With each of her words the water darkened and slowly became blood. It bubbled and smoked, and the disgusting smell of death was in the air.
The environment itself became void and soon there was nothing around us but darkness. And as the face of the young woman started to disappear I noticed that her eyes sparkled in a ruby red tone.
“Don't forget that you are bound to me. You have tasted from my blood. Not anyone would have survived, but just as you have tasted my blood, so I will once taste yours. Open this door, and do everything to survive,” she said and her eyes disappeared into the darkness.
For a few seconds I remained alone in the boat, until suddenly everything was clearing up, and I found myself back in my house. I could still taste the blood in the air, and a short look to the outside told me that no more than a minute had passed since I said the words. Whatever this magic was that protected this island, someone used it to threaten me. Behind these masks, these messages and secrets I could no longer hide. I decided to do the only thing I had left - to stand up and fight.
Chapter 27: Isaac and the Truth
Friends, the people who help you, even when they have been deceived, betrayed or lied to. They are even rarer than a perfect diamond and just as pure. No one I knew, would I put in this category, and neither would any honest man. What man would knowingly violate his friends trust just to test their true virtues? Distrust was deeply anchored in our soul, and boundless confidence was just as legendary as it was unreal. Isaac however was a friend to me. The person who I had mistrusted from the very beginning, who I called a liar and a fraud, was precisely the man who would hold my hand. He knew the danger of my actions and the direction in which they led us. Tybalt lost more and more of his control and the excessive rituals and interpretations of the godly laws, made everything that these people had protected look like a shaking house of cards.
He screamed at me and told me that he wanted to force open the door of the temple and as always, he was drunk of wine, so much that he hardly recognized me. His senses had always stayed far away from his mind, but now, as they had moved furthest apart, they came closer than ever before. He understood now that I was of no value for him, and he no longer thought of me as a friend. Just as most people he understood this term as a temporary brotherhood under the agreement of mutual assistance, but at the request of any side that partook, an immediate rescission could be requested.
Fortunately I didn’t trust this man from the beginning which gave me the advantage. In the following night I stayed away from the rituals and since nobody missed me this time, I used the situation in order to liberate my true friends. The key to the cell had now been in my possession for days, but I too often thought about letting them die in this cell. It would have been the solution to all the problems I had brought with me from the outside world. Lucia was right with what she once said to me. My fear of the world knew no boundaries and no matter how much I hid behind courage and knowledge, I was still only characterized by this fear. Every opportunity to escape these constraints I had used and none had I spared.
My moral ideas were clearly defined, however, I just forgot about them when it needed to be done.
Everyone knew the feeling that the laws only protect you for as long as they didn’t prosecute you. My hands shook all the more while I opened the door to the cell and feared to be caught. In these countries they knew no indictment; one knew only the enforcement of implicit judgments. Isaac looked the worst of all, and so I carried him out personally. With simple thoughts Aton could understand what I wanted him to do and so he carried Lucia, while I just looked at him without a word and went ahead. Within the city we would soon be noticed, but I saw no other choice than to risk it. My absence on the next morning would be worse than deterring Tybalt from entering my house. I wasn’t afraid that someone else had noticed this jailbreak as the three had been supplied through a hatch in the ceiling, without anyone ever really visiting them.
No one was interested in whether they were down there, and why should they, seeing that the majority of these people were prisoners, waiting for their fate in a much larger cell. Aton fed the two in my absence, and every evening, I looked at them while they were sleeping. None of them had been awake for an extended period of time and only their deepest instincts led them through this journey. They ate and drank and slept, but none of this they noticed. To talk or to entrust myself to them in any way was just impossible and so I just sat there, at the side of Aton, who silently read my thoughts and therefore knew more than I would ever do. Aton knew this island, it was clear to him what I had done and why, but he couldn’t understand it. For him understanding something was of no purpose, it was no destination of mind, no means to an end, not even a real word. So why should he try to understand things if they just existed for him? His passivity impressed me, and I asked myself again and again if all the titans once were just like him.
For me it would explain how they were obliterated, but not why it was done. They were no actors, not even administrators, but much more collectors. This collection was not real and how should they therefore be dangerous?
But people like Tybalt were probably the reason for the death of the titans, people like Thamyris, whose family ties he undeservedly praised. But a connection of the blood was strong and I knew that I missed my father, even in the moment in which I saw him, dead and tormented. I had taken this moment from Lucia because I myself couldn’t take the suffering it caused. Already at that time I wanted to displace what the death of my own father would mean to me and I noticed too late that the time only moved in a single direction, exactly as I did myself. This direction was the problem and it followed a path whose crossings I once was willing to travel alone. But as Isaac opened his eyes and gasped for air, I saw in his eyes the same fear as in mine.
