The Last Dahlia

021

When they finally arrived at the foot of the stairs, the duo found themselves in a vast chamber with rows and rows of marble shelves filled with scrolls.

"Is this it?" Yuehwa asked.

"The prophecy room."

Shoya immediately began scanning the shelves for any sign of what he was looking for, but there was no easy place to start. The more they searched, the more they realised just how extensive this place was. It contained every single prophecy made by the astrologers of Feng since the beginning.

"Dahai... Gi... Hwa... These prophecies are categorised by kingdom," Yuehwa mused as she ran her hands across the scrolls. "The astrologers haven't just been foretelling the future of Feng, they've been watching the five kingdoms."

She casually picked up one of the scrolls on the shelves and unrolled it.

Shoya kept searching through scroll after scroll. There were prophecies that foretold the outcomes of past battles, of the rise and fall of important families, even of the deaths of kings—but none of it came anywhere close to the one that defined his life.

Turning around, he said, "I don't think it's in here. They might have kept it somewhere else."

"Look at all these prophecies. Almost every one is about some war between kingdoms. They seem to be a dime a dozen here," Yuehwa remarked, casually browsing through some scrolls dated decades back.

"I suppose. The history of the five kingdoms go a long way back. Many border clashes took place and kingdoms rose and fell."

"How accurate are these?"

Shoya shrugged his shoulders. "The royal astrologers of Feng are the most well-known seers across the kingdoms, although they have been known to have made errors in their readings from time to time. Most of those mistakes are hastily covered up to protect the reputation of the institution though, so there may actually have been more inaccurate prophecies than we know of."

"I see..." Yuehwa looked thoughtful. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"I said I don't think it's in here," he repeated himself, eyes rapidly scanning the entire area for any clues. "The librarian must have given me the key for a reason, but so far we haven't come across anything that might have a use for it."

Ember, who had been zig-zagging from shelf to shelf and exploring the prophecy room from above, suddenly re-appeared in front of the both of them, chirping in excitement. Yuehwa arched her eyebrows with interest when she heard what her friend had to say.

"He says he found something in the wall behind one of the shelves," she translated helpfully. "Come on, he'll show us the way."

They walked for a good ten minutes or so before they reached the shelf in question. It was flushed up against the wall, just like all the other shelves beside it. Ember gestured towards the topmost shelf, towering high above them.

Using the lower shelves as ladder rungs, Shoya and Yuehwa quickly scaled to the top.

"There's something engraved in the wall," Yuehwa remarked, squinting to figure out what exactly was hidden behind all those scrolls. Reaching out her free hand, she pushed aside the scrolls so that they could get a better look. It was an intricate engraving of a single chrysanthemum—and right above it was a small keyhole. "Looks like we found where that key needs to go."

Shoya quickly fished out the silver key that the librarian had given him, cautiously fitting it into the hole in the wall. The key slid in perfectly, and seconds later, an audible click could be heard as it turned in the keyhole. They waited with bated breath for something to happen, and they didn't have to wait long. The shelf that they were hanging off suddenly jerked backwards, before rotating a hundred and eighty degrees and sliding itself back into place.