|TwentyEight|
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The library in question was not difficult to find, considering it was the only one as old as the Earth.
The building was tall, its structure standing as if built from cards. Beige stone built the walls surrounding the Earth-aged knowledge found inside. Upon entering through the chipped brown door, a handful of equestrian statues standing proudly on thick blocks of tortilla stone. Moving into the heart of the library, there was a beautiful sculpture of Lucifer. He was slouched over, his milky white robe draped around his chiselled v-line. His face had never been chipped in- that was always changing, but the artist had incorporated his infamous smirk. The one where his lips stretched into one of those heart-racing, charming grins.
"Uh," Aggy said, remnants of a scoff in her tone. She was looking the statue. "He is everywhere!"
***
An hour later, Tiel was balancing on the seventeenth step of an old wooden step ladder we had found tucked behind one of the few dusty desks in the large room. Her lower lip was tucked underneath her straight teeth as she traced her finger over the many book spines looking for anything that would help us. Aggy was not far away. She was standing on one of the wicker chairs, looking at the books stacked on the lower shelves. Every now and then, her focus would drop the wicker chair she was standing on and pause as if accessing whether the object would break under her weight.
I was safely on the ground. Skimming through a hefty stack of old newspapers, they provided more dust than everything and every few minutes I would pull away to cough and breath in some air before returning to the stack of dust and dirt. So far nothing had been found until Tiel called from the step ladder.
"I think, I think I found something!" Tiel said excitedly, waving one arm to grab our attention. She was holding a thick, heavy-paged book, the cloth cover - dark basil. She switched her weight, balancing the book on her knee as she slowly adjusted herself and leant her elbows against the side of the towering bookshelf.
Aggy looked across at her, her face glowing with relief. "Have you? That's good because I don't even know what I am looking for." She shut the book she had been flicking through and slotted it back into its place in the wall. Jumping off the weak chair, she moved over to where Tiel was standing high up. "Well? Are you planning on telling us? Or do you want us to guess? Because I don't know about Charmeine, but I'm shit at guessing."
Tiel scowled down at her impatient friend and traced the words with her finger as she spoke, "Throughout history, there have been many misinterpreted myths. The most famous surrounds the abandonment of the Fates. The Fates are a group of elite, secretive Angels who will stand forever in power until time itself experiences its last second. The Fates control a select amount of Angels who, by using the Fates power, are groomed into the perfect weapon and tool. Each Angel has been gifted a destiny. However, the fate given is not to strengthen the individual Angel but to strengthen the Fates overall power. Only with every set of rules, there is always an exception. It is said to be that the Angel of Harmony cannot be changed; therefore is not able to become a weapon or a tool for the Fates. The Angel can only be contained and suppressed but never changed. He or she will possess the power to unify followers of Light and Dark and create harmony among the realms. Once the unity between Light and Dark has been achieved - the Fates will be able to harness the Angel's power. Unfortunately, thus far no Angel has been branded with the title and has been successful in their quest. Therefore, the Fates must search the Earth for a possible solution. The combining of the two key forces is an urgent, mandatory matter. Without it, the Fates will not be able to stay in full power for eternity."
"Oh damn." Aggy was the first one to speak. "Um," she said awkwardly laughing, "at least we now know for definite that Charmeine is the Fates only weakness."
"It also means that if I combine the harmonies and restore peace, something that humans of today can only dream of - the Fates will be able to change me into a weapon," I added on, leaning forward to rest my head on my folded over arms.
"But this proves that the Fates do not have goodwill! If the only reason they want to create peace is to ensure they stand in power for the rest of time, then this is the only time someone can overthrow them." Tiel sighed, and rubbed her forehead, keeping one hand gripped on the book.
"We could already guess that," I murmured, talking into my arm. I looked up. "What do we do now?"
"Wait! Pause for a second." Aggy moved to stand behind me, her hands rippled over the knots in my shoulders, applying pressure to the tense spots. "I'm sure we'll figure out a way," she said, "but to summarise does this mean that we are all playing puppets in the Fates big pantomime? None of this is out of free will - even right now has been planned?"
"No. It would be too difficult to control all of us. Especially at the same time." Tiel tucked the large book between her arm and ribs and climbed down. "If you think about it, right now in this very second I am not being controlled. How do I know this? Well, all our lives - par from Charmeine who only remembers up from very recently, has been taught that the Fates are kind and considerate, putting everybody's point of view into perspective before they make a decision. Only now, this book tells the opposite. How the Fates are power-hungry and how greed surrounds them. Even the mirror described them as sly and cruel. It's why Lilith tried to kill Charmeine, however, it's also why she failed in doing so. Lilith sinned in envy and wrath - we could all see that. What we failed to notice was the impossibility of Lilith missing with her dagger. Aggy's right, if Lilith wanted to kill you-you would be dead."
"Except I'm not." I said a little coldly, "can we all stop crediting Lilith? I'm starting to think you both prefer me dead."
