Skulduggery Pleasant fan-fic: The Cradle of Magic (UNDER EDIT)

Secrets revealed...

-One Hour Earlier-

-Skul

I abruptly slammed my fist down hard on the oaken table as Erskine struggled to keep calm, adjacent to my hard stare.
He looked up from his stance, that for the last five minutes had been gazing at the floor. He breathed deeply.
"I just don't understand why you didn't tell me...that's what I'm annoyed about... If you had told me Skulduggery I could have helped you... But you didn't.. You kept to your usual mantra and decided to deal with it by yourself, alone... Because you're the famous skeleton detective and apparently you can handle all forms of situations by using the tactic of 'bottling things up' and not relying on your friends with anything..."
"That's not what it's like.. You don't.." I clenched my jaw and withdrew my curled hand from the table.
He interrupted, "It's not just us anymore Skul! It's not just seven lives you have to look after now... In the Dead Men it was different..." He turned, "If we died, we died.. . It effected no one... Now, now it's different, we've got ourselves into a state where we have the weight of the world on our shoulders..." He rubbed his neck and loosened up his tie, still facing away from me, "This, Skulduggery is big... Big enough that if we get this wrong... We all end up dead. And, it isn't like last time on this occasion... Last time we had an idea of what was going to happen.. This time it's out of our hands... She's out of my hands..."
He turned back to me, a tear forming at the edge of his lid. Ravel swallowed deeply and looked around.
"You said there were three... Well, tell me more..."

I walked over to his side and splayed the edges of the manuscript out.
I wavered a gloved finger over the lines of text and stopped abruptly near the end,
"It's written in ancient Gaelic... It took me a while to translate because some words used are a little off but.. Vaguely translated it says something like this..." I traced the calligraphy to the top of the parchment, "On the rise of the New Moon the a Cradle shall fall, and all that is dear shall be taken. Armageddon will throng and a new beginning will draw nigh." I took another piece like it from beside the document and overlapped it continuing to translate, "The beautiful flower will blossom and spread her deadly poison, sedating the world into a dark coma from whence one shall not return." I looked up at Erskine to whom stared hard at me and looked a little nauseous.
"For six hundred and twenty four years those pieces of parchment have belonged to China's family... We do not know who they were originally created by or the date that they were made but now we can begin to understand the meaning. These two parchments are two of three known pieces, and we believe that this prophecy refers to Valiance Nightshade, Oblivion Armageddon and Trinity Shadow..."
Erskine went a paler shade, "I understand now... That was why..."
He slowly shook his head and licked his dry lips timidly, "So the thing ten years ago? Was that part of this? Was that a big link to all this?!"

I breathed deeply, "Yes it played relevance, blood type is key on why the three are important... There are people still out there with our girl's names at the top of their hit lists, and mainly for the blood..."

Erskine traced his hand over the frayed document, "Wait, you mentioned something about one not returning... Do you have any idea who that might be?"

I paused and listened to the silence, "I'm afraid Erskine... I do... China mentioned that before the third document was stolen she had plenty of time to study it and it revealed a secret message as part of the prophecy, it spoke of one girl sacrificing herself for her partner in the eyes of a dark god and redeeming the world from dark, this girl was an Elemental."

Erskine backed into the wall and lifted his head to the ceiling, "No." He stifled, "Not her.. Please, god no..."

I walked over to where he stood and wrapped him in a hug, "That's why we need to get her out of this Erskine... We need to send her though the portal... She'll be safe there..."

He immediately pushed me back, "HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY SAY THAT?! SAFE?! I AM NOT SENDING MY BLIV THROUGH THAT HELL FOR THE SAKE OF ONE OF YOUR STUPID PLANS!! I REFUSE PLEASANT! AND DONT YOU THINK FOR A SECOND THAT YOU HAVE ANY AUTHORITY OVER ME, I CONTROL WHAT HAPPENS AND I AM SAYING WE SEND HER SOMEWHERE AWAY... Far away, far away and safe... Please..."

I stood aback for a moment and looked at him hard, "what do you propose we do then?"

He sighed deeply, containing himself, "I propose we send her to somewhere on a Sanctuary mission... I don't know I'll think of something... Them at least for the next couple of days we can get things sorted out and under control... I take it Ghastly's already in on this is he?"

I slowly nodded, "he is, yes."

"Then we send her with Ghastly to the Sanctuary meeting in Australia... I am aware there are also some rumours going on there about our situation so could you go with her, take some others if you wish..."

"Are you sure you don't need me here?"

"We have it under control my friend... Trust me..."

And I looked into his eyes.

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HI GUYS!!!!! It's all getting very uptight now!!! Ohhhh!!!
So, I'd like to give a big thanks to all the MASSIVE support I've been getting recently from people like, @MaryBethP , @Ellieose , @Ellen_sugarcube4 and @TheSummerOfLight !!!! Ur guys are the best!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
I'll update Friday!!
C u then!!
~Bliv ^-^
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