Nervous was not the word Sylas would use to describe himself right now.
He had gone to bed with a plan in mind- wake up tomorrow morning, grab Yue from her depressing tower, and meet up with Gwen and Nicholas.
And hopefully, not run into Roza.
And even more hopefully, not run into his fiance, or her friend.
Of course, as luck would have it, he not only ran into not one, not two, but all three of the people he was actively trying to avoid. While technically Solarie was with Jin at the time, and Roza was with Gwen, it made his mood ever more depressive. At least the prince had the decency to be on time without his usual foul mood. Thankfully, Roza was also completely sober, and everyone else was fairly awake.
"So, General, why have you called this meeting? And with-" Nicholas gestured around the room. "Non-council members and child Elites?"
Because the real council chamber, the court senate, and all of the judicial proceeding rooms were booked in the late morning, the group had settled in the next fanciest unoccupied room they could think of.
The breakfast room.
"I think the membership aspect here isn't worth discussing. What's more important, is that none of us have the complete story about why the hell Solarie's here, and what's going on with Yue's visions." Gwen replied.
At the mention of her name, Yue shrunk back into her seat. It seemed that yesterday's headache clarity was not meant to last.
Nicholas glanced in Yue's direction, before turning his attention back to his general. "Why am I here then?"
"I thought your father would've told you about this. Are you seriously telling me you've been kept in the dark about your new cousin?"
"I thought she was my second cousin."
"Technically, she's your third cousin."
They all turned to Sylas.
"Sorry. But the king did mention a great-great grandfather, making you and Solarie third cousins."
"Nobody wants your input, Sylas." Roza rolled her eyes.
Sylas put his hands up in defeat, and sank back into his chair. "Can we get to the bit where we share whatever information we have? Let's start with Roza. She's the tutor, and I heard the king say that she knows the whole plan."
All eyes fell onto Roza, who actually dressed appropriately for their congregation. She sighed. "I don't know everything. The plan I was told was that because Solarie might be seen as a saint among variens, that she should be a face of representation- quote, the people will see a varien among them rise in the ranks, and their faith in the monarchy will be restored, end quote. I was given a list of things to teach her. At first, I thought about turning her into a soldier, but now that I've seen her fight, I'm starting to retract my decision."
"Rude." Sylas heard Solarie mumble.
"I'll go next. I'm the prince, and I know nothing other than I have a new third cousin. Uh, pardon me, but who is that?" He pointed to Jin.
Jin was surprised to be acknowledged by the prince, catching him off guard. He almost toppled to the floor, but quickly caught himself and steadied his balance. "J-Jin Lang, of House Crysallo, your highness." he stuttered.
"Oh. The disinherited-not disinherited kid. Why is he at the table?"
"He's my guest, and he stays. I unintentionally roped him in." Solarie replied in place of her friend.
Prince Nicholas sighed. "What does he know?"
When Jin said nothing, the look of disappointment on Nicholas' face said everything he did not care to say out loud. He turned to Gwen next. "General, what information do you know of?"
"Besides anything that Roza told me? No. The king had me focused on rebellion movements."
"Fair enough. Sylas?"
Sylas jumped at his name, but calmly stood up like he was taught to whenever he was supposed to address the table. Everyone else had done it, with the exception of Solarie, but she hadn't been raised in high society, and therefore could be forgiven in his eyes.
"Well, I was engaged to her very early on, and I could barely overhear what conversations were happening in the throne room. But..." He turned to Yue, silently asking with their secret blinking language. He had developed a sequence pattern of short and long blinks to indicate letters and spelling, as well as punctuation.
Do I tell them about the visions, or do you want to?
Do we trust them?
Well, two are royalty, two are military, and one is a low house member. What could go wrong?
Stop making long remarks. My brain hurts trying to translate.
Am I telling them about the visions or not?
"Stop blinking at each other!" Solarie turned to Jin. "I told you, they have this weird secret language." she whispered.
Sylas and Yue ignored her. Yes, go ahead. I don't feel like speaking. Whatever miracle happened yesterday is gone.
"Are you going to continue, or should we move on?" Nicholas asked impatiently.
He quickly straightened himself. "Yes, of course- apologies. Yesterday, during the rebel attack, Yue had another vision. Apparently before that, she spouted a prophecy about more war. Yue, do you have the paper?"
