The Broken Sigil

Chapter 11: The Book

  “The Mark, what is it? Should it behave that way? Are we in trouble?”

    Lucius paused for a moment as he sighed out and looked outside. “I don’t know…” he looked at her.

    “You don’t know!?” she couldn’t believe he just said that.

    “I don’t… I don’t know if anything will come through that gate when it will come, or what will it be, unless that book of yours has something useful to say that’d be swell, apart from that we are in the dark,” he finished as Cristopher entered the tent.

    “Well it just might,” said Katrina.

    “Might what?” asked Cristopher.

    “We are talking about a stupid book,” responded Lucius.

    “Well the hole is done,” Cristopher looked at him. “The dead are placed in it, I guess you could have the honors.”

    The three of them walked out of the tent, it was already dark, stars could barely be seen because of how much the sky was polluted in the Ashen Fields, and it didn’t help the fact that they were about to light up the biggest fire ever where they would burn those that sacrificed themselves. What struck odd with Katrina was that there was no need for sacrifice, according to the book that she was reading all it took was a simple chant that someone well trained enough could speak and it would open up, somebody for example an exile from the Northern Kingdom, or a witch for that matter. Something didn’t smell right it seemed like a trap or a diversion, she tried to warn Lucius and Cristopher but they were too busy burning the bodies, little did she know was that all she had to say was that the book she was after in the White City was written by Marcus.

    Cristopher was handed a torch from one of the soldiers as he then handed it to Lucius. Lucius took the torch from Cristopher and looked down in the hole, the muddy and bloody lifeless bodies made his stomach hurl, and the smell of rotting flesh was too much for anybody, everybody waited on him so that they would be done as fast as possible, he didn’t hesitate and just threw the torch in the hole. If the laws of physics and chemistry applied everywhere it would have been that the torch fell on the bodies and slowly the fire would spread across until it burned everything and there was nothing else to burn therefore it would have extinguished, however something else happened. As soon as the torch hit the ground a fiery eruption like a volcano shot upwards like a rocket. Katrina got scared and immediately ran up to Lucius hugging him and seeking protection with him. The shockwave from the eruption had pushed some of the soldiers on the ground, Cristopher who was alert at all times rallied the soldiers and had ordered them to draw out their weapons, he thought they were under attack. Lucius calmed the situation down and walked towards the hole that was burning, he looked down and it seemed like it should seem, just a normal hole with fire inside that burns the bodies, nothing out of the ordinary.

    “It’s alright,” he turned around and walked away from the hole.

    “Look out!” yelled somebody from the crowd, as Katrina had her sword drawn out and ran towards Lucius.

    “Get down!” she warned as Lucius ducked immediately allowing Katrina to swing her blade above his head. She screamed as she barely held on to the sword, there was a burning corpse that walked towards Lucius and she chopped his head clean off.

    “You saved me!” he looked at her, but she didn’t seem herself, she was in shock, she couldn’t believe what she saw, a man rose from the dead. She’s heard stories of Echo raising the dead but now witnessing it with her own eyes that were something else. She knew that danger is here already.

    “He was burning, yet he was alive…” she murmured. Cristopher and Lucius looked at each other knowing that this was a real thing and that all their lives preparation led to this, hoping they wouldn’t ever have to use it, but here it was. Cristopher as much as he was in shock he ran and hugged his sister trying to comfort her. Lucius looked at Cristopher and Cristopher looked at him past Katrina’s shoulder, both of them knew what the other one was thinking. How could this be happening since there is no trace of Echo nor the Sigil two of the things that need to be put together so that the dead could come back to life.

    “I’ve read about this…” she said quietly.

    “What?” Lucius approached her.

    “No… Not now,” Cristopher pulled her back, knowing she was in distress and he couldn’t allow Lucius to bother her. 

    “We need to act!” she pushed away from Cristopher’s embrace. “The book…” she looked at the two of them as she raced inside the tent, with both of them following behind her. Katrina entered the tent and immediately her eyes darted towards the wooden table, that’s where she last left the book, it was as if a rock fell from her chest seeing that it was still there, not a moment ago the book was unimportant but now, the same book may very well hold the key to saving the world. She ran towards the table and picked it up as Lucius and Cristopher entered the tent. She raised the book and showed it so that they could see it. It was a hardcover dark brown book, it didn’t say anything on the cover, because that was the only copy of the book and it wasn’t published.

