Chapter 46

**Merianna**

It took a second for that confirmation to sink into my mind. I always had a feeling when watching those online documentaries that it wasn’t just a story made up by Plato for literary purposes. After all it wasn’t even Plato’s story to begin with, it was his great-great something grandfather or whatnot that originally heard it from an Athenian called Solon 300 years before Plato, who originally heard the story from an Egyptian Priest. And the Priest at that time even said it was a civilization that had already been lost for about 9000 years at the time he recounted the story. The whole theory of it being a plain story told as an example of human nature, had just been accepted as fact and not questioned over all the years.

“Hah, now that’s interesting to say the least.” I rubbed the ends of my hair between my fingers as I tried to recount more of that day.

Noch shrugged. “The whole thing about Columbus being the first to discover the Americas and the Amazon never having a sophisticated civilization living in it is also all nonsense. Europeans just couldn't accept the fact that other sophisticated civilizations besides them could flourish even better than them.”

That statement made me remember all of the people I’ve caught glimpses of on social media in this modern era. “Aha… well, I can see how history could have been twisted from what it was originally back then.”

“It’s practically the same for Egypt and Kemet. For one, Egyptians were never white. I have no idea where the modern people ever came up with something ludicrous like that in the first place.” Noch huffed in frustration.

“Wasn’t there a civilization living in Egypt before the Pyramids were erected?” I asked curiously as another memory of Egypt fuzzily took up space in my head.

“Oh? You were in that region as well? Now that is fascinating.” Noch said with a happy grin.

“Well, I guess I was, there is a vague memory popping up.” I shrugged.

“Now that is one of the things that modern people should really pay attention to if they want to know about how things worked before the cataclysm.” Noch said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Obviously people had plenty of time and resources to advance in different ways than the modern society that we know now. What we used to call every day tools and ways of moving objects back then would be called hocus pocus by the people of today, which is dreadfully sad. If only they could see one of us actual witches in action.” He chortled. 

“All people need to do is look at the Sphinx and they will see obvious proof of advanced civilization having lived there before the cataclysm. Egypt was just lucky enough not to have been impacted by the cataclysm as badly as Atlantis and others were. Hmm… the Mayans were also pretty well off during that time, it’s a shame their population was wiped out by the foreign Spanish cooties when Francisco merely traveled through the Amazon riverways. Now that was a real crying shame.”

“I can’t believe that I forgot about all that.” I was very disappointed in myself, it’s all useful information from before the Cataclysm. How could I have thought that it was fine for me to seal off all those memories? A flash of multicolored skies, and a sharp smell of blood came over me before I reflexively shook myself out of it.

“It’s a real shame indeed. If only modern people could realize like us that it doesn’t take much for the earth to decide that it’s time for a civilization to come to an end. We’ve gone through quite a few cataclysms already. It doesn’t take much for the earth to swallow all previous traces of human life. So all their arguments of ‘where is the evidence’ are hollow. All they need to do is think logically, and their minds will be opened to much more than what has been dictated to them since they popped out of the womb.”

I hummed in agreement, what he said wasn’t wrong. I’ve seen plenty of the close mindedness that plague normal humans of this day in age. Many of them don’t even try to think for themselves or question anything. They are more than happy to take the easy road and act like chicks waiting with their beaks wide open for someone to shove things down their throats. It was shocking yet inevitable. Humans really were creatures of habit and complacency once they had found a level of living they were satisfied and comfortable with.

Shaking myself out of my thoughts I looked at the mountain of scrolls that still stood in front of me. It would have been nice if they could have started sorting themselves while I had been talking to Noch.

With a heavy sigh I grabbed the first one in front of me. “Alright, enough thinking of the past. The faster we get this sorted, the faster we can get out of here and do something even more productive.”

Noch snorted. “Now that’s something I’m looking forward to.”

***

**Thyrion**

Once I reached the Order I made a beeline for Arasule’s workshop. She would most definitely be the first to know if anyone else had returned yet. And if I could’t find her, Dorris would be my next best bet. I wondered if Raska and Jasnine had managed to find Orbus yet, or if Fog had managed to get some information about the Fae that had attacked Merianna.

If I could get things moving on this end while Merianna and Noch were in the archives, it would make things progress a lot faster once they were done.

Hearing the sound of my footsteps alone echoing off the stone walls was eerie. It was quite unsettling seeing this whole place being so empty. I wondered if all the other Order members had been contacted about Merianna’s return yet, and if they are planning on coming back anytime soon. Maybe I should suggest to Noch to have the Order move periodically from place to place to make it harder for future attacks to crop up. It would be easy enough considering that the Order wasn’t directly affiliated with any country or group.

The thought made me stop for a second. Was I just about to suggest that the Order become a Magic Tower like in current fantasy novels? I sighed at my own inability to have original ideas.

“Thyrion?” I twisted around to face the voice that had just called out to me. Fog had just rounded the corner from the Atrium and was walking in my direction.

“Fog! Just the person I was looking for!”

“Is that so?” He asked curiously.

“Have you found anything out about the Fae yet?” I asked worriedly.

Fog’s face instantly dipped into an unhappy frown. “I have found some information, but I’m not sure if it’s nearly enough to be very helpful.”

“What did you find out?”

“It was quite curious when I entered the Fae. The energy within the dimension was slightly different from what it usually was. To someone like me that had been absent from the dimension for a while, it was quite noticeable, but none of the Fae in there noticed much. To me, the atmosphere in there had a slightly rotten feeling to it.” He said seriously.

