▪Lukas's POV▪
I began searching the room even before Jess disappeared up the stairs, combing swiftly through bookshelves and glancing at already-open books lying about.
Petra wasn't known for making things easy, but she wouldn't have deliberately hidden whatever she'd found. My guess was that she'd probably left it wherever she'd found it…whatever 'it' actually was.
Luckily, the place was easy enough to navigate through. It may not have been the tidiest or more well-organized, but it wasn't a disaster.
I reached a cluttered desk at the far end of the room, and, somewhat absent-mindedly, picked up a hardcover book sitting on it. The title of the tome was 'Ad Vitam Aeturnum', and I frowned in confusion.
The words were in an old, nearly dead language that I couldn't recall the name of. Latin? No, that wasn't quite right. Something similar to that, though. Some people said it originated from the mythical land of the Aether, though that had never made sense to me.
I had never seen a complete book written in said language. Simple phrases and stuff like that were thrown around sometimes, but there were very few written works. No one was really certain of the civilization that had spoken it, or how and when it had begun to fade.
I tried to remember what I had learned of it. If I was correct, the title said something like 'to eternal life', though I couldn't be certain. I shuddered slightly, but hesitated right before I set the book down.
Could this be what Petra wanted us to find?
I paused, examining the book again and thinking.
No. Completely impossible. As far as I was aware, she didn't know anything about the lost language- it would be far too 'nerdy' for her. Besides, if she'd wanted Jess to see this particular tome, she could've just sent it to him with the letter.
I put the book down and glanced at the other contents of the desk. There was an empty inkwell, a few scattered sheets of blank paper, an old-looking ruffled quill, and a small book with an illustration of an Enderman on the cover. Nothing spectacularly unusual.
I turned and leaned back against the desk, scanning the room in hopes of noticing something obvious before I had to go into a full-out search.
It was then that I noticed the lever attached to the side of a bookshelf to my right. I straightened up, then walked over and cautiously pushed it upwards.
Nothing happened for a moment. Then, with a muffled thud and a slow grating sound, the wall behind the desk I'd previously been looking at slowly began separating.
I watched as unseen pistons pulled the blocks out of the way, revealing a dark, hidden room. Grabbing a torch from nearby, I carefully pushed the desk aside and stepped inside the secret room.
I was a little afraid of what I might find, leaning anxiously back as I lifted the torch and let the light fall on what had been hidden for who knows how many years.
The place was small, but even so, I didn't know where to look first.
One wall was dominated by papers and charts, all haphazardly pinned up and overlapping each other. They greatly varied in content- some had drawings, some had long paragraphs, and others had only a few words, all looking like they'd been written hastily. A few of these papers were connected by strings, lending the appearance of some kind of strange investigation. I barely glanced at them at first, but I noticed a lot of question marks.
The second wall, the one opposite the entrance, made me take a small step back. On it was painted 'scio me nihil scire', in tall black capital letters. The paint had dripped slightly, adding an ominous look to the already-odd words.
The last was the strangest. A very large roll of paper was attached to the wall, decorated by a complicated chart that reminded me of the branches of a tree. It was labelled by odd symbols and phrases I didn't recognize, with lists of words scribbled along the sides of the parchment. I wasn't sure what the chart was supposed to show- all the twisting lines were colossally confusing, especially since I couldn't understand the labels, which appeared to be written in some sort of code.
Finally coming to my senses, I leaned out of the hidden room and shouted, "Jess? Uh…I think I just found what Petra sent us here for.
Jess!"
After only a moment, he came hurrying down the stairs, looking around for me. "Yeah? What is it? Where even are you?"
"Over here." I called. "And uh…you're gonna have to just look."
His brown eyes went very wide as he stepped into the dim room. "Whoa. That's, er…certainly something."
Like I had, he spent a few seconds silently scanning the area, then frowned as he mouthed the words painted on the far wall. "'Scio me nil…' What the hell?"
