Chinook, Audience House, Mid October
Niculai watched as Gretta unwrapped the old tome Annik had brought with her. The almost amused look on Gretta's face was no surprise. She often looked vaguely amused by those around her. Probably came from the universe giving her a heads up about what was going to happen. He had heard that Seers never knew when something was going to happen, only that it was going to. Nic figured that had to be why Gretta, like every Seer, looked like she knew something that no one else did. Nic was fairly certain he'd be amused in those circumstances. Or at least he hoped so, Mother knew there wasn't much to be amused by in the current situation.
Nic watched Gretta closely as she unwrapped the tome. The cover had no title. Instead there was an ornate design that made people vaguely queasy if they looked at it for too long. Odd that I hadn't noticed that before, Niculai thought to himself. You'd think that would be one of the first things that someone would notice. But he hadn't noticed the design on the cover. In fact if he'd been asked he would have said that the books hard cover was completely blank.
"Do you know what it is?" Nic asked.
Gretta glanced at him, a smile on her lips before answering. "Yes, my Lord, I do. And I'm very curious as to how you got your hands on it."
Nic wasn't overly surprised that Greta knew what the book was. Hell, she'd probably known long before he'd called her to meet him. She was the Seer after all. Niculai filled Gretta in on the whole situation with Annik. The only thing he left out was how he felt about her. Nic wasn't ready to even admit his feelings to himself, not yet. So telling someone else was a total no go. Besides odds were that Gretta already knew what was going on in his heart as well.
"Next obvious question is do you know what to do with it?"
Nic knew that she had heard the hit of hope in his voice. He hadn't wanted to admit, not even to himself, that Gretta might not be able to help him with the hot potato that Annik had dropped into his life. He was having a hard enough time admitting how often his thoughts had strayed to her since he'd met her. He'd even dreamed about Annik and wild horses wouldn't have gotten him to admit that. Not even to himself.
Nic looked into Gretta's brown eyes and wondered if he was actually seeing small creases around her eyes or if it was merely he knew she was around seven hundred years old. Most Anvidai died between seven and eight hundred years old. Nic wasn't looking forward to Gretta's loss. She had always been there after all. Nic knew that his father, Daavi, had depended on Gretta's advice and counsel as well.
I hope that it's only my awareness of her age that I'm seeing. Not signs of her age that I'm seeing, Nic said to himself. I wonder if another Seer has been born yet. Nic had no intention of asking though. Generally the Walkers only find a new Seer in their number in the final decades of whoever was the current Seer. Generally only long enough for the old Seer to teach the new Seer everything they needed to know to handle the dual abilities of magic and foresight. Nic was again thankful that he'd never shown either an ability for magic or any kind of foresight. I would much rather fight in the terrible winter weather that we have here than either of those in the most comfortable of settings.
"This is the Corrupter's Dark Tome." Gretta paused for a moment before continuing. Clearly wanting to make sure she used the correct words in what she was about to tell him. "Not a copy of the the dark tome but THE Dark Tome." The capitals were clearly heard.
Niculai' was stunned, his mind a complete blank. For what seemed to be days, all Nic could do was stare at Gretta in open astonishment. Was this really the original dark tome? The book used by the Corrupter and her people to explain the why and what-fores of being one of the Undying? The book originally used by the Corrupter to create the Undying? He'd always thought that the book was just a myth. Never in his wildest dreams, or would that have been nightmares, had he expected to see that particular book. The Undying guarded it more closely than most governments did national secrets. Considering how dangerous just a copy of that particular book was the security made sense. The Siblings had never in all the centuries since their founding had never managed to even get a copy and here he had the original.
Nic wasn't sure how he should take this piece of news. What the hell was he going to do. How did you protect people from something this dangerous. Surely the Corrupter had a way to find the damned thing. After all she had written the thing hadn't she? All the legends about her said that she had.
"Is it safe to be around this thing?" Nic asked, a bit annoyed at the faint quaver in his voice.
There was good reason for the quaver to be there, handling a copy of this book was on par with trying to juggle nuclear bombs. Considering how much damage the copies could inflict, just how dangerous was the original. It was bad enough when I'd thought that this was just a copy of that legendary book, Nic thought to himself as he tried to recover from Gretta's bombshell. To find out that this IS that very mythical book is almost more than I can process.
The look that Gretta gave Niculai was full of both compassion and understanding. She knew and understood both the quaver in his voice and the annoyance at it. Her next comment made it obvious that she was also tracking his thoughts. Not by reading his thoughts, although Nic was fairly certain that she could. No, Gretta had known him his whole life as well as having centuries of experience observing people. So her ability to read him was perfectly logical. If not annoying.
"The Tome is safe to be around if it is kept silk wrapped and out of the hands of the gullible," Gretta said. "What you have to understand is that contrary to what the Corrupter would like everyone to think. She didn't actually write the book. She stole it. Who and what she stole it from? We have no clue. But stolen it was."
