Blood and Profit: Page 70

It wasn't much longer before the evacuation plans fell apart. The colony was ready to go long before their estimated evacuation date, apparently the population more than believed their lives were in danger and found efficiency to be a very useful survival tool. They had also collected enough data from their network of Satellites to confirm the speed and width of the wave. It would blanket the sky in less than eight months. This wasn't a problem for the human population who had successfully tested the ring and was ready to travel through it. But the Starseed's tree was not yet ready and based on its growth rate, they would be cutting their evacuation very, very close.

The Starseeds sent a representative to the colony senate, the representative urged the humans to leave while they could and assured them that the Starseed population would take care of itself. Their collective consciousness had covered almost half the planet in inky darkness and the sooner the humans had gone the sooner they would have less territory to defend from their own thoughts.

The senate discussed for nearly a day. In the end they voted to leave ahead of schedule. By the end of the week, they would abandon their colony.

Mew and Eamon went home for the last time expecting their father to be in sour spirits, just as they were. But he turned out to be just the opposite. He was ecstatic. He met them at the front door smiling ear to ear. "Come in, Come in!" He ushered them in and shut the door behind them.

"Why are you so happy?" Eamon asked.

Their father sat them at the dining room table and pulled a box out from under the table. "My children are going to outlive me." He pulled the top of the box off to reveal freshly printed books. "And I have finished my life's work." His eyes gleamed as he picked up a copy and handed one to each of his kids. "Not a moment too soon I might add." He laughed at his own morbid joke.

"Dad that's not funny." Mew glared at him. Eamon opened the front cover of his book and his father stopped him. "Don't read them till you've gone through the ring." He demanded. "I want this to be the way you remember me, horrible sentence structure and all." His smile softened.

Eamon closed his book slowly and Mew looked like she was about to shatter into a million pieces. She leaned over and hugged him tightly, crying quietly into his shirt. Eamon gave up, stood up, walked over and hugged his father as well. It was the most affection his kids had ever shown him and it made him smile. "You two best not wear yourselves out. We still have to say good bye later tonight."

Mew squeezed him hard enough to make him groan.

Lidarion: Page 43

Deciphering the rest of the rhymes, riddles, and stories took them days. They spread throughout the library, following half remembered lyrics, and here say until they were confident they had properly figured out how to reach out to all the paragons.

Squints and Obla'reth compiled everything they had learned into a brand-new book. Something Obla'reth had never done before and was very emotional about. He sat with his copy of the book in the central greeting area of the library as the others packed their supplies for the return trip. He was overcome with joy and equally sad.

"You can come with us you know." Dean offered stepping back into the library to grab more supplies.
Obla'reth looked up from the book. "I'd be dead within days of leaving. Besides, someone has to be here when the new librarians arrive." He smiled.

Dean nodded. "So if you're not ready to leave, why the long face?" He asked.

Obla'reth stood and place the book on his chair. "I have overseen this library for so long that time has lost all meaning to me. Just as I assume it did for every generation of librarian before me. A line so unconcerned with its own history, that I have no way of knowing who came before me, or for how long they were here." He sighed and picked the book which bore his name. "But those who come after me shall know at least part of my story." He explained with a soft smile.

Dean nodded. "Good on you. A legacy you can be proud of is nothing to be sad about." He still seemed confused.

Obla'reth nodded. "What I have begun can not be stopped or undone, but it does leave my heart heavy to realize that in our quest to preserve the history of the world, we sacrificed our own." He took a long look at the endless stacks in the wing to his right. "How could so many generations of us been so blind?" He sighed.

Dean was silent for a moment and then cleared his throat softly. "Where are you standing right now?" He asked.

Obla'reth looked at him. "In the heart of the library." He replied.

Dean nodded. "And did you build this place?" he asked.

Obla'reth shook his head. "Of course not." He answered.

Dean nodded again. "Then they didn't sacrifice their history. You are standing in the middle of it." He pointed a finger at Obla'reth. "You, are the result of it." He smiled. "Not all history can fit in a book or be contained by mere words. Your people are proof of that." Dean gestured to the building they were standing in. "You aren't disconnected from your past Obla'reth, You live in it every day, preserving it for the future." He pointed to the book. "And you've just found a new way to add to it." He said before he walked back toward the grand feast hall.

