Chapter 34 – A Book of Retaliation

Adam paced through one of the pyramid library’s many hallways and checked over his shoulder if he was truly alone. The group had split up to search the place for more clues and interesting findings. It sounded like the others were quite far away now. Clenching and unclenching his hands, Adam walked past the endless books and weighed his options.

Caine had given Adam a golden opportunity to get back at him: Caine’s own memories were exposed and vulnerable. If Adam wanted vengeance, he could simply burn books or break Agatha’s breathtakingly beautiful statues. Or, he could add something new. If I want to do this, now is the time. But do I truly want to?

As an angrily thumping headache pulsed behind his eyes, Adam looked at the books. Books that formed the memory of a man Adam had believed to be his friend. A man who had bewitched his family and had left him here to die. A man who had stolen his memories and had blasted him through a roof.

He grabbed ‘Agatha’s Hints – What Are You Trying to Tell Me?!’ As soon as the book was removed from the shelf, the glowing green glyph on the back disappeared. Adam turned to the last page which was still blank.

“Adam?” Oliver called from a distance. “We’ve found quite a room here. I think you’d like the statues and err… other cultural stuff.”

“Just a minute!” Adam replied.

Do I want to stoop to Caine’s level? To alter someone’s memory, is that how I want to fight? Then again, Caine chose to bring the fight to this… After all he took from me…

A surge of raw heat came from his left heart, filled his veins, and made him shiver with rage.

“Gur Asaar,” his heart whispered with a raw, hissing voice. Before his mind’s eye, Adam saw how Caine had laid his hand on the small of Catherine’s back. How Eric’s little hand had clung to Caine’s for protection. How Caine had used his strange Invocation on them, back in the Starwing Grove, to bring them here.

Adam’s heart beat at an insane speed. The heat filled Adam’s head and made him bare his teeth in a haze of fury. He felt the endless cuts, blow, and grazes he’d suffered since he got back to Gotterburg. From the Penduli, Thalers, the giant, the Roots. From all the endless fights caused by a single man. A man who Adam used to love as a brother. A man who not only targeted Adam, but his family as well as Oliver and Emily.

Adam’s head was hot as a furnace. Heat like molten iron surged through his veins and made him move his arm. It made him grab a quill and dip it into the ink. Grinding his teeth in rage, Adam placed the tip onto the blank page of the book. Time to quench that sickening ego of yours. You deserve every single bit, you vile bastard.

With a grim frown and a tightened jaw, Adam began to write. ‘Of course, I know deep down that both Agatha and Catherine never really loved me. How could they? They just see me as a sack of money, a useful pawn, or a strong arm to do their dirty work. And I’m lucky they do so before they move on to someone else. I never deserved to be in their presence in the first place.’

Adam shut the book with a white-knuckled grip and slammed it back into the shelf. As expected, the green glyph on the back of the book appeared again. In the glassy tube behind the shelf, a relatively large mote of light travelled towards the ceiling. Adam panted, feeling strangely light-headed and hot.

Adam still felt hazy when he entered the spacious, richly decorated room on the second floor of the pyramid. Grand staircases, covered in thick turquoise carpets, spanned multiple storeys. Each contained towering marble statues and galleries with exquisite oil paintings of the battlefield. The scents of the room alternated, somehow switching between aromas like Agatha’s perfume, to the stench of fire and blood, and to the toxic white gas in the Pure’s censers. Instruments of bronze, string, and lacquered wood autonomously moved their intricate mechanisms to mimic sounds like Agatha’s voice. A complex setup of drums, hammers, and anvils replicated the thundering sound of the rhino cavalry’s charge against Dorenland’s soldiers.

Adam felt like he walked through a sacred mausoleum or temple of a unique, advanced culture. Despite the fact that it was all inside Caine’s memory, Adam couldn’t help but admire the art and crafts of the Thalers who had built the place.

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Adam was studying the fine colour palette and brush strokes of an amazing painting, detailing the battle behind the gate of Eulenschloss, when Emily walked up to him.

“So, was there something interesting you wanted to check out before you came here?” she asked innocently. “Any ‘frescoes’ or other fancy nonsense?”

“Yeah, I just…” Adam frowned a bit; he knew what he’d just done, but somehow it felt vague, blurry. As if it was someone else’s action instead of his own or some kind of dream. “Wrote in one of the books...”

Emily looked up in surprise and opened her mouth, but Oliver was quicker.