“It is entirely my fault. Without my doing we would not be here. Jasper, this treasure, it is entirely my fault,” he said to himself, and repeated it incessantly.
“Calm down, you are now safe. They will not find you, not after so many days. Once you are ready, we can leave this island and the treasure where it is.”
I decided to forget about the treasure, despite the challenge of the unknown person, even though I was sure, that Tybalt would find a way to open this door on his own.
“You have doubted me,” he quietly murmured with a smile on his face, but when I wanted to interrupt him, he continued. “I have lied to you. I never searched for the meaning of life nor did I want to save the life of my father; I never cared about him. The words that will now follow, I will speak them with a spirit of friendship and I hope that you will forgive me. I have never told anyone; because there was no one I could turn to. Two parents, as most people have them, but brilliant and known all over the world, had tormented my young life. They did not know who I was; they didn’t even care for my education or my future, because regardless of what I achieved it paled in comparison to their genius.
First my mother began to ignore my father as my father had always been the more intelligent of the two. She forged her own success with false test results and used old artefacts such as this ring, just to be better than my father. I can well remember the time back then, and even if I was still very young, so I understood frighteningly well what death meant.
So well even, that I left my father, as soon as the opportunity showed itself. Old age however brought me no wisdom, only more questions, which the world gladly answered in return for my soul.
I lost everything that I had; they locked me up, let me free and denounced me for my past. Not the love of a woman, the dream of success or the longing for a family drove me back home, I was just afraid to die. Death had followed me all my life, and no matter where I looked, I saw only my mother and her suffering. It was a disease that has spread in me, and it was so aggressive that I felt my life leaving me. I only wanted one thing and that was to look into the eyes of my father and reconcile with him. My father had at this time concluded his research and he had found the sec
rets of this world as he proudly announced to me. But do you know what he said when I asked him to show me his results? No one would ever see them, because he had already burned them. Everything would be safe in his mind and that only he knew what was important. It was his decision to hide this knowledge before the world.
He had the power to help me, his gift could have saved my life, but when I told him of my illness, he just laughed and told me, that it was not our decision, to choose between life and death.
My anger was greater than ever before, and on my hand I felt the ring of my mother. Her attempts to receive recognition from my father, the unfulfilled desire to be like him; betrayed for nothing. I was a failure, not a scientist, and so I did what I remembered. My father was resistant against transmutations, and that was the reason that I had to start many attempts, until it finally worked.
His body was mine, but this bastard had lost his mind during the process and any access to his knowledge had thus become impossible. Since that day his body protects me from the illness, and even if I did not die on that day, his thoughts torment me every second of my life and no matter where I go, I am never alone. And worst of all, I do not even have a real body of my own. He took my life, as he once did my mothers, and now he also takes yours. I wish that I knew what he stored in his mind, but now I do know nothing anymore. This man, my father, he should die and finally leave me, that is all that I pursue and everything my heart is filled with. The hatred that I feel for this man has fed me since I was born and I am finally ready to release it.
The truth is not a story to tell, but a friend like you I can entrust it to. Anyone would have let me die down in that hole, really anyone, especially when he distrusts me. Please promise me that you will give me the means to heal my father. Nobody is allowed to heal him as long as I do not know the consequences. Because my life means nothing for the world, as everyone is looking at the great Magnus Doyle and no one knows his untalented son.”
The words of Isaac surprised me and even if I had not recognized it until this day, so he was the only friend I would eventually tell the truth to. We were hiding behind lies, because the truth was not worth living for. Laws are the shield of the successful, the crooks, the fraudsters and the murderers. Somebody would have to be punished for all things, and this time I would decide who.
Chapter 28: Stones of Power
It took a whole week for Isaac to get better to some extent, but Lucia still responded poorly to any treatment that we tried. Some of the people had noticed that I was not alone in my house, but no one dared to notify Tybalt and Tybalt himself naturally noticed nothing. His threats became more cryptic by the day and he began to try his own methods to open the door. I drew the symbols and sentences off the door so that Isaac could study them, but it was difficult without the proper environment. The books and writings, which I gave him, kept him busy for quite some time, but Tybalt’s patience was about to run out. He tried to burn a hole into the gate with dragon blood, but the heavy door was so solid that no visible signs of damage were left on it.
Of course this did not invoke joy in Tybalt’s spirit and from the idea to open the door, a public burning of all those who failed do to it ensued. Without drums, songs, or sense he tortured and killed his people in front of the temple, while I was forced to watch. He laughed full of madness and threatened me with evermore dramatic gestures and I feared that he had not forgotten his idea to kill my friends. Their disappearance had almost become public knowledge and even if none of the people said something, so I did not know how to react in the face of death. As the weeks passed, whole parts of the city disappeared in the fire; methodically he chose them and burned them to the ground. He declared himself the avatar of death and wore his mask now throughout the whole day.
Isaac found out that titans had never lived behind this door, but normal people. With every further fact we doubted even more that the titans had ever set foot on this island. Aton didn’t help us, because no matter what we asked him, he did not want to answer.
“Thamyris writes in these books about the days on the island. You should see what’s written here and then you might understand where we are. I couldn’t believe it and perhaps I am wrong, but if I’m not, then there is only one way to open this door.”
He opened a very old book from which many of the pages were missing, and most of the remaining pages were only lying about loosely in the cover. I looked at the slurred font and discovered the corresponding passages.
This is the first book that I have ever held in my hands without being forced to and to make things worse I even wrote it myself.
Day 1: We reached the island and it was, as he had described it. The Sun King brought us here, because he has promised that this island would change us. The Fortress of Shadows was all that I had ever called my home and just as the world only knew me as a murderer, so I only knew the world as a place full of hatred.
Day 12: We built houses and built a camp at the foot of the largest mountain. Here the Sun King stands now every day and observes what we do. In his hand he keeps his weapon, and his eyes tell me that he doesn’t trust me.
Day 50: The Sun King approached me today. His words revealed no sense, but he wanted me to take care of the people of this island now. He promised me that we were safe and that no one could ever enter this island. We were all criminals and now we should live together? I do not believe so.
Day 324: So much time has passed and there is still no end in sight for our work. Now that our city flourished, the Sun King demanded the construction of a temple. It would take many more weeks, but I slowly felt like I had arrived at home.
Day 534: The temple is finally built. Only the Sun King has access to it, but I do see the treasures that are carried inside by his men. I wonder what it is with this island and why we should protect this treasure.
Day 557: The Sun King has to leave the island. Today he came to me and told me to never enter the temple. A ridiculous gesture where he had asserted me that no man could ever set foot on this island. Gold meant nothing in this part of the world, but what was it that the people should keep under control?
Day 590: Dark dreams haunt me and it is as if nothing that happens can be real. Often I ask myself whether I sleep or wake. Even if the king warned me, not a day goes by on which I do not feel the need to enter this damned temple.
Day 632: The people behave more strange with every day that passes. Today I was at the gate of the temple, but there is no way to open it. I listened to the stone and heard strange voices from the inside. What is it that we guard?
Day 743: I touched it, the stone inside the temple. Everything makes sense now. I was not ready before, but now that the stone had called me the gate opened. My dreams are piling up and no matter what I do; the stone calls out to me.
Day 856: Everyone does what I command, no man dares to resist. Whatever it is that the king has left us, it changed me. I enjoy the power, but dream and reality begin to blur in this place more and more. I see memories that do not belong to me and often times I forget who I am.
Day 1786: The king has returned to the island. I write these lines in haste and hope that somebody reads them. Do not open the temple, leave this island and forget your dreams. The stone will change you.
Here ended the book, but it was clear to me that only a few of his descendants had read it and none had taken it seriously. I even found it hard to believe that in truth Aton was Thamyris all along. Why had the Sun King caught him and locked him up? And how could Jasper have the medallion? The stone in the interior of this temple had to be more than a mere mineral, it was of magical nature and magic had grown estranged from this world. The solution to the puzzle was Aton, just as I had thought, even though I would have never completely understood it without Isaacs help.
“So he will open the door if we can persuade him to do it,” I said to Isaac, who stacked and sorted the books.
“No, because Jasper has ensured that we can only open this door if we are to understand the
principles he has left behind. But what I am much more afraid of is that I know what awaits us. It is a remedy, maybe even the cure for everything there is.
It is a stone of power, one of the oldest artefacts which are still known. And if the words of Thamyris are to be believed, the Sun King personally created this stone.
It is unclear to me for what purpose this stone was created, but these stones were often used to store powerful magic and seal it, so even a simple man can use it. They are weaker, depending on who uses them and in the case of Thamyris it has changed him so much that he permanently lost his human form.”
“Does that mean that this stone is able to cure diseases? Why has Aton lost this power?” I asked Isaac and could not believe that he had found out so much in such a short time.
“I believe that this is no ordinary magic, it strengthens the force of the wishes of a person. Thamyris wanted people who obeyed him, who followed given rules, and who feared these laws too much, as to ever break them. These people are under a curse that is why no one rebels against Tybalt. Thamyris maintained this curse and even if he cannot remember his earlier self, his body has become a powerful transmitter. The only thing I do not understand is why Jasper wanted to free him.”
Ultimus Thesaurus: The last Treasure (Era of Change Book 1) Page 14