She handed the parchment to him, and together they spread it across the table. It was not very grand.
"Am I looking at a child's handwriting?"
"Nicholas, you're barely twenty."
"Not now, Zhelvakova."
"Hello? We're supposed to be looking at the prophecy!" Sylas exclaimed. He pointed at the paper in the center of the table. "But Yue, he has a point. Your handwriting is terrible."
"Try writing things from memory while enduring a splitting headache and then we'll see how your handwriting looks." Yue retorted. When the rest of them turned to her, in awe of her fiery comeback, she again sunk back into her chair.
"Just read the damn prophecy."
They all craned their necks to see what was written. Occasionally one would change their expression, probably indicating a passage that was unreadable, but continued on anyway.
Among the common, one will rise.
To fight, to love, and to wage war,
The battle against darkness is soon to occur.
Five companions, all unique
From different houses, high and low
One on the brink of extinction;
One born of chaos.
Another of the weak-
One of power.
One roped in by love,
And a saint born by the creator himself.
"What kind of prophecy doesn't rhyme at all?" Solarie asked in disbelief.
"Have you considered that perhaps that's not important, cousin? What is important is that this thing is telling us we're heading to war with Sötèt, and we are not prepared to fight them." Nicholas retorted.
"Well, we're already dealing with strained relationships with Nebesa and the Ardish. Arden's forces are probably going to be invading soon enough. They've already been hanging up propaganda posters around towns, especially in the southern concentrations like Pyongyin and Gutai." Roza snarked, pointing to a yellowed map hanging on the wall.
"You've lost me. What are all these places?" Solarie said, looking up at the map. Sylas assumed she had never left Cai, or her city at all.
Roza groaned. "I thought we could skip today's lesson since we would be in this meeting, but apparently, the gods hate me. Solarie, welcome to today's lesson; politics. It's not exciting. I would've grabbed a glass if I knew we would be doing this, but this is a strictly no-alcohol area and Gwen has barred me from drinking any more this week."
"You two act like a grouchy old married couple." Solarie remarked, and seated herself back down at the table. Roza ignored her. "If we're heading to war, we need to make actual preparations, like finding alliances and weapons. I don't think we have enough elite soldiers to fight on the front, not with the rebel forces and the night monsters to take care of. I'm also personally not a fan of child soldiers."
"From what I understand," the prince cut in. "this... prophecy details that there is going to be one savior along with five allies from different houses. Why don't we fulfill the prophecy?"
"Because I don't know if it leads to destruction or salvation." Yue muttered. "All I know is that I am part of this prophecy, and that my bets wage on Solarie being the hero. King Magnus is trying to force the hands of fate by adding Sylas, the house roped in by love, hence the engagement. Everything else is a riddle." She reached over to the table, sliding the thin parchment into her hands.
"Look," she pointed to the verse about the houses. "One on the brink of extinction." She read aloud. "That can only refer to me. House Chang is the only house with... less than five members." Yue trailed off, somberly.
"A little on the nose, huh?" Jin mumbled beneath his breath. Nobody heard him, but he quickly retracted his comment after reviewing it in his head, given its insensitive nature. He didn't know much about the massacre, but Jin did know that almost all of House Chang had been wiped out that fateful night.
Nicholas shook his head. "This is possibly the worst time to heed a war on two- no, possibly three fronts. I'll speak with my father on the subject." He gestured to Gwen. "General, how many of-age Elites do you think could possibly be initiated into the advanced program?"
In response, she dug out a paper from her satchel. " twenty-three. Unfortunately, mostly from lower houses." The general handed the paper over to him.
Sylas watched as they made the awkward exchange, Gwen rifling through her papers and transcripts while Nicholas attempted to get them all in order and match all of the identities. It was a trivial thing, but in his mind, it made the looming threat of total destruction less scary.
"So what, we just, look for houses that may or may not fill the qualifications of the prophecy?" His fiance drummed her fingers on the table impatiently.
"Please, dear girl, go pick up one of those politics books that are shelved in the library. Actually, ask Sylas. He probably has some." Roza groaned in annoyance.
"I do not." Sylas replied, keen on his defense. As boring as Roza would call him, he would not stoop so low as to borrow niche books on politics.
"You and I both know you probably have at least one book indirectly related to it."