Melody and Harmony: Page 16

Foster nodded. "It's like a prayer. Or a Talisman would probably be more accurate, I guess." He shrugged. "What ever you want to call it, it's a way of staying in the good graces of the god of wind."

Aaron nodded. They came to a worn and dented, long faded brown outer airlock door. Aaron knocked four times in an odd broken pattern. "And whats the Pirate Queen's story?" He asked as the door slowly opened.

Foster followed Aaron into the airlock. "It's one of the oldest pirate rock songs. Talking about how we're sailors without a sea, and now a kingdom without a ruler. Our pirate queen was so in love with sailing that she unfurled the sails of her soul and let the god of wind take her away from the only safe harbor any of us ever truly know." The Outer air lock door hissed closed and sealed itself.

Aaron nodded. "So she died and went to Heaven." He interpreted.

Foster shook his head. "Not exactly" He corrected with a smile as the inner air lock door opened. He had been expecting another dance club and was surprised instead to to find a very large and very welcoming apartment with a large open central area.

Aaron led him in to the main area and kicked off his shoes. Foster followed suit. "Welcome to our Hideout." He held his arms open. "Don't get any ideas, we're not rich or anything. I'd say ninety percent of this is either scrounged or stolen." He sloughed his jacket off and dumped it onto a nearby table before flopping into a large jet black bean bag chair. Once he was comfortable he loudly whistled a four note jingle that seemed to echo off the walls.

"Finally!" A girls voice replied from the second floor.

Aaron looked at Foster with a smile. "Make yourself at home and feel free to explain what 'not exactly' means." He gestured to a near by empty chair.

Spoonerville: Page 15

Rodney's walk was longer than he had anticipated. The fence around the football field had already been locked so he had to walk the long way around. It was just past three and the sun was hours from setting but the tree line was tall enough that he had been walking in shade for a while. The wind was picking up and he could hear it the trees, even his noise-canceling headphones couldn't block it out entirely.

It was obvious now that Derek knew how Rodney felt about his sister. He was apparently comfortable enough with the idea to give both of them shit about what appeared to be mutual interest.

He could feel the heat sinking out of his body through his feet and into the ground with each step he took.

It was embarrassing though. The way he made fun of them. It was entirely possible that he was only cracking jokes to hide his discomfort at the idea of his friend and his sister dating.

Rodney zipped up his hoodie and shoved his hands in the pockets.

If it were his sister, he'd be furious. He'd have no way of knowing if his best and only friend was hanging out with him just to spend time with her! And that kind of deception meant they weren't really friends! And if Rodney would kill the imaginary guy dating his imaginary sister then it was logical to assume that Derek was planning to kill him, and Rodney couldn't allow that.

Rodney was still in the shade of the tree line, and he had begun to veer toward it as he continued walking. The concept of killing Derek so he could be with Vivian consequence-free had ensnared him. He did a one-eighty and began to walk back in the direction he had come from, continuing to veer closer to the tree line.

He couldn't guarantee that killing Derek would go off without a hitch. There were several things to consider, the most pressing was that once he had successfully killed the jailor of his eternal love he would have to dispose of the body. But if Vivian truly loved him she would be an ally in solving the problem of the body and any others that came up along the way. Such was the power and dedication of true love.

He had doubled back again walking towards his grandmother's house. He was coming close to the edge of the tree line and about to pull another one-eighty when he tripped over his own two feet and fell past the shade of the treeline and into the warmth of the sun. He picked himself up and dusted himself off and could remember the absolute determination he had just felt to murder his best friend.

The chill of the shade returned, this time with him standing fully in the warmth of the sun and he knew without out a doubt that he had made two very important decisions.

The first was that he would never tell anyone what had just gone through his mind.

The second was that he would never, ever, walk the tree line again.

He turned back towards his grandmother's house and tried to remain calm, but found himself sprinting to her door before he could even think of walking.

Shades of Justice: Page 47

Kelly was a great swimmer. She was good at sprints but better at distance. She had absolutely shattered school records and been a dependable scorer since she was a freshman. The other girls called her a work horse, her coach called her “hey you!” or “The quiet one.” She was not a star player, never one of the favorites. She was in all ways, exceptionally invisible.

And she liked it that way.

She had only touched the pool once since becoming a Shade and it had been forty minutes of pure bliss. This time she told herself she didn’t even need to swim. She could just relax, float, and let her ear plugs join forces with the water and make her functionally deaf to the world.