“I didn’t think that there would be anything that could affect the Fae realm.” I said worriedly. If the Fae dimension was being affected by something on the inside, that would be bad enough. But if it was being affected by something from the outside seeping in, that would make things a lot worse. It definitely hinted at something much bigger being played in the background that no one was aware of.

“It shouldn’t. There should be nothing and no one that could affect the Fae realm. The realm itself is a living being after all, and much more powerful than anything on this planet. It could even be categorized in the same field as a demi-god or deity.” Fog had lines of concern etched deeply on his forehead.

“Was there anything else you managed to get from your visit there?” I wanted to get to the bottom of who attacked Merianna more than I was worried for the Fae realm.

“Right,” Fog said as he took a deep breath, “I wandered around and spoke to some of my acquaintances, seeing if they would know of anything. They told me of some strange rumors drifting around about a sickness having affected some of the populace.”

“A sickness? Do the Fae even actually get sick?”

“Not normally like humans do. If something could affect a full blooded Fae, one thing would be the lack of magical energy in the air that they can absorb or the effects of Iron when it comes into contact with their skin. But by the sounds of things, this is different from the effects presented by the first two scenarios.”

“How different?”

Fog took a minute, like he was struggling to make sense of the information he heard himself. “I heard that blemishes of dark energy randomly started popping up on some of the Fae that had traveled to and from the human realm a few decades ago. Some of those with the blemishes healed well over time, but some were severely affected by the blemishes and reports of bouts of madness or rage were whispered all over the place, those Fae eventually simply just disappeared from the dimension, not to be seen again.”

The words that came out of Fog’s mouth sounded so outlandish that I didn’t know if it could be seen as truth or not. But Fae tended to be ridiculously truthful… and sneakily tricky. “That… sounds quite worrisome.”

“I agree. By the looks of things, it could be possible that those Fae that had attacked Merianna were part of those few that had been severely affected by the blemishes. It’s the most logical conclusion I could come to. But how they came across the blemishes, how exactly it affected them, and why on earth they went after Merianna is beyond me.”

“Is it possible for the blemishes of dark energy to be like the energy given off by demons?” I asked, remembering that Dermon was very tightly affiliated with them.

Fog thought deeply for a moment. “It’s hard to say. It’s something I’ve never come across nor heard of in all my years. The possibility of something like that being plausible is definitely not unlikely though since the Fae are creatures that are heavily susceptible to the flow and quality of energy in the surrounding environment.”

“It’s definitely something to ask Noch about when he’s free then.” I made a mental note to ask him about it when I go to check on them again.

“Indeed, I will also see what information about it I can uncover from my side. Even though the Fae aren’t the type to document information on parchment like humans do,” he said as he pulled out a shimmering orange-gold crystal slab, about the size of his hand,  from his jacket, “I did manage to grab something similar while there.”

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when Fog produced the crystal from his robes. “Wow, it’s the first time I’ve seen a sun slab. I had heard that it was only the Fae that documented knowledge like this. Is it true that they just hold the slab up to their foreheads and record their memories into it through pure energy?” I had always been fascinated by this curious device when I had first heard of it.

“Almost, I suppose in Witch terms that would be correct, the Fae are fundamentally different from witches after all. Luckily since I have a foot in both the Witch and Fae worlds, I’m able to do things like this.” Fog said with a sly grin as he held the sun slab up to his head.

“Then if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go see what this slab contains. All my acquaintance was able to tell me was that it is a record of some strange happenings within the Realm that has cropped up over the past few decades. I might be able to find something significant if I’m lucky.” He added before continuing on his way.

“I really hope that something useful will pop up.” I muttered to myself. Then made my way over to Arasule’s workshop like I had first intended.

Before I even turned the corner that would lead to the hallway Arasule’s workshop was in I started hearing muttering and curses coming from its general direction. I was glad to see that she hadn’t changed much over the years, but that amount of cursing never really led to anything good.

Sneaking around the corner and quietly moving down the passageway, I peeked into her open workshop door and saw her opening and closing books at a rapid pace, only to throw them over her shoulder with yet another curse getting spat from her mouth. Clearly she wasn’t happy with what some of the books contained. Or maybe she just already knew their contents so well that she could tell by a glance which had what she wanted and which didn’t. That conclusion was the most sensible considering the one neat pile that was reverently laid out on her table.

With the way she was carrying on, I knew I had to brace myself if I wanted to interrupt her now. Ducking down I tentatively stretched my hand up to waist height and knocked on her door.

Just as I had thought, a small pouch suddenly came hurdling in my direction without warning. Knowing exactly what was in the pouch, I cursed and quickly but gently snatched it from the air. Slowly I got up from the floor while holding the small deadly explosive like a fragile egg. “You really should be banned from making blood rot bombs, Arasule.” I muttered.

“Oh, it’s you. In that case I should have let loose a few more.” She quipped and bent back into the piles of books she was digging through.

“That doesn’t sound very welcoming.” I muttered.

“It wasn’t meant to be.” she muttered back while flinging another book over her shoulder with a curse.

“I take it that you haven’t found what you’re looking for yet.” I walked over to her table and scanned over the few books she had put neatly on her table.

“If I had the time to look at you and roll my eyes at the same time, I would have.” She was definitely in a foul mood.

“Since I’ve gotten my answer that I came for from you, have you seen either Raska or Jasnine come back yet?”

“No, I reckon that those two would take more than a day on the little operation they have planned.”

It figured, first they had to find out where Orbus was, then his route through the area, and then get him to lead them to his new hideout. And since the planet was a pretty big place, it made sense that they had the harder job on their end.

“Right, in that case I’ll leave you be and head back to the Council. Merianna and Noch are both probably starving by now.” I chuckled and left before Arasule could toss any retorts my way.