***
Kevan stood at the edge of the cliff, looking back to the others standing behind her. "It's there!" she yelled over the rhythmic roar of waves against the cliff side. "Trust me, the cliff edge is enchanted; the true cliff edge actually goes out quite a bit further than it appears."
She stepped forward to show them, when Eve reached out, grabbing her arm. Kevan looked at Eve with a smile. "Eve, its okay," she tried to reassure her, but Eve wasn't buying.
"Kevan, it's not real. What you're seeing is a lie, a falsehood." Eve pulled her back from the edge. Kevan snorted with exasperation. Her powers had shown her that it went out farther.
"Trust me," Eve told her. Picking up a stick, she threw it.
Kevan's eyes followed as it sailed through the air, and then down out of sight through what looked to be solid ground to Kevan, disappearing into the water below. Her entire body shook with the realization that if Eve hadn't stopped her, that would have been her in the water, being pulled out to sea. Turning, she staggered a few steps away, before puking, with pictures of her friends and family lying dead at the base of the cliff flashing through her mind. Suddenly, she didn't trust what she was seeing. Entrenched in a rare moment of life, she doubted herself.
"It's a very complex spell, mixed with enough real elements that it would be very difficult to detect, unless you are lucky enough to have a truth seeker with you," Joseph spoke up.
Marcus grabbed Joseph's arm, "So why didn’t you detect it? I would assume that is what you would do. Isn’t that why we asked you to come along?"
Joseph shook off the hand. "You assume too much, General. I suggest you step back and let me work." Marcus reacted as the good soldier he was, but he continued to scowl at the sorcerer.
Stepping back, the group observed Joseph unroll a bundle from his backpack. The rolled bundle opened up to show multiple pockets with a variety of dried plants. Joseph picked what he needed, and stood tall, crushing the dried plant with his hands, the wind dragging the smell of sage back and around them. He was disciplined and precise, each move and incantation calculated. His hands released the crushed pieces of sage into the air, and then he dug his hands into the ground, finishing his spell with volume, and tossing his fistful of dirt.
They all stumbled backwards, and things began to shift. With awe and shock, the group watched the landscape fluctuated, and began to fold in on itself until it was gone. Kevan stared into where she had thought she had seen the entrance to a cave, but now all she saw was a wide-open sky. The cliff was as Eve had seen it. With the glamour spell gone they saw they land as it truly was.
"Oh god, I could have gotten you all killed," Kevan whispered, as she looked up at Eve.
"Kevan, you were fooled by a spell, which even Joseph said was difficult to detect. So beating on yourself for a mistake is stupid, so just stop it." Eve said.
"But," Kevan tried to argue.
"No buts," Kaitlyn interjected. "We all make mistakes. What I want to know is what do we do now? Do we go back to the beginning?"
"It's here," Leila whispered as her body swayed to the feeling of intoxication and power that washed over her. They all turned to look at her.
"Leila?" But she couldn't hear them. Her body began to vibrate, with what, she wasn't sure.
Kevan, concerned about her, reached out to bring her back to them, only to have Joseph stop her.
"No," he told her.
"But there is something wrong with her," Kevan argued.
"There's nothing wrong with her. She's getting her first taste of the unblocked powers of either the grimoire or the repository."
"What?" the girls all questioned.
"As you know, the claviger can channel the powers of the repository, and all that is within it. I would say that what she has recently experienced was dimmed down by the enchantment that I just broke, and now she is getting her first real taste of the power that she controls and wields."
"Isn't that dangerous?" Marcus growled at Joseph.
"It could be," he told them casually.
"It could be?" Kevan gasped at his blatant lack of concern. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means exactly what I said. It could be dangerous, but if you would let me finish what I was going to say,” Joseph’s dislike of being interrupted rang in his voice, "I believe she'll be fine. Her family has been the claviger for centuries. They have resisted the lure of power that the repository holds for all that time, so she should be fine now."
"Excuse me, what about Leonard?" Kevan threw at him, his superior tone pissing her off. "Or Dreyden?"
"Leonard was a weak individual, or he wouldn't have been compromised in the first place. It wasn't his lust for power that caused his downfall. And Dreyden had nothing to do with the repository; his desire for the grimoire is a completely separate issue."
"But Leonard was corrupted," Kevan argued.
"Yes, he was corrupted, but it was the lure of black magic which had nothing to do with the repository," Joseph shot back at her.
"So basically, both Leonard and Dreyden wanted to be all powerful, and went about it any way that they could," Kevan stated. "So that means that anyone could be corrupted in the same way."
"Of course anyone can be corrupted. Mankind has had desire for things that don't belong to him for eons. Would you like me to list off the examples that are littered throughout your history? What does this have to do with anything?" he threw at Kevan.
"Ah, I'm okay," Leila chimed in, which was ignored.
"You know, you are really an ass, you think that you know it all, and you know nothing."