    “This is the book written by Marcus!” she finally told them.

    “Marcus!?” both of them yelled in unison.

    “What? Do you know him?” she didn’t expect that kind of reaction. But both of them looked at each other, their faces turning pale and frightened just by hearing the name.  

    “Umm… Katrina… how did you get that book?” Cristopher slowly walked towards her.

    “I don’t know… I just found it in the library,” she answered looking suspiciously at her brother who was approaching her. “What’s so important to you?”

    “Do you know who Marcus is?” asked Lucius diverting her attention away from Cristopher, she didn’t know, how could she. Cristopher yanked the book away from her whilst she was distracted and immediately raced towards the exit.

    “We should burn it at once!” he kept moving.

    “No!” protested Katrina as Lucius pulled him back by his arm.

    “We should read it, it might be useful,” Lucius spoke to him.

    “Read it!? This book is foul!” he yelled. “I am going to throw it in the fire!”

    “No!” Lucius pulled him even harder. “You saw that thing outside coming back to life! Now answer me how it did that without the Sigil or Echo, since this book is written by Marcus it may give us some answers, and if we don’t find them, we can burn it afterward.”

    “The hell you will!” Katrina now yanked the book back from Cristopher who was starring daggers at Lucius, she moved to the far side of the tent and turned back at them. “Now… I need an explanation. Who is Marcus? And does he have some kind of connection to the Protectors?” Lucius and Cristopher looked at each other as Lucius released his arm, Cristopher looked away and sighed, he knew he was going to regret this. Cristopher walked towards the table as he pulled a chair and sat down, Lucius did the same as he pulled a third chair and indicated for Katrina to sit down, she walked hesitantly clutching the book tightly so that they won’t take it away from her, apparently, they hate it so much they would do anything to see it destroyed, but Katrina wasn’t going to part with it easily. It was as if the book called to her, as soon as she first saw it in the library it felt right into her eyes, she looked at it and saw there was nothing on the cover as she put it back in its place. Surely she tried picking other books to read but the more she searched the more she kept coming back to this very same book, as if she was meant to find it, like some sort of enchantment, it called to her, it attracted her, if only she knew the story behind it. Cristopher could notice the same behavior that he had previously seen in somebody else the same look of envy towards the book, the greediness the anger he saw it all before with a dear friend, and he is seeing it now in his sister. Katrina finally dared herself to sit down with them always wary of the book, protecting it.

    “There was…” Cristopher started. “There was this boy, he was obsessed with the book, it ate him alive, it turned him evil…”

    “Cristopher please…” Lucius interrupted as he looked at him. “From the beginning,” he nodded.

    “You tell the story then…” Cristopher leaned in front of the table starring at Katrina, letting Lucius start the story.

JJJ

    “I was just a boy,” Lucius looked at Katrina. “I was in the school, there were all of these books, so many books in one place, I’ve never seen anything like it, I wondered all the knowledge and all the stories that could be there, right in front of me…”

    “Amazing, huh?” said a voice from behind, Lucius who now had round glasses and short hair that was still parted in the middle turned around and saw another boy about his age.

    “What?” he asked.

    “The books, a lot of them right?” repeated the boy.

    “Oh… yeah… heh…” Lucius smiled as the other boy gave his hand to shake it.

    “Name’s Cristopher…” they shook hands.

    “Lucius, so… Are you a scholar as well?”

    “Yes,” replied Cristopher, who at the time still had the very same hairstyle except without the beard, he was still young to grow a beard.  “You must think me crazy, for believing in the Sigil and all that bogus,” said Cristopher.

    “On the contrary, I am actually a scholar too, I think we are going to be classmates,” said Lucius. “And I think we are going to be colleagues once we become Protectors.”

    “Hear, hear…” said Cristopher. “So? Who else is with us?” he asked as if Lucius who just came to the academy was supposed to know everything.