The Libram of Fate Read online




  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  The Penning

  Victory City

  Innocence Lost

  Eternius

  On the Brink of Hope

  A Solid Foothold

  Hello, Father

  The Outsider

  Nightmares

  Caine

  Hunted

  What it Means to be Paragon

  Failure Will Not be Tolerated

  Leiptrfell, The Lightning Mountain

  Fenris, The Wolf

  Jormungandr, The World Serpent

  Awake and Alive

  Lost and Found

  Pain

  Click

  Light and Dark

  A Battle Won

  The Purge

  Mommy

  The Fire is Lit

  Maps

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  The Libram

  of Fate

  Mark Cole

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

  THE LIBRAM OF FATE

  Copyright © 2013 Mark Cole

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Janet Taylor-Perry and Lottie Brent Boggan

  Cover art and design by GoOnWrite.com

  ISBN: 0692239677

  ISBN-13: 978-0692239674

  First edition: December 2013

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

  To Mom and Dad and Dad.

  There aren’t words for what I wish I could say,

  so you’ll just have to make do with these.

  Thank you.

  I love you.

  Prologue – The Penning

  --Ninety-nine thousand years ago--

  “You are sure this is the wisest course of action, Keeper?” Ureon asked, her wings in a protective shroud.

  The Keeper of Fate looked about the Amphitheater of High Seats to all those assembled. “Brothers and sisters, I have seen eons come and go, stars born, burn, and die, and stared into the heart of the Void. Yes, I am sure,” the ancient angel said, his powerful voice resonating in the Amphitheater of the High Seats.

  The final page of the Libram of Fate lay open before the Angelic Council. Holding his sleeve back, he dipped the quill into the inkwell.

  “But,” Ureon protested, “she will be your daughter.”

  The Keeper removed the quill from the inkwell and set the feather in its holder with delicate care. He knew the doubts Ureon voiced were likely shared by many of the council.

  Taking care to look each in the eye as he spoke, the Keeper said, “I am aware. There is no other conclusion to this Libram of Fate. All of the signs have pointed to this end. I do not understand why you all protest.”

  “You have never had children, Keeper,” she said. “You do not understand the pain you will cause yourself.”

  The Keeper nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. “Of that, I am also aware. Concern yourself for me not. I will not allow a child to stand in the way of duty. This must be done. My daughter’s death will be the catalyst that pushes him to the pinnacle he must reach before the end.”

  “Very well,” Ureon said. “Finish the Penning, Keeper. And may this Guardian forgive what you have done.”

  The Keeper lifted the quill and brought it to the final page of the Libram of Fate.

  On the day of Magic’s triumph, the Nexus shall fall and a wrathful Guardian rise in her place to lead the Nine to balance.

  --Today--

  Josh cased the little electronics store in downtown Seattle. Where’s the owner? the nineteen-year-old thought, growing agitated. He flicked his head to get some of the shaggy black hair out of his eyes.

  The shops were just beginning to close and turn off lights up and down the street, but the vagrant had chosen this store because it stayed open thirty minutes longer than all the others nearby. His stomach rumbled. I gotta get some cash.

  The homeless teenager touched the shotgun under his ragged trench coat. Josh couldn’t believe his good fortune at finding the gun behind a dumpster. He had used the last of his money to buy a loaf of bread and some sandwich meat ten days ago. I should have bought some shells for the shotgun. I was just so hungry…

  Josh saw the shop’s owner walk from the back. The guy was huge, but it wasn’t the first time the young man had seen him. He took his hand from the shotgun and jogged across the street. There was a jingle as he pushed open the door to the shop.

  The owner had his back turned to the door. “Welcome to Max’s,” the big man said in a deep voice. “There something I can help you with?”

  “Sure,” Josh said, his voice shaking. “Just looking right now.”

  “Sounds good,” Max said. “Let me know if you see anything you like.”

  “I will.” Josh acted like he was browsing along the wall of computer accessories as he worked his way toward the register. The shotgun shifted against his leg, and Josh darted a hand over to it to hold it in place. He looked over to see if the owner had noticed the movement, but the big man was gone. Where the hell did he go?

  “You don’t want to do this, kid,” a deep voice said from behind him. Josh spun, drawing the shotgun as he did, but a large hand caught the barrel. The young man stared into the owner’s eyes and gulped.

  Max ripped the shotgun from his hands and turned it over, inspecting the weapon. “You didn’t even turn off the damn safety.” He worked the pump a couple times, and no rounds came out. The big man narrowed his brown eyes and glared at Josh. “I don’t know if you are really brave or really stupid, trying to rob a place with an unloaded weapon.”

  “A bit of both,” Josh said. His stomach rumbled again, and the big man sighed. Why’s he sighing?

  “No,” Max said. “I’m going to go with desperate. When’s the last time you ate, kid?”

  Josh wasn’t sure. “Haven’t eaten anything that’s not from a garbage can in the last few days,” he said. “You going to call the cops?”

  “Why? Have you committed a crime?”

  “I guess not,” Josh admitted. Good job, idiot. Your first heist, and you lose your meal ticket.

