A Tale of Shadows - THE OUTDATED VERSION

Chapter 23 - The Symbol

It was five in the morning the following day when Melinda and her friends and parents had met with Amanda before anyone else had woken up. They meant to look for her after they encountered each other in the room where the parents were being kept, but just as they were about to do that, she walked in there. In her hands, there was a book so thick, her hands must have reddened as she carried it. Its covers were brown and covered with dust. She placed it onto the table and blew the dust away. Melinda stared at it, slightly surprised that there were no more books, but judging by the size of that one, it must have contained all the information that was relevant to their mission. 

As she flipped through the pages in haste, they observed the words unblinkingly, although there was barely any time to look at any of them. They were written in a small font and there was a scarce amount of illustrations, as if the book wouldn't have had enough content if it were written like all the other spellbooks. Several minutes had passed when she abruptly stopped. Quite a number of pages had been reached, so Melinda glanced to see what number was it. It was one hundred and eighty-five of what must have been around a thousand. She would have asked her why she stopped there if she hadn't noticed the drawing of the same star symbol that, as she remembered from when she walked into the room that morning, was still etched onto the wooden planks on the floor. 

However, something strange happened. As soon as she started with her attempts to read the text, it began to disappear from the page. The text on the other page was intact, so the erasing of the text from that specific page must have been deliberate. As they wondered what it could have been, a letter appeared out of nowhere. Melinda unfolded it and commenced reading it:

My dear friends,

I suppose you have found something peculiar marked somewhere inside the place you are currently in. Those stars, we have found them too. I saw one in my home, Kevin saw one inside his weekend house (don't dare ask how he came to be there), and they also showed up inside both the palace and my workplace. I too assumed that the fire is going to be bigger than merely something that surrounds the royal palace, and also that it is going to start very soon. We are training Jeffrey the best we can, and I assure you everything is going to go well. Do not have concerns.

Sincerely, 

Maria

John scoffed. "'Don't dare ask how he came to be there'? That's moronic. It's not as if we would have asked anyway."

Melinda's face went pale and her mouth opened wide. She didn't pay attention to it at first, but now she couldn't move her thoughts away from it. She concluded that something caused a rift between Maria and her husband, and then she remembered that they had two infants. She breathed in and out, trying not to worry about the fate of their children. It was Maria, anyway. She would solve her problem. That's why everyone always counted on her to solve their problems. And she surely would find a way to stop Patrick as well, thus she told her heart to stop beating as if it were in the middle of a marathon.

"We must respond now, and report our problem too, don't we?" she asked in a stern voice.

John smiled. "Yes, but don't bother yourself too much, my daughter. Everything will solve itself one way or another."

Melinda nodded, also smiling. She started writing the responding letter in an instant:

"Dear Maria,

First of all, don't worry. We won't ask if you insist we don't do that. It's your life, after all. But we have something important to say. Amanda brought a book to us so we could do research on the symbols and where they're coming from, but the text started vaporizing as we tried to read it. And I sure do hope that Jeffrey is alright. My life wouldn't be the same without him. Don't get me wrong, I care for everyone's lives equally, but it's hard to resist asking about the person who means so much to you and your heart. I would have refused this if the stars didn't tell us we had to train him at every cost. I trust the stars more than anything in the world. There's a reason they're stars, and they must be in the right. If they weren't, everyone wouldn't be so stupid as to trust them. Light will have to fight the darkness, and if we are to stand a chance, we have to do our best, for the dark is doing its best as well. I apologize for straying from the theme I began at. I am sure you will understand. My thoughts can never rest, not even in my dreams, and I have to think about everything, for everything bothers me. However, as I have begun to say, we must at least try to stop that fire, so look at your books carefully for everything that can be found on those symbols, and please, I beseech you, report on everything that you have found as soon as possible. We are waiting without patience. I apologize for pressuring you so, but everything matters now, and I won't be pressuring you nearly as much once all of this end. I wish you the best when it comes to your endeavours.

Greetings,

Melinda."

No one insisted on reading what she wrote, thus she turned the letter's shadow purple, drew a rectangle in the air and sighed as the letter was being sent. When the spell was over, they all parted with but a few greetings and Melinda closed the door as she followed behind Amanda and her friends.