The Hunt for the Ghostkeeper

Chapter 17: Prophesy

"Hurry up!" Nadine called behind her, pacing down the rich blue corridor.

"Why are we acting so secretive?" Chase asked, following her.

"Because I don't want Hollingsworth to see us. She thinks we shouldn't be talking to Elythia."

"And should we? The woman sounds like a mental case."

"That's what you people aren't understanding! Don't you see how valuable she can be to us in the future? If we need her help, we need to respect her now."

"But why do you think she can help us if no one else does?"

"Because she comprehends it, Chase. That's the difference between her and anyone else who's ever received a prophecy before. She can translate it and communicate with humans!"

Chase, not wanting to argue any further, kept his mouth shut as Nadine approached the door to to the Night Room. Carefully, she bent the handle downwards and pushed open the wooden barrier.

Beyond the threshold, the room was just as it was when they had first entered it: dark, dim, with a fire roaring behind the hearth in the wall and twilight penetrating the huge glass window occupying the wall in front of them, even though it was dawn in Paris. As they transcended deeper into the enigmatic room, they saw the same fragile figure in her chair.

"Elythia," Nadine spoke.

"Vexors," Elythia responded without looking up. "Sit, sit yourselves down."

Chase and Nadine did so, on the loveseat next to the fire, to Elythia's left. She looked deep in concentration, her wrinkled face fixed around her eyes, tightly closed in a ponderous motion of thought.

"Elythia, we need your help," Nadine said.

"And why is that, my girl? No one has ever sought my company very much before. Left me for a scullery maid in this house. Why do you seek my company?"

"They told me not to trust you, but- but I don't believe them."

"Oh?"

"I know that you can See. Interpret the prophecies that Appear to you without confusion. And the Council needs your strength, even if they don't care to admit it."

"And there lies the question of questions, doesn't it?" Elythia responded, opening her eyes. "You Vexors. Knowledge-seekers. Where does the limit lie?"

"Wh- Excuse me?"

"At what point will you ever have enough knowledge?"

"One can never have enough knowledge," Chase quickly responded, wishing he could take it back as soon as the words escaped his lips. Nadine gave him a look, but Elythia smiled.

"And that is the theory of us mortals. To strive for and find all that we possibly can. But this is our strength in our nature, and it is also our flaw. One can have too much knowledge, my boy, and the knowledge that will set us over the edge is the truth of the beyond, the great unknown. Humans once knew their purpose on this here earth, but the truth was taken from them after human nature took its toll on their behavior. From then on we were left in the darkness to plunge our way through the falsehoods and the liars and the hypocrites, in the hopes that we'll break free of these setbacks and know the truth again."

"What does this have Celestia?" Chase asked.

"It has everything and nothing to do with Celestia. She is a blindfolded bird flying within a small room, in which there is no way to escape. She cannot see her way out, but she is blinded on two levels: she is fighting a losing battle. There is no way out of the enclosed room, but she cannot see this truth because she has been blinded herself. That there's the difference between us and her. She cannot see, but perhaps we can. This is why I believe the Council was created: we were given both the power and the responsibility to live in this world in the way in which it was originally meant to be inhabited."

"But what is the point of creating the Council in the first place?" Chase asked hurriedly. "What separates us so much from Menials that they can't understand what we can?"

Elythia smiled.

"There is a legend, told in a more ancient part of the world," she said. "The story goes that there is a Secret, hidden from the Council, a Secret that proposes the reason and purpose of our life on earth. Many have strived and spent their entire lives searching for this Secret, including me."

"Have you ever discovered- it?" Nadine asked, uncomfortable referring to such an abstract concept.

"Indeed, I have, but I have not succumbed to the temptation of discovering what it says. You see, the Secret is enclosed in a book-"

"What book?" Chase asked impatiently, growing more annoyed with this woman and her nonsensical theories.

"A commonplace book of the very first Prime Witch," Elythia responded. "The Book of Victoria."

Chase and Nadine looked at each other.

"The Council just said that Victoria's Book was safe," Nadine said.

"Yeah, they did, but they can never hide it forever. The Book will never truly be safe."

"But if this Secret is simply written in this Book, why hasn't anyone discovered it yet?"

"Because it is written in a language far dead to this world, and even if it was able to be deciphered, I would advise the Council to look away from the Book's pages."

"Why?" Chase asked, wondering why this woman continued to contradict herself.

For the first time, Elythia arose from her chair by the fire and walked to huge glass window, where snow continued to fall through the cool night air.

"Come," she said, beckoning to the Vexors to gaze outside the window with her. Chase and Nadine obeyed, and for the first time, they realized that the Night Room didn't just alter the time of day. It also changed the scenery of Liebeaux Manor. Instead of seeing the city streets of Paris, they were looking at a range of snow-covered hills, stretching back to the horizon as far as the eye could see.

"Look at them hills yonder, in the distance," Elythia said. "Look at their magnificence, their beauty. If we were, right now, to walk across the hills, then their purity would be tarnished by our footprints, the mark of human trespass. This is the same way the Secret must stay, away from human touch and trespass, if it is to continue to exist in this world. We were meant to know that there is a reason, somewhere, for the gift of life, but we are never meant to discover exactly why, lest our existence become ever less valuable and meaningless. And as for whatever sorry soul attempts to discover that Secret- may the Fates have mercy on their soul."

"But what would happen if one were to discover the secret?" Chase asked, but received no answer. He and Nadine looked around, but they were alone. Elythia was gone, as if she were only a figment of their imaginations.