She didn’t even notice she had started laps until she was in the middle of her third turn. STOP! a part of her brain demanded. You can’t run away from this! It warned. There is no lap number, no yardage that will give you enough distance to make a clean get away!

She swam until her arms and legs were screaming louder than her mind.

When she stopped she was almost eight thousand yards away from where she had started, but when she pulled her goggles off and her earplugs out she was still in the same pool, the same school, the same life, with the same problems.

Her arms were pillars of flaming jello but she still pulled herself up out of the water and onto the deck. She rolled over onto her back and let the rush of oxygen from her huge chest raising breaths artificially lighten her mood.

“Did you make it?” Gordon asked.

Kelly opened her eyes. Gordon was looking down at her. She sat up slowly. “Nope. I got seventy eight hundred yards in before I realized I was still here.” She sighed.

He sat next to her. “There are more efficient ways to escape.” He pointed out.

She nodded. “Escape from what? I can go anywhere I want, when ever I want.” She admitted.

He nodded. “But your still stuck inside your own head.” He admitted looking at the school record board on the far side of the pool.

She looked at him for a second. “Why are you here?” She asked.

He shrugged and then met her gaze. “If I have to be stuck in this prison.” He tapped his head. “The least I can do is get to know the people in the other cells.” He smiled.

They both went back to looking at the scoreboard.

The surface of the pool had long ago gone flat like glass before she realized they were holding hands.

Lidarion: Page 41

Obla'reth returned to the podium. He opened the book and continued to translate. "It is in the best interest of all races and the paragons for the paragon's to be left alone. But the titans were not stupid. There was no point to creating stewards of the world if the world could not call upon them when needed." He turned the page. "And so there were legends and songs placed in every society. Seeded into every generation."

Obla'reth looked up from the book. "You already know how to contact the paragons." He said.

Squints sighed. "I'm pretty sure I'd remember knowing how to summon the paragons." He said.

Obla'reth looked down at him. "Do you have a particular interest in nursery rhymes, and bed time stories?" He asked.

Squints opened his mouth and froze for a second.

Brooke jumped in. "Blessed is the king of the Earth, Sitting in the heart of the crown."

Squints shook his head. "There is no crown mountain or mountain range. It's just a song, it doesn't exist." He sighed again.

"Yes it did." Harruff spoke up for the first time in hours. "Names rarely live as long as the things they identify. Crown in the oldest Minotaur language roughly translates to Urune." He explained.

Squints shook his head "I thought Urune meant hat?" He asked.

Harruff shrugged "I did say 'roughly'" He replied.

"How does this help us?" Lisa asked.

Squint's eyes lit up. "Because before we referred to that range as the 'The cliff cities' it was the Urune mountain range." he said with a smile.

Trent looked skeptical. "Who thought that 'The hat mountains' was a good name?" He grumbled.

Squints sighed "I think your missing the point."

Melody and Harmony: Page 15

They waited until the other side of the door was silent as the grave, and when Aaron opened the door the sun had already risen over the wall that bordered the city. Foster squinted in the early morning light and felt the desire to be anywhere but where he was. "Thanks for not killing me," He paused as he realized that Aaron had saved him not once but twice. "And then helping me escape the cops. But my mom's probably lost her mind by now so I'm out." He turned to head back to his part of town. The sound of the gun stopped him cold.

"You haven't told me about your bag." Aaron reminded him.

Foster sighed heavily. "You didn't want to talk in the hideaway, I doubt you want to do it here in the alley, so" He turned back towards Aaron and gestured for them to go.

Aaron stuffed the gun in his pocket. "Look I just need to know what the symbol means." he said, leading Foster to a safer location.

Foster shrugged, explaining as they made their way in between buildings. "it's a reference to a lyric from an old Setting Sails song." He said as if that explained everything.

Aaron nodded. "And whats the lyric?" he asked.

Foster was getting antsy. " I am driven to traverse every sea without fail, for if I have breath in my lungs I'l have wind for my sail." He said with impatience.

Aaron was lost. "Why would she have that as a tattoo?" he muttered to himself.

Foster raised an eyebrow. "So you do know the song?" He asked.

Aaron shook his head. "Never heard it my life." he admitted.

Foster. "So then how'd you know about the pirate queen?" He asked. "She has the winds of all seasons tattooed on her shoulder."

Aaron opened a door and ushered Foster into a dimly lit hallway. "The winds of all seasons?" He asked.