գ 𝔪𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔥𝔰 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔬𝔯~ 𝔒𝔫𝔢 𝔳𝔬𝔦𝔠𝔢
"You're sure you know where we're going?" Arthur asked for the second time as Marie-Élise stopped in front of him in the darkness.
"Quit fussing. I've taken this route a hundred times if not more," she snapped back. He stayed silent.
Believe it or not, he had lived here for two years after he was changed and deemed too unstable to live at the surface among humans. Every street here in the underground network of Paris was mirrored to the streets at the surface. He had no recollection of the path she was leading him on. Nevertheless, he trusted her to know what she was doing. This was his first ever meeting he would attend. The first time he would set eyes on the Vampire Council.
The darkness soon materialized into tall somber buildings. The only lights that illuminated them were the lampposts which cast a faint yellow glow on the buildings' elegant façades. The street itself was empty, surely everyone was already gathering in the hall.
"We're late." Marie-Élise grumbled.
Soon enough, they made it to the end of the street at which stood an imposing edifice crowned with a cupola that reminded Arthur a little of the Saint-Augustin Church. Not far, four girls who looked to be in their early twenties stood giggling silently, their 18th-century dresses billowing as they mischievously passed around a pipe and took turns in smoking it. At the sight of Arthur and Marie-Élise, they scampered away out of the lamppost's light, leaving behind them a faint cloud of smoke. Marie-Élise ignored them, walking confidently up to the building's entrance. She held the large golden lion knocker in her small hand, and without hesitation rapped on the wooden door. They waited for a while before they were greeted by a man with a thin white mustache. He adjusted his monocle as he peered down at them.
"You're late," he observed matter-of-factly.
"We know," Marie-Élise hissed back between gritted teeth.
He stepped aside without a word, exposing them to the grand hall behind him that Arthur had heard so much about but had never seen up until now.
"Follow me if you will," he beckoned.
Candles hung on the walls, their flames flickering in the dimness, casting grim reflections on the black and white floor tiles as if the three of them stood like pawns on a giant chessboard. The walls themselves seemed to tell a hidden tale. The fresco's characters were frozen in vivid action, each one seemed to be reaching out to the next somehow. But the candles on the wall were placed in such a way that what was in between was left in utter darkness. Arthur wondered if this was intentional, making viewers imagine the scene in its entirety.
'There are still seats available in the second tier." Their host informed them as they came to the end of the hall, near a winding set of stairs.
"Thanks." Marie-Élise mumbled without looking up at him as she started climbing up the stairs.
"The pleasure is all mine," he replied courteously, his voice devoid of emotion.
Arthur and Marie-Élise seemed to enter what looked like an ancient Opera Theatre. In their designated box, they spotted Émile Bellois. By the looks of it, spectators had been reluctant to sit next to one they didn't consider fully their own yet. But Émile didn't seem to be bothered in the least by this hostile behavior. On the contrary, he seemed to be enjoying the extra space to himself. When Arthur sat to his right, he gave him a welcoming smile. On Arthur's other side, Marie-Élise tugged at his arm, directing his attention to the the scene taking place on the stage below.
A half circle of high chairs looked down upon a figure Arthur recognized to be Edmond. It was the first time since the war between clans had started that Arthur saw his sire again.
"So, are you to admit that you have been sympathizing with this woman while fully conscious of her true nature?" The judge demanded.
"Yes. I have," Edmond answered firmly.
"And with what intention may I ask if it was not by primary necessity?"
"I had read Dr. Enwright's paper on electromagnetism and was interested in a collaboration."
"And after discovering what she was, did you ever intend to either change or terminate the shifter?"
"No. That was not my intention."
"Do you admit then that you consciously broke the Pledge?"
As all eyes were on him, Edmond slipped off his sleek black blazer along with his gloves before addressing the judge again.
"With all do respect, sir, I think the question is not whether or not the Pledge has been broken but rather if the Pledge must remain unbroken."
There was a pause around the room. Then, whisperings echoed among the crowd. What on earth was Edmond doing? Arthur thought. There was no way he could win against the Vampire Council. And, although he knew he would remain loyal to his sire until the end no matter how twisted Edmond's decisions were sometimes, he couldn't imagine that every member of their clan felt the same way.