  Max muttered something under his breath about knowing better. “You have a place to sleep?”

  “Yeah.”

  The muscular man grabbed Josh by the shoulder and sat him down behind the counter where he couldn’t easily escape. Max put the confiscated shotgun beneath the counter next to an all black, much nicer looking one. “One with a roof, bathroom, and kitchen?”

  Josh was silent for a moment. Place like that takes money. He shook his head.

  Max sighed again. “You have any clothes other than the ones you have on? It sure as hell smells like you’ve been living in a trash can, not just eating out of one.”

  “I got a black shirt, but no more pants.”

  “You have parents?”

  Josh’s face went blank, and he shook his head. He had bounced from foster home to foster home until he hit sixteen and ran away. He had had a job as a dish boy for a while, but the restaurant had closed.

  Max rubbed his bald head. “You have an ID and Social Security Number?”

  Frowning, Josh asked, “Why’s it matter?”

  The man crossed his arms and glared at him. “Answer the damn question, or I will call the cops.”

  “Yeah,” Josh said. Max held out his hand, and Josh pulled out his beaten-up leather wallet and handed it to him.

  Max flipped open the wallet and looked at the cards. He pulled out the ID, set it on the counter, and handed Josh his wallet back. The man pushed a button on the register, and it opened w
ith a ding. He pulled out a few bills and handed them to the young man.

  “I don’t accept handouts,” Josh said with a frown.

  The owner slammed the drawer closed, and Josh jumped. “It’s not a handout; it’s an advance. One half week’s salary after taxes. You know the supermarket two streets down?” The younger man said he did. “Get down there and buy some clean clothes and food, and then get your ass back here. I’m keeping your ID, Joshua Hrynkiewicz, as insurance.”

  Josh stared at the man as if he was insane. “Why are you doing this?”

  Holding up two sausage-like fingers, Max said, “Two reasons: I need some help around the shop, and I think you need help getting your shit together. Now go.”

  Josh stood and walked out of the store. He could have left his ID and run off with the money, but the thought never really occurred to him. It wasn’t until he gone all the way to the supermarket that he realized how much money the big man had given him. Three hundred bucks!

  Max rubbed his eyes and stood up. Where the hell are you, Alex? he thought as he took the rest of the cash from the register. Max Gilroy dropped the money in a small blue banker’s pouch and deposited it in his safe beneath the floor in his shop. There was another smaller safe he kept unlocked that only held a hundred dollars, just in case of break-ins and robberies that went south.

  That kid’s probably not coming back, he thought as he locked the hidden safe and covered it back with the carpet square. Max walked to the front door and locked it. He walked around the small shop and started shutting down computers.

  “What is this world coming to?” he asked no one. “This is the second time in three months.” The last time someone had broken into the shop and stolen the contents of his smaller safe. The robber would have stolen his stock too, if all the computers weren’t bolted down and the new-in-box ones ordered from a warehouse with each sale. Max had been out of town trying to search out Alex, but it had been to no avail. It was as if the other man had fallen off the face of the Earth.

  As far as I know, he’s dead in a ditch somewhere with his girlfriend, but if he was leaving, he could of at least left a note. Door kicked in to his apartment but nothing missing. No signs of a struggle, and the cops weren’t a lick of help. Whatever… I hope I did the right thing by telling the apartment complex that they should just repair the door and keep the apartment under his name as long as he kept paying for it. If he’s dead, he won’t need the money, and if he’s alive, he’ll need a place to stay when he gets back.

  A knock on the glass stirred Max from his reverie. Joshua Hrynkiewicz was standing outside, holding a few very full shopping bags. Well, I’ll be damned if I stand by and let the world go to complete shit. At least I can help one person.

  Chapter One – Victory City

  Terra Duval took a deep breath. The smell of rot was strongest around Ygg, the World Tree. She flaked the decaying tree bark from her hand, and touched her husband’s sword that she wore on her back. She surveyed her surroundings; everywhere her eyes landed they were met with death and putrescence. It suited her mood well.

  “I think this is what caused everything to die,” Caitlyn Shadowpaw said, holding up a shard of obsidian. “It was jammed into one of the roots not far from here.” The Changeling of the Fang’s golden eyes studied Terra with concern as she walked over and handed her the stone.

  Terra Duval, the Nexus, Paragon of the Realm of Magic, held the inert piece of the Obsidian Tower. Fifteen days ago, her husband destroyed the seat of power the Overlord Azreal had on Dae. When Alex razed the tower, the anti-magic shards, which were imbued with the power to block one’s magical ability, stopped working. They were born from the Obsidian Tower, and with its destruction, their energy ceased.

  The Nexus gave the shard a perfunctory inspection then squeezed it as hard as she could. It cracked loudly in her grip and crumbled to dust. Caitlyn gave her a curious look. “It was too small to do what we needed. There is nothing we can do here. At least we now know why the sprites never came to our aid.”

  “They were one with the World Tree,” Caitlyn said. “Beings of pure magical energy, it’s no wonder they couldn’t stop the shard from corrupting Ygg.”

