Ian looked over the various books on the shelves of the library: Dialectics by Hegel, Republic by Plato, Guns of August, Loves Labor Lost by Shakespeare, New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, Marriage of Heaven and Hell by Blake, Remembrance of Things Past by Proust, the United States Constitution, The Times Law Report Vol. 20 1903-04, Appelton's New Practical Encyclopedia.
He had decided earlier that day, to take a stab at a fashion statement. The rest of him was clad in black, why not his fingernails? He had seen various rock stars and other men do the same thing. He felt he had done a fairly decent job, had even decided to put a dark red color on his left thumbnail for fun.
He finally found what he was looking for on the topmost shelf, an old photograph album father had of the many men in history that he had the pleasure of meeting. Living for 96 years had its advantages.
Ian slowly made his way downstairs. There was no hurry. He was in a leisurely sort of mood for the evening.
He lay sideways on the table in the grand living room and looked at the photographs: Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dean Rusk, Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, Charles Lindbergh, J. Edgar Hoover, Hitler, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford.
His mind wandered to the first conversation he and father had shortly after Sara had acquired the Witchblade.
"There are no casual connections, Nottingham. Sara Pezzini, the Witchblade, myself. Call it what you will. Destiny, fate, fortune. Napoleon used to say that Fortune is like a woman - she favors the bold."
"And what would he say of a bold woman?"
"I'll ask him sometime. Hmmph."
Knowing father he probably had.
Ian then thought back to a conversation father had once with Sara herself.
"Do you believe in destiny, Sara?"
"I believe that things are a lot more connected than they appear."
"They are."
How right she was. Father had made many deals in his life as well as a few in his death.
Ian thought for a brief moment to a few days earlier when Sara discovered that father had made an agreement with the Devil and taken the form of her dead father. Ian had been pleased when she had seen through father's guise.
But, long before his death, father had made sure to be involved with many influential men, as evident by the photographs Ian was glancing at the moment. Unfortunately for Sara, she was going to become deeply involved in one such group of men very soon.
Ian knew it was only a matter of time before she indirectly came into possession of the scandalous item this group did not want the public to see. This would cause them to take whatever measures they felt were necessary to retrieve it and stop her, no matter how extreme.
Ian would just have to wait until that moment occurred. Then he could find his Sara and tell her what he knew of the situation she would inevitably find herself in.
END
