Indenuel threw the doors open and stumbled inside. “Martin!”

He stood, looking concerned as the other High Elders turned. “Is Tolomon alright?”

“What?” he asked before realizing what Martin was talking about. “Oh. I actually don’t know. Is he still resting?”

The concern never left Martin’s face. “I haven’t heard anything recently. He’s still recovering."

"Right.” He closed the door, finally noticing the High Elders’ reactions. Fadrique looked annoyed, but the others seemed to watch him curiously. Except Cristoval who was talking to things no one else could see.

“Proper etiquette begs you to knock before entering a meeting, especially one composed of High Elders,” Navir said.

“I had a vision.” He assumed this revelation would excuse his actions.

“With Tolomon?” Martin asked.

“No. With the prophet.”

“What prophet?” Navir asked.

“The prophet. From the fifth age.”

“Shh!” Navir headed straight for the door, leaning against it. “We do not talk about the sacred prophecies outside the High Elder’s library.”

“You saw the future?” Fadrique asked.

“No, the past. Of what happened before the Great Flood. It deals with the D-” Indenuel stopped short when Navir gave him a sharp look.

“Wait, I thought you said you saw the prophet. If you saw the past, how could the prophet be there?” Fadrique asked.

“It was strange, I won’t deny that. He came to me, then we went back and saw the past. Which is what I’m trying to get to. Jaakob saw only what the devil wanted him to see, and Mela tried to stop him.”

“Wait, who’s Mela?” Martin asked.

“The prophetess who saw the vision and wrote down the Divine Ages,” Indenuel said.

Fadrique twisted his face into a groan. “A woman wrote the Divine Ages? No. This vision Indenuel has must have been from the devil. A woman isn’t capable of being that strong.”

Indenuel was about to fight back when Navir placed a hand on his shoulders. “We must stop this conversation at once. We cannot discuss such sacred things in a place we might be overheard.”

“We need to write it down while it’s still fresh on my mind,” Indenuel said.

“Yes. Once it’s written down, we can discuss its validity,” Fadrique said.

Martin went to pull out some paper and a quill to hand to Dalius when Navir made another noise. “Not here. We shall continue this in the High Elder’s library.”

A frown appeared on Martin’s face. “With Tolomon unable to provide protection-”

“We’ll take a large group of soldiers to join us at the Cathedral. It’s what they’re doing here, anyway,” Navir said.

“Will Tolomon be safe here?” Indenuel asked, nervous about the vulnerable position he left him in.

“Tolomon is healing just fine. Besides, it’s not him they want, it’s you. And the King and Queen have already reported the Kiam are no longer found in the city,” Martin said.

“Then let us make our way to the library,” Navir said.

***

Inessa was curled up on her bed, trying to steady her breathing. It had only been this morning since her encounter with Fadrique, but it still left her trembling. She usually got over these a lot quicker, but it had been so long since he confronted her that it somehow made it worse. Despite the loneliness Martin’s household brought, it made her softer in other regards. She could not do this to herself. She needed to stay sharp. Fadrique made his threat, and she needed a calm mind to sort it out. Sure, he had an insane amount of power in the city, but there were three other High Elders who were just as powerful, with Navir agreeing that what Fadrique did to her was wrong, even though he mostly ignored her once she was placed with Martin.

She breathed in, forcing her mind to calm down. She was with Martin now. Far away from Fadrique. All he could do was threaten from the side. If Martin knew, if she could get his assurance the High Elder’s wouldn’t return her to Fadrique if she never got pregnant, it would give her the peace of mind she needed.

Inessa pulled her sleeve down to see her wrist. The bruise had formed around it. She closed her eyes, squeezing it harder to see if she could make it worse, but winced in pain. It would have to be enough. She couldn’t come right out and say what Fadrique did, because then he would deny it and she would be punished for besmirching his character. However, if she could get Martin to notice it, and if he stumbled on proof, it would be a lot harder for Fadrique to refute it.

Martin rarely looked at her, but he would if he saw a bruise. He would ask, and she would tell him, and he would confirm whether or not she would go back to Fadrique. She could have time to postpone her decision to have a baby. Martin might still brush it under the rug, but he wouldn’t have Inessa whipped for speaking badly of a High Elder’s character.

