Selection (Book 2 of P.O.E. chronicles)

Chapter 27 Revelation

I stifled a sigh as I absent-mindedly fiddled with the laces of my shoes. I tried to think of something, anything that I could do but came up short.

Library it is! I sighed; despite the fact that I was now accepted into the family, there was next to nothing happening in these headquarters of theirs. I still had no idea where we were, apparently that’s the entire point of it, only those who operate the transport system have an inkling of where it is, this was all to avoid an attack.

The other thing about the headquarters was that there was next to nothing to do. It was only meant for a coordination center and office for the family, with living quarters separated into working personnel, temporary stay, elders and training sector.

I was placed in the training sector, also known as youth section. A grimace appeared as I remembered the others who lived there. Gerald seemed hell bent on the idea of us two bringing de Silver to a new height and kept ambushing me everywhere. I had learned to avoid him like a plague but it had not been easy. When Wayne was still here he had helped me fend him off, diverting the attention with his many jokes and anecdotes. John and Jenny found the whole thing hilarious and would just burst out laughing after, however all three of them had already set off for another mission.

Since social spaces had become off limits, I resorted to hiding in the library. It was the only place I could go to avoid talking to Gerald, seeing as the library was a place of silence. It was the only place apart from my room and the classrooms where I could find peace.

Lynette, being her usual self had put me into history classes on the family history and POE world meant for youngsters of the family. On the bright side the classes were actually held elsewhere and all I had to do was watch live streaming of it in an empty classroom, and it was actually pretty fascinating.

I began to learn more and more about Akram de Silver and his rise to fame. I found it strange how I had never heard of him in the POE Academy at all; if all the things that he had done were true, why was he not documented outside of the family?

The interesting thing I learned was that Akram not only had a brother, he also had an older sister named Ariella but she was only mentioned fleetingly. When I checked the family tree in the main hall it showed that she was never married, but had a son named Louis who was Gerald’s ancestor (it got really hard to trace at my generation now since they were alive three hundred years ago) and I was actually a direct descendant of Akram himself.

The more I learned about the POE world, the more awed I was at how they had kept it completely isolated from the civilians. Whilst there were still not many of us, the numbers had been steadily increasing for the last century and despite the peace treaty we had with the UGE it was not a peaceful world itself. There were plenty of feuds and accidents all over the world, although never one as bad as the recent events; but still, a case of a newborn POE annihilating an entire hospital was not something you could just hide.

Wandering around the library I decided I would continue to explore the place. It was situated at the southernmost corner of the headquarters and the largest library I had ever visited, even surpassing that of the POE Academy. I had found books from the Old Age to POE-authored books and whilst the cataloging was not perfect, it was an amazing place to just hide and explore.

I was looking through the dusty old shelf in a particularly deserted corner when I came across an old wooden box. It looked extremely plain and ordinary; not something that fit in with the library. Looking at it curiously I unlatched the simple lock holding it together and saw three thumb drives inside.

Each thumb drive was labelled and my heart skipped a beat when I noticed one of them had my name on it. As far as I knew, I was the only one in the family history who was named Abigail (being not in the close circle when I was born). The other two were labelled Margot and Leon; both names were not infrequent in the family tree.