We left that very next morning, and I ended up making a home of the library for the night. Eliza wasn’t pleasant company at the beginning; she insisted I go to sleep in my room, but I couldn’t. The room was full of pictures and newspaper cut-outs of a life that I didn’t have anymore, and I couldn’t bear to be next to all these lost memories at such a crucial time, I felt like they were hunting me.

A restful night eluded me entirely; while the library’s couches and chairs provided physical comfort, they lacked the enchantment needed to ward off nightmares. Regrettably, the specter of the warehouse events revisited me that night, serving as a poignant reminder that, despite my perceived “immortality,” my vulnerability remained undeniable. I dreamt about the man who was desperately trying to get me to leave the warehouse. I dreamt about the creatures of the night that took my very last breath away. I woke up drenched in sweat and shaking; the ghosts of my past were very present in my mind.

Milo was ready and waiting for me. A big smile adorned his face, a black coffee in one hand and the keys to an old Honda Odyssey in the other. He ran to my side of the door and let me in. “M’lady,” he said, giving me a small head nod to encourage me to go inside. And so I did.

“Where to first?” I asked.

“I was talking to George last night after you turned in. We think that the best place for you to start your search is with the Fates. They should have your thread of life. We could use it to return your memories, potentially.” He started the car and drove away from the library, the radio muttering in the background.

“The Fates? And where are they located?” three angry ladies with too much power for their own good. Didn’t feel like the most ideal place to start, but if this was the quickest way to find what had happened to the artifact then so be it.

“Well, the thing about the Fates is that they are — in Germany.” his knuckles became lighter and lighter as the Honda sped up, he was grabbing onto it tightly. I turned to look at the road when all I could see was us speeding up towards the tree by the library, he must have gone out of his way to get speed and come back around.

“Tree! TREE!!!!” is all I could manage to say until we hit the tree, except that we didn’t suffer any damage or bodily injuries. We went right through it, and what was a long and abandoned desert turned into lustrous green pastures and grand, colorful structures all around us.

I thought that was going to be it, the end of our journey before we even began. I pushed Milo from the passenger seat.

“Don’t DO that EVER again without giving me the proper warning” My voice was firm, although I was shaken by the act.

“The Tree of Yggdrasil, Or at least the physical representation of it, You will get used to this” A gentle laugh escaped him.

“So this is it? We are here? Because that was remarkably fast” I was impressed Phanes technology or magic was remarkably powerful

“Yes but no, We are in Germany, just not in the part we need to be. Phanes set posts all over the world, but unfortunately, the closest post is here — in Berlin, the fates are still a few hours away” he then took what appeared to be a piece of gum from his pocket, split it in half, and gave me one “This is Koine, it’s a fancy translator, eat it up, you should be able to understand the language after”

He then gave it a test run, going around shops and talking to some of the workers, it worked fine, I could understand him, and them, it was just different, like it was still your mother tongue, but not quite it.

“OH!” Milo Exclaimed “I almost forgot” he pulled out two onyx necklaces, gold chains adorned it, the rock was shaped like a circle.

“what is this for?”

“Protection, Onyx was basically created by the fates, ours are bathed with Nyx’s blood herself, the magic surrounding this will help us be aware of any — Unwanted attention” He put his on and helped me get mine in place. my long hair pulled up in a ponytail, graced his face, making him twirl his nose around.

“If Nyx has been behind it all this whole time, how come you guys haven’t gone after her before” I asked as he was finished clasping the necklace around my neck.

“We didn’t know it was her, — We had our suspicions and theories but nothing that could prove that she was the one behind it, she is too powerful to mess around with if you are not certain, after all, she reins the night. After your memory trip, it was confirmed only because you were there, all the attacks have been singles, and no one else was around when they happened. No one ever came back to tell the tale” his eyes, once bright with vitality, now flickered a muted glimmer “We always found empty carcasses, no blood, nothing.”

That must have been hard, he probably knew some of the people that Nyx took, how humbling must have been when our bodies started showing up one by one.

“We will make sure she stops for good” I tried to sound as comforting as I could. but I could tell even I wasn’t fully convinced we were up to the task quite yet.

“Yeah, I hope so” he pulled a map and guided me back to the car “We better get going, its going to take at least 7 hours to get to the Neuschwanstein castle”

he placed the map on the hood of the car marking with a red X the end of our journey, X marks the treasure.

“A castle? The Fates are in a castle?” I was baffled of course they were in a castle, some of the most powerful beings living like Queens in Germany, it made perfect sense.

“When you are so powerful…” he didn’t finish that sentence as i knew how it would end.

I glanced at the sky, although back at home it was barely eight in the morning, here in Germany the sunset was coming down, we landed not far from a gas station so I picked up some extra maps of the area just in case, Milo was right we had a long journey ahead. I could only hope we got there in one piece.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Although I had just woken up mere hours ago, I could feel sleep calling me back to rest, my eyes felt heavy and every breath felt much slower than the one before, The next thing I knew I was back at the warehouse, except it seemed to be much earlier in the day than the first time I visited it. the man whose black hair could be comparable to the night itself, started to approach me, his grey eyes examining the room around us combined with his grey sweater making them resemble a thunderstorm., he could have been a God as his beauty was comparable to Phanes, except that he wasn’t, Phanes’s skin glowed with power, his was dull, and tanned. he wasn’t necessarily built like a fighter but he had the stance for it, he was preparing himself for battle, his movements were swift and quiet, and the crowbar on his handheld was more like a weapon than a tool.