She winced, and not because she touched her wrist again. This was a bad situation she was in. She had lasted over four years tricking the High Elders. Eventually she would have to get pregnant. She was selfish to play the game this long. But she really, really didn’t want to have a baby.

***

It was cooler in the basement. They were still only in the reading room as Indenuel dictated to Dalius what his vision was about, trying to remember the main points. Dalius’ quill moved as fast as possible over the paper. Indenuel couldn’t remember too much about what they said, though it seemed important to mention boy bands. No one seemed to understand what that meant, but Dalius wrote it down anyway.

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Once Dalius’ quill stopped scratching, Navir rubbed the back of his head.

“What happened after your vision?” Martin asked.

“I ran straight to your study,” Indenuel said.

“You didn’t lose consciousness, which meant you didn’t use any of the corruptive powers.” Dalius leaned back, running his finger over the quill. “Which means it’s true.”

Navir moved from rubbing the back of his head to his face. “But the Prophet Jaakob. That means…”

“We simply need to be cautious of what we read,” Martin said.

“He has been right about everything dealing with Indenuel’s prophecy,” Navir said.

Dalius set the final page on the table. “Should I be taking notes on this meeting? I’m assuming we’re still having it.”

“Yes, yes,” Navir said. “We’ve got to come to some sort of decision.”

Dalius pulled out a book from his bag and opened it, situating himself as he prepared to take more notes. “If I might add, that’s exactly how the devil is so great at what he does. Uses his silver tongue to give us delicious words. Tells the truth to be believed so the lie is easier to swallow.”

“We can’t waste time pouring over Jaakob’s words to guess what part might be true and which is false,” Fadrique said.

“I don’t think we were supposed to know this much anyway,” Indenuel said. “It seemed like Mela’s prophecy was dangerous enough, and Jaakob’s was just adding to the fire.”

“What I want to know is how is it possible that Indenuel saw someone who isn’t even born yet?” Fadrique said.

“Time must work differently on that plane of existence,” Indenuel said.

Fadrique gave a loud laugh. “A nice tidy answer.”

“It will be impossible to prove in this time,” Martin said.

“It will eventually be proven. I don’t know how far in the future the prophet is, but he seemed convinced there were things that had already been proven true by us meeting. Like boy bands. Did you write down what he said about boy bands? He seemed excited about that,” Indenuel asked Dalius.

“Of course. I wrote it down as you said,” Dalius said.

“It sounds made up,” Fadrique said.

“We all saw his force of power,” Navir said. “Many times, there has always been a visitor from a different time to help see a vision. A lot of his facts line up with what has been done before.”

“The Prophet Jaakob has been right about everything so far,” Martin said. “There isn’t much left in his words he can be wrong about.”

“Just…” Navir paused, then looked at Indenuel.

“What?”

“What if he’s wrong about the final battle?” Fadrique asked.

“Like possibly me not being alone?” Indenuel asked, his chest rising in hope.

Fadrique looked at him like he was speaking to a small child. “Like you winning it.”

Indenuel’s face fell.

“Fadrique,” Martin said quietly.

“If the devil was going to trick us, it wouldn’t be to say something like him having a friend at the battle. It would mean giving him false hope that he could win it,” Fadrique said.

Indenuel leaned against the table, his mind spinning. “What does the original prophecy say? The one Mela saw,” he managed to get out.

Navir closed his eyes. “In the First Age a child with eyes of Green will be born to a lonely and desperate woman. The boy will have no father but have all four gifts. Through him the long war will end.”

Indenuel stared at the table. He remembered how Mela’s didn’t mention anything about a final battle. “Through him the long war will end,” he repeated. “Not… not which side would win. Just that it would end.” His hands started to shake. “Or that I’d survive. Or that I even win it.”

Navir, for the first time since Indenuel knew him, started to look worried. Dalius glanced up from his book, noticing Navir’s gaze. Fadrique groaned, burying his head in his hands.

Martin placed a hand on Indenuel’s shoulder. “Don’t spend another moment worrying about it. The devil is using this opportunity to make you afraid, but have you forgotten how much you shocked us all yesterday? You are an incredibly powerful individual. Do not worry about speculation.”

Indenuel tried to nod, but he didn’t like the uneasy feeling this caused him. That it caused everyone else. If Jaakob’s words weren’t to be trusted, then he couldn’t know for sure he’d win, let alone survive.

