The Necromancer's Matter, Part 10; Thorn and Descendant (Part 4)

Blue light seemed to bathe most of the Wizard City library, making it a bit pretty and having some tendrils of blue dancing unknowingly on Harold Argleston's head.

Destiny smiled a bit at the sight. The last two times she had been at the library, she had been looking through newspaper archives to find out more about the only known Pure Descendant, Marcus Dawngem. Later she had been able to find out the source of his death- the Ordeal. When she had heard it come out of the mouth of the dying Nicholas, she hadn't believed it as much as Ryan and Jason, but later on when Destiny had been able to think clearly- it had made sense. Marcus's death description had been remarkably similar to Nicholas's once she had compared it, and Nicholas had died from the Ordeal. So Destiny had come down to the same conclusion as the deceased sorcerer.

The most recent time she had been here was when she had been trapped eighty years into the future. Destiny could only think of the library as a good source for possible answers- which it likely didn't. But Destiny had never been able to find out- she had been distracted by a book of Headmasters and Headmistresses, then had been shocked to find out that apparently Amber Ambrose, Headmaster Ambrose's wife, had too been a Headmistress of Ravenwood. The necromancer had been so shocked at this that she had failed to turn back a page and find out why Headmaster Ambrose had died or such.

It still creeped Destiny out to know partially what was coming in the future. She had been prophecied, as if she had been trusted with something no one else in the Spiral knew... at this time.

Destiny wanted to prevent this from happening, though. The current Headmaster was great, and he didn't deserve to die! Ever!

But what would happen if Destiny DID prevent it? Then what? What if Amber did something extraordinary to Ravenwood and, all because Destiny changed what would happen, it didn't happen? Something to revolutionize Ravenwood, perhaps?

Suddenly Destiny wasn't so optimistic on changing things.

But Destiny's current trip to the library wasn't so much about the future- it was mainly about the past once more. Destiny had to do research again, but this time it wasn't as much on her free will. She had to do some research about her ancestors, collect the names, find out the way they died, then write a five page report on it. The things Lucyia assigned!

So Destiny may as well should start get cracking on it.

As Destiny walked to the front desk, she also wondered vaguely about Alex Deathcrafter. Would she have to do research on her stepdad as well? Destiny gathered up her memory- yup. Professor Drake told the class that they would also have to conduct research into any stepparent's ancestory as well.

Well.

Destiny was stuck- Mom and Dad had strictly forbidden her to do anything that was related to her abusive stepfather, but if she didn't do research into Mr. Deathcrafter, than the absolute highest she would get on the assignment was about seventy percent- if teachers were nice. And Professor Drake was certainly not nice. And Destiny couldn't try to make it up or pretend Alex didn't exist- Lucyia Drake had hidden ways of finding out certain things. She had proved that when one time when Destiny had been a novice, she had to write a one-page essay of the things she learned from a Death Textbook that was of choice, but had to be at least five hundred pages. Destiny wasn't much of a reader- she certainly couldn't read five hundred pages in a short week. So she made up a title based on other titles of Death Textbooks she had seen, had read things of other Death Textbooks here and there, and creatively made up the essay.

The result was a huge red X on her paper with a bunch of scolding comments of not only cheating but about use of grammar (Who knew Professor Drake was an expert on the subject?) and a month of writing I will not cheat on my great essays that help me learn new things into the horrible, ungrateful mind of mine on the chalkboard an hour everyday after classes. Winging a day of this would result in an extra month of detention.

Destiny arrived to the desk. "Um..." Harold looked up, "do you know where I can, like, find out more about my ancestors or something?"

Harold nodded. "Sure! Which ancestor are you looking up?"

Destiny blushed sheepishly. "That's the thing- I don't know. I need to look my lineage up."

Harold nodded again understandingly. "Ah. I get a lot of that." The dog librarian stood up, sending Destiny mental shivers. Destiny would NEVER get used to standing dogs, no matter how much she tried. "Follow me- I have the solution. It's a little magic device that was recently created."

So that's what Destiny did, following the dog somewhat reluctantly as she followed him through the winding halls coated with thick volumes of information and/or stories. Finally, Harold shuffled through a keyring before putting a thin blue one into a lock- then opened the mahogany door.

Destiny had expected to be amazed or something, with a huge collection of newspapers or books or whatnot. Instead, she was unimpressed- the unlit room was bare except for some purple-ish wallpaper and a sole mahogany table in the center of the room. Resting on that table was what looked like to be a little cube.

Harold smiled broadly, unlike Destiny. He almost ran up to it as Destiny continued to follow him into the dark room. When he sensed her uneasiness, he merely laughed. "Don't worry- I think you'll find this device attractive."

Destiny walked ahead of the Head Librarian and picked up the little cube, examining different sides and angles. "What does it do?"

Harold chuckled, holding his hand out for the little cube and in turn, Destiny gave it to him, cautious of his gray fur.

"Well first you've got to twist here, then give another twist here," Mr. Argleston was pointing to some various parts of the cube as he was doing this, "then press this- now, I haven't done the actual thing because I want you to do it- I want you to see the results for yourself." The librarian smiled slyly as he went out of the room, leaving the door open for Destiny.

Destiny watched him go, then looked back to the cube, curious. Then she shrugged and followed Harold Argleston's instructions. It was like one of those puzzle cubes- Destiny dropped it when she saw what happened next.

