The Cave Part 14

An instant feeling of dread flooded my thoughts, and the air around me seemed to grow even colder in spite of the purple and green flames that licked over the tomes lying on the floor. Here was an enemy, no matter what promises of power and sweet control over forbidden forces that no man should control. I knew this instinctively, even as the stirring of curious ideas began to form in my mind. Images of what I could do with such powers. Whispers in the darkness of greatness, fame, and worshiping followers.

"Get out of my mind!" I almost screamed, suddenly throwing off what felt like a blanket of suffocating poisonous mist. The Staff of Aquinian sprang to greater life, the blue flame within roared and nearly consumed the tip, driving back the fell light gathering about me. My reasoning cleared a little, and I could focus now on the figure that had come closer, its skull head twitching slightly as it shuddered away from the intensity of the blue blaze.

"Who are you really? What are you doing in these halls?"

We are knowledge. We are offers. We are Ravus, giver of gifts.

"I don't think I want anything you have to offer," I replied, moving counter clockwise, as the creature moved clockwise towards me, seeming to circle for the kill.

But you know what it is to be poor, to have nothing, watch your friends die from lack of food.

A stabbing pain in my head nearly made my eyes water, and yet in wonder, I remembered something! I saw myself sitting on a street in the dark, holding another child. Her eyes were vacant, her body emaciated for lack of food. I remembered her. Susan. Just a little girl fighting to survive on the street like myself. Her hands were empty, but I knew she had stolen, only to be roughly thrown against a wall by the merchant in disgust when he found her picking his pockets. There was blood at the back of her head.

You know what it is to be powerless, helpless, crying for life.

Another shocking memory returned. I saw my brother hanging from a rope in the middle of the town square. He was executed for theft, for protecting and letting me get away. My last surviving family member. Carl was his name. His death was on my head. I could not save him from the town guard, and no one would listen to another street urchin. We only wanted to survive. We only wanted to live as others did. Where was the justice?

You know what it is to shed blood. To steal.

I fell to me knees, the pain of the next memory hammering down with judgment on my head. There it was, the blood on my dagger and hands. I had killed. I could see faces of people I did not know except they had things I wanted or needed. Growing through the years in callousness, I had grown to adulthood as a hardhearted man. All of it was plain now, the gang of cutthroats I had joined, the messy murders, and then a group of adventurers around a table discussing a trip to the mountains. For what? I could not recall that, but all my years before came back as a flood of revealed memories that I had tried to hide or justify to myself. I was more guilty than them all.

You did it before, you can do it again. We can grow strong together, powerful, bring back to life Susan and Carl with the blood of our enemies. They will thank you, praise you, worship you. What could we not do? Could we not save her, the woman in your dreams? You know she must die as she is, but you can save her, with us.

I leaned heavily on my staff, trying to keep my body from falling down flat under the weight of the guilt that crushed my shoulders like boulders, one after the other falling down from the ceiling upon me. I saw in my mind's eye the woman in purple, her daggers out its true, but the beauty of the face. Yes I had known she would die, and I did not know where she was or how to save her. She was strong, defiant and bold, yet I wanted to be at her side. I, a thief and killer. Had I not secretly hoped I would learn something here in the library that would help me get to her?

Come with us, read our words, draw on our secrets. You know this is the only way.

The creature, the person, or whatever it was, was standing over me now. The skull face leering in triumph, green eyes burning with ravenous delight. I knew none of its words were really true. I might gain power for a time, but it would grow stronger as well, coming to consume me, control me, and guide my hands in destruction. I, a thief and a killer. Then I would be so much stronger and capable of spreading such deeds that would rock the world.

"No," I gasped, my lungs burning for breath.

What?

Ravus shifted its head to the side with a bone clicking sound, its eyes dimming ever so slightly. The dark cloak about it swirled, lifting a light breath of dust from the floor as the creature seemed to hesitate for a moment with doubt.

"I will not continue to be a thief, a killer, a coward in the dark," I managed to say, some strength returning as the words came forth. "I will not let the past continue to rule my future. I will be a healer, a giver, and if perchance allowed, brave."

You cannot do that alone. You will fail.

"Maybe, but I have to try."

Then, to my great astonishment, a pale ray of white light fell upon me. A beam of sunlight it seemed, had pierced the darkened library walls. Just a small beam, enough to encircle my form as I rested still on my knees. The sound of clattering bones came, and I could see Ravus thrashing as it moved away quickly. Hissing out a long guttural word, a curse I did not recognize, it seemed to diminish in size.

"I am not alone, am I?" I asked, feeling strength surge through me. I rose, the light encompassing my form like a shield against the purple and green flames which had began to die.

You will regret your choice! One day you will wish you had given yourself to us. To our knowledge. In that day you will despair, and we will return.

The creature Ravus seemed to rise on its feet to a great height, arms outstretched above as if summoning a ball of fire to lash down upon me, but then it collapsed into a pool of dust and smoke, green eyes the last things to disappear. A ripple of the debris rushed towards me, and I tried to cover my face so as not to breath it in. Then with a rush, it hit me. Endless clods of ashy dust that smelled of death and decay.

I awoke with a cry, jumping from my seat. A crackling fire still burned before me, and the seats where scholars had once sat remained where they normally stood. I was alone, and the book that had been in my hand now lay on the ground at my feet. Cold sweat dripped from my brow, and instinctively I had reached for my staff. Turning left and right, I looked for danger but nothing. It was as if I had merely nodded off in my reading chair and dreamed the whole thing. Yet, I still held the memories that had come back to me. The good, the painful, and the dream.

Picking up the fallen tomb, I decided I needed outside sunlight and air. Also, I wanted to see Tharkin and seek his advice. The dream, if it were a dream, still haunted me with its vividness. I could feel eyes watching me as I left the library, though none were there to see. Almost none. Looking back just before I entered the doorway out, I thought I saw a flicker of two green lights, but blinking once, I did not see them again.