconditum et arcane secretorum.”
Energy coursed through the room. I felt like I was enclosed inside a dome of energy. Even though I couldn’t see anything, I could feel the vibration of the force field.
“Ok I think it’s safe,” I said absently to a non-existent audience.
I dragged an old padded chair towards the golden table and placed Sir Arcturos’ book on top. It wobbled slightly as if something small and hard was under it making it tilt. Under the table cover was green gem about the size of my thumbnail. I picked it up and held it up in against the light. What a beautiful gem, I thought. It had a distinct smell. The sweet smell of Sampaguita that always reminded me of warm rainy days of the tropics. I placed it back on the table.
I opened the book to where the bookmark was and flipped a few pages back. I performed the incantation and the letters began to show up. The lines were going around the page in a circular pattern with no periods or commas, or any indication of where to start or where it ends. It was repeating the same words over and over again.
”Ayaiya, shimamamat uri-ah burrro matiyasha grrrgaramaya,” I said, trying to read the line in a circular format. To my surprise, the table moved a few feet away. I got up and walked towards the table but it kept moving away from me. I turned around to get the chair but it moved away and toppled over. I said it again and the enchantment faded. I went back to the table and stared at the page.
This might be a little too advanced for me, I told myself and flipped to the page after the bookmark.
I placed my palm on the page and instantly, everything went black.
I saw a hill with a big tree on top. At the foot of the hill, there was a kindly old man about three and a half feet tall.
“Welcome, my name is Acacia, I’m the school historian. Come; let’s get to your lessons.”
I held out my hands and he put his palms over them. Soon, I felt the warm energy flowing between our hands. If he broke contact, I didn’t feel it. The next thing I saw was the vision of three kings. Like a movie that has been set to fast-forward, I began to see images in rapid succession. I heard myself speaking as if I was under hypnosis.
“It started with the three kings... Tree of Knowledge... great war ensued when the king of the third kingdom invaded and took the other kingdoms for himself. He was given to wear the crown as punishment... Woe is the king whose greed and avarice exceeds its limit for the wrath of the Obsidian Crown, the Destroyer of Kings will bring him to nothingness for his name and his followers will be as dust in a sandstorm of time.”
She gave an involuntary shiver as the words had the effect of pouring ice water down the back of her shirt. That’s when I noticed I couldn’t move. I was saying the words that came into my head aloud.
Abigail, stop talking, I told myself but I couldn’t. The images continued to flood my thoughts and I started to recount what I was seeing again.
“Made of imbued obsidian ... The King to be punished will experience the folding of time and space upon him and those who are with him. He will relive all the pain and suffering he caused by his actions, until he is consumed with guilt...”
The picture of a beautiful fairy with black and blue wings filled my mind and a man with fair to brown skin and a handsome nose. He was tall and imposing in his tunic lavishly embroidered with gold thread.
“...Lilitha, the bearer of the crown at the time of the Ancients, favored the consolidation of the three kingdoms under the king of her choice...there was only one image of Lilitha.”
Then an image of the greatest flood I have ever seen. People drowned by the thousand, homes were devastated. No one in the world was left untouched.
“The first known use of the crown to invoke the Gunaw, a great flood that wipes out the entire world, was to destroy the dominion that she formed named FaeLilith. The balance of power was restored to the thr
ee kings and separate realms were created to protect those with magic from those who do not. Since then, the bearer of the crown became known as the King Maker...” Then I saw images of three knights placing the crown into the Kerberian Box.
I tried to pull my hand off the book to regain control. But it was no use.
More images flew by but the one that caught my eye was a picture of a second flood.“If at some point, the Destroyer of Kings sees it fit that all the three kingdoms making the Old Dominion must end, then the crown could be activated to invoke the Gunaw again to usher in a new world order,” I said aloud.
The image of the Kerberian Box took over, followed by a hand opening the latch with the black gem. That image quickly changed into the image of the bearer of the crown with a knife and a chalice with blood in it. The ceremony of the Passing of the Crown when the current bearer passes the crown of his own free will to the next in line...
“Open the Kerberian Box ...followed by the sacrifice of “the blood of the rightful bearer and the transfer of the crown to the next bearer—” As soon as I said the last step, I was released from the book. I pulled my hand away. I slapped my cheeks lightly just to make sure I was no longer under any spells.
I sat there staring at the book, thinking about what it all meant.
I went through the analysis one more time in my head. The doctor opened the box, they already took most of the doctor’s blood, she already gave them the crown. “Why doesn’t it work? It should work!” I growled in frustration. Without thinking, I grabbed the green stone from the table and held it in between my palms. I thought I detected a small tremor from the stone but dismissed it.
Unless the doctor is not the rightful bearer of the crown. But that’s insane. Everything pointed to the doctor. But it would make absolute sense why the crown is not working.
The Obsidian Crown of the Lost Dominion Page 19