Meagan's adventures continue, but for a brief interlude, Ayana is visited.

The Dark Tomes

“Teacher, why do you read them?”
Annalise looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at her wide-eyed pupil. “You're a bit young to understand this now, but... it's good to hear different opinions, and there's some things in here that I need.”
“What?”
“Maybe I'll tell you later.”
“Aren't they bad opinions, Teacher? That's why they're Dark Tomes.”
“That depends on who you ask.”
Ayana's jaw dropped. “Are you saying that not all of the Dark Tomes are evil?”
“It's complicated, but some of these books aren’t actually… They really fear the truth, don't they...?”
“I don't understand.”
“I don't expect you to. I'll explain it-”
“-When I'm older,” Ayana interrupted. “You tell me all the time. Teacher, do you disagree with the Circle?”
“Yes.”
“But why? They know lots of things.”
“No, they just pretend they know lots of things,” Annalise said bitterly. Then she smiled again, but this time it was forced and troubled. “Ayana... it is my every hope that you will wear my medal and hold my office once I am gone, and...” She paused, and gestured to the back of the library, where the Dark Tomes sat gathering dust. “...For your own good, I hope you will read them. Ayana, speaking of when I'm gone... there's something I need to tell you.”
“Hello? Ayana!”
Ayana jerked awake. What a dream. A memory got in there.
“Wakey-wakey,” Linius crowed. Ayana sat up and blearily rubbed her eyes, paying scant attention to him. “I need to run some errands. I expect dinner by the time I come back.”
           “Sure.” She wasn’t in the mood to point out making dinner wasn’t her job.
“All right.” He stopped, and pointed to the open book in front of her. “What are you reading?”
“History.”
“Hmm...” He leaned in closer and read a line or two. “Lost country... west... that's the kind of junk Annalise was researching. It's all myth.”
“No, it isn't. Annalise showed me on a map where the country was. Just north of Esse.”
Linius shrugged. “Why do you care?”
“It's best to learn from the mistakes of the past.”
“Wow, Annalise really beat that nonsense into you.” Linius frowned. “All that matters is the here and now. And, right now, I'm going out. See you.”
Ayana waved, then waited until she heard him leave, and sighed. “'All that matters is the here and now,'” she mocked, making her voice high and irritating. “Who does he think he is?”
Ayana checked the wall clock and beamed. “Plenty of time. Let's just hope the guards aren’t sharper crayons than most.” She took a deep breath, checked to make sure no one was in the room, then formed the spell. She went on one breath, not stopping until she finished the phrase of ancient words.
Her image seemed to shimmer, and when it was solid again, there stood Linius- or seemed to. Ayana grinned when she saw herself in the mirror. “A perfect transformation. I look just like the real thing. Practice makes perfect- now I’m really glad I spent forever getting ready.”
Whistling, she strode into the library, her gait exactly matching Linius's. She'd planned this for weeks, studying every little habit and tick in his behavior so that she could mirror them exactly. Going straight to the back, she told the guards, “Open up, idiots! I need to get in.”
“Password?”
Annalise had told her. I want you to do this if you absolutely need to, but promise me you won't use it unless you have to. The password is...
“Eight-zero-nine-one-Darkness-blue-shall-orange-gather-indigo-here-eyes-I-linger,” she droned, sounding fed-up with formalities and impatient, like Linius did every day.
The youngest guard, Nicky, smiled. He bowed low and unlocked the first door. Behind it was another door, which required another password. “How-yellow-eight-seven-it-house-spell-does-cling.”
Behind that door was yet another, and this door was not opened by any phrases. It was this door that might give her away, and Annalise had explained exactly what to do. This door lets in only those it wants to. It's refused me before, but only for a moment- it always opens eventually- so if you take too long to convince it to open you'll be dead. Careful now, because if it outright refuses to budge, you're done for. This door can see through illusions, so don't pretend to be someone you're not. Be yourself. Whisper to it. Tell it, “Esilanna is a friend. She sent me.” It will open if it believes you. It might not, and you'll have to tell it why, why you're there. I think it'll let you in. It likes the children.
Ayana stood in front of the door, hearing its voice clearly.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
She knew the guards could not hear it, that she could whisper to it and they wouldn't hear that either since the door liked privacy and would block their ears. There was a being inside that door. She had been a person once, named Emily, but she had volunteered to become a guarding door. No one knows why, and she never told anyone who asked. It wasn't their business.
“I want to go in,” Ayana answered honestly.
OBVIOUSLY. WHY?
