Within the silence

chapter 7

The morning air was crisp, sunlight streaming through the slats of the blinds in Lance and Ivy’s apartment. The stacks of papers and photos from the night before still littered the coffee table, their weight now more mental than physical. Ivy stood at the sink, rinsing out a mug, her mind elsewhere. She could feel it—the pressure of what they were about to do, the creeping paranoia that made her glance over her shoulder even in their own home.

“We sure about this?” she asked, turning to look at Lance. He was leaning against the counter, his jacket already on, checking the battery on his flashlight. The gesture felt deliberate, a way to keep his hands busy. His face was tight with focus, the tiredness in his eyes evident but ignored.

“We don’t have a choice,” he said simply, slipping the flashlight into his pocket. “There’s too much we still don’t know. If Dominion really is as big as we think, we need every scrap of information we can find. Eliza went to that library for a reason.”

Ivy nodded, drying her hands and grabbing her own jacket from the back of a chair. “Fine. But we do this fast. In and out. I don’t want to spend more time there than we have to.”

“Agreed,” Lance said, handing her a small notebook and a pen. “Just in case we find something worth writing down.”

As they headed out the door, the unease followed them. The abandoned library wasn’t far—tucked into an overgrown patch of land just beyond the edge of the city. It had been closed for years, deemed unsafe and irrelevant by the city council, but to Lance and Ivy, it was a goldmine of secrets. The last time they’d gone, the journal they’d found was a revelation. But that had been before they knew to look for Dominion, before they understood the depth of what Eliza had been hiding.

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The library loomed ahead, its facade cracked and weathered, ivy creeping up its stone walls like a protective shroud. The front doors were chained shut, rusted from years of disuse, but Lance led Ivy around to the side, where a broken window offered a narrow entrance. He climbed through first, his feet crunching on the debris-strewn floor as he landed inside. He turned to help Ivy through, and soon they were standing in the dim, dusty expanse of the main hall.

The air smelled faintly of mildew, and the sunlight that managed to filter through the grime-covered windows cast long shadows over the rows of empty bookshelves. Ivy shivered, pulling her jacket tighter.

“Let’s start where we found the journal last time,” she said, her voice low, almost reverent. “Maybe Eliza left something else, something we didn’t recognise as important back then.”

They moved through the hall with measured steps, their flashlights cutting through the gloom. It didn’t take long to reach the corner where the journal had been hidden—wedged into a false bottom of a crumbling wooden desk. Lance knelt and inspected the compartment again, while Ivy scanned the shelves nearby.

“Anything?” she asked, after a few minutes of searching.

“Not here,” Lance replied, his voice muffled as he reached deeper into the desk. “But Eliza was thorough. If she left more, it won’t be in the same place.”

They fanned out, checking beneath loose floorboards, flipping through forgotten books, and peering behind furniture that hadn’t been moved in decades. Time passed in near silence, broken only by the occasional cough as dust filled the air. The deeper they searched, the more Ivy’s tension grew. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t alone—that the shadows seemed to linger a moment too long.

Finally, Lance’s voice cut through the silence. “Got something.”

Ivy hurried over, her flashlight bouncing along the walls. Lance was holding a slim, leather-bound book, smaller and less ornate than the journal but clearly of the same era. He flipped through its yellowed pages, his brow furrowing as he scanned the cramped handwriting inside.

“It’s not hers,” he said. “Different handwriting. But look at this.”

He held the book out so she could see. Several pages were filled with cryptic diagrams and notes, but one word leaped off the page: Dominion. It was circled multiple times, connected by lines to names and locations—some of which Ivy recognised from the files they’d sorted through the night before.

“Lance,” she breathed, her pulse quickening. “This is big.”

“Yeah,” he said, flipping to another page. “And it gets weirder. This symbol—it’s the same one we saw on that letter Eliza had. Remember? The one with no return address.”

Ivy leaned closer, her breath catching. The symbol—a jagged, angular design that looked part rune, part seal—was unmistakable. If this was tied to Dominion, it was the closest thing to evidence they’d found yet.

“We need to take this with us,” Lance said, his voice firm. “If Dominion’s been operating this long, there could be more here—this could be a drop site, or—”

A sudden sound stopped him mid-sentence. The faint creak of wood from the far side of the library. Both of them froze, their flashlights darting to the source.

“Did you hear that?” Ivy whispered.

Lance nodded, his jaw tightening. He quickly slipped the book into his jacket. “Let’s go. Now.”

