Page 20 of Feathers and Thorns

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not? You taught us how to fight, didn’t you?” Meena complained.

“That was for emergencies only.”

“Well, finding Soren seems like an emergency to me,” Evelyn pushed, crossing her arms.

“You didn’t think we would just wave you goodbye, did you?” Meena asked.

“I hoped.”

“Sorry, you’re stuck with us,” she said, jutting her chin up in defiance.

They ate and packed, and then the girls left any perishable food on the grounds for the wildlife to enjoy and met him at the front entrance.

While they were outside, Rook had returned to the library to retrieve the Oculus. He loathed the object, but he needed it on hand so that he might find a way to destroy it. His father be damned.

He lifted the piano key, and the secret door popped open, the wood groaning. He stepped inside the small space, his eyes settling on the metal stand. “Of course you did,” he said, his smile hiding his disappointment.

The space where the Oculus sat was empty, and Soren’s journal had taken its place.

He flipped through the pages. It held details of their every encounter and her ways to cope with being trapped here, her thoughts and feelings about them and him. He had countless priceless books in his possession, but this was, by far, the most valuable.

He moved with intent, locking the library door and tucking the key away in its hiding place behind the face of the grandfather clock that sat in the entranceway.

The girls rounded the corner, and they walked out the door.

Giving it one last try, he asked, “There’s no chance I can convince you to stay?”

“Nope,” Evelyn replied.

“Not even a little,” Meena confirmed.

“You realize how dangerous this is, right?” Rook asked, giving them a serious look.

“We understand. You saved our lives all those years ago, maybe we will get the chance to save yours … again.” She smirked.

“We want Soren back, too,” Meena chimed in. “But I do have one question.”

Rook raised his eyebrow in response.

“What happens when your father comes back?”

He did not hesitate with his response.

“I’m going to kill him.”

Adriel stroked the Oculus as though it were a rare jewel. The artifact hummed, albeit quieter now, but it still called to him, nonetheless. He had missed the power that emanated from the item and chastised himself for ever letting it out of his sight. “I’ll not part with you again,” he said aloud to it, as though it were a sentient being. Though the sentiment was figurative, he still had trouble loosening his grip on the all-seeing eye.

He placed the artifact on the ornamental stand in the hall of worlds, amongst his father’s things. He had not bothered to discard the previous Architect’s possessions, as they could still be of value to him in the future. He was no fool.

With one last look at the all-powerful object, he turned to leave, but not before imparting some choice words to the two guards who stood at the hall’s entrance. “If anyone apart from me attempts to enter, cut them down.”

“Yes, sir,” they replied.

Adriel’s lips curled at their automated response. They would sooner die than defy his orders.

Over the last two and a half decades, Adriel had honed every citizen in Anistera into his own personal executioners. Well, almost every citizen. He had heard rumors of a possible uprising on and off over the years, but seeing as no action had been taken, he did not waste time fretting. Worrying was for the weak, and he was anything but.

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