Ayana froze. Annalise had told her not to hold back, but she was afraid. Fear was common sense, Carmen had told her. Ayana wasn't sure she believed that. Slowly, she answered, “To read the books.”
          WHY?
         “I need them. A friend left something for me in there.”
           WHO?
           “Esilanna is a friend. She sent me,” Ayana replied. She didn't even know who that was, but that's what Annalise told her to say, and she trusted her teacher.
WHY SHOULD I LET YOU IN? YOU'RE NOT LINIUS.
“No, but you know what? Maybe you shouldn't let people in because of who they are, but what they want.”
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
Back to the first question. Well, she wouldn't hold back. “There's research in there that I need.”
          OBVIOUSLY. WHY?
Circular conversation. Ayana was getting fed up. “To avenge Annalise, to read her research journal, to gain wisdom, to learn, to hear different opinions, to gain weapons in my arsenal that no one will see coming, and to fulfill a friend's dying wish.”
THERE'S ONE MORE REASON.
“Yes. I...” She gulped. “I need to know what Annalise was researching before she died. Linius practically wiped all of her research notes, but she hid some here. She told me to come here if something happened to her.”
I'm going into a meeting now. I want you in bed before I come back. Let's hope I do. Ayana, I want you to read my research journal. It's in the Dark Tomes' room. If you're brave and willing to risk it, I'll tell you how to get in. It won't be necessary, hopefully, but this is just in case...
Ayana hadn't took her seriously. She hadn't understood. Annalise had known. She knew she was going to die, and Ayana had only thought of what a big secret she had. I can get into the Dark Tomes! Ha! She'd laughed with Meagan about breaking curfew. She hadn't known...
“May I go in?”
YOU MAY.
The door swung open, and Ayana felt a bead of sweat roll down her forehead and off her cheek. Whoa, was that stressful! She stepped through, and the door closed behind her, an empty sound echoing and multiplying. Ayana sighed, dropped the transformation, and then turned to face the shelves of Dark Tomes.
She gasped in surprise. She knew about the thievery of the Dark Tomes- she just hadn't expected so many to be gone. Entire bookcases were empty, shelves bare and skeletal, and those with books held a meager amount. How could so many be stolen in such a short time? It didn't matter much anyway. They weren't the primary reason she came.
Ayana took a deep breath. There was a clock propped up on the far wall, its ticking seeming to match the beat of her own heart. Tick-tock Ba-dump. Tick-tock. Ba-dump. There was no turning back now. She wondered, briefly, what she should do after she got out, and if Linius would ever find out, but then turned to the task at hand.
I hid it under a tile. You'll have to move an entire bookcase to get to it. I didn't tell anyone where it was. If you're lucky, no one will have messed with it, but we can't take anything for granted. It's...
“Underneath the third bookcase to the left,” Ayana muttered, using a simple spell to lift the bookcase several feet to the right. It was rather effortless since there was so little mass invovled; if it was loaded with books, Ayana had a feeling she wouldn't have been able to move it with either spell or physical strength.
“And now, she said she marked it...” Ayana whispered. “Inconspicuously. What did she mean by that? Oh.” It took her a moment to see it. Clever Teacher. Instead of outright marking just one tile, she'd marked every single tile in the entire room with tiny x's. The first tile had 3, the next 6… the target number was twelve, and she knew that because it was Annalise’s favorite one.
Lifting the tile wasn't difficult. The journal was underneath, as she had hoped. Ayana smiled in relief and picked it up, setting it down next to her. The journal wasn't the only thing underneath the tile: there was a list of references, a bracelet of an eagle, and a framed picture. Ayana slipped the bracelet on and took the picture out, staring at it.
It was of Annalise, Carmen, and Linius. The three of them were laughing, Linius’s arm wa around the Chief Sorceress’s waist. For some reason, this irritated Ayana immensely.
She pocketed the picture, sighed, and then turned to the journal. “Let's read you,” she said. “Hope you're worth this huge risk.” She sat, picked up the journal, and read.
It was getting late when Ayana finally finished. Yawning, she stretched and glanced at the clock. “MIDNIGHT?” She yelled. “Oh my goodness! Linius is going to kill me, and if the guards tell him they saw “him” go in here, I'll be so dead!”
She shut the journal, shoved it into a pocket in her tunic next to the picture, and hastily put back the bookcase. Ayana heard the third door open and quickly whirled around, hoping Linius wouldn't notice the bulge in her tunic. If there was anyone she wanted to keep the journal away from, it was him. She had learned so much in such a short time... she had no idea who to trust anymore. Annalise unearthed a major conspiracy involving Linius and all his cronies, she thought. She knew she might die confronting them. That's why she gave me all this information about the Dark Tomes before the meeting...