"Sorry." Aggy and Tiel murmured at the same time. "I'm sorry you got that impression in the first place," Tiel said, offering a meek smile.
"I don't understand the Fates intentions though," I replied, ignoring the stiff apology I received. "If the Fates wish for me to combine the harmonies so they can be in power forever, then why are they interfering? I thought the emotion between Lucifer and I has to be raw and real, not fabricated!"
"I don't think the Fates are interfering in that concept. The book states that this is an urgent matter for the Fates. They cannot afford to waste time. It's probably also the reason as to why so many Angels have had their memories wiped. If word got out then the Fates would be stopped. If we think about it, they only interfered when your life was in danger right? Or when their plan would have been destroyed, like when you figured out that you could go to the Underworld to stop Lilith- that was the Fates."
"Okay. That part makes sense only I still feel like the Fates interfere in other areas -."
"I think we should stop with the questions," Aggy sighed and rubbed her eyes from exhaustion. "What we know is that any topic surrounding the Fates only produces further questions which we don't have the answers. Let's save all of our 'whys' for the Fates to answer, okay? Now, at the moment all we know is that Charmeine is the Fates weakness and we also know why."
"You're right." I agreed, "Let's stop with the questions. Now I don't know about you two but I feel like I could sleep for three days straight right now.
"Wait - why are you two so tired?" Aggy said, motioning to Tiel who was currently suppressing a yawn. "We still have to plan a route!"
"That parts easy. We head east - that's the route planning done. I'm sure the boys will figure it out anyway."
Outside, we were met by a duo of smirking Demons, flanked by the Archangels and Lucifer. Lucifer had this rain cloud of worry on his face- it was baring thunder - the anger he had not yet released.
"Well, well, well, look at what the cat dragged in," Bal grinned, a chuckle tumbling past his thick lips. He walked closer, leading the group of boys.
Tiel, a little out of it, looked up from Aggy's shoulder. "Cat?" she asked, looking around, "Where is the cat?"
Aggy scowled, feeling limerance from Bal's comment. She patted Tiel's head back down to her shoulder. "Ignore him," she whispered to her sleepy friend, "he's being an arse."
"So what are you guys doing here?" Aldy began, cutting off Bal before he could say something witty that would piss Aggy off further. He followed us closely, his celadon eyes trained on the dark green booked tucked under Tiel's arm. Bringing it to the other's attention, he said, "What's that?"
"I don't know Aldy," Aggy replied, her voice sugary sweet as she feigned innocence. She turned to me, giving me a blank glance before she looked at Tiel. "Should we tell them, ladies?" She looked back over to me. I shrugged. I didn't know. I was far too tired to make any thought-out decisions.
Seeing that Tiel and I were too exhausted to form any group decision. Aggy spoke for the two of us and shaking her head, she said, "No. You didn't tell us anything before- thus we had to work it out on our own. Get reading boys - there's a lot of information to take in."
"Wow." Asmodeus broke into a breathy chuckle, "I aspire to be on your level of pettiness, ladies."
"Shut up Asmodeus." Aggy fired back, "no one asked you."
"So, what did you discover?" Aldy repeated, hoping to receive an answer this time. He was too lazy to go look for the answers when we had already found them.
I spoke up. "We know that I am the Fates weakness and if you're unsure about what - we've proved it. Before you cut in and tell us that using myself as bait is dangerous, we know and we are still going to do it - I need answers, I'm tired of waiting." The words dropped from my lips like automated parcels passing the scanner at large post office warehouses.
"Oh." Aldy murmured, "did you find anything else out?"
"Yeah." I nodded and took the book from Tiel's weak grasp. "It's better if you just read it - don't worry, we've marked the page. I'm warning you now though - it provides more questions than answers."
Aldy caught the book with ease and immediately started flipping through to find the page we marked. Bal, Asmodeus and the Archangels crowded round him to take a look.
Lucifer didn't move. He was the only one seemingly not interested in the book. He was interested in something else. Me.
He strode over to me, taking my hands into his. "Charmeine," he began, his eyes dipping to meet my drooping onse. "I don't want you to get hurt." He said very few words, his eyes doing most of the talking. They were like two dark wells flooded with unspoken emotion.
"I won't Luci," I said softly, "my life is too precious for the Fates to mistreat. Trust me - they need me alive."
Air passed his lips in the form of a tired sigh. "I know they need you alive. " He paused as if unsure of whether or not to say the next sentence lined up in his mouth. "I also need you alive."
In that one moment, he looked so adorably soft speaking his mind that I wrapped my arms around his slender frame and pushed my face into his neck, breathing in his rosy scent. "Luci..."
Safe. I felt safe in his arms.
"Charmeine..."
"You know," I briefly looked up to greet him in the eye, "for being the Lord of the Underworld, you sure are playing this twisted game of the Fates a little safe."
⑉
until next time my angels,
-V
Edited: 19/07/18