"Are you insinuating that a plan which has worked for us for more than twenty centuries is to be casually dismissed? We are to let shifters destroy us?"
"How are you so sure the Pledge has worked? All shifters have gone into hiding. We don't know how many are still alive and we certainly have no control over their activities. Luna Enwright has been living in Paris for four years before our noticing. My sire has gone missing for a century now. I believe," he pursued, "Kyan is not asleep. I believe he is dead."
The crowd gasped and began to stir nervously.
"Nonsense!" The judge stood up in his seat, "calm your tongue or the consequences will be severe! You have no business spreading false ideas. Don't you see? This man is inventing pretenses to cover up his real intentions. Tell them. Tell them you have been using the shifter as a means to search for the blood moon's secret!"
"I have not." Edmond replied calmly.
"Liar." They heard Osiris in the seat next to the judge's, hiss in his strong accent.
"I beg to have your attention," Edmond continued, ignoring the remark, "eliminating their species gives them a reason to search for the secret, that reason messieurs is self-defense. Or in some cases revenge."
"Cease if you please." The judge cut him off bluntly. "This topic is no longer open for debate. You will be examined by one of our specialists two days from now in order to assess your full state of consciousness as you speak these words."
A sour smile curled Edmond's lips ever so slightly that maybe only Arthur and those who knew Edmond well might have noticed.
"I created those tests didn't I?" He murmured to himself though the whole room wasn't deaf to the bitter humor.
They're giving him a taste of his own medicine. Arthur realized with a slight pang.
"Indeed and I have to say so myself, they prove to be useful, Dr. De Revel. Now, this meeting is over, all, may you retreat to your activities."
"One voice!" Someone shouted among the crowd. "One voice them all to sway!"
At this, the room stood as confused as ever, not knowing who might have uttered these words. Then, something that Arthur expected the least to happen, happened. The room erupted into a shouting fit which was so chaotic that not even Arthur's vampire hearing could make out what they were saying. But one thing he was sure of, this meant that some were actually agreeing with Edmond.
Speaking of Edmond, when no one was paying much attention to him anymore, Arthur noticed him and Henry discussing something inaudible before the two of them slipped out of the room.
His curiosity piqued, Arthur made it out of the theatre down the spiraling staircase and back into the grand hall. There, Henry and Edmond whirled round in surprise.
"Arthur? What are you doing here?" Edmond asked in a bewildered tone.
"Coming to see you." Arthur said as he diverted his gaze to the ground. Edmond's fingers lifted his chin lightly and Arthur stared into his sire's melancholic gray eyes. He knew Edmond was focused on the mutilated side of his face. Indeed, his left eye had not yet regained its normal size and it sunk into his face like a big purple golf ball. He was guiltily aware of what this reminded Edmond of... the first time they met.
"What have they done to you?" Edmond sighed.
"Nothing I didn't give them back." Arthur retorted but Edmond didn't seem to find the joke remotely funny.
"Where is Luna?" He changed the subject, letting go of Arthur.
"I...I don't know..." Arthur admitted.
His sire's pupils suddenly dilated menacingly. "She was to be kept under careful watch." He turned toward Henry in the background.
"She refused our company repeatedly, Edmond." Marie-Élise's voice jumped in as she too paced down the stairs toward them. "Besides all vampires in Paris are gathered here."
"N'importe! You should at least know her location at all times."
"I'm assuming you have no intention in attending her execution next Monday then." An amused voice stated behind Marie-Élise.
"I found the person who spoke earlier." Marie-Élise explained, stepping aside to reveal a young woman of petite stature, her auburn hair woven into a small braid. She wore, it seemed, a 19th century cream-colored dress.
One voice them all to sway. The words still echoed in Arthur's mind as they had in the theatre a couple moments ago. Maybe Edmond's goal had never been to convince the Council after all.
"Our blood may be Savignard's but our hearts and minds will forever remain our own." She told Edmond, her tawny colored eyes glinting with both the energy of youth and the steadiness of the elderly.
"Do others in your clan feel the same way?" Edmond inquired quietly.
The young girl laughed. "If you mean the intense feeling of wanting to rattle Lucinde Savignard's cage then yes."