For the second time in as many minutes Nic was completely stunned. Everything he had ever learned said that the Corrupter had written the book back before recorded history.Either that of the Anvidai or the Humans. After all if she hadn't written it, than who had. And where had it come from. For that matter how had Gretta learned this when no one else knew it. Nic just wasn't sure how to take this information. It was practically a tenet of the Anvidai faith that the original Dark Tome was written by the Corrupter.
"But how do you know this?" Niculai asked, stammering. "Who else knows? Is this common knowledge in the Walkers? Why wasn't anyone else told." Nic was quickly going from confused to angry. His well-known temper starting to come forward.
Gretta looked at Nic for a long moment before speaking. "Sit with me and let me tell you a story."
The traditional words spoken before a learning story had an interesting affect on Niculai. For all that the Anvidai were a modern people and used technology readily. They used stories to teach their own culture. Nic felt his body relaxing and his anger ebbing. The change was caused not only by her words but by how she said them. The tone and inflection of her words as well as her posture. The Walkers after all were the keepers of the whole of Anvidai history. And the lesson stories was the means of teaching that history to their people. It was how it had always been done and probably always would be. Niculai was unconsciously reacting to what he heard and saw from Gretta.
The story that followed was one that Nic had never heard before. And if Gretta was telling the truth it was unlikely that anyone, other than a very few of the highest Walker's, ever had. Apparently the only reason anyone not a Seer had ever been told was to make sure that the story wasn't lost to time. After all since there was only ever one fully trained Seer in the Anvidai at any time. Having the current Seer die before their replacement was born much less trained was a very real possibility. So to keep that from happening the Walkers, very wisely, made sure that anything the Seer knew was not only written down but was kept in the living memory of specially picked Walker's too.
The story told of how the Mother had created the Anvidai and how her twin sister had seethed with jealousy. This wasn't anything new but Nic knew better than to interrupt. Just because a story started out in a familiar spot didn't mean it stayed familiar. Sure enough the story quickly fell into the unknown. It went on to tell how the Corrupter had sought a way to destroy her twin's creation. And before too long a way had been found. The way to destroy the thing that the Mother had created was found in the very tome that was in Gretta's lap.
The Tome however didn't belong to the Corrupter. It had belonged to an entity that tradition called the Knowing. Although in later generations the Sages decided that maybe a better name would be Librarian. Whatever the entity was called, they had either possessed or written the Tome in the beginning times. The Corrupter was concerned that the true owner of the book would reclaim it so she used her magics to hide it. But in order to be successful she had to hide the book from her own senses as well as those of any other entities. As a result there is no way for the Corrupter to find the book magically now. Which meant as long as the book was out of physical sight then it was invisible to them.
Apparently the Corrupter hadn't used the Ahshee to hid the Tome, the way an Anvidai would have. What had been used the tale hadn't said but whatever it was not even the Corrupter could sense it. Niculai had never heard of a magic that couldn't be sensed and tracked by the caster. The fact that the spell couldn't be sensed did answer the question of why the Tome, along with Annik and her mother, hadn't been found earlier. Something that Nic had been curious about. He'd been wondering if Annik was a trap if an unwitting one. This actually put Niculai at ease, getting rid of one of his many concerns regarding her and that book of hers.
"So we don't have to do anything to keep the Tome safe?" Nic asked in an incredulous voice.
"Other than making sure that the Tome is kept silk wrapped and away from anyone? No I don't think that we need to take any special actions. The Corrupter has already done the work for us when she hide the book from it's real owner. If you wish to take further safety precautions than by all means do so."
Niculai was silent for a while. He wondered if he should bring up the mysterious real owner of this problematic book Maybe they could just return the thing and get it out of his problem list altogether. He was fairly certain that it wasn't going to be that easy. But hey, you never know and wouldn't that be a great way to spike the Corrupter's plans. And the Ashen War-Kin liked nothing more than to ruin the plans of the Corrupter and her Undying followers. Nic was starting to think it would be a great idea after all. With that thought Nic decided to ask after all. What was the worst that could happen. Gretta would say no that was the worst.
"About the original owner," Nic started, voice hopeful. "Is there any chance that we can return the Tome? I mean it wouldn't hurt to get any entity that could create this kind of thing on our side by returning a stolen item."
Gretta looked sorry as she answered. "I'm afraid that returning the Tome isn't really an option. And even if we could return it, the Knowing is truly neutral and wouldn't take any side in any conflict." Gretta paused as if weighing her words before she spoke them. "The Knowing isn't anything that can help us in any way in the war with the Undying. He stays out of all conflicts unless they affect hm or his directly."
"What about destroying the damned thing. I mean if we can't give it back and we don't want the Corrupter to get her hands on it again. Maybe we should just burn it or something."
"Unfortunately destroying the tome is even less of an option than returning it. There is no physical way for us to destroy it. It's immune to anything that we could do to it," Gretta's voice was almost apologetic as she responded to him. "All we can do is keep it wrapped in silk and away from anyone who might be tempted to try and use the thing. I have no idea how the young lady you told me about or her mother managed to stay uncorrupted. You say that the young lady was told stories from it her whole life?"
"That's what Annik said to me at least and I have no reason not to believe her."
"Astounding."