"I think it means something like 'I know that I know nothing', though I'm not entirely sure." I contributed. He nodded mutely, then moved closer to the paper-covered wall.
"What on earth is all of this? And who was even…?" he muttered.
"Your guess is as good as mine. It would have to be one of the old Order, though I can't say who without knowing what we're actually looking at."
"Well, it wasn't Ivor." Jess determined. "His handwriting isn't anything like this. And I highly doubt it was Magnus, though I suppose it could've been Ellegaard or Gabriel."
I shook my head. "Ellegaard would've taken this stuff with her when she moved her main base to Redstonia. From what I've heard from Olivia, she's not one to just abandon a project. I don't know about Gabriel, though."
Jess shrugged. "He never seemed like the obsessive-researcher type, but I guess anything's possible. But if it's none of the others…then we're looking at a whole new level of Soren madness."
"Lovely." I commented quietly. It had been a long time since we'd heard anything about the elusive liar, at least two years. He'd essentially disappeared, with no real evidence that he was even still alive.
Jess spared a glance at the large chart, then dismissively said, "Whoever it was, they sure didn't want anyone else to figure out what they were up to. I can't make heads or tails of that thing."
He returned his attention to the various sheafs of parchment, squinting in the low light. He lifted his head, then pointed to a paper pinned just above eye level (well, it was only slightly above my eye level, though quite a bit beyond his).
It was a map of Beacontown, though not one that was anywhere near recent. Or accurate, for that matter.
The irregularities were subtle, but there were there. A few buildings in the wrong place. A couple things appearing to be the wrong colours. An alley or two that didn't really exist.
"That's the second weird map I've found this week. This is getting suspicious." Jess observed, scowling darkly.
"You think they're connected?" I asked.
The glower deepened. "I don't really know what to think, honestly."
My eyes roved over the assortment of papers, trying to find some connection between the symbols and map fragments and scattered words and occasional rough drawings. Even the ones that were linked by string still didn't seem to match up, as though whoever had set this up had been thinking on an entirely different level than we were on.
But was that level genius, or lunacy?
A document partially covered by a small note caught my attention. I removed the smaller paper, not even reading it, and stared at the list of words in front of me. I nudged Jess, gesturing silently to what I'd just found.
The list was as follows:
Constant- things that are consistent in multiple timelines (object, person, or event)
Deviation- an event that happened in one timeline but didn't in another
Variable- an object or person that is in one timeline but not in another
Primum Movens [Primes]- the people that create deviations and change variables; the ones who 'drive' the timelines
Over the top of the 'Primes' bit was a word written in large, hurried-looking red letters and underlined strongly.
Jess.
I heard a sharp intake of breath from beside me, and my friend took a step back. Jess was wide-eyed again, though this time he looked less mildly startled and more like a cornered animal.
"What…?" he breathed.
I wholeheartedly agreed. What did this mean, timelines? And how was Jess involved in…whatever they were?
He carefully reached up, gently touching where his name was written as though he hoped it would change. Shooting a cagey glance at the strange diagram on the opposite wall, Jess edged slowly back, rubbing his arms and looking uncomfortable.
"I…I need to get out of here." he said in a low voice. "This is too…I need to get out of here."
With that, he turned and practically ran from the room, and probably all the way out the library too. I reached out and grabbed the paper that had sent him into panic mode, quickly glancing through the rest of the papers to see if any of the others looked coherent or important enough to take with us.
I hurried after Jess, who had indeed fled the temple. He was standing just outside the magnificent ruin, looking out at the valley.
Nudging his shoulder, I asked, "Hey, are you alright?"
He made a motion with his shoulders that was part shrug, part shudder. "Yeah. That whole deal was just…too much for me. It just feels super creepy, and I don't understand any of it."
"Me neither. But I'm sure we'll be able to piece it all together eventually."
He turned his head to make eye contact with me, his expression gravely serious. "Oh, you bet I will. Something weird is going on, Lukas. And I may not be completely sure what yet, but I'll be damned if I can't figure it out."
