Free Image by Jamie Magee

scroll to her. “You see, these symbols are the same as the ones in the book of Samilya and Jayda. It seems that they are one of the ones who you sought council on with your original birth charts. On the last page of Jayda’s book, it said that Jayda and Oba disappeared into a white glow late in their years, taking the scrolls with them. Their people believed that the couple was so great that death took mercy on them – taking them as a whole, body and soul,” Perodine said.
     
    “Now,” August picked up from where Perodine left off, “we can reason that when Jayda released Oba from the darkness, they realized that there was something bigger than them. We read that they found deep mediation; I would guess that they – well the two of you – discovered who you were and began to try and unravel these charts. Pelhan himself said that the two of you found your final resting place in his dimension. I know for a fact that you found your way to Chara in my lifetime.”
     
    “So history repeats itself,” I said, almost to myself.
     
    “Unfortunately, never in the exact same way,” Perodine said. “When you face an enemy, you learn their weakness first-hand. Whatever you learned then, you have forgotten. I assure you that he – it - has not forgotten yours.”
     
    “Well, was it recorded in detail here?” Marc said, reaching for Jayda’s book.
     
    “Nothing more than Jayda seeing Oba for the first time. It says here ‘The past will not mirror itself. It shall consume the blood of Jayda and subdue the power,’” Perodine said, running her finger across three words written in a script I’d never seen before.
     
    “A warning,” Landen whispered.
     
    August nodded. “We think it means that the darkness will consume either you or Drake, then subdue Willow’s heart,” Perodine said, looking at Landen.
     
    “Drake?” I questioned.
     
    “He, too, is a descendant of Jayda - and is most defiantly weaved into this fate,” August said in a heavy tone.
     
    It always escaped me that Drake was a part of Landen’s family, that through their veins the same blood coursed.
     
    “So it’s Drake we’re fighting,” Marc said through his teeth.
     
    “Marc,” Landen said in a low tone.
     
    “No, I’m right: the darkness is going to consume Drake, then fight for Willow’s heart. Drake, with the darkness inside of him – would that make him stronger?” Marc said, looking back and forth between Perodine and August.
     
    “Do you understand what the darkness is? What the purpose of Allie, Preston, and Libby is?” Perdoine asked in an astonished tone.
     
    “No, we don’t,” Landen said shortly.
     
    Perodine looked up from the sketch at Landen; I could feel her sympathy. She nodded and sighed. “This world, overall, has forgotten what they were made of, forgotten their power; we live in ignorance – a hell. If we were to learn and practice unconditional love on all levels, then we as a planet would be connected to a higher plane, a celestial plane of knowing. Once we have reached that point, we will never return to the ignorance that bore us. You can imagine the glow the planet would reveal if each of us found that place,” Perodine said. She paused and looked to the shadows, then back to the scroll. “Light is the death of darkness. It is said that the darkness, the ignorance that we live in will fight for its existence; the children will bring the light, and the darkness will fight to stop them. Right now, at this crucial point, you are their only line of defense – the darkness must defeat you before it can reach the ones that will bring its death,” Perodine said.
     
    “It’s evil, fighting for its right to live,” August added.
     
    “This evil will dwindle itself inside a human body; it is a sacrifice it must make to keep the veil over all of our eyes,” Perodine said.
     
    “What do you mean ‘dwindle?’” Dane asked.
     
    “This evil is the opposite of the light; it opposes -