House of Hules

Chapter 9:The Man Of White

I'm not sure when I fell asleep, but I woke up a few hours later. Melody had also drifted off beside me here in the statue pond.

What had originally woken me was a slight tremor I had felt, but when I opened my eyes, I didn't see anything strange. Then it happened again—the slightest tremor—then again. I tried to pinpoint its location but couldn't tell where it came from.

The tremors became more frequent before I realized they were coming from my magical locker.

It began to pulsate, a dark gray outline forming in the air in front of me before erupting into a violent whirlpool. Then, out of it, the Codex shot out of my locker.

Melody jumped up confused on what was happening . "What's going on?" She gazed at the gray whirlpool in the air, her mouth wide open in shock . "What is that?"

As the book landed in the water, its pages burst open, flipping violently before landing on the first page.

It wrote A new truth will be shared. The library grows.

Then, it began writing on a blank page:

Chapter One: Zora of Eldara.

The book burst into a blinding white light.

"Maddox, what is going on?" Melody screamed.

"I don't know!" I said, covering my eyes from the intense bright light.

A warm sensation overcame my body, growing hotter by the second. Just as it became almost unbearable, it stopped.

My eyes took a moment to adjust. I felt droplets of water dripping onto me. Rain? I asked myself.

As I opened my eyes, I found myself in a cabin. The cabin was small, its walls damaged. The walls were made of whole wood logs, some of which had been broken. Claw marks lined the wood, patched holes scattered throughout. The room had a table with a lantern that glowed dimly upon it, a bed in the corner, and a wooden door on the other side. A soft fur coat covered the floor. A man sat in a large chair opposite the bed—his chair was large, fitting for someone who held power, a chief or something of the kind.

A man sat resting his head in his palm in the chair, a look of fear, stress, and defeat on his face. The statue was gone. No water in sight. We were no longer in the room at Lilith's home.

"What happened?" I muttered.

"Codex," I ordered. "What is this?"

The man in the chair didn't react.

The air vibrated, and words began to inscribe in the air next to me, a white font forming text:

The man who sits in the chair is named Zora, and he is the chief of this village. The Codex demands you watch the events that unfold.

Before I could reply, a woman burst through the door, crying.

"Zora! Chief Zora—" she corrected herself. "Please, hear me!"

Zora looked at her. "It has happened again, hasn't it?"

"Yes, my chief, it has! My daughter, my sweet daughter, is the next victim of this!" She bawled, collapsing to the floor. "Please don't let her die! Save my daughter, I beg you!"

She looked up at Zora. "No— Not you too," she whispered in despair. "We are truly doomed now, aren't we?" she asked, all the will leaving her body.

Zora coughed. "Tell no one of this. As chief, it is my job to protect you all, and I swear—this is but a storm that will pass. My people will see tomorrow."

The woman sobbed. "All the scouts are dead! None have returned! Please, Zora, don't let it all end here!"

Zora stood and walked to the door. "Then I shall do it myself. Worry not, there is still light—I see it." He shut the door, and the room went black.

Suspended in darkness, words began to write again:

Long ago, while the world was young and untamed, there lived a man named Zora. He was the chief of a small village. While this was his role, Zora's calling was that of nature. He loved exploring and discovering the wonders of the untraveled world. He would jot down and draw maps of the world and all its mysteries.

We appeared in a forest late at night, where Zora stood next to a large tree.

"This is so stupid," he muttered. "What am I supposed to do? Everyone is dying, and they look to me to tell them what to do." His hands rested on his head as he paced around the tree in a panic.

"I can run. I can just run away and never look back. Screw them all! They're dead anyway." He fell to his knees. "I can just—" He punched the ground with his fists. "No, no, no." He slapped his face. "No, no, no! Get up, you pathetic man! You are not done yet!"

He stood and kept walking through the forest, darkness swallowing him once more.

Zora was young, unready to become chief, but his father had passed early, and so he had to step up. In his youth, Zora had been rash, selfish, unpredictable. He had no traits of a leader, yet here he was, on his last dying strength, trekking through the wilderness, trying to save his people. Here was a man grappling with his own selfish thoughts, risking it all.

"Why are you showing me this, Codex?" I asked.

Because you must see it, it replied.

"But I can't change any of it."

True. These are nothing but whispers of an old time. You cannot change the events of this story, but still, you must see it, the book said.

We watched Zora as he journeyed—months passing in moments—and with every second, his condition worsened. He climbed mountains, swam through rivers; one thing was on his mind: I must save my people. He repeated these words over and over as he ventured into the unknown, putting his already withering life on the line against the monstrous, unexplored lands.

Till one day he fell to his knees, defeated, with nothing to show for all he had done. His body, on the brink of expiring, was failing him; all that had kept him moving was his will, and now even that was fading.

I will go back now. I will go back and die with my people, he said to himself, defeat thick in his voice.

Melody and I watched on in silence as the scene before us played out. By the time Zora made it back to the woods, he was practically crawling—his body had given up. Whatever sickness plagued his village had finally come to end him too. His frail will was all that kept him going.

I will return and die with my people, he repeated.

He crawled until he could crawl no more, before he finally rested against a huge tree.

I can't even die how I wanted to die, he murmured to himself. He had chosen this tree in the middle of the forest to die—well, he convinced himself it was his choice to die here, even though deep down he knew it truly wasn't.

As his eyes closed slowly, he let his consciousness slip away.

"Madoxx, look over there," Melody said, pointing just past us.

A man made of white light strolled toward us. For the first time, it seemed as if someone in this place could see us—even if it was only for a second, I could tell this light-man could see us.

The man of white walked and kneeled beside Zora. "It seems I may have been wrong, my child," he said with a sigh. He placed his white hands on Zora's chest, and a white glow gleaned over him. The tree on which Zora laid began to crack and contort as it split open to reveal a black abyss—a void into which Zora's unconscious body plummeted, deep, deep into the black.

We found ourselves in a new area—a land that stretched forever beyond what my eyes could see. When you looked into the distance you saw it a tree bigger than anything I'd seen before, a tree whose blinding glow lit the whole realm. There were no skies, just solid rock above us. This realm was strange, nature—trees, animals, grass—and yet there was no sun, no sky, no clouds. Under these huge trees laid Zora, and the tree's essence appeared to be healing him. We stood above his unconscious body as the tree's white light bathed him. He began to levitate.

Then, in an instant, he opened his eyes.

Everything froze in that moment.

The Codex appeared before me.

The library's wisdom grows, yet the host is not ready to bathe in its knowledge completely. What does that mean? Why even show me this if I'm not ready? Because, you must see, this is what was written to be done—and what is written cannot be unwritten. Speak normally, you damn book! Show me the rest—I need to—

The codex exploded into a bright glow that blinded me, and, like before, a warm sensation spread through my body once more.