The Enderlox Trilogy III: Seto's Triumph

S E V E N: Secrets

***SKY'S POV***

I sleep long and comfortably after my midnight briefing. Nothing in the world could have woken me then, but I'm awake now. Jason is dismantling our tent around me, and that's certainly enough to wake me up. Seto says today is the day we'll get to Max, and that we shouldn't stop if possible. After the information I learned, I realize how important it is for us to get moving. I quickly gather the team and we begin our mountain hike again.

We've been walking the whole day and nobody has spoken. Seto keeps looking at Ashley. It seems as though they're chatting with their eyes. Ashley refuses to look at Ty, too. When she does, she gets this sad look in her eye and looks back towards Seto, who nods or smiles. I'm starting to get the feeling that something happened with Seto and Ashley after that briefing, or maybe before. Yeah, I'm a bit slow, I know, but eventually I put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Eventually.

Finally, we arrive, so Seto says. It doesn't look like anything's even here. The rock face is blank and smooth, there are no cracks or fissures in the rocks. It just looks like your average, everyday mountain.

"Umm... Isn't Max supposed to be here?" Asks Nooch.

"He is." Seto says. "Trust me, he's here."

He waves his hand in front of the rock face, and a little purple flame erupts from his palm. Using his hand like a pen and the fire like ink, Seto draws an odd looking symbol in the stone. It's circular, with a large flower-like image in its center. Seto takes his flaming paintbrush hand and slashes the design with it, and then the circle in the rock begins to fall back into the mountains while the sounds of pistons disengaging fills my ears.

"One quick thing about Max," Seto says.

"What?" Ashley asks.

Seto's expression turns serious as he speaks. "If you want to leave with your lives, I suggest you don't disagree with him. He is a Dark Angel after all."

"Do you mean Archangel?" Asks Jerome, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"No, I mean Dark Angel. Dark Angels are a lot more dangerous, and, well, finicky. Just don't disagree with him and you'll be fine."

"Err..." Mitch groans. And with that, the circle of stone collapses into the ground and a rather modern house's interior reveals itself.

"Well well well, if it isn't Seto the sorcerer in the flesh!" Exclaims a voice.

"Alex?" Seto asks. "Hi, man. It's been awhile."

"Yes it has, my friend." Alex says.

I'm confused. Who's Alex? Weren't we supposed to go see Max?

As if answering my question Alex says: "I imagine you'd like to speak to Max about the prophecy?"

Seto gives a quick nod in response and then says "Yeah, you're totally right, Alex."

"Okay," Alex says, "but first I want to get to know you guys. It seems like you've been walking all day! Come on in, take a rest, we'll talk for a while, and then you guys can see Max."

"Alright," I say. And we follow Alex inside.

The house is full of modern things like leather couches, plasma TVs, nice carpeting, and a fully stocked kitchen. Everything is all too normal, but it's normal enough to make it kind of creepy. There is one thing that's definietly weird about the house though, and that's the artwork. Mostly framed on the walls, the art is all odd designs that seem to use blood red fingerpaints as their medium. The creepiest one by far is a picture of a man standing on a hill looking up at a blood-red sky with a full moon in the distance. My eyes are drawn to the artwork even as we all sit down with Alex to talk.