"You're acting like a child. If you don't like, or agree with what I am telling you, fine, but I don't understand why you are arguing with me. Leonard made his choice, as did Dreyden. They were flawed individuals, with motives we can only speculate about."
"You can't seriously be saying that you really believe they were men, who made mistakes, are you? Gods, they are both murderers. Leonard killed his own family members in order to hold control of the repository, and Dreyden, he killed our great-grandmother for a book of spells. A murderer is still a murderer." Kevan insisted.
Kaitlyn's head bounced back and forth, as she watched them launch volley after volley at each other, both trying to make their point. Her natural objectivity picked up both sides of the exchange; both had some things that she agreed with, and others that she didn't. When the arguments became repeats, Kaitlyn put fingers to her lips, and let out a loud shrill whistle that echoed across the field, getting their attention.
"That's better," she told them. "Now, if you are finished shouting at each other, Leila stated almost 10 minutes ago that she was fine." Kevan and Joseph both looked to the silent Leila standing beside Eve. She gave them a weak smile, and a small wave.
"Are you okay?" Kevan wanted to know.
Leila looked first at Joseph, then Kevan. "I think so. It was like a sugar rush, all tingly, and I felt like I could do anything, but then it passed, and I feel like myself again."
"So, no urges?" Kevan questioned warily.
"To do what, take Marcus' sword and cut your head off?" Kevan stepped back, stopping when she saw the twinkle in Leila's eyes. "Oh, you can relax, you're safe, but no promises about the future," Leila laughingly informed Kevan.
"Excuse me, when did you get a sense of humor? You're supposed to be the moody crazy person," Kevan teased her.
"Hang around you guys for long, you have two choices, get a sense of humor, or go crazy. Tried the crazy bit, didn't work so well for me, so I thought I'd try the sense of humor bit, see how that went." She gave them a half smile. "How am I doing so far?"
"Wonderful." Kevan laughed again.
"Good, so, now do you want to hear what I learned?"
"Learned, what are you talking about?" Kevan questioned, as a wave of excitement washed over her.
"I can sense it,
" she told them.
"The grimoire, no shit, where?" Kaitlyn asked.
"I don't know, its close, but not close, if that makes sense," she told them. "It's just... when Joseph broke the enchantment, I felt swamped by it, and it's lonely. I don't know any other way to explain what I felt."
"You talk like it's a real person," Eve remarked to her.
"It's the only way that I can think of it," Leila told them. "I don't know exactly what's in this repository, I imagine books, things like that, but what you need to understand is all that those things have their own personalities, and they talk to me. It's as if they can hear our conversations through me, and know what we are discussing. And sometimes they start yelling out solutions before we have even finished, and I have a difficult time getting them to shut up. They are like little kids who haven't had anyone to talk to for a long time, and they just want to talk and talk. It drives me crazy at times."
"What about the lure of the power of the repository ..." Kevan dropped what she was saying; she didn't want Leila to think Kevan thought that she wanted the power.
"I can sense it, but it's not calling to me. The knowledge is what I am being drawn to, not the power. I guess that I'm not affected the same way as others."
"That's great!" Kaitlyn told her. "So do you know where all the relics are? Even the ones not part of this repository place?" Leila paused, looking off into the distance, as she listened to what she alone heard, before she finally answered Kaitlyn's question.
"I am only able to sense items that have been officially catalogued into the repository."
"So you're saying that if an item has been placed into the repository, but not catalogued, you can't sense it?" Kaitlyn repeated.
"That is what they are telling me." Leila paused for a moment to listen again. "It has quite an inventory backlog. Apparently, the mundane tasks of the job weren't a favorite of the previous claviger's, especially
Leonard. They tell me that there are untold numbers of items sitting, waiting for someone to catalogue, and that they would really like it cleared up." Leila gave them all a smile. "They are tired of the mess, their words, not mine," she told them, throwing her hands up.
"As interesting as this is, we need to get back to the matter at hand. You claim that the grimoire is close but not. Feeling dumb here, but what the hell does that mean?" Kevan looked at the men standing around them, silently listening in to the conversations. Facing the stoic looking Caleb, she spoke up. "You're awfully quiet; nothing to add to our conversation?"
"Yeah, no witty sarcastic remarks? Ah, come on Marcus, you're usually very good at those," Kaitlyn chimed in.
"We're on guard." Marcus refused to look at Kaitlyn.
"I'm amazed! I never thought I would see the day that Marcus McLaren was struck dumb," Kaitlyn told then with a teasing look. "Wonders never cease."
"I guess that happens when I hang around you too long," Marcus drawled as he continued to watch over the land.
"Kaitlyn don't," was all Kevan said to her, and then she looked to Caleb. "You know, we really would like any input that you might have regarding this. We haven't been dealing with this shit as long as you have, so you might know something that we don't." She spotted the look that passed between them. "What was that look for, and don't deny it, because I saw it, and you know that I did." Caleb looked away from Kevan, pointing to the edge of the cliff. Kevan turned to look, and gasped in shock. A hole was opened in the air. There was movement in what could have been tunnel walls, and the deep bone sense of being Dorothy from Oz flooded her.