"I don't!"
"You absolutely do. Go help your fiance. Meeting adjourned. Leave the rest of the details to the adults."
"You're twenty-one!"
"Still an adult."
Jin raised his hand. "Pardon me, but what am I supposed to do?"
"Whatever low house members do. Scram." Roza snarked.
The boy reluctantly left, probably scampering off to his room. Solarie rose, and Sylas quickly followed. He bid his goodbyes to the other people, and was met with a friendly wave from Nicholas, an ignorance from Gwen, and an eye roll from Roza. As soon as he turned around, he found that Solarie had disappeared. He sighed, and sprinted off towards the library.
As soon as he made it to the library across the palace, he traced his fingers over the labels denoting each section. History pre-Yan dynasty, History pre-civil war, History pre-Arden-Cai war, History pre-second civil war, History onNebesan and Cai relations, History post-civil war, History current era, History on exploration of Oraque. Sylas' favourite section. History was finite, completely factual- it couldn't be changed, at least not without the blessings of Viera from House Li. Even then, no time manipulator could travel as far back to change the events of history. It was completely set in stone, and the information was compiled by multiple houses. The Popov's- with their eidetic memory, the Cao's with their advanced intelligence, House Yin with memory projection, and of course the Li's with the gift of time manipulation. There were so many opinions, facts, and pure memories and witnesses of events that it would be impossible to fabricate them.
Right?
Sylas recalled a saying that his old teacher had told him.
"History is told by the winners."
He hadn't really believed anyone would create a false history. But as he got older, he realized what kind of world they actually lived in. Cai hadn't technically won the Arden-Cai war. The Ardish ended up invading, creating concessions and instilling their values and beliefs into them. Resistance was futile- they executed anyone and everyone who dared to stand in their path. Only after the king had recuperated the Elite forces did they finally chase them out, but the effects were felt so far, not only in varien communities but even the houses. So many children bore first names of Ardish origin, including himself. His parents hadn't even bothered giving him or Ashlee a proper Cainese name. They were just that- Sylas and Ashlee Lai. The history of Ardish colonization was sometimes buried, often used as an explanation for the odd names but never anything more.
Even though his teacher always taught him to never place any bias anywhere, he couldn't help but see the Ardish as evil entities, barely better than Sötèt and the evil monsters that came within. In their own right, Arden was a monster. He had heard of stories where they kidnapped and enslaved people from their colonies in Oraque, stolen land they conquered and extracted resources from. They transported them across the seas with their powerful longships, which even the Cainese navy could not rival. The only advantage Cai had were their Elites. The only reason they could win wars. They were soldiers, born of actual divine beings.
"Sylas!"
Sylas was interrupted by Solarie, panting as she raced into the library. The librarian delivered a loud shh to silence her, but it was to no avail.
"Solarie," he whispered. "You can't just barge in here shouting even if you're in the upper echelon of the world. It's disrespectful."
"To what, the books?" She continued in her normal voice.
"Yes, and the people in the library."
"Sorry. Also, please don't use the word echelon again. I'm convinced you just made up words to toy with me."
"I don't. Please, read a dictionary or a thesaurus once in a while. It's good for your vocabulary."
"I thought you were supposed to teach me about politics?"
"Go get a book then!"
Solarie rolled her eyes. "That's boring. Can't you teach me something actually interesting? Roza covers enough boring material in our lessons."
Sylas thought for a moment, searching for an interesting topic. "Do you want to learn about the origins of our slang?"
Solarie blinked. "No idea what that is, but sure."
He guided her to an unoccupied table, right in front of the history shelves. Sylas felt a little giddy- History and languages were some of his favourite subjects, and the history of words moreover. He often taught himself different languages and dialects from around the world, just for the fun of it. He was almost fluent in Nebesan, and had achieved conversational Ardish. He wasn't able to find any books on Oraque's language.
"Okay," he began, sliding a large leather-bound book off the shelf and gently placing it down onto the wooden surface. Let's start with something fun. You must've used the word hell before, right?"
"I think, in a casual conversation, or when I'm particularly worked up about something."