"What is your name?"
"Léonie. Léonie Renard and if you must know, I was once a shifter."
***
Stairs led up to three archways sustaining a row of three large windows surmounted with a fine tympanum. Luna stopped on the stone steps. Her phone was vibrating. She took it out of her pocket and not even bothering to look at the number, answered it with irritation.
"Okay Jeremy. Now I'm definitely putting you on mute."
"I'm not Jeremy."
"Edmond?"
"Luna, where are you?" His tone was urgent. "Where are you?" He repeated, his voice panicked.
"Err..." Luna stammered, "the Mazarine Library," she replied immediately. "What's happening?" She asked but Edmond had already hung up.
The young professor turned around to look at the courtyard behind her. People were freely circulating. Everything seemed casual. No trace of supernatural or of the fire that had consumed the contents in these walls. Why was Edmond so worried? As she entered she couldn't help but gasp at the miraculous sight before her. Tall walls lined with books upon books upon books. High chandeliers hanging over long wooden tables. An intense sense of déjà-vu befell her. The feeling of having entered some sort of sanctuary where all are silent in order to listen to the words of those who speak no more.
Luna clutched her temples, hoping memories might flow back to mind. Had she been here before? Had her mother shown her the next clue?
Instead someone bumped into her. In the vision that followed, a mild breeze swept her cheeks. She took one last look behind her. It was a tiny apartment, silent and plain at nighttime. The white curtains flowed out of the window with the breeze. Her feet felt cold on the windowsill. Her heart felt frozen and empty. Even though it still beat at this instant, it had already died a long time ago. She closed her eyes on the world and took a step forward. The fall seemed never ending, the cold wind, a liberation.
Luna's eyes opened sharply. Her whole body vibrated with pain. She noticed that just as in the vision, she too had fallen.
"I'm so sorry!" A woman peered down at her with a guilty face. "I hadn't seen you there!"
Luna got to her feet, still shaky after the vision.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Luna tried to smile back. The woman that spoke to her seemed to be in her early thirties, her bright blond hair cut short, and her eyes widened with concern.
"I actually work here. Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked nervously.
Is there anything I can help you with?
The same question Luna would have asked this woman if she could. But she already knew the answer. Fate was unstoppable.
"Can I ask you something you'll find weird?" Luna inquired.
"Erm... alright?"
"Would you mind if I hugged you?"
"Well, I guess not?" She replied slightly taken aback by the odd question.
As Luna wrapped her arms around the stranger, a gentle tune filled her ears. The vision replayed yet it was longer this time, more complete. The woman had picked up a violin, beautiful, and whose wood glistened under the city's night lights. A solemn melody streamed out of the open window as bow brushed strings. The last song to end the nightmare. Luna thought. When the last note was played and drifted peacefully into the night air, she carefully set the instrument back into its case and climbed onto the windowsill. For the second time, Luna endured the fall, then the agonizing pain that rippled through her whole body. Luna wanted so bad at each time to tell people that they weren't alone in death, in their suffering, that she saw it, she lived it just as they would.
"Are you sure you're okay?" The woman asked in a worried voice.
"You just... remind me of someone..." Luna confessed, wiping her eye before the tear had the time to fall. "Were any of the books lost in the fire?" She asked, regaining her composure and finally changing the topic.
"Unfortunately, yes in the Medieval section. Is there a particular book you're searching for?"
Yes and no...
"Not yet..." she answered vaguely. "Excuse me a minute."
She had spotted Edmond. He was seated at one of the tables as if he had always been there. Before him lay a rather large volume. Luna wondered if his concentration was fully captivated by it or if he was in fact, listening to every word of her conversation.
"What are you doing here?" She whispered as she walked up to him.
He looked up at her and it seemed as though relief softened his gray eyes.
"May I return the question? Why are you here?"
She sat across from him.
"You knew about the fire didn't you? Don't you find it a bit of a coincidence?"
The woman next to Luna who happened to have an especially bulbous nose, scowled at them behind narrow square spectacles for interrupting the silence.
"You think this library might be in relation to the note from Flamel's house?" Edmond asked in understanding.
"It only makes sense but I still don't get it. Does it refer to one book in particular within the library?"
