{-Rennyn-}

He beat down the fear and anxiety in order to satiate everyone else’s curiosity. He just had to hope they found it worth the effort—or, at the very least, they didn’t find something to regret. Though he tried, it was still hard to convince himself that what Kaylin said was true. With every step they took—the closer they got to the library—he just kept repeating her words in his mind.

This wasn’t like the other time. Everything will be fine and no one will get hurt. He was probably just making most of it up, anyway. Wouldn’t be the first time he started to acknowledge things that weren’t actually there.

When they got to the library, Lyrei practically burst into it, then must’ve promptly realized she didn’t know where to look. Excitedly, she turned to the others and asked, “Where do you think we should go first? Or just anything you’re looking to know! If Vesuna has libraries like Zaitha does, then I won’t have a problem navigating this place once I figure out where the directories are!”

“You know, I don’t think I’ve seen a single person in my life as interested in books as you are,” Allyna remarked. “And I don’t know whether that should be a compliment or an insult.”

Seldir let out a chuckle. “I think you should be more worried about making sure she doesn’t just treat this place like home.” Almost certainly just to Lyrei, he added, “We can’t bend the rules here like we, theoretically, could at the Zaitha Archives.”

“I never bend the rules!” After a pause, she added, “Aside from eating in the library, I did that all the time, but it was that or I forgot to eat at all, so. Justified! Right? But of course I’m not doing that here. I have manners!”

Of course, she also immediately rushed to the closest librarian to ask at least a dozen different questions, but at least that could be marked off as excitement.

Though, casually, Allyna said, “I already have an idea of where I want to go. I heard this place had a couple of books on ancient history. I want to try to look through those.”

“Nothing about our situation is ‘ancient history,’” Rennyn pointed out. “I don’t see how anything about us is going to be found there.”

She shrugged. “I just have a hunch about that place. There’s nothing normal about what’s going on, right? Might as well look at a place we wouldn’t really expect.”

So when Lyrei came back, apparently satisfied with whatever she’d talked to the librarian about, Seldir told her, “We want to find the ancient history stuff.”

“I know exactly where those are now!” she announced excitedly. “Come on, they’re right over there, I’ll show you! And apparently there’s a lot of them. I mean, not as much as Zaitha, obviously, but still a lot! I wanted to look at those anyway.”

She surprisingly just walked to the spot, though it was full of other ramblings along the way. Once she announced that they were there, Allyna went over to one of the shelves—not just out of curiosity, though. Rennyn could tell that she had a purpose or a goal for going over there.

She knew what she was going to find, even if he refused to allow himself to consider how. He was going to trust his sister. If he couldn’t trust his own sister, then who could he trust, really?

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After looking through all of the books on the shelf, she pulled one of them out. She went over to one of the nearby tables and started flipping through the pages.

Allyna sounded rather proud of herself when she announced, “I think you’re all going to want to take a look at this.”

Everyone except for Rennyn came a bit closer. He couldn’t help but etch closer to the door instead, on guard and ready for whatever might happen. Kaylin’s words couldn’t reassure him now; he doubted much of anything would, with those clear memories of his own failures playing in his mind.

Lyrei quickly sat down beside Allyna and slid the book closer. “Ooh, I take dibs on reading it! What do you think is it in? Some deep, dark secret? The key to defeat Dhymos for good?” She got a better look at it, though, and her smile faltered. “Something with a not-so-happy ending..?”

Seldir, though, just shrugged. “Given everything else we know? If this is really something related to us, then I’m not really all that surprised.”

“I mean, it’s definitely not out of good luck and triumphing the first time that we’re all here…” Noa mumbled. He did, however, move a bit closer to the text to get a better look at it himself. “But maybe it’ll tell us something that makes this all make a little more sense, too.”

“Well, what are you guys waiting for?” Allyna asked impatiently. “Go on and start reading it! I wanna know what it says!”

Lyrei nodded and started reading. “‘There were five heroes—five strong souls, each ready to stand in the face of darkness. But even they were not immune to its effects. They were the lights that, ultimately, will clear away the darkness for good. The only reason they didn’t the first time… well, the darkness was too strong. They underestimated its strength, or overestimated their own. Not by a lot—no, if they’d been facing any other kind of trial, they would’ve surely succeeded—but rather, just enough to make it their worst mistake.’

“‘When they met with the great evil, they put everything they had into defeating him. But still, it was just barely enough. In the end, he was able to triumph over them. He wrapped up three in his darkness, keeping their souls hidden within it until they were slowly able to break themselves free. Another soul was tainted, but it was allowed to join the least tainted in continual trials until the time for their reuniting had finally come. And now here they all stand, nearly as strong as they started, and unable—at the risk of their souls and those around them—to make the same mistake twice.’”

They considered it in silence. It wasn’t really a matter of wondering what it had to do with them—there was an odd kind of feeling that came with reading it, which signaled they already knew. There was no denying that this was talking about them, even if Rennyn didn’t want to consider why it was here or how Allyna knew about it.

No, all of the silence was from the implications… how right it all felt and how he hated to acknowledge it.

“It makes a bit of sense, actually,” Lyrei remarked, “considering what I remember. Seldir, Noa, and I weren’t able to leave with Rennyn and Kaylin. That’s probably what this is talking about.”

“I don’t get the whole soul part,” Seldir admitted. “I mean, I know what it’s probably trying to say. But I’m definitely not going to be the first person that’s going to understand all of that weird symbolism stuff…”

“I don’t think it’s symbolism,” Noa said slowly. “I think it’s being literal. I… don’t really know how, though.”

As much as Rennyn hated to contribute to this dangerous conversation, he said, “Kaylin might know more than we do. Maybe she’ll be willing to tell us what we can’t figure out on our own.”

Allyna abruptly stood up. “Well, I think it’s probably time I go.”

“Wait, why?” Rennyn grabbed her hand so she wouldn’t leave. “You could probably stay a little longer. I don’t think you’ve got anything more important to do…”

“That’s exactly why I should.”