"This is a fun story." Sylas pointed to the illustrations, flipping between pages. This particular book listed all of the gods, goddesses, and deities in alphabetical order, making everything so much more organized and easy to scour for information. "There is a tale that Ignios, the god of fire, Journee, the goddess of death, and Viera, the goddess of time, banded together to make some kind of eternal punishment for the mortals they didn't like. Since they couldn't touch the mortals while they still lived, Journee used her powers to reap their souls and bodies, while Ignios and Viera created an everlasting prison of fire and misery. They got help from Facreed, the god of emotion, for the misery bit. Anyway, the whole creation was dubbed hell. Both Orianna and Sorren signed off on it. This was before the whole eternal darkness curse situation.
"In the end, hell was often used among mortals to describe unfavourable places, conditions, or states of physical feeling. It slowly transformed over time, and now is just thrown around casually while expressing displeasure or to emphasize dramatics." Sylas exhaled one long breath, catching his lungs up with his heart.
Solarie peered over at the book. It was open on the page with Viera. If she remembered correctly, Viera's descendants were House Li. Perhaps Roza's lessons had inserted some information into her.
She looked up at Sylas, while he pushed up his glasses. "Tell me another story."
"What?" He asked, confuzzled.
"Tell me another story about slang." She repeated. She pushed the book towards him. "Go on. I know it makes you happy when you talk about this stuff. I can see you grinning."
Sylas' cheeks flushed a bright red, but he quickly composed himself. "Okay..." He took the book from the table, flipping through its contents. "Have you used shit before? It has connections to the topic of organisms and excrement..."
They must've been in that library forever. Sylas had gone on and on about different curses and slang that was often tossed around, rambling about the different uses for each word and how the word was created. The skylights in the library darkened, and they closed the blinds to make sure the monsters wouldn't think twice before they tried to attack the palace.
"... and that's why we use retard and its alternate form, retarded in the modern age."
Solarie yawned. She stretched out her arms above her, releasing all the tension she had built up in the last few hours.
"If you're tired, you should go back to your room. I should check up on Ashlee anyway." He closed the book shut, already shelving it back into its proper place and in order. He made sure to double-check the numbers on the side as well as the names of the authors.
She yawned again. "Yeah... it was nice. Thanks."
Sylas tilted his head, angled in a crooked manner. "What do you mean?"
"Listening to all those stories. It's like when my mother used to read me bedtime stories about Aurel."
He raised a brow. "Who's Aurel?"
"Oh, right. It's a varien thing. Most of us worship Aurel as the god and protector of the variens, kind of like how each house worships their house god. It's our form of religion." She frowned. "That wasn't in your book, was it?"
"No, but now you have something you can teach me. Tomorrow though- I've overexerted my brain today. I'll have to eschew reading tonight."
"What did I tell you about using big words with me? I told you I dropped out of school." Solarie complained in vain, uselessly.
"Overexerted? Eschew? They don't have many letters."
"I don't care. They sound weird."
"Just go to sleep."
He heard the scraping of the chair while he turned away, checking to make sure each book was shelved correctly in alphabetical order. Sylas, for some reason, could not describe the disappointment he was feeling in his head. He had sent Solarie off- wasn't that the correct response when someone yawned in your presence? Maybe it was that he hadn't apologized for his tantrum after Solarie intruded on Yue's and his private conversation. It wasn't his fault, but he still felt guilty about the whole situation. He wasn't entirely sure that he was in the right, but he sure did feel like it. Yue and Sylas had been friends for a great deal of time. It wasn't nice to meddle within their relationship. Especially since she had only been in the palace for a few days, while Yue had been there all along.
Sylas sighed. He would probably end up apologizing the next morning, regardless of whether or not he actually felt like he had to. It wouldn't do any good to have bad blood between them. Along with being inducted into a prophecy against his will, getting married, and dealing with all of the issues of political war, having one of the only friendly faces in the palace hold a grudge against him was not ideal. Despite the chaos that was reigning over him, he felt oddly at ease now that he was the only one left in the library. The librarian had left about an hour ago, and now that Solarie was gone, he was completely alone.
Just Sylas and books. Like how it used to be. How it should be.
He rested his head against the cool wooden shelves. Just the simple action was comforting. It was a nice replacement for his old habit, the one where he would vanish behind the secret door underneath the grand staircase. He stopped going after what he saw Yue endure there.
Sylas turned to the vast, empty dark room before him. Above, he saw a singular window open, allowing the nightly breeze inside to cool the library.
And then he saw the monster.