Argent Eye IV

54

The next day, Ronan took me back to London, and the first thing I did was go into work. I had to know whether anything had happened while I'd been gone, and I also had to tell Stark and the others about what I'd discovered. About the light, and the riddle. About Haydn looking for my family.

Stark was in his office doing paper work, and it turned out that there weren't many people in that day, so I would have to just tell him for now and hope that he told everyone else later. I knocked on his door.

"Millie?" He asked, not expecting me to be there. "You're not due back till tomorrow- is everything alright?"

I smiled. "Yeah, sorry, everything is fine." I paused. "Well, it's not, but whatever." I waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, I just have stuff to tell you, that I learned when I was at home, and figured I should probably tell you as soon as possible."

He frowned, obviously concerned. "Sure, take a seat."

I started by telling him about how Haydn had managed to find my home village in pursuit of my parents, and although he hadn't quite got to them, he was close.

"It was a good job you turned up when you did, then." Stark said. "We have contacts from the wolf pack in that area- I will ask them to keep an eye on your family."

I smiled. "Thank you." I said, and quietly wondered whether Anika was the alpha of the pack he was talking about, before going on to tell Stark about my attempts to summon the light. I told him about the riddle, and that the darkness and light weren't exactly anywhere to be found. That meant that Haydn could get it at any given moment.

That is, if he got it before the Realm consumed him for good.

"This is all very interesting." Stark said. "Would you mind writing that riddle down? Perhaps the team here can break it down to make sense."

"Sure." I said, and quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper before handing it to Stark.

He took it, and frowned again. "What happens to the light if Haydn gets hold of the darkness?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know- I think it just disappears." I said. "It can't just exist on its own without a host, but the host needs to be able to handle it. I can't take it, because of the darkness inside me, and after Haydn gets it, there will be even more."

"So when Haydn gets the darkness, there will be but a moment when you need to get rid of the darkness and grab the light?" He wondered out loud.

I nodded, having not thought of it like that. "Yeah, that sounds about right." I said. "But I have no idea how to get rid of the darkness. Breaking our connection seems like the only way, and it's all in that riddle."

Stark nodded, understanding. He was thinking. "You can't just fight Haydn with the darkness?"

"I could." I said. "But we'd be fighting forever. The darkness won't work against more darkness- not lethally, anyway. Haydn is more competent with it, too, so who knows. I'd probably end up losing."

Stark took another look at the riddle. "So, what you're saying is that this is our only hope?"

I looked at him. "I think so."

He sighed. "We will do our best to solve it." He said.

I nodded, and then got up and left, feeling more stressed than when I'd woken up that morning. Discussing it with Stark seemed to put things into perspective, but in this case, that wasn't a good thing.

I just hoped that somebody here might be able to solve that riddle in time.

__________