Guardians of the Light (Book 3: Retribution)

Chapter 6

Lillian was so focused on making sure that Sara was okay during retelling her story and right now during the moment she just had, that she didn’t hear a word of what Rayth was saying. Her sole focus was on Sara and nothing else. After Lillian knew for a fact that Sara was better, her brain started to process what was going on. Now that they had the key, they were that much closer to saving Ronin’s soul. Captain Einar sat down an ancient text showing the face of a young looking woman holding the key in her hand standing behind a gateway. The writing was not a language Lillian knew, before she could ask Rayth what it meant or said James was speaking, “Hey that’s the woman I saw in the courtyard the other night, the one who was yelling at me to beware of Aurath”.

As he finished Sara was now speaking, “That’s the same woman I saw in the marketplace but much older looking. Are they the same person?” Sara questioned. Lillian had the same question running through her mind as well. Rayth nodded his head, acknowledging that they were in fact the same person, everyone including Lillian listened as he spoke on the matter. 

“During the beginning of High King Dante’s reign, this young and beautiful witch named Lavinia was tasked with being the Warden of the Eternal Abyss; we know that it was originally created to banish enemies. As Warden, Lavinia was tasked with the protection of the gateway to The Eternal Abyss but also guarding the key to unlocking the gateway. We believe that the version you saw James was of that point in time. Sara saw a different version of Lavinia much further in time. Lavinia was the Warden for many years until she made the ultimate betrayal to High King Dante and joined the Coven of the Unlightened. For her crimes she was ripped of her beauty and cursed to roam endlessly in search of the key. It’s my understanding based on the facts that the younger version of Lavinia was trying to warn James of the dangers that lay ahead on your quest to The Eternal Abyss. The other version of Lavinia that Sara encountered was trying to get the key away from her because Lavinia knew that Miss Danvers was in fact the Worthy One, she is the only one who can open the gateway. Our writing in this book tells that once Lavinia was ripped of her beauty and cursed she chose to serve Aurath, The Eternal Master. While her spirit had been cursed to roam endlessly in search of the key, her physical body had been banished to The Eternal Abyss. From what I can translate from this ancient language Aurath promised Lavinia that if she served him by finding the key before The Worthy One did that Aurath would break the curse placed upon her and return her physical body. As you can see that never happened. High King Dante made sure that the key was split into two halves to prevent it falling into the wrong hands and Aurath could never be freed. One half was kept here locked away, only the High King and the Grand Mage knew of its whereabouts within the castle walls. The second half was given to a traveler passing through the Kingdom in hopes that it would travel far away and never be found again. Of course the traveler knew the importance of this item and why it needed to be kept far away from the other piece”

Lillian had so many questions still even after Rayth had explained everything in detail. While they had some answers, the biggest question burning in Lillian’s mind right now was where this gateway was, how do they find it. She decided the only way to find out was to ask. Rayth spoke, “Were not sure the location of the gateway, the ancient writings only tell of how to find the location not where the exact location is”. Sara spoke next, “After Lavinia attacked me, I drifted into an endless void. While I fell through this black void, my subconscious showed images of somewhere underground, there were loud noises like people voices and cars moving above. Next thing I knew there was nothing but concrete around me, what I’m assuming was the gateway was painted on one of the stone walls. There was also a small opening big enough to fit the key into”

From what Sara was saying Lillian had to guess the location was somewhere within a major city area. Only that kind of sound level could come from a big city, not from New Haeven or New Port, both were smaller towns. While Lillian was trying to run all the different cities in her head James spoke, “What about Iron Haeven?”. It was the one place that hadn’t crossed Lillian’s mind. Iron Haeven had been built after the first Guardians created New Haeven as the first district within the region. It had served as an entry point before you arrived at New Haeven and New Port. Built with heavy defense walls and solid iron gates, hence the name, given to the city by Guardian Dominic. Over time the original structures became ruins and a modern city was built there instead.