“You did what?” he hissed, storming from behind a closet near them.

Adam’s frown deepened as he tried to make sense of his own actions. “But, somehow it didn’t feel like something I was doing.”

“What?!” Oliver screamed in a high pitch.

Adam stroked his beard and spoke softly, “By the night, it must’ve been the Crimson Urges…”

“BY THE LOVE OF…” Oliver threw his hands in the air and stomped away in frustration. “How can a smart guy like you be so… ugh!”

Adam looked at his own shivering hands and his stomach turned. The mere idea that something else had controlled them, controlled him, was unnerving. Violating. Even though a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him he took the risk himself. And now, he had to face the consequences. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.

Emily calmly studied Adam’s face. A welcome contrast with Oliver, who kept pacing through the room, rambling about books and the Ancestor. “Are you okay? Do you think you can feel it coming before it happens again?”

Adam nodded shakily. “I’m good, it’s gone now. I think I got too angry about Caine and let myself get carried away. I was so hot… And my heart was beating like a drum played by an insane bard on a coffee overdose.” Adam exhaled another time, and the gears in his head started working again. “If I pay attention and calm myself before my emotions get the better of me, I might be able to stop it.”

Emily smiled and nodded reassuringly. “But what did you write in the book?”

“Basically, that Caine never deserved to be with Catherine or Agatha. That he’s a miserable worm who’s just being used.”

Oliver stopped in his tracks, halfway through spooning up Aves’ holy poems about ‘Understanding Thyself.’ “For real! Are you trying to get us killed?”

Adam blinked. “Killed? How, by Caine’s hurt ego?”

“Well… no, but that’s beside the point! We don’t know the consequences of when you mess with any of the stuff here! We could DIE!”

Adam sighed. “Look, I know I messed up with the Crimson Urges, and I’m sorry. But let’s not—”

Right before Oliver could interject, Emily stepped between the two and waved her hands in a calming motion. “Guys, calm down, please. There aren’t any Roots who noticed, and it seems we’re safe for now. So, let’s just focus on investigating the library, okay?”

Oliver grumbled something indeterminable before he nodded.

After the group had inspected more sections of the library, they moved on to the pyramid’s flattened top. Adam ignored Osaehin up above as best he could. Although the mere idea of the ominous creature staring down at them gave him a prickling feeling on the back of his neck, its ability of fear didn’t activate as long as he didn’t look at it.

Looking for a proper new destination, Adam, Emily, and Oliver investigated the pedestals at the edges of the plateau and the tunnels they aligned with. They had theorised earlier on that the hieroglyph on each pedestal could match the subject of the Node at the other end of the corresponding tunnel. At least, that was the case for the pedestal that matched with the tunnel towards Catherine’s Node. Therefore, they wanted to determine which Node to go next by examining the hieroglyphs on the pedestals.

Due to the high number of pedestals, Adam, Oliver, and Emily had split up. Adam tried to recognize the hieroglyphs in the swirly, stylized art style of the Thalers. Several depicted the sieges or the sites of other battles. The narrow towers of Taleshire castle, or the broad arches of Stormbridge, for example, were easy to recognize. Many hieroglyphs were depictions of people Adam didn’t know, like several grim warriors of the Starwing Order. Two depictions were clear though; Desdemona’s long mass of black braids and her savage sword made her instantly recognizable. The same held true for the Queen of Glass; the frail yet dignified lady on a throne of needles could hardly depict anyone else. Other hieroglyphs seemed more abstract, including intricate writing and shapes, which were impossible for them to decipher.

After they reconvened, Emily theorized that each Node should be connected to other Nodes with subjects that Caine ‘associated’ with the first one. The Thalers did ask her to ‘associate’ on top of the pyramid after all, and why else would there be so many memories of castles and sieges connected to the siege of Eulenschloss?

Adam was a bit disappointed though; he’d hoped to find a pedestal that depicted himself. If their theories were correct, there most definitely was a Node about Adam somewhere. And with a bit of luck, they could use it to find out which of his memories Caine had altered or deleted, like his lost knowledge about the memory powers. And since Caine remembered Adam in the siege of Eulenschloss, his Node should be connected to it.

“Look!” Oliver called from the other side of the plateau. “Isn’t this Ziecherhein?”

Adam’s stomach lurched upon hearing that name. Vague memories of the trials after the disaster and the aurora above the ruins flashed before his mind’s eye. He closed his eyes and exhaled. By the night, of all places in the world…