Zena's nod was curt, her voice devoid of any emotion. "Thank you for coming," she said, gesturing to the empty chair opposite Eileen.
Lila sat down, her eyes flicking from Zena to Eileen and back again. "Pleased to meet you Miss Wilson, I don't want to take up too much of your time, so I'll ask you straight out. Do you have something to do with the missing 'Elemental Codex'?"
Eileen's response was immediate and earnest, her voice a soft melody in the otherwise tense room. "Yes, I do," she said, her blind eyes seeming to look directly at Lila.
Zena's reaction was explosive, her surprise so palpable it was almost tangible. "What?!" she shouted, her hands slamming onto the desk.
The sound of the slamming hand made her flinch briefly. "Did I do something bad? You were always talking about it, so I thought I'd give you a little surprise, Zena."
Lila, who was observing the scene, was surprised. Eileen Wilson was completely different from what she had expected. According to the description, she was very powerful and scary, but the woman sitting in front of her was the exact opposite. Naive and innocent, like a little child who doesn't know any better.
Eileen shrunk in her chair, her hands now clasped tightly in her lap. "I'm sorry, Zena," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I didn't think it would cause so much trouble. I just wanted to help."
Zena took a deep breath and visibly calmed down. She turned to Lila, her golden eyes narrowed. "If she gives you the 'Elemental Codex' back, is everything all right?" she asked in a low, measured voice.
Lila nodded, her thoughts racing. "I'm not here to cause trouble," she assured her. "I just need the book."
Eileen's shoulders relaxed slightly at Lila's words. She reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out a small, leather-bound book, laying it gently on the desk. "Take it," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
As lila examined the book, a few thoughts crossed her mind. „It was much easier than I expected, but I have a strange feeling... This woman is acting strange, how did she even get this book? Did one of her guards help her? Should I ask her?
„Besides, I had the feeling that Zena had a lot of respect for her, she is supposed to be her mentor, but how does that fit together... She acted like a mother who has to clean up the mistakes of one of her children."
As Lila took the "Elemental Codex," she couldn't help but feel the weight of its power, as if the book itself was alive and pulsing with ancient knowledge. She studied it closely, noticing the intricate runes and symbols etched into the leather, the pages edged with gold. "How did you manage to steal this?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Eileen's eyes remained cast downward, her voice small. "I didn't steal it, not really," she began, her fingers tracing the edge of the blindfold. "I just... I'm good at convincing people to do things for me. A member of the library staff felt sorry for me, I think. I asked him if I could borrow it and he agreed, there was nothing more to it, really! I would have returned it as soon as Zena had finished her project."
„Strange..." thought lila. „Probably that's one of her abilities, I can't see any other explanation. Why would someone from the library voluntarily hand it over to her..."
Zena's expression was a mix of irritation and admiration. "You really don't understand the gravity of what you've done, do you?" she murmured, before turning to Lila. "Take the book and leave, your mission should be complete."
"Thank you, Miss Wilson," lila said, her voice gentle despite the tension. "I will ensure it's returned to where it belongs."
....
Back to Aldwyn, who was engrossed in the ancient texts at the Library of Worlds, his mind racing with the implications of the forgotten knowledge laid before him.
The first book he read was "The Era of the Old Gods". The brittle pages crackled under his careful touch. He studied the faded golden letters painted on the pages with vivid strokes. These were not the sanitized stories taught in schools, but the raw, unfiltered truth of a time when gods walked among mortals.
The text spoke of the human history. The history of humanity is very old, they existed in a time surrounded by chaos. According to a legend, an unknown being fell from the sky and shaped the world of Nyrmoria. This being was already dead when it arrived and no one knew why it had fallen upon Nyrmoria. But the humans saw it as a divine sign. After all, the body of this being possessed incredible powers that humanity had never seen before.
The being's body could not rot, so it was considered to be a sacred place. After a while, humans even began to use its blood to heal illnesses and wounds. Some were even allowed to eat a piece of this being, but this was only reserved for the higher priests and the royal family.
But this procedure quickly led to problems. The people who had its blood or even whole pieces of the being in their bodies began to notice some changes. Some of them went mad and turned into gruesome creatures. However, a few were able to resist and even possessed new powers which they used to eliminate the mad creatures.
But the problems of the humans did not diminish. After a while, the being's body produces creatures of its own accord, which were created out of pure evil. The humans had no choice but to act as quickly as possible. The priests decided that six chosen members of the royal families should consume the six hearts of the creature. They suspected that they were responsible for creating the evil creatures. In addition, the royal families were surprisingly resistant to the creature's blood.
When the six chosen ones of the royal families consumed the hearts, something unexpected happened. The creature's body dissolved a little after each heart that was consumed, until it finally disappeared completely. The six chosen ones resisted the "madness" and even evolved enormously.
Each of them received an essence from the being they consumed. Each of them became a kind of deity and was treated accordingly. Each of them represented a certain aspect of the World. These new deities even passed on their powers over time, which are now known as 'pathways'. There are 18 pathways which are distributed among the 6 deities. These seven 'deities' are also known as the primordial gods of humanity. This moment is regarded as the 'Era of the old Gods' and the beginning of true humanity.
„I see... Ygannea mentions something like that, but I didn't quite understand what she was trying to tell me at the time. She explained that our gods and the demons are not very different, as they both have the same origin... Now it makes sense.
„Was this being an outer god? At least it fits the definition of an outer god... So that means that all pathways and our gods have their origin from one of these outer gods... That's an eerie thing to think about. The only question is, how true are these texts? You should never blindly trust something like that...
„It was already a good decision to come to this place. This knowledge is worth a lot! I just wonder how far my original self was involved... According to Ygannea, I was part of these events. So what was my role? And more importantly, what was the point of my pact with Ygannea? I really need some answers to that." Aldwyn thought to himself as he opened the next chapter.