Follow || Sanders Sides

26. Shadows

I have so many things that I can't wait to reveal

TW: swearing, mentions of homophobia,

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"Ah, you two have arrived," the magic lady said. Her form had altered slightly since the day before, becoming slightly more solid than it had been. Logan payed no direct attention to it, though internally he knew that it meant the day was only getting closer. Despite going through with it all, he was still nervous. There was no way to tell what would happen. "There's much to do today."

"What do you need help with?" Logan asked. He carefully kept his voice neutral, never betraying his worry or distrust. If he did it could all be over quickly.

"I need you two to find a book for me," she explained. "The cover is quite plain, really. It's nothing special. Just a black leather bound book. The ink inside should sort of shimmer when you look at it. That's all I need you to get."

"Alright then. Where can we find this book?"

"You should be able to find it in the library," she stated. "It's quite unassuming, so no one would've grabbed it. It isn't a very interesting book, anyway." Logan internally narrowed his eyes, though his actual expression did not change. She was insisting that it was a normal book a little too much for his liking. Clearly it was important. He just needed to know why.

~

"Have you found anything yet?" Patton asked quietly. They were frantically searching in the dim light, but it was to no avail. The book was no where to be found.

"No," Logan muttered. "And I'm starting to think that the book was never here to begin with. She talked about the library like as if she knew it. In that case, it can't be here. She supposedly can't leave that pool. So that means the place had to be here when she wasn't magic, which means that there's no way this is the right library. So either she's stalling us for time, or she thinks the library still stands."

"Wait. What about the ruins? If it was an older library, maybe it was in the old ruins."

"The ruins... of course. You're a genius, Patton!" Logan exclaimed. Patton felt his stomach flutter. "Come on, let's go!"

"Are they even safe anymore?" Patton asked. "Last time I checked we were told never to go there."

"We were also told never to sneak around the library at night," Logan pointed out. "And that being gay is unnatural. If we're going to find anything, it's going to be at the ruins."

"I guess we're really doing this then."

"I guess we are."

~

Roman took a hesitant drink of the water Janus had handed him. It was cool and refreshing, somewhat surprising him. He had expected it to taste like iron for some reason, but it tasted nothing like that. Janus was watching him closely to make sure there were no bad affects, but the water didn't hurt this time.

"How do you feel?" Janus asked.

"I feel fine," Roman said. "It doesn't hurt. It's a lot better than being thrown in, that's for sure." Virgil shot Remus a small glare, making Roman laugh lightly. "Virgil, I'm fine-" He was cut off by his vision going black.

Then, the world lit up again. He was back on the Isle. Again. He let out a loud groan, looking around. The world was devoid of color again. This was the same vision as last time. Well, almost the same.

This time he was in a different location. The ruins were in front of him. They were the only part of the island still completely scarred by the war. Unstable and dangerous, they had always been told to never go there. But here he was. At least he was in a vision, not in person.

Something was off about the ruins though. As he started to walk into them, he realized what it was. They had color. Out of all of the surroundings and all the gray, the ruins had color. The grass was still the faded green and the crumbled walls still had accents of tile color on them. It was normal.

But what would make this place any different? Roman didn't understand, but before he could think about it more, he noticed movement. Logan and Patton. They were in the center of the ruins, hiding behind a fallen collumn. Then silver magic came at him out of nowhere, and his vision was dark again.

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