Butterflies

Chapter 37 - The Books of the Lost Souls

Chapter 37 - The Books of the Lost Souls

"I didn't."

"Didn't what Jaykawb? Want me dead? Just wanted to unsettle me? Knew that Llywelyn and Nanuq and Gareth would all save me? Come on!"

"I didn't organise or fund or whatever else you said. I only found out about it half an hour before it happened and when I did it was because I finally persuaded Rita to tell me. And guess what? I tell her it's too dangerous, too risky. I say that your her friend. She said she was your friend but if she didn't do it, everyone would pay for it including you anyway. She said it was one life or a world of them!"

"What about when you were there. In the same room at the same time. You would have known by then! You could have told someone! Anybody! You could have given a warning or tried to stop her and the others who are now dead! Those people didn't need to die. I doubt any of them wanted to die."

"I wasn't there. She used a beam of light to cleanly slice through a wall of ruins. At first I thought, 'oh. That's quite impressive.' But then I thought, 'now it's going to fall. On me.' because she had moved away. She actually laughed when it fell on me. Didn't have a hurt expression. Didn't cry. She laughed. And then she walked away. You would have seen a trick of light. It didn't speak did it?" Olivia thought for a minute... No it hadn't spoken. Maybe he had told the truth... But that still didn't explain why he had been trying to get to Rita for some reason.

She paused. "Why did you try to get to Rita? What were you doing?"

Jaykawb lent on the table putting his forehead in his hands before sitting back up again and running his hands through his hair. "I was going to ask her why she was acting so weird and if she had stopped the attack. She hadn't. I know what's wrong with her now too - she's possessed or being controlled."

Olivia sighed. Now Jaykawb was going crazy. Although she wasn't confused because, seeing what he'd been through, it wasn't a huge leap. "What evidence do you have?" It seemed the best and nicest option to humour him.

"She doesn't know or care what round she was out, when her birthday was, when you became Queen or even when the End was! I'm pretty sure Rita would have known most those things."

He had a point. Not knowing the End was very weird. It also meant that if he was right, which it sounded like he was, it wasn't anything on or from Earth. "Any ideas as to what's controlling her?"

"Yes. An Old One." That supported her theory and made sense - Old Ones trying to take apart the Earth and the people on it from the inside. It sounded like their style. It left them high, mighty and glorious with limited involvement and no one pointing fingers but meant the prey were considered stupid for killing each other. A guard was still stood by the door. She was barely anywhere nowadays without a guard. There was even one waiting in the garden in case she decided to jump off her balcony again.

"Have this prisoner freed and his record cleared. I want no evidence that he was ever even considered a prisoner let alone here. I have to go now. Give him back the room he had previously and give him a proper lunch on top of the useless lunch he has had down here. Oh and make sure he has a full wardrobe of clothes to choose from - I get the idea he shall be a worthy ally even after the war."

Jaykawb chuckled. "If we get past the war!"

Olivia smiled. "Every cloud..." She left him laughing as the guard led him in the opposite direction, up the stairs. Rita could wait. Olivia was going down.

Deep down into the darkest deepest dilapidated dungeons for the oldest, and most forbidden books of all time.

The Books of the Lost Souls.

>I< >I< >I<

The man hated it when the rain came. It poured like it had nothing better to do. Go pour somewhere else.

Olivia hasn't been seen for at least a day and it was starting to worry him. He hated when she just randomly disappeared without telling anyone where she was, where she was going or how long she was going to be. How could he keep her safe if he didn't even have the slightest clue where she was? Exactly. He couldn't.

So when she finally did turn up, he wasn't in the best of moods and neither was Llywelyn. Or a lot of the other Council members for the matter, but it was still mainly him, Llywelyn and possibly Jarod. "Where have you been?" he asked in the calmest tone he could manage.

"Sh... Why are you so loud?" she covered her ears. Llywelyn adjusted the air pressure going towards her ears and she visibly relaxed slightly. "What?"

"Where have you been?"

"Reading."

He tilted his head to the side. "Reading. For nearly two days?"

"That's right. What does it matter to you anyway?"

Llywelyn stepped forward. "It matters to me. Especially when we're at war practically and no one knows where you are."

"Like I said, reading."

"Why weren't you in the library then?" Gareth questioned, narrowing his eyes.

"Because... Because I wasn't."

"What were you reading Liv?"

She sighed. "The Books of the Lost Souls."

>I< >I< >I<

"What the hell did you think you were doing? You know there forbidden! Not for a Queen but you've barely been that for very long!" Gareth yelled looking confused at why she would even want to read the terrible Books in the first place.

"The Books contain that which I needed to know. I have found the information along with some information about the Old Ones and now, we can continue. Rita is being controlled by an Old One. She needs to be freed specifically by a Light, Wicked, Power and Wave. It must be on the night of Melting Ice which the Old Ones must have planned. Rita'll just have to be kept under full supervision - no one goes in and no one comes out, got it?" Gareth was shocked for a second but Llywelyn understood. He nodded and left the room already getting to work. "Problem?"

Things had been getting more and more tense between Olivia and Gareth ever since she had been with Llywelyn and they were only getting worse as time went on. She was about to say something and try to have a conversation whilst she had the chance but Llywelyn was stood by the door glaring at her and shaking his head. Don't, his eyes said. I will happily find a reason to him for you. She decided it was best to leave it alone.

"No." he moved away and she watched him go.