As he stepped closer to me his image became more and more clear, his reflection gone from the windows leading to the outside. He was holding the crowbar in his right hand and a book with a brown leather cover in the other

“I don’t understand Ren, this says it should be here” he looked puzzled, attempting to figure out the cryptic figures in the notebook.

“I told you, I got a tip saying it would be here” The words came out of my mouth, but I did not say anything, at least not consciously. Suddenly the world around us began shaking.

“We better hurry, I know they are tracking us,” he said, but it sounded like he was talking from very far away, even though he was right in front of me.

the boxes began falling from the metal shelves around us, one by one making a horrible crashing sound, the man seemed like he was not noticing what was happening, he was still reading the notebook. Then all the glass from the warehouse shattered in an explosion. I Woke up.

“Hey welcome back, you were snoring pretty loudly there” he chuckled, as he took a big bite of jerky.

My head was pounding, I was sweating, and I could feel it dripping down my skin, making me feel uncomfortable and dirty. My eyes felt heavy still.

“how long was I out?”

“not long, we got halfway there, but we got to stop for gas, good old Holga needs to be fed”

“Holga? you mean the Honda?”

“Yes, Holga and I have a history.” he gazed at me “No need to be jealous it was mostly platonic” he winked.

I let out a chuckle, I needed this. Some light-hearted jokes after a nightmare. a dream, or rather a memory? The man in the warehouse couldn’t have come out of my imagination, he had to have been there. O. He must be O. Perhaps if I were to find him, he could help me.

“Where are we anyway?”

“According to the signs somewhere in Bindlach”

“that tells me nothing” I let out a sigh.

“Yeah, this is all new to me too”

Bindlach was a much smaller town in comparison to New Seattle, we were passing by a residential area when I spotted a gas station not too far away, the building was old but well kept, we parked on one of the stations and Milo got off the vehicle leaving me and Holga alone. I couldn’t believe it was technically so late already. I put down the window and looked up at the sky, the big North Star shinning brightly, made me think of my family and what they had endured to be able to get me back to the Grand Central, just for me to turn around and leave them while they were still recovering from the attack.

Perhaps I could send them a letter later, Unsure if burning it up would be the way to get it fastest to them, but at least I could try to give them some peace of mind. I waited for Milo in the car, when I started feeling my neck burning, at first I didn’t know where it was coming from, but then I felt it stronger than before, the stone was leaving a mark in my neck.

I left the car and started walking around feeling the onyx in my hand, as it turned hotter and hotter with every step, I ended up behind the building, a couple was aggressively kissing each other, she leaning against the wall, and he maintaining a firm grasp on her waist.

I was about to leave them alone when I saw from the corner of my eye, his bloodshot eyes. I did as George had instructed I called upon Xiphos, and charged toward the Man, and his blue eyes opened in surprise. He wasn’t expecting company, the girl he had priorly so close to him, slowly descending to the floor, probably weak from the lack of oxygen and blood in her body.

He wasn’t armed like I was, but he moved incredibly fast, I aimed toward his stomach, after all, we needed one of them alive, He kept avoiding every swing, and luckily for me, Milo followed me, as he threw three daggers, one flew past me barely missing me, the other two landed on the vampire, one on his leg and the other one on his back. He groaned in pain. I took the opportunity to stab him with my sword. pinning him against the wall. I twisted it around his chest for good measure. He tried grabbing the blade out of his body, but I just pushed harder in, he only managed to injure himself more as he cut his hands with the sword.

“You will talk” I demanded.

“Easy there tiger, we need him alive,” Milo said as he put a hand on my shoulder.

“Children of the light” he spat “I have nothing for you and your golden people”

“Well you better have something for me, because my sword tells me it’s hungry for a vampire, and I don’t want it to not get what it wants,” I said as I continued to dig deeper into his chest.

“Some of your friends were sent out on a mission, looking for the Kibisis of Perseus ” His expression changed he was confused.

“That was over a century ago” His brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to make sense of her words. Blood filled his mouth drawing small rivers of crimson red going down his cheek “No one ever came back from that my Brothers and Sister were never found”

“What did you just say?” frowning Milo stepped in

“They were gone, It was gone, there was nothing left behind” The Man insisted.

I raised an eyebrow, a silent question mark in response to the confusing statement Milo’s mouth was wide open, he sighed heavily as if the weight of the speaker’s words bore down on him in a confusing manner.

At least I wasn’t the only one questioning the truthfulness of what he was saying, but If he had been honest, then who was there that night? Phanes seemed sure of himself. but then again he had also said that he was not all-knowing. I wanted to trust him, I wanted this to be It, I wanted to go home. Whatever home meant to me. The man started shaking violently, and suddenly he disappeared from right before me. leaving behind everything that he was wearing, in a small pile in front of us.

The woman was still lying near us, she probably saw everything that happened, but I would be willing to bet she would think it was all a hallucination given how weak she was. Milo ran back to the gas station and requested an ambulance for the girl. after we had recovered all the items the vampire was wearing and placed them safely in the car to go through later.

“Well that was intense” was all Milo could say after I retrieved my sword still attached to the wall.

“Did I kill him?”

“I-I don’t know.” He stuttered

I performed the same motion George had done earlier, pulling it back to my pocket dimension. out of curiosity, I pulled in again, closed my eyes, and tried to imagine an empty room and a table in front of me, I placed my hand on it and tried to imagine anything, the first thing that came to mind was the book in my dream, I imagined the leather cover, and the pages inside of it, I opened my eyes again, and there it was. Sitting in front of me is the book from the warehouse