Knife of Rebellion: Battles of Eyenwar, Book 1

Chapter 38- The Book

The four of us scramble out of the cave, no one was ready to hear how quickly Nadra would attack. Something tells me that there is something that Nadra saw in my head that I don't know the significance of yet. Something tells me she's here for the book.

Cairo and The Yuvana leave for their respective meetings, Cairo to take my place in the war room and The Yuvana in Correspondence with Brielle. While everyone is on high alert amassing greater patrols and drilling at all hours, I decide my most important task is to finally read The Great Bendithio's journal.

Returning to my mind island is easier than I thought it would be, considering the imminent threat. Inside, I curl up in that armchair with the old journal, it's leather binding looking as if it was made yesterday. My mortal body is sitting in a secluded corner of the library, an empty page and pen in front of me for writing down any important information I learn from the book.

I flip open the journal to the middle, where the narrative starts.

I've struck a bargain with the Great Spirits. All the ghosts of the dead and immortal spirits will be sucked back into the afterworld and the two worlds isolated from one another for the rest of time. At least, that is what the histories and legends will say. The truth is that the two worlds cannot be separated from each other completely, it would tear the fabric of the universe apart. There is still one point, a gate, that the two worlds touch. It is in the exact spot that I made the deal with Vystra and Dishni, the place where I have instructed my only daughter to build a palace for all our descendants. They will guard the place forever, and in exchange the Spirits have guaranteed that my line will never disappear.

I admit, I was too much of a coward to watch the spirits close the gate. My mother and father, one mortal and old, the other immortal and eternally young. Even still, as my parents heard the success of my agreement, the sadness in their eyes, to be torn apart, it nearly broke my own heart. I could not watch it happen. Instead, I fled with my generals to perform the exorcisms of the dead who remained entrenched in their human hosts. When we are done, I shall return to my daughter, and with my generals I will establish a group of magic users who will perform the duties that formally fell onto family spirits. The blessings of births, weddings, and funerals. They will be healers, and pillars of the community. They will be the bridges between our world and the spirit world, now that the connection is broken.

I stop reading for a moment to write down the location of the spirit gate on my piece of paper.

It is my hope that sometime in the future the gate might be opened again. I have seen the love my parents found together, and what life was before the dead figured out how to trespass into our bodies. Ancestors would bestow wisdom and advice on their grandchildren. Spirits inhabited rivers, and trees, and earth. Now that they are gone, the world feels dead. That is why I have written how to open the gate on my wife's tomb, in the Garden of the Spirits.

I decide not to write that down, deciding that the information is too important to repeat. But I do make sure to write a reminder of the danger of allowing Nadra to gain possession of the journal. Then I fold the paper half, to hide what I have written. I close the journal and withdraw from my island, locking the door behind me.

In front of me is a piece of paper folded in half. I remember it was blank just a second ago, as I was about to disappear into my secluded consciousness. I'm tempted to read what I wrote, the curiosity of not recalling what I did not a minute ago gnawing at the edges of my mind. Instead I shove the paper, still folded, into the pages of the book I find myself holding.

With journal in hand, I rush off to find The Yuvana, so she can read what I wrote. She isn't hard to find, kneeling in her room in conference with Brielle. I wait patiently outside the door until she is finished.