"A portal," Caleb stated.
Joseph, who hadn't sensed any magic, turned, looking in the direction that Caleb was pointing, shocked that yet again, he hadn't noticed something. "How is it that I could not see, or sense it?" he ground out. "There is something wrong on your beloved world that sucks up energy, and gives nothing back. No wonder sorcerers abandoned this realm eons ago." Joseph wrapped a protection spell around the group, hoping it wouldn't just unravel itself.
"Maybe because it's unstable," Caleb said to Joseph. "When you broke the enchantment, it wasn't visible to begin with, but it has become so over the past few moments."
"So what does that mean, it's unstable? We can't use it?" Kevan badgered.
Eve butted in. "Use it? No one is going through some hole in the air. Are you completely nuts, Kevan?"
"It's too dangerous, Kevan," Caleb warned her.
"Dangerous, like we haven't already done things just as dangerous. How is this any different?"
"We have no idea where it goes, or who opened it."
"So we go through, and find out," Kevan told him.
"Kevan, it's more than probable that if we go through this portal, we could get stuck wherever this leads to. Hell, it could dump us into the middle of gods knows what, do you really want to take that chance?"
"But if Leonard is the one that created the portal, and took the grimoire through, there must be a way to get back," she argued.
"Maybe, maybe not. It might not be so simple."
"Let me ask you this, what are the chances that this is the only portal to this unknown world?"
"You already know the problems that we are having with getting the portal system to work. The grid keeps shifting, and some lines have completely stopped working. Are you willing to take the chance that if we go through, that we could be stuck on the other side permanently?"
Kevan walked over to where Caleb was still standing guard. Taking his hand into hers, she made him focus his attention strictly on her.
"Caleb, I love the fact that you are worried, but we started this because some crazy man decided that killing our great-grandmother was a means to an end. He didn't want us to embrace our destiny. I know that we started this whole thing as a way to find out the truth of what really happened to Daphne, and part of that truth involves the grimoire. If we turn back now because we are afraid of what might happen if we go through that portal, and someone gets hurt, I could never live with myself. We cannot risk letting that damned book fall into the wrong hands. We made a promise to find the grimoire, and I intend to keep that promise."
Reaching out, she cupped his face with her hands. "I know that we will find a way to get through the portal to home."
"Kevan, it's too dangerous."
"I understand that, Caleb, but we're stilling going, aren't we?" Caleb looked away before he swore and looked back at Kevan, hanging his head in defeat.
"Yes," he admitted reluctantly. "Kayne will go through first, followed by Marcus with Kaitlyn, Roderic and Eve, Joseph and Leila, then myself with Kevan, followed by Niall. Stay together, and ladies, until we can assess what we are in for, you will do as you are told without an argument."
Eve and Kaitlyn both said. "Don't we get a say in this?"
"Uh oh, not to be pushy, but we need to go now," Kevan urged, as she looked around them.
"What is it?" Kaitlyn questioned, knowing that look on her sister's face.
Kevan hugged herself, as a look of worry washed over her face. "Something's coming, and whatever it is, it's pissed. I mean really pissed."
Caleb did a quick scan of the open field, seeing nothing until movement caught his attention. He watched it for a moment before he turned to the others and started barking orders. "Move it!" he yelled, getting them jumping into action at the urgency in his voice. Kayne looked at his friends before he pulled the sword off his back, preparing to confront anything that they might interrupt when they went through. A quick nod and he took off running, his sword by his side. Then he leapt from the edge of the cliff to what appeared to be certain death, only to suddenly vanish from sight.
Kaitlyn stood beside Marcus, not really sure how she ended up with him. The shock of Kayne's sudden disappearance was weird, and Kaitlyn was starting to wonder if this was really such a good idea after all.
"I don't know about this!" Kaitlyn screamed, b
ut Marcus didn't listen. He slung her into his arms, and took off running towards the edge then leapt, Kaitlyn's yell cut off. Kevan watched people she loved follow suit, leaping to what seemed to be certain death, and then disappearing from sight.
"Ready?" Caleb questioned her. Kevan really wasn't, regretting her previous bravado. She couldn't be the one to chicken out, though, so Kevan nodded, and Caleb swung her up into his arms and took off running.
"Oh, SHIT!" she screamed at the feeling of weightlessness when he launched them both into the air.
Mixed in with the whistle of the wind came a heart-chilling scream of anger. Kevan looked over Caleb's shoulder at Niall racing after them, the thing that had been barreling across the plain towards them nipping at his heels. Time seemed to slow, as a deranged looking bear-thing shredded the ground. Waves of skulls, trophies of past victims, bounced in its wake, and its roar was deafening, nauseating, when it saw it would not win the race.