Immediately a blue thing popped out of the place that she had pressed, then Destiny squinted her eyes as the little line seemed to scan her face. It then disappeared into the cube and emerged back out with an outline of Destiny's head.

Then out of the head seemed to just pop out suddenly- a kind of web suddenly seemed to seep out from the top of the blue hologram of Destiny's head and slowly expanded and thinned, until it created a large, web-like dome around Destiny's head. Circling around the web and Destiny were names...

Names of her ancestors.

Destiny smiled at the discovery. This was cool! So apparently it took a scan of your head, got some DNA, and found out all your ancestors from there.

Destiny reached out a cautious hand, moving towards her Grandma's name, Emily Rosesmith.

When her hand touched her grandmother's name, instantly the other names faded and from Emily's name came out a light blue chart- her date of birth, date of death, the events in her life, her wizard school, newpaper articles that mentioned or featured her...

Woah.

Destiny smiled even bigger as she exited out of the charts featuring Emily Rosesmith. Destiny looked around, gaping at the wonder, wondering how the heck wizards these days could come up with things like this...

Then Destiny spotted the name, her smile fading.

Alex Deathcrafter.

Destiny took a deep breath as she reluctantly touched the name with her palm. This was it- finally her chance to learn a thing or two about her ancestor.

Likewise with her grandma, a chart appeared for Alex Deathcrafter- this time it was black unlike Emily's blue. So apparently the color of the chart depends on your school. And because the chart was black, this time the text was white.

Destiny squinted her eyes as she mainly skimmed through the charts... until it said family.

It listed Cassandra Rubytail as his wife.

And it listed the name Cody Shadowstrider as son of Alex Deathcrafter and Cassandra Rubytail.

Llewella and Vladimir finally let go of each other, excitement and joy overcoming them both.

For a while they just stood there, looking at each other with happiness's eyes. Then finally Vladimir shook Llewella's shoulders.

"Come on," he breathed, aqua eyes glistening. Then he put an arm around Llewella's shoulders as he began to lead her back to the Spiral Chamber. "I need to show you a place."

Llewella barely resisted jumping up and down in eager anticipation. "Where're we going?" she asked Vladimir.

"Don't worry- we'll be there shortly. In the meantime- do you like dogs and cats?"

Once Destiny saw Cody's name on Alex Deathcrafter's chart, she raced to a point of panic.

Destiny looked as if she had seen a wraith suddenly pop out of the ground. Slowly she backed away in a judicious mix of horror and shock.

Her heart rate was lurging, pounding, wanting to bring her down to the floor and crumple her. Unsure of what to do, Destiny bolted out of the small, dark room.

Fragments of thoughts poured into and seeped out of her mind at an alarming rate as she continued to run.

Cody... Alex... Mom... Cody... Descendant... Death... Him... Deathcrafter... Valkoor... related...

Once the last few thoughts had slipped past, out of breath, Destiny finally stopped when she processed that she had ran all the way into Ravenwood. She quickly looked around- when she saw the Storm School pounded to a pulp, she didn't even care. It was actually less shocking than Cody being her half-brother.

But somehow, her thoughts about Cody had also been dumped out when she took a closer look at the people inspecting the Storm School's wreckage...

They weren't moving.

Nothing but her was.

Horror closed around Destiny like a fist, crushing her...

The last time Destiny had witnessed this happening, she had been in Krokotopia.

Time...

A prescise, sharp, intriguing yet somewhat friendly voice cut into Destiny's thoughts like a knife... one she had never heard before.

"Hello."

Destiny's first thought was wondering who it was. Destiny's second thought was when seh realized that if time had stopped and another person was moving...

And when she saw the person walking up to her, Destiny's third thought was nothing but radiating, disbelieving shock... even for the liutenant of the Order of the Spiral.

Destiny hadn't recognized the voice. But the face had been embedded into her head too deep.

He looked to be a few years older than her, about sixteen. His shoulders were broad, giving him an aura of authority and power. The footsteps were quick, prescice and even. He was dressed in red novice clothing, but thad didn't fool Destiny. Not at all.

Because he was a prodigy. He had become Grandmaster withing mere months of enrolling- his steely blue eyes seemed to confirm that. A sharp chin and red hair almost as long as Jason's proved an interesting combination.

Destiny's first reaction was to back away. Quickly.

He seemed interested in Destiny's response. "You seem like you're scared of me."

Destiny opened her mouth to say something, then shut it, then dared to open it again. "I-I'm not, but-"

"You sure then have an amusing reaction."

"I'm j-just-"

"Shocked?"

Destiny nodded, finally noticing that she had backed away as far as the Myth School.

He took it into consideration, then shrugged, agreeing with her. "I suppose if they saw me at this point in time, they would."

Destiny wanted to get to the point despite her anxiety. "D-do you k-know me?"

He laughed humorlessly. "Of course I do! In fact, I traveled just to see you, Destiny Seagem. Time instructed me with the task of telling you."

Telling me what? Destiny thought as she continued walking backwards and him following her. And what does he mean time instructed him?

When Destiny offered no response, he lifted an inquiring eyebrow. "I'm presuming you know me?"

Destiny stopped backing, reaching the Death School Arch, and nodded. "Of course I know you, Marcus Dawngem."

A/N: I remember back when I wrote that part, where Destiny meets Marcus and stuff. Easily one of the scenes I enjoyed writing most.

Anyways, thanks DeathySophia and fanficreader137 for reviewing! You people are the best. 3