❝ when she looks into his eyes, she feels the gripping temptation to tell him all her darkest secrets; the names of the men she has killed, but she learned a long time ago that the only people who can keep secrets are resting in overgrown graveyards...
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE THE SINS OF THE FATHER ( ii. )
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Gaius stares blankly for a moment, his eyes overcome with uncertainty. Unsure of how to proceed, he glances to the worn book on his table. Calliope will not leave this room without solid answers. She's been in the dark for too long, plagued by unknowns which haunt her dreams. There will be no more deflecting, no more brushing off dreaded conversations or acting oblivious to the truth. Something is connecting her to these symbols—to the dark presence looming day and night. The answers may not be anything she wants to hear, but Calliope has faced demons before and is all to familiar with the hell they call home.
"Where did you find this?"
"It doesn't matter, and I won't ask for answers again, Gaius."
As he shifts his weight, Gaius glances to his workbench, a heaving sigh drifting past his lips, as if it could carry him away from this conversation. He sits, motioning for the assassin to do the same. She crosses the room in two quick strides, trying to calm the racing of her heart. She wipes her sweaty palms on her trousers and raises her eyebrows expectantly.
The physician begins flipping through the worn pages, but it's as if he's read them before. He stops on the page detailing the Fall of Sheolta. His fingers trace the words she couldn't translate until they reach the the moon symbol.
"This book is hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Sheer magic itself holds the pages together against the ware of time," Gaius says. "It's one of the most ancient books of the old religion."
"Then why does Uther have it?"
"Right before the purge, he confiscated as many books on magic as possible to try and figure out how to gain the upper hand against sorcerers—how to find the most powerful ones. He executed a priestess who had this on her at the time," Gaius looks up at Calliope. "These pages discuss a very dark time for these lands. When sorcerers fought sorcerers in a brutal civil war that claimed many lives and unleashed all kinds of evil magic into the world. Some of the most vile creatures found their origin in this war."
Calliope nods, "So, what does the moon symbol have to do with this war?"
"I'm not entirely sure about the symbol, but I do know that in order to gain the upper hand in the war, a group of priestesses of the old religion came together to open a doorway to hell. They used their power to create creatures made of the darkest magic imaginable, and that's how they won the war," Gaius says, glancing to her necklace. "They ruled these lands with evil for a long time. Magic corrupts easily. The ability to wield such power allows for horrid actions to take place, and that's why I can be so hard on Merlin. I never want him to succumb to the darker side of his powers," Gaius closes the book. "There's good and evil in everyone, Cal, and you get to decide which parts you let take control."
She releases a heavy breath, "So, you truly have no idea what connects me to all this?"
The assassin searches his face for any sign of lies, but there's nothing to make her doubt his answer, "I do not."