Linius wants to complete some major necromancy. But he’s deluded. If Annalise- no, Esilanna, she called herself in her journal- is right, then there’s no way he’ll succeed. For some reason, though, he’s still trying…
“You naughty apprentice,” said Linius as he strode into the room. “Where's my dinner?”
           Ayana grinned. “Your dinner? Sorry, it's not finished yet. I haven't added the poison.”
“Cheeky, aren't you?”
Ayana frowned. “Devious, aren't you?”
Linius shrugged. “So you've figured it out, have you?”
Ayana nodded. “I have one question for you,” she stated.
“As if you’re in a position to ask me questions.” He chuckled. “Come now, be a good girl and we can pretend this never happened.”
         “Shut up!” she yelled. “Your definition of good isn't one that I agree with! Did you kill Annalise or did you have some minion do your dirty work for you?”
Linius smirked. “Oh, the pleasure was all mine. You should have seen her face when she looked up and saw the glass about to fall onto her. She was scared to the bone, and felt utter betrayal when she saw me looking down. I loved it! All these years cheating death, and she's brought down by a former lover.”
            “Lover?” Ayana scoffed.
“Oh yes.” He flashed a smile. “Can't you believe it? We used to dance, all those moonlit nights, alone. She told me all her secrets, Ayana. I knew her better than you ever could have.” He held out his hand. “I can tell you. Just be a good girl and come on.”
“I thought I told you,” Ayana growled. “I don't agree with your definition of good.”
Linius frowned. “Then I'll kill you right here!”
“Try!”
Her image blinked out.
“Invisibility?” His eyes widened. “But... she didn't chant anything! She didn't use a trigger to release the power! How… how did she…?”
Ayana grinned. My secret, she thought, and dashed quickly behind him. The door swung open for her, and she burst out, quickly casting spells of unlocking to let the other doors open as well. She sprinted past the guards, who were bewildered and confused. Linius ran after her, hollering. “Nicky! Get that girl!”
“What girl?”
“Argh! You fools let Ayana into the Dark Tomes!”
            Ayana laughed as she fled down the hall. No one saw her, and she knew how to cast without using a trigger of release. Linius was scared of her, because of what she knew. That's why he wanted her either a docile lamb or dead. Let him be scared, she told herself. Once she reached the atrium, she stopped running and tried to stifle her footsteps.
From there, it wasn't far to the doors, and then out. Ayana turned and looked back at the Meeting Hall. Although the dome had collapsed, it had been temporarily fixed with a huge length of tarp stretched over the metal frame that had once supported glass. The ugly brown tarp diminished the beauty of the building that she had spent so much time in, and she knew it didn't fit. It deserves so much more.
She stared at it, the place that had meant so much to her. Ayana had imagined getting positions of power, becoming someone great and famous. She had thrown all of that away, and for what?
For the right thing. The Hall may be beautiful, but inside it there's nothing but lies, Ayana thought. She removed the necklace around her neck, the collar, she now realized, that bound her to Linius. It was white with one black stripe through it to show she was an apprentice. Practically everything she owned had the same black stripe, and Ayana wanted to leave that behind. She placed the collar on the steps, along with her earrings that sported the same design. Lastly, she took off her shawl, the one Annalise had given her, and also placed it on the steps. The last item was more difficult for her to give up, but she knew she had to. She would never return, she knew, so why keep a reminder of a life that was gone?
Ayana felt tears well up. I'm a fugitive. I'm a criminal. The thought didn't scare her, nor was it was saddened her. It had been the whole day, reading Annalise's journal, reopening wounds she thought had been closed, only to have Linius rub salt in them. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes, then turned her back on the Meeting Hall, striding purposefully away.
Ayana didn't let down the invisibility spell until she reached Carmen's house. Annalise had told her that Carmen was the one to run to if needed. I promise you that she'll help. I've known Carmen for a long time. She won't turn you away.
Carmen lived in a beautiful but relatively small home at the outskirts of Lewis. The town, with all its hustle and bustle, was rather quiet in that section, and also lonely. The seclusion was the reason the sheriff had moved there. Ayana stood on the front walk, wondering if she'd knock on the door or the window. Looking around, she realized that all of the sheriff's neighbors were either gone or sleeping. Feeling as if it would be safe to risk it, she knocked on the front door.
