Page 72 of The Eye of the Fifth
Fear And Flames
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The Summit of the Floating Mountains, Nythanor.
Kyra.
‘Oh, fuckoff,’Kyra murmured under her breath as she slammed shut another useless dusty old book and added it to the growing pile on the table beside her.
Each one had proved to be a dead end, another philosophical retelling of crystals and their individual healing uses and magical tendencies. Not one of the books had anything to say on the most famous crystal known to mortalkind. The one crystal Kyra really needed to know everything about if she were to track its whereabouts.
Not fucking amethysts and their calming nature.
She’d need to bathe in a thousand amethysts to relieve the stress that arose every time she thought about the Eye and her bargain with Lilion.
It hit her every now and then, that exponential panic. With every second that ticked by, Oslan’s freedom pulled further and further away from her. Instead of resting as the Air Warden had suggested after the wine-fuelled evening the night before, she’d snuck through the temple at the crack of dawn and sought out the little library a floor above the crypts just off of the west stairwell, and got to work scouring through any book with the mention of a crystal, or Dohra the Unintended Mother of the Void.
To no avail.
Well, technically, there had been plenty of Dohra and her obsession with the Void, but barely a mention of the black crystal she’d been imprisoned in, along with her miraqni, for the last thousand years.
A faery suddenly whizzed before her and sat upon a night black book from a particularly dusty shelf whose cover read:‘MORTALS TO MOTHERS: ASCENSION TO DIVINITY’.
Promising.
‘Do you trust me now?’ Kyra asked the faery, pulling the book from the shelf. The little creature floated in the air above her, watching. ‘Here’s hoping.’
Kyra flipped through the pages, eyes working hard to scan for any mention of Dohra. It seemed even historians whose livelihood relied on recording the happenings of history were reluctant to divulge any information ascertaining to the Fifth Mother, for it wasn’t until the last few pages that she saw the Void mother’s name. She let the book fall fully open, and read:
“A name almost unspeakable for its connexions to such evil, the Fifth Mother’s demise is one that is still speculated by many, though very few know the true resting place of Dohra the Unhinged.
However, through worldwide acknowledgement of the Mothers defeat of their unhinged sister, we can safely assume that Dohra and her demons will remain bound for eternity in her stony prison. Under the Four Mothers watchful eyes, She of the Void and Fifth Element would be imprisoned forever more. Thus, Droria found its natural state of harmony, of peace, knowing that this certain evil was buried to time.”
And that was it. There was no other mention of the Void Mother in the entire volume.
Kyra slammed the book shut, sighing.
It was hard to believe it was mere coincidence that the information she required seemed impossible to come by.
Perhaps Naal had deliberately taken any trace of the Eye off the shelves. An evil she’d rather not have in her beloved temple… even in the form of harmless words on a crinkled page.
A few more glowing faeries began fluttering around her head. One of them landed atop the discarded pile of books, still and staring at her, though even with Kyra’s keen eyes she could not make out the tiny features.
‘What do you think?’ she asked them. ‘Am I wasting my time searching here?’
The faery, of course, did not reply. Instead, they dove from the mountain of books and buried themselves in between the pages of the night black tome she’d just scoured through,then peeked out, as if to see if Kyra was still watching.
‘Very impressive,’ Kyra told them, then added under her breath as they flew away, ‘and not at all helpful.’
‘You know they cannot talk?’
Kyra turned around to see Zuriel in the doorway, arms folded across her chest. ‘Yes, I know, but thank you for your insight,’ said Kyra as she began returning the useless books to their places on the shelves.
Zuriel just stood there, watching her, eyes narrowed as if trying to read the titles of each book she put back.
With forced civility, Kyra asked, ‘Did you need something?’
‘Yes,’ she retorted, leaning against the door frame, smoky wings flaring slightly. ‘Naal is looking for you. I believe she wants to complete at least one lesson in your magic before you leave tomorrow. She awaits you on the summit.’
