Chapter 26: A Mysterious Tome
Darkness consumed Phantasia, but curiosity had the young faerie in its grasp. Not that the dark bothered her like it did humans. If one of them tried to explore the crypts and catacombs entombed in the hill, they’d need all sorts of strange equipment just to navigate! For all the disadvantages of being a faerie in the human world – the vulnerability to emotions and magical forces, the inability to engage in social pleasantries such as eating and drinking, the strange looks received when walking down the street in underwear – not relying on some unreliable piece of inanimate, insentient technology made up for a lot.
She shuffled through the spiralling passageway, hunched down to avoid the low ceiling, until she came to a second crypt. Antechambers lined the walls, each one home to stone coffins inscribed with the names of wide-spread origin and all listed as having ‘died for the Birth of Torsten’. At the end of the crypt, the shape of an arched door was carved into the stone wall, a magic circle filled with enchantments on its face.
It was the second sealed door she’d found. The first, on the floor above, connected the cobwebbed, rodent-infested church crypt to its lower, air-sealed twin. The faded magic would trick a person into thinking there was no door there, but Phantasia was immune to such archaic diversions. Ignoring the spell, she stepped through the wall and into the chamber on the other side.
It was a new chamber with walls hidden behind bookshelves filled with books and grimoires, preserved for centuries by the vacuum. A wooden desk sat at the centre of the room, its surface a patchwork of burns, ink spills and notches. There were memories and stories contained in that old wood, but nothing Phantasia could read. She’d have to convince Faye to visit, perhaps by playing on her stoic handmaiden’s curiosity.
Books, however, she could read. She lounged in the chair sitting discarded by the desk and began to examine the tomes around her. Pages flashed by, her pale eyes devouring every word, diagram and illustration in seconds. Many books turned out to be records of supernatural activity and the measures taken to combat demonic forces; located at the heart of crossing leylines, where the route between worlds was easiest, the church would have been a bastion against the Underworld. One leather-bound volume in particular made references to ‘another side’ but, just as Phantasia was getting intrigued by reports of human excursions into ‘the demonic realms’, the pages turned blank. The text was still there, along with accompanying illustrations, but Phantasia couldn’t read it, as if she’d lost her ability to process basic information. A quick glance at another book confirmed that she could still read, which meant the troublesome book was safe-guarded. Long ago, a spell had been cast – an enchantment spell – to prevent beings like her from perusing the data at their leisure. Only a human would be able to unlock the tome’s deepest secrets. Someone with an understanding of archaic languages. Someone like Ms Anderson, the school’s English teacher. Happy with the morning’s revelation’s, Phantasia gathered the mysterious tome and several other books together for later reading and prepared to leave.
I wish I could have heard more about that ‘walking down the street in underwear’ incident. What a tease! XD