Carmen opened it seconds later, the light streaming out of the doorway passing through Ayana's transparent form. Quickly she let the spell drop, but not completely, so that she was translucent and ethereal, and bowed her head respectfully. “I need help,” she whispered. “I know the truth. Esilanna sent me.”
Carmen motioned for her to step through, and closed the door behind her. The sheriff promptly closed all the shades and sat down on her couch, sighing. She was tired, Ayana saw. Though she wore pajamas, she was still working, and rings had formed under her eyes.
Ayana sat down next to her, and her eyes searched the area. There were no pictures on the wall, and no nick-knacks adorned the shelf above the fireplace mantle. The furniture was simple and not extravagant, and very, very plain. “Why... why don't you decorate?” she asked.
Carmen shrugged. “No time. Besides, I don't find them interesting. Do paintings show truth?”
“Yes.”
“No. What the painting shows is only a reflection of truth, if even that. It's not real. An illusion.”
Ayana shook her head. She didn't agree, but she didn't feel like arguing.
Carmen sighed. “I suppose you'd better hide. In the morning you can roam around in any room that has the shades drawn. No one will think it's suspicious, especially in this neighborhood- everyone keeps to themselves here. Why don't you head up to the attic? There should be a trunk of my old clothes up there. Just don’t touch the locked one, okay? Oh, and there’s a mattress. You can sleep there.”
“Thanks. Carmen?”
“Yes?”
Ayana took the journal out of her tunic. “Annalise- or, should I say Esilanna- wrote a lot about her past, but she didn't write anything about you. She said you'd tell me.”
Carmen shook her head. “Later,” she replied, and smiled sadly.
“And I have this for you,” she said, handing her the picture of the two of them. “How old were you?”
Carmen took it and gazed at it, and the sad smile seemed to grow sadder. “This is quite recent. Just five years ago. I didn’t know she kept it.” She paused, then added, “Thank you. I... I never really look back, at the past. I guess that's the real reason I don't have any momentos on display. But this... it just brings back memories.” She gently placed it on the mantle, and sighed. “Esilanna arrived at this country the same time I did, all those years ago. We... almost ruined our friendship, over a boy. Can you imagine that? Throwing away all those years over a boy.”
“What was his name?”
“Nathaniel Linius.” She locked her gaze in Ayana's. “That man... is anything but what he told you.”
“Annalise never warned me about him, but he told me. Just before, that they were once lovers.”
“She didn't know he was scum until after they broke up, but the full extent of his booshaness… who would have guessed it?”
“But she warned me about lots of things! The corruption in the Circle and all that, moments before she went into the meeting that killed her. Why didn't she tell me about Linius?”
           “Maybe she couldn't,” Carmen whispered. “There are things that can seal lips... even now, I can't speak my parents’ names. I try, but I... can't even remember it.”
“It's not the same thing.”
“You don't know that,” Carmen said vehemently. “It's not that they died before I was old enough to store memories, or that I rarely saw them. It's that someone has sealed it. Their names are... nothing but ashes. At least I remember my brother’s. It's very possible that Annalise wanted to tell you but couldn't. Someone sealed that word.”
“Does your brother visit?”
Carmen shook her head. “I haven't seen him in years, since I was eight. He eloped with his wife. I saw him again after our parents died, but he was gone soon after, just like that. About fifteen years ago, I heard he was still alive. I went looking for him, Ayana. I spent maybe a couple of months roaming everywhere, trying to call out his name. But I couldn't.”
           “Do you think he's looking for you?”
“No... I don't think so,” Carmen answered, “but I get the feeling... that he wants to say my name. The name that I cast away all those years ago, the day I turned thirteen. I can't say my name either, but it's not that it's been sealed for me. It's that I hate it. I want it to evanescence into the darkness and to die there. I want no one to speak it or remember it or even think it, because it's a horrid name.”
“Carmen? I think it’s pretty.”
“No. I had another name before I became Carmen. Another life, too. Ayana... when I cast away my name, I cast away who I was, and all ties to me, like my brother. He ruined everything. That's why...” She clenched her fist. “If my brother ever returns, I'll be overjoyed, but I will also be so furious...if I’m not careful, I could kill him.”

Dragonlord Stephi : This chapter has one of those backstory , black and white clips , about it . Carmen's past sounds interesting and I haven't even heard most of it . Lunius' also sound intriguing .  I wonder what her brother did to mes up her past . And also . If I new Carmen's name and I knew it annoyed her .... I
 would say it a lot

A user of this : Really? How'd you guess?

Dragonlord Stephi : I don't know. In books and movies I always kind of know who's bad and who's good. lol