They moved quickly but carefully, retracing their steps to the broken window. The creak came again, closer this time, and Ivy felt her heart pound in her chest. Whether it was Dominion or someone else, she didn’t want to find out.

They climbed out, the fresh air hitting them like a splash of cold water. Once clear of the building, they didn’t stop moving until they reached their car. Only then did they let themselves exhale, the adrenaline still buzzing in their veins.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Lance took the book out and placed it on the dashboard. He glanced at Ivy, his expression a mix of relief and determination.

“We’re getting closer,” he said. “But someone knows we’re looking.”

Ivy nodded, her fingers trembling as she buckled her seat belt. “And we need to stay one step ahead. No mistakes, Lance. Not now.”

He started the engine, his jaw set. “Agreed. Let’s get to work.”

Back at their apartment, Lance and Ivy sat at the kitchen table, the mysterious leather-bound book open between them. The angular, jagged symbol stared back at them, etched into the page with an unsettling precision. It felt like it was watching them just as much as they were examining it. Lance tapped his pen against a notepad, frustration creasing his brow.

“This symbol has to mean something specific,” he muttered, tracing its lines in the air with the tip of his pen. “It’s not just decoration. It’s deliberate.”

Ivy leaned closer, her elbow resting on the table. “It looks almost like... a seal, maybe? Something official, but cryptic enough that only someone in the know would recognise it.”

Lance nodded, flipping through the book to see if the symbol appeared elsewhere. “It’s here a couple more times,” he said, stopping at a page filled with names and what looked like coded messages. He pointed to a corner where the same symbol was drawn, smaller but identical. “Always in the margins, like it’s marking something important.”

“Maybe it’s a location,” Ivy said, her mind racing. “A meeting point? A headquarters?”

“Could be,” Lance replied. He reached for his laptop and powered it on. “I’ll try reverse image searching it, just in case this pops up anywhere online.”

While Lance worked, Ivy picked up the book and studied the notes surrounding the symbol. Many of the words were cryptic, with some underlined or circled, but a phrase caught her eye: Edenvale Archive—Restricted.

“Edenvale,” she said aloud, frowning. “Isn’t that a town a couple of hours from here?”

Lance glanced up from the screen, recognition flickering in his eyes. “Yeah. Old mining town turned ghost town, right? It’s been mostly abandoned for years. Why would it show up here?”

Ivy tapped the words with her finger. “It’s tied to this symbol, Lance. Look—‘Restricted.’ That has to mean there’s something there we’re not supposed to find.”

He leaned back, considering her words. “A library, an archive… It fits. If Dominion’s real, and if they’ve been operating for decades or longer, they’d need a place to store their records. Somewhere out of sight, but still accessible.”

“And Edenvale fits that perfectly,” Ivy said, her tone growing more confident. “Who’s going to check an abandoned archive in the middle of nowhere?”

Lance closed the laptop and stood, pacing the small kitchen. “If it’s there, it might be the break we need. But we can’t just drive up and start poking around. If someone’s watching us—”

“—we’d be walking straight into a trap,” Ivy finished, her voice tight. “Yeah. I know.”

They sat in silence for a moment, the enormity of the decision hanging over them. If the symbol truly pointed to Edenvale, it could unlock the next chapter of their investigation—or end it permanently.

“Okay,” Ivy said, breaking the quiet. “We don’t have to rush in blind. Let’s plan. We can scope the place out first, make sure no one’s watching it. And if it looks safe, we go in.”

Lance nodded, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. “That works. And if we’re wrong, we can back out before anyone knows we were there.”

“Right.” Ivy stood, brushing off her hands as if the decision had lifted some of the weight from her. “Let’s get some supplies together—flashlights, maps, whatever we might need. If this place is as abandoned as it sounds, it’s going to be a nightmare to navigate.”

“Agreed,” Lance said, already moving toward his bag. “And let’s keep this between us. No phone calls, no emails—nothing Dominion could intercept.”

“Of course,” Ivy said. She hesitated, then added, “Do you think this is it? I mean, are we getting closer to what they’re hiding?”

Lance paused, looking her square in the eyes. “I think we are. And that’s what scares me.”

Their preparations were swift but deliberate. By the time the sun began to set, they were ready—armed with maps, flashlights, notebooks, and a shared determination. Edenvale loomed ahead of them, a shadowy destination promising answers but offering no guarantees of safety.