Chapter 5: The Prisoner Behind The First Dawn
921 Words
Chapter Five
The Prisoner Behind the First Dawn
The chains screamed.
It was not the shriek of rusted iron.
It was the cry of forgotten centuries.
Every link that snapped released a sound so heavy with grief that the walls of the Library Beneath Memory shuddered. Ancient shelves toppled one after another, and countless books crashed onto the stone floor.
Some burst open.
Others dissolved into silver dust.
A few cried out with voices that sounded painfully human.
The gigantic hand continued forcing its way through the shattered doorway.
Its skin was black as volcanic glass, covered with glowing cracks that pulsed like veins of molten fire. Around its wrist hung the last fragments of enormous chains, each link engraved with symbols older than language itself.
The Bell Keeper fell to one knee.
His silver eyes burned brighter.
"He is waking..."
Mara's face turned deathly pale.
"No..."
"It cannot be Him."
The old man slowly bowed his head.
"There has never been another."
---
Elias stepped backward, unable to tear his eyes away from the monstrous hand.
"Who is it?"
The Bell Keeper remained silent.
Instead, he walked toward one of the towering shelves and carefully removed a weathered scroll sealed with black wax.
The seal bore the same closed eye Elias had seen upon the relic.
With trembling hands, the old guardian broke the seal.
The parchment was astonishingly blank.
Then, as though awakened by an invisible breath, words slowly burned themselves across its surface.
The Bell Keeper began to read.
«"Before the first sunrise...
Before the stars learned their places...
Before mankind received its first breath...
There was another kingdom."»
The library itself seemed to lean closer, listening.
«"Its ruler desired not power...
Not riches...
But remembrance."»
Elias frowned.
"Remembrance?"
The Bell Keeper nodded.
"He believed nothing should ever be forgotten."
---
The old man continued reading.
«"He gathered every memory...
Every joy...
Every sorrow...
Every secret...
Until his own soul became too vast for creation to contain."»
"The heavens feared him."
"The earth rejected him."
"So time itself built a prison."
Elias felt a chill race through his body.
"The Hollow King..."
Mara whispered.
The Bell Keeper closed the scroll.
"Yes."
"The first ruler ever erased from existence."
---
A deafening roar interrupted him.
The giant hand clenched into a fist.
The remaining chains exploded apart like strands of thread.
The floor buckled violently.
Cracks raced across the endless library.
From those cracks poured thousands of ghostly lights.
Not blue.
Not white.
Golden.
Each light carried a whisper.
"I remember..."
"I remember..."
"I remember..."
Mara covered her ears.
"They're escaping!"
"What are they?" Elias shouted.
"The first memories."
"The ones creation buried."
---
The gigantic hand slowly withdrew.
For one terrifying moment, silence returned.
Then...
Something moved beyond the doorway.
Not walking.
Breathing.
Every breath shook the library.
Every exhale extinguished another glowing book.
The darkness beyond the entrance slowly parted.
Two immense silver eyes opened.
They were filled not with hatred...
But unbearable loneliness.
A voice echoed from the abyss.
"I remember the sun..."
The words struck Elias like lightning.
He remembered the warmth of sunrise.
The colour of dawn.
The songs of morning birds.
Around him, hundreds of forgotten books suddenly burst open.
Their pages glowed with brilliant golden light.
The library was remembering.
---
Outside, in the city of Aranth, astonishing things began to happen.
Flowers that had withered years before bloomed again.
Ancient murals regained their faded colours.
Children suddenly pointed toward the eastern horizon.
"What is that?"
Adults turned.
Far beyond the mountains...
A faint streak of gold appeared.
Someone whispered a word no one had spoken since the Thirty-First Midnight began.
"Sun..."
The memory spread from one person to another like a flame passing from candle to candle.
Hope stirred.
But so did fear.
High above the city, the Collector raised its blue lantern.
The lights within it became restless.
It knew someone had begun restoring what had been stolen.
---
Deep beneath the earth, the Bell Keeper's expression darkened.
"He remembers."
Mara stared at him.
"Isn't that what we wanted?"
The old man slowly shook his head.
"No."
"If the Hollow King remembers everything..."
"He will also remember why he was imprisoned."
Elias swallowed hard.
"What did he do?"
The Bell Keeper looked directly at him.
"He discovered a truth..."
"...that even Heaven commanded time to forget."
Before Elias could ask another question, the Book of the Forgotten Hour slammed open by itself.
Its pages turned wildly.
Ink raced across them like flowing blood.
Then every page stopped at once.
Only a single sentence appeared.
THE WITNESS MUST CHOOSE BEFORE THE SECOND BELL RINGS.
The words glowed crimson.
Then another line formed beneath them.
TO SAVE THE WORLD... ONE MEMORY MUST DIE FOREVER.
The library fell silent.
Elias stared at the page.
"What memory?"
No one answered.
At that very moment, a deep bell rang somewhere beyond the walls of reality.
Once.
Its echo lingered.
The Bell Keeper's face turned ashen.
"The First Bell..."
He whispered.
"We have less time than I feared."
Far beyond the shattered doorway, the Hollow King's silver eyes slowly closed.
But his voice remained.
Soft.
Patient.
Certain.
"Elias Varen..."
"You already carry the memory that will unlock my prison."
A freezing wind swept through the library.
The pages of every book turned together.
And hidden among the whispering voices...
Someone laughed.
Not the Collector.
Not the Hollow King.
Someone else had been listening all along.
End of Chapter Five
Next Chapter: The Child Who Remembered Tomorrow
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD