Lania - Path to Light (Part 9)

       On the way to the Temple of Time, Rhine had regretfully noted that she had other things to take care of, like some sort of thingie with someone called ‘Arkarium’, Lania wasn’t sure, but Rhine had teleported them to the Temple anyway, and it was the grandest place Lania had ever seen.

        It was made entirely out of marble, even the statues that were carved into the wall to look like the Time Goddess. Everything was made with extreme care and detail, and it took Lania’s breath away. Some green vines managed to break through some flower pots and crawled through the temple’s smooth marble floor like a snake. Bright green trees dotted the path, some of them springing up flowers Lania was sure weren’t supposed to flower in the season.

      The doors towered high up into the air and seemed to disappear into the fog. Everything here was made of marble and gold, gold linings snaking their way this way and that on the doors, the floor, and the statues. The group took care not to run into any monsters, as if they did, they would be in BIG trouble as they still didn’t revive ALL of their powers and levels from when they were frozen. Whatever Aran wanted to investigate, she would have to get to it and get to it fast.

      “Well, Aran?” Phantom hissed, his back pressing against the wall, doing his best to be invisible from the sight of the monks that were walking slowly up ahead. The rest of the heroes (And Lania, not to mention the HUGE dragon Mir as Evan thought it would be a nice place to train his dragon) were pressed to the huge marble wall, trying to become as still and invisible as possible, but they were quickly losing patience, as wherever this place was Aran wanted to examine, she forgot where it was. Phantom hissed in her ear: “Where is the place you wanted to examine, hmmmm?”

     Aran stepped away from Phantom and scratched her chin, peering over the wall, then quickly plummeting back into the shadows. “Um….it should be around here….somewhere….” Evan almost grunted but kept himself silent. More than once a monk had glanced their way, and one came so CLOSE to the wall that they could only breathe normally when it stepped away. They had a few close calls and he would NOT be the one to cause his group to be found out, even if Aran was getting on his nerves constantly.

     Mercedes grabbed Aran’s shoulders and shook her, which wasn’t easy as Aran was quite solid and taller than Mercedes, so she only managed to shake her a BIT. But that was enough to catch Aran’s attention. “Aran, focus,” Mercedes hissed, and Aran nodded, then lounged into deep thought. But even after awhile of thinking (much to the heroes – and the worst, Mir – ‘s discomfort), nothing came to her. It was starting to become frustrating and some heroes – even Lania – were getting cranky.  

      Lania squashed herself against the wall and peered over the other edge. Monks with their faces covered by white masks walked about the marble hall, their green robes swimming beneath them, making them look like they were flying. She gripped the wall tightly and pursed her lips together, trying to be invisible. Phantom kept nudging Aran and groaning when she shook her head, still trying to press her memory for the way to – wherever she was going. Lania was losing patience FAST.

       “Ah! I got it!” Aran cried out, her excitement taking over. Immediately after  she did it, she slapped a hand to her mouth and mumbled something, but it was too late – the monks  had spotted them. Their heads jerked to their direction and they mumbled  something beneath their masks, and begun to close in on the odd group. Mir cried out in their heads: “Quickly! Get on top of me, and I shall fly away from here. Aran, you shall guide me.”

       The five scrambled onto Mir and grabbed hold of his glossy black scales, not wanting to fall as the dragon ascended into the air, its wings pushing some monks back as they flapped. Aran pushed herself forward so that she was on top of the dragon’s neck, and pointed forward, shouting something that was lost in the howls of wind. Mir nodded, and took off towards a huge marble door in front of them, the four on his back struggling to hold on as the dragon lunged forward.

      Halls and pillars seemed to whizz by as the dragon carried them from room to room. Lania soon became dizzy and tried to calm it by closing her eyes, but only worsening it some more. Her head rested on the dragon’s scaly back as Mir  zoomed ahead, the only one seeming to enjoy this being Evan, who had ridden on his dragon before and now was fearless – and even LAUGHING – as it swooped meters from the ground.

       Finally, the dragon halted to a stop in a place Lania had never seen before. It wasn’t as grand as the rest of the Temple; it was a hallway, not lit and disappearing into the darkness. Lania squinted, trying to locate the ending of the hall, but it was no-where in sight. The hallway could stretch for miles. Lania grew scared and took a few steps back, but then Phantom pushed her forward again, barking: “Well, girl? We don’t have all day. Go on.” Lania huffed and walked forward into the semi darkness, closely followed by the others. Aran was in front as she guided them to the place she yet to examine.

      “Aran? I do not recognize this place,” Mercedes said, cocking an eyebrow in confusion as she walked ahead, her boots clacking against the cool marble floor. She stared at the warrior lady, marching ahead fearlessly, knowing exactly where she was going and not even needing a lamp. As an elf, and a mighty powerful one as well, Mercedes could easily see through the darkness and follow Aran without interruptions, but the rest were struggling to follow. She turned to Aran and said: “Where are we heading, Aran?”

    Aran remained quiet. Mercedes was about to ask again when Aran replied: “We are….in the hall of Infinity.” Mercedes stopped, and Aran looked back at her, wondering what was wrong. “The….Hall of Infinity,” Mercedes muttered, getting her head around it. “I….I thought it went missing a long time ago.”

    “Maybe. Maybe not,” Aran grinned, and gestured to Mercedes to follow. “But the hall isn’t the only thing here; c’mon. The place I need to investigate is just up ahead.”

                           ****

“What is this?”

“Uh…Um….Hold on, let me think….”

“Aran, where HAVE you brought us to?”

      After walking for quite awhile, the hallway had finally ended at the biggest, tallest, widest door Lania had ever seen. The door arched high into the sky, disappearing into the darkness. The whole thing was made of the trademark marble, and gold lined the wall in swirls and twirls and symbols Lania had never seen before. All of this mystified her, especially when she had listened to Mercedes and Aran’s conversation not long ago; just WHAT was this ‘Hall of Infinity’?

     Aran turned to them and beamed a triumphant smile, her hands gesturing towards the door like it was her most prized possession. “This is it!! This is the place I’ve been searching for!!” Phantom stepped in front of the door, tracing his finger around the gold markings. He wondered what was behind this door and immediately placed his hand on it, then jerked it away as though he’d been bitten.

“What’s wrong?” Evan asked Phantom, who was stepping away from the door.

       Phantom turned to Evan, his eyes wide. “When I placed my hand on it….it felt….it felt like everything was aging all of a sudden.” Mercedes heard and turned to Aran, who shrugged and stepped in front of the door. “Well, that’s the effect of the door. You’re not supposed to open it; lucky Phantom was strong enough, or he would’ve aged.”

Phantom’s eyebrows furrowed into a scowl.

      Aran reached for the doorknocker – which was carved out of the gold to resemble a clock – and knocked it only once, then stepped back. Lania expected something HORRIBLE to bust out of the door at LIGHT SPEED, but it didn’t. In fact, nothing happened AT ALL. She glanced at Evan, who was shaking his head, not knowing what Aran had in store for them either.

      Lania was about to suggest they knock again when they heard some muffled mumbling coming from somewhere behind the door. Lania’s heart leapt to her throat and she sprang back a few steps as the door opened slowly, creaking as it probably wasn’t opened in thousands of years. Lania’s eyes widened, and she saw the  other heroes – except for Aran – tense, alert if anything goes out of control.

     “Geez, geez, whaddya want, uhmmm, human? We neva goddany visitors in awhile and they’re all rollin’ in here at once. Humans dunno how to leave us ápeiro in peace,” someone – someone YOUNG, by the sounds of it – groaned as the door was slowly opened, and Lania let her breath out in one great whoosh, her eyes widening in surprise. What was ACTUALLY behind the door betrayed all her thoughts at once.

     The person who pushed open the door was a little girl that seemed no older than five, yet her hair was graying to the point of white. Her hair was long and tied up high into two ponytails that slid down her small shoulders like slim, silver waterfalls. Her eyes were green and seemed a bit faded, and she wore a white robe with strange red markings on in that trailed all over the attire. She seemed bored and had a thick book – thicker than what a kid her age should read – tucked under her arm.

     The girl cocked an eyebrow at them. “Well? Ye’ gonna tell me what business you have here, or stand there GAWKING at me forever? No matter. Time is not irrelevant here anyway. So speak; what is ye’ purpose here, eh’?” Nobody spoke, and just as the girl was about to close the door, Aran spoke up: “We have come to see the ápeiri̱ vivlío.” The girl stopped, and Lania blinked, looking up at Aran. She had a strange feeling that she almost….understood what she said.

     “Oh, the ápeiri̱ vivlío? So that’s whatcha want, ‘eh?” the girl grumbled, opening the door wider again. “So, where’s ye’ proof ye’ ain’t gonna just swipe it outta the pedestal, hmmmm, little lady?”

    Aran seemed unfazed, though Lania could tell that Phantom was getting annoyed at this little brat of a girl and could just manage to stop himself from bashing her face in. But Aran stood her ground and said in a steady voice: “Well, if you truly are an ápeiro, then you can tell, hmmm? We’ve been granted permission by the Goddess of Time, Rhine.”     

     Lania expected the girl to say something, but she just nodded and stared intently at them. Her eyes suddenly flashed a brilliant blue and grew clouded, and Lania wondered if she was seeing things. As soon as it started, the girl shut off whatever she set and her eyes reverted back to their faded emerald. She nodded and  opened the door wider to allow the group through, and they did, bewildered and confused at what just happened as they stepped through the door.

Lania heard Evan gasp.

      They were in the biggest room Lania had ever seen; it seemed to outshine the width and length of the  Temple of Time, and that’s DEFINITELY was saying something. The tiles were shiny silver and marble, and the walls seemed to be carved right into a wall to make this room. At first, Lania thought the ceiling was skylight, with the black night sky illuminated by tons of sparkling little stars and the crescent moon, but after further examination, she found  out that it was actually PAINTED on, the sky, in the greatest detail. It was mind boggling.

     Tons of bookshelves made of silver, marble, golden and materials she couldn’t even name were EVERYWHERE, packed FULL with books of every sort. Every book in the room was thick, as if the SLIMMEST book here had to be at LEAST 1000 pages long. Chairs and tables were stacked in places as well, and people were sitting at them, reading, delved deep into the stories in the books. What amazed Lania was that the people seemed to be from ALL ACROSS time, ALL from different time periods. One woman was strapped in a tight pink dress, a dinky little umbrella slung over her shoulder. Even a warrior who was losing an arm and half a leg, not to mention a scar jagged across  his right eye was reading, deep in the trance of the books. Thing is, they didn’t even glance up as the odd group made their way through the bookshelves. Mercedes asked the girl what was wrong with them, and she said they had always been like that. Those were the poor souls who greedily scavenged the world for this room and wanted to steal books, and were set on a spell to read for all eternity, so don’t mind them. Lania shuddered.

        “Anyway, welcome to the ápeiro Library,” the girl said, lifting her hands and gesturing to the room around them with a smile, but it seemed strained. She bowed down and said: “Chronos Angela at your service, but just call me Angela, or Angel. Bah, whatever you decide.” She gave a little wave and led them through the maze of bookshelves.

       Evan, eager to learn more about things, asked Angela what she was and where this place was, and Angela huffed and said: “I am an ápeiro, sort of like a ‘Time angel’, or an ‘Infinity Dweller’. Whichever you decide to believe in. We’re pretty much extinct now; other than my brother and I, there are no others, not that we know of.                 

    “Our numbers used to be great, but know it has narrowed down to less than 10 in the WHOLE WORLD. What little of us left protects the Time Libraries, or ápeiro Libraries, as we call them. However, this is the BIGGEST library the world has the offer left, so we protect our biggest treasure, the ápeiri̱ vivlío, or the ‘Book of Eternity,’ or something like that. It has so much power, one says that if you can handle it, you can control time itself, but no one could, and therefore, we merely protect it from the hands of baddies.

    “The Hall of Infinity is a little offering to the Time Goddess Rhine, who showed us how to become stronger and helped us through the tough dark days. We offered her the ápeiri̱ vivlío, but  apparently she couldn’t harness its power either, and as soon as the Black Mage entered this  world, she told us to keep it safe, as she was afraid  the Black Mage would be able to control it, and if he can control time, he can control….pretty much everything.

    “He wiped out our race looking for the book, but Rhine sacrificed herself to the Black Mage to keep the ápeiri̱ vivlío and the rest of us safe, so she pretended to fall to a general of the Black Mage and allowed herself to be captured and blinded. The Black Mage stole some of her power, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the ápeiri̱ vivlío, but the Black Mage was content with it, well for now, and the ápeiri̱ vivlío was kept safe. The hall was shut off from the outside world, and only those who are pure of heart can manage to find them, like y’all.

        “You happy now?” Angela said, and Evan nodded, thinking over what he had just heard. Lania’s head spun. What? What did she just say? Everything seemed like a fairy tale now, and even the girl did not seem real. It took her everything not to reach out and touch her to make herself believe she wasn’t dreaming. The rest had heard far worse, and thought nothing of it, just following the girl through the mazes of bookshelves.

      “So, were we the first visitors in awhile, then?” Mercedes asked, awe-struck by the number of knowledge they had stacked on these shelves. Angela laughed a joyless laugh and muttered: “Nope. You human’s are hard to shake off, it seems. No visitors for a THOUSAND years and two groups come rollin’ in here at once. Funny, eh? So anyway, there was another guy come here and ask for the ápeiri̱ vivlío. He seemed to be blessed by Rhine as well, so I allowed him to enter.”

“A guy?” Mercedes asked. “Who was he?”

“Some Illuminate guy,” Angela muttered.

     “What?” Alarm bells rang in Lania’s mind as she said that. She was aware the other heroes were looking alarmed as well. “What do you mean, some ‘Illuminate’ guy?” Angela just shrugged and continued on, unconcerned.

“Well, he THINK his name was Illuminate. Or something else….Luminate….Illusion…”

“Luminous?” Evan offered, growing tense.

      “Oh, yeah,” Angela snapped her fingers. “Yeah, that was ‘im. You know him?” Lania’s heart pounded in her chest and she forgot to breathe. Luminous was here….she should be happy, right? No. That dull thrumming at the back of her mind was back; darkness prowled these shelves, and now she knew who was causing it. She turned to Angela and shrieked: “Angela, you HAVE to take us to the ápeiri̱ vivlío, NOW!!”

Angela seemed shocked but otherwise unconcerned. “I know ye’ excited, but please-”

      “Angela,” Mercedes said, her voice urgent enough to make Angela stop. “That Luminous fellow…..he’s half corrupted by the Black Mage. He’s trouble, half the time. Get us to the book NOW.” Mercedes’s words seemed to jolt Angela immediately. She gathered up her robe and scurried up the hallway and spellbound people reading and clattered up some smooth stone steps, pulling out a golden key from her multiple hidden pockets. The heroes ran to keep up with her.

     Angela pushed the key into a keyhole in a massive marble door and twisted it. Lania heard something give way, and Angela swung the massive door open. The white light behind the door almost blinded them but seemed nothing for Angela as she gathered up her robes and ran into the light. As soon as their eyes adjusted, the heroes and Lania shot after her.

     The light came from a light on the ceiling, which was painted as the solar system, the blinding white light acting as the sun as the planets swirled around it. The only thing in the ENTIRE room was a small, gold and marble pedestal that stood on top of a massive stage. It was a beautiful pedestal, but Lania realized something that should NEVER happen to a pedestal of this brilliance.

The pedestal was empty.