“I’m still concerned about this Mela girl being the lost prophet of the Divine Ages,” Fadrique said, starting to pace.

Navir too looked concerned about this. “I’m not sure Mela can be trusted either.”

“What?” Indenuel asked, glancing between Navir and Fadrique. “What do you mean?”

“A woman could never be this powerful. Not to see something like this,” Fadrique said.

“There is strong evidence to believe she was a witch,” Navir said.

Indenuel looked confused. “Seriously? I saw her eyes turning gold a few times during the vision. She was powerful.”

“But she was a woman,” Fadrique said.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Indenuel asked.

“A woman wouldn’t be entrusted with these holy words,” Dalius said from his book.

“At least, not ones we could trust. It is a woman’s nature since the fall of the first woman to be inclined to the corruptive powers,” Navir said.

He studied the three men’s face, then turned to Martin to gage his reaction. He couldn’t understand what he was seeing on Martin’s face. “You believe this too?”

Martin shrugged. “The words are vague enough. You have the devil giving too much detail in one prophecy and being far too vague in another. I could see it both being the case.”

“She saw the Savior himself,” Indenuel said.

“No one is that powerful,” Martin said.

“The prophet saw the Savior,” he said, pointing at the three pages that were drying on the table.

“That’s different, because the Savior will come through his line and he can grow powerful enough to see the spirits of his lineage not yet born,” Dalius said, writing quickly. “It is part of the gift as speaker of the dead.”

“Why are you being so judgmental about women?” Indenuel asked.

“The first woman messed up, and her same weakness is imbedded into all her female posterity,” Fadrique said.

Indenuel scoffed. “So, she accidentally dabbled in some of the corruptive powers and now we need to blame all the women for that?”

There was a silence, only the sound of Dalius scratching away at the book before he too stilled. Indenuel frowned, the reaction something he didn’t expect.

“That isn’t…. that isn’t the only thing she did,” Martin said.

“Martin, stop,” Navir said, his voice sharp.

Indenuel frowned, his eyes jumping from Martin to Navir. “What is it? What are you not telling me?”

“He’s the Warrior, he should have the right to know,” Martin said.

“No,” Navir and Fadrique said almost immediately.

Indenuel’s anger started to build. “Are you… are you hiding something from me?”

“I am sorry, Indenuel, but this information is far too sacred, and you are far too young,” Navir said.

“He ought to know why there are aspects of his vision that we doubt,” Martin said. “And if it’s true the devil might be in both prophecies, then we need to better equip him with the tools he needs to be aware of it.”

Dalius stood, his quill on the book. “No, Martin.”

“And why not?”

Dalius kept staring at Martin, the serious in his eyes impossible to ignore. “Not this close to the Day of the Devil.”

The resolve flickered from Martin’s eyes, instead turning to worry. Indenuel sighed, rubbing his face. “I’m sorry, do you all just expect me to calmly walk out the door now that I know you’re hiding something from me?”

The silence in the room stretched. Martin returned his gaze to Navir, who stared back. He finally tore his gaze from Martin to look at Dalius, who shook his head. “The Day of the Devil is in two and a half weeks. His religious understanding will crumble, and I cannot build it back in that little time. Not after what I heard of his experiences with that day.”

“If we don’t tell him, the devil will,” Martin said. “This is exactly how he plays.”

Indenuel winced as he folded his arms tightly over his chest. “The actual devil?”

“That or one of his minions,” Martin said. “You know he will, Dalius.”

Dalius sighed, rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand. Navir turned to Indenuel. “We will swear you to secrecy. Understand? You do not so much as hint at this information to anyone. We will deny it. Not only that, but if you are believed for some reason, the moral of the people will disappear, and your job as Warrior will get that much harder.”

“Good God, what are you men hiding?” Indenuel asked.

Navir did nothing but stare at Indenuel, his face deadly serious. “Swear it, Indenuel.”

His anxiety began. He hadn’t even heard what it was, and he was terrified. “Alright. I swear.”

Navir studied him a few more moments. “Fadrique, bring Macabai the Healer’s third volume.”

Fadrique paused, seizing Indenuel up as though they were going to have a fistfight. “Nothing good will come of us telling him.”

“Go,” Martin said.

Fadrique’s eyes narrowed before he grabbed a lantern and entered the door into the library.