Page 100 of One Last Promise
“When did you two suddenly become allies?”Loki, Enyo, and Boulder were playing in the long grass in Shielding Valley.
“Aboutfiftyyears ago,” Noor snorted.“I’m as shocked as you.”Rolling my eyes, I looked up at the sky.The suns were already low.We couldn’t stay here much longer.“Darce’s plan will work.No one will suspect.We’ve tried to break the spell, but none of us are strong enough, even with our combined power.”
“If this plan gets you captured...”When I pointed my finger towards Darce, he gave me a loving smile in return.“All our hard work will be in vain.”
“It’s been almost seven hundred years since we first met.You should have a little more faith in me, Starshine.”Pulling me into his embrace, he ran his fingers through my hair.“Iamone of the most powerful guardians in Afterlight Veil.”
“And that arrogant ego of yours is as immense as ever.”Chuckling, he pecked my lips.“Okay, we’ll try your way.When?”
“Tonight,” Darce whispered.My chest tightened as fear took hold.We had never been this careless before.Allowing Darce in the Dallethas library was dangerous if Uri sensed him.My powers were surging.I could control them a lot better thanks to Darce and Noor helping me over the years, but my full abilities still hadn’t manifested.If Uri was to find us, I would be defenceless.“Don’t look so petrified,” he sighed.“We’re doing this together.What could possibly go wrong?”Trying to not show my panic, I gave him my best smile as he kissed me softly.
There was so much that could go wrong, but we were out of options.We needed answers.War was less than a hundred years away now.
After studying the two Elder World books that the Noxlin’s had, Darce and I had begun to understand a few things.Darkness and light must have existed before all the other veils.The universe Holy Ether created couldn’t be made without them.Creation and existence appeared to be the initial reason Afterlight was formed, because neither could exist without it.Darkness and light couldn’t exist without each other, either, which left the unanswerable question.Would either cease to be if the other was destroyed?If thatwasthe case, why were we at war with each other?
Nantu betraying both our races appeared to have something to do with SolaceandLustre, but too much was unreadable in her book.The images that might have been helpful were burned or torn.The hatred for both of our kind was evident, though.She had formed the mountains to keep us apart.Why?
Lustre’s version of events might shed some light on some of these questions, but I still wasn’t happy about the risk Darce was taking.
****
“BREATHE,” NOOR WHISPEREDas we sat in the grand Dallethas library.It was almost midnight, and we were the only Dylin left on the upper floor.Lustre’s book of the Elder World was under lock, key, and spell around the corner.A few priests were on the lower level, writing their scriptures.“He’ll be in and out in a matter ofseconds.”
“Unless Uri has set a trap,” I murmured, pretending to read the book in front of me about light leaper history.
With a quick glance at the placement of the suns in the skylight, I knew we had a few minutes to get into place.Picking up one of the books on the table, I gave Noor the nod to watch the grand staircase.Noor slipped the key that opened the box the book was kept in into my hand before she moved into place.Nell had managed to copy the key a century ago.
As I moved around the bookshelves towards the room, my heart hammered inside my chest.Pulling my light power to the surface and tracing my fingertips over my bracelet, I waited for Darce to appear.I’m here.Find me.My mind pushed my light power into the bracelet and there he was.The prince of Eallarim stood in the sacred Dallethas library.
“Holy fuck!If this is your library, what the hell does your palace look like?”he gasped, taking in the gold gilded book cases and grand skylight.
“We don’t have time for your snark right now.The book is through there.”Handing him the key, I motioned at the room.“You have thirty seconds.Go!”For once, he did as I asked, taking the key and vanishing in a cloud of shadow.
As I watched the corridor for any movement from Noor or Darce, I held my chest and tried in vain to regulate my breathing.If any of us were found, it was treason.Death was the only penalty.The fact that I had spent the last two hundred years thinking of ways to overthrow my father wouldn’t go down well, either.Nell and Luz had been kept out of most of the planning, but Noor was right in the middle of it, and Darce, well, he had taken my pure essence.My father would kill all three of us.
Someone grabbed my waist, making me jump.When I turned, I saw Darce holding the book.Holy shit!He’d done it!“Come on.Let’s get out of here.We only have so long to look at it.”Giving Noor the signal by coughing loudly, I wrapped my arms around his neck as Darce portalled us back to my bedchamber.
“You smug bastard,” I teased, watching the smile on his face.“Okay!I admit it.I should have listened to you sooner.”
“As much as I’d love to be smug about it, we don’t have time for all that.”Moving to the bed, he placed the book down, then sat and patted the bed for me to join him.“You can do the honours.I’m not sure I’ll understand much anyway.”Taking the space next to him, I opened the book, frowning at the first distorted image.Our two suns appeared to be connected somehow to the moons.No, wait!Those weren’t our moons.I had seen those shapes before; it was depictingdarkness.
“Darce,” my voice was strained, “this might sound crazy, but this image appears to show that light and darkness are bound together.”
“How?Our races have never been more fragmented.”As I turned the pages, I saw that the Dylin book was almost as worn as the others.Letters were difficult to read, and some pages appeared to be missing.The images about plant growth may have been the easiest to understand, but that might have been because Luz had already told me about them.
One image was clear: the balance between light, darkandmoonlight.Was that the missing piece?Moonlight?
Looking at the words next to drawings of our suns, moons, and darkness, a familiarity hit.I had seen those words before in the other books.Lux, Lunae, and Tenebris.
“We’ve been blind,” I gasped as everything began to make more sense.“Lux, Lunae, and Tenebris.The ancient texts are talking aboutLight,Moon, andDarkness.Somehow, Lustre, Solace and Nantu went to war with each other, breaking the peace in Afterlight.Nantuand themoonsare the missing piece.”
“Fuck!How could I have been sostupid?”Darce ran his hands through his hair, pulling on the ends.I turned the final pages but couldn’t quite make out the last few images.Was that light eclipsing the moon?Ordarkness?Luz had spoken a little about these images, but with most of the bottom half missing, it was difficult to understand.Itappearedto be a sword made of light and darkness.
“Why would Nantu intervene and cause a war between Solace and Lustre?This can’t have simply been about power.”
“Your legend about Anwar, the Dylin that betrayed Nantu...he doesn’t exist in our history.”
“What are you saying?”