  “We should return to the capital,” Terra told her. “The council will want to hear this.”

  The changeling nodded and let out a deep sigh.

  “What is it?” Terra asked.

  “Wait a moment,” Caitlyn said. “There’s something I feel I need to do.” She dropped to her hands and knees, and Terra watched as her green shirt and pants turned black and changed into fur.

  The changeling’s bones and sinew snapped as she changed into the primal form the sprites had awoken in her when last they were here. Her fingers drew into her palms and nails lengthened into claws several inches long. She howled in pain as spikes grew from the each vertebra in her spine. Her tailbone stretched into a tail many feet long. Caitlyn’s jaw cracked and formed a black muzzle, and her canine teeth elongated into prodigious fangs.

  Born a panther, Caitlyn was the only changeling on Dae that could change into three forms: her birth form, her human form, and the primal form she now assumed. “When you first gave me this ability,” the changeling told the specters of the past, “I treated it as something dangerous had been forced upon me. But now, I finally understand. You sprites were doing what you thought best to defend the home we all share. I thank you now, like I should have over a month ago. You will all be remembered.”

  Caitlyn lifted her head to the sky and issued forth a mournful howl. She faced Terra. “I’m done. Let’s go.”

  Terra nodded and opened a portal to return them to Victory City. Caitlyn padded through the hole in space with Terra close behind. The portal closed, leaving an eerie silence in the once vibrant marsh. At the roots of Ygg, a small, green sprout pushed through the earth.

  Dust filled the air around her as Terra stepped through the portal to Victory City. The racket of construction and calls of men ordering supplies was jarring after the relative quiet of the Wraith Marshes. She watched as a slab of marble was floated into position and magically mounted to the foundation of what would soon become the base of the new gateway arch. The early spring sun warmed the air enough for her to take off the black jacket she wore.

  Sunlight glittered through a crystalline statue across the clearing designated for travelling magic. Terra strode to the monument. She cared not for the fine details in his sword and armor, though she had been the one to put them there when she had created the statue. Her eyes were locked on the face of the man she had immortalized in magically created diamond. The Nexus placed a shaking hand on the statue of her late husband.

  The twelve-foot statue towered above her. Alex Zane stood, clad in plate from the neck down, pointing a sword to the east. Terra had ordered the main avenue run east to west along his blade so he would shine with the rising and setting sun.

  Alex was the Guardian of Balance, a man from Earth who was born when the Nine Realms were thrown out of equilibrium. Terra had been captured by Azreal, a powerful Demon Lord and the Overlord of Hell, and Alex led an army to the Obsidian Tower to save her. Alex succeeded in rescuing her, killing Azreal, and destroying the demon’s tower, but not before Terra and Caitlyn had sustained grave injury at the Overlord’s hands.

  “Be quiet so I can heal you,” Alex said.

  “No,” I told him with a limp shake of my head. “You will die.”

  “I don’t care about that,” he said, almost yelling. “I won’t just stand here and watch you die!”

  “And I won’t watch you die either. I would rather die with you than live without you.” I waved my hand toward Caitlyn, so he would see her and understand. I was so tired, so weak. It was hard to talk.

  Alex had unleashed the birthright none of them knew he had and used his powers as a half-demon, half-human hybrid to heal Caitlyn, taking the changelings wounds into him.

  “Will she live?” I asked him as everything began to go dark.
Alex nodded. I asked him if he would kiss me one last time, before it was all over. He dropped to his knees beside me, placed his hand on my stomach, and gently kissed me. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, and the looming darkness swallowed me.

  Then there was light, warm, blinding, and beautiful. My eyes opened, and he had healed me.

  But healing her had come at a terrible price. Alex died so she might live.

  Terra let her hand slip from the statue and placed it over her womb, where their child grew inside her. He saved us, Jessica, she thought to her unborn child. He gave his life to save us. Terra kissed the tips of her fingers and touched them to the statue of the man that had given them all a second chance.

  “I love you, Alex,” she whispered. Terra turned to see Caitlyn talking with Brahm Ironfist a short distance away. The dwarf, used to the constant heat of Adorac Volcano, wore a heavy, blue long-sleeved shirt and thick black pants.

  “How’re ye holdin’ up?” the dwarf asked as Terra drew near.

  “I’m alive, Brahm,” she said, her voice hollow. “How are you?”

  The grizzled graybeard nodded. “I am well.” He looked behind her at Alex’s statue. “I miss him, too.”

  “I know,” Terra said. “The council’s waiting on us, I’m sure.” She led them to the large tent still being used as the council chambers. Victory City stood where the Obsidian Tower had once dominated the landscape.

  Victory Construction Site is a more apt name, Terra thought as she looked around. Marble and granite blocks, some more than fifty feet in length, were strewn about with no apparent coordination. Groups of four stonemasons used magical power to hew perfectly sized stones from the tremendous blocks. More masons used cushions of air to place them and infinitesimal lines of fire to fuse them in place. The housing was coming along at a steady pace. Soon, there would be room enough for people to begin settling in Victory City and start anew.