"I don't know. Did your mother ever leave a call number that might lead to a specific book or manuscript?"
"No..." Luna paused. Call number. Wait. No... could it be? "Yes...My aunt Aveline. My mom left me her number but it was a wrong number and my aunt had died way before she wrote that suicide note."
She had memorized the number by heart after reading her mother's suicide note over and over again.
"+00 00 113 579" She recited. "Could the call number be 113 579?"
"It's possible," Edmond said thoughtfully.
Thankfully, he had a reader's card and was able to ask for the book assigned to that number.
As Edmond turned the pages of a medieval Old Testament, Luna observed the letters attentively not that she had any idea what was written. She was sure if it weren't for Edmond, she wouldn't have even guessed it was a bible.
"Maybe we've got it all wrong." Luna murmured.
The book her mother wanted her to find may have been lost in the fire. Or they may have misinterpreted the message. Or Aveline's number was just a wrong number.
"No. This is the right book." Edmond stated as he stopped turning the pages. Luna looked over his shoulder. A circular illustration adorned half of the page. The other half was occupied with medieval handwriting. The ledge of the circle was followed by a depiction of the different lunar phases. Thin brown lines connected each phase to a smaller brown circle in the middle. In between each line, a different scene was portrayed. In the first brown frame, an emerald-colored snake loomed over a flamboyant bird whose feathers were the color of fire, locking its sharp teeth around the beautiful creature's throat. Its forked tongue twisted around the bird's neck as if to lick the droplets of blood. In the next scene, the bird was gone, instead two snakes were twined together. In the following frame, this time it was the bird that leant over the snake. A drop of blood fell into the snake's open mouth. Then, the snake was gone replaced by two elegant birds whose feathers rose toward one another like flames. Those four scenes were mirrored on the other half of the circle, starting once again upon that of the snake sinking its teeth into the bird's tender neck. As Edmond began to turn the page and as the light passed through the vellum, faded words appeared around the small brown circle in the center.
"Basilique Sainte Croix et Saint-Vincent" Edmond whispered.
Progressively they also noticed letters on the rim of the illustration.
Quando umbra aurorae tegerit septem. Filius, quae solis illuminatur, prima lapidem positam cum digito monstraverit. Sub is lapide iste que petitis est.
Immediately, Edmond took a piece of paper from out of his pocket and copied what was written in his graceful handwriting. He carefully closed the fragile volume. Luna's eyes widened.
"What does it say?" She inquired eagerly.
"I will tell you when we are somewhere safe. I don't like the silence here," he replied somewhat hurriedly.
It was finally once they were out of the library and out of earshot that he translated the message for her.
When the shadow of dawn covers the seven, the son, illuminated by sunshine, will point to the first stone thus laid under which dwells what you seek.
According to Edmond, the middle circle read Basilique Sainte Croix et Saint-Vincent, an ancient abbey which was nowadays known as the church of Saint Germain des Près, the oldest church in Paris and one of the oldest buildings in the city.
"So, the next clue we have to find in a church?" She asked.
"It appears so..."
"How were you so sure when you opened that book that it was the one we were looking for?" Curiosity and astonishment hummed in her voice.
"I knew because..." he paused, "whoever worked on that illumination used blood. Human blood. To draw the lines and I think the circle in the center ought to represent the blood moon." He stopped. His silver eyes serious. "Luna, not many have gotten this far. Few have come this close to finding the secret."
Although his cold hands hadn't touched her, she shivered as their gazes collided.
"We might be about to discover a secret that's been buried for milleniums."
A/N
Ok. This chapter needs a little refining. More descriptions maybe? What do you think? Tell me if something isn't clear so that I can explain it better for readers to understand!
One by Ed Sheeran
I feel like this chapter corresponds a bit to the song above :) I love how it was filmed in that vast empty room.
Apparently music can stimulate the same feelings of euphoria in our brains as drugs or alcohol 🤯 (without the negative effects of course) quite impressive don't you think? So, listening to your favorite song when you're down might actually help!
And today's music day!! 🥳 and also happens to be my birthday! It's funny coz feels like everyone's celebrating my bday at the same time as me xD
Word count: 3320