Three as Three - Part One
Into the world they came not apart but together. Dubious forces will combine in an effort to thwart the chaos soon to be unleashed. Three as one turn to three as three and with it their power will become three-fold.
Amplus Grandis Volumen Monorum -- Beginnings 20:23
For hours it seemed to Megan that Adara would never come. One-eye tried his best to comfort her, but she really wasn't in the mood and pushed him away at every turn. Right now all she wanted was to be with Brand to make sure he was all right and being well treated.
Adara's tent was larger than all the rest of them. At first, Megan really didn't pay much attention to her surroundings. But when One-eye started to get nervous and move things around, Megan took began looking closer. Something was putting One-eye off and she was all too ready to believe there were things around here that she wasn't supposed to see.
So her eyes drifted over everything present.
The table, which mostly preoccupied One-eye, had a large unrolled map that was roughly drawn. A single landmass took up the majority of the paper, while paths extended in many different directions from the center camp. Almost immediately she could recognize where they were, probably because of the red circle around the camp but more so because she could see the forest and the canyon with the river flowing through it. Her attempts at being subtle didn't go over well, One-eye noticed her looking at the map and made some idle chit chat as he rolled it up as if it were no big deal.
Then One-eye removed an enormous book from underneath the table and set it on the rough surface. As he stuffed the map underneath the table, Megan stared openly at the book. Before One-eye could reach for the book to put it back, Megan had a hold of it. The weight was astonishing. She could barely hold it, much less open it. One-eye looked at her, now more nervous then ever, and seemed to be debating.
"What is this?" Megan asked. Her hands traced the letters that were indented into the cover. There was an almost metallic feel to the surface, yet as her fingers brushed over the letters they turned into a rainbow of colors before fading back to the metallic shade of gray. She could make out the actual letters but the words were unknown: Amplus Grandis Volumen Monorum.
One-eye chewed on his lip then shook his head quickly. "Megan, I think you should let me have that back and never mind that you saw it."
Now she was really curious and didn't offer it up. Instead she went over to the table and set it down, then flipped it open to the middle.
At this One-eye gasped and took a step back. "It's true," he murmured.
"What's true?" Megan's eyes drifted over the words. The pages were set up much like those in a bible with two long columns of unknown words flowed down each page. Each passage seemed to be numbered and the numbers she rightly understood, it was just the words that she couldn't figure out. They seemed to be in some kind of language she was unfamiliar with. Or was she? The more she looked at the words, the more she came to realize the language was very familiar but she couldn't place it.
"You really shouldn't..." One-eye's voice faded as Adara stepped into the room. He looked toward her quickly and shrugged with helplessness. "She opened it there herself."
Again, Megan repeated her original question. "What's true?"
"Can you understand what you are looking at, Megan?" Adara's voice was soft as she stepped next to Megan at the table and glanced down at the open book. "Do you know those words?"
"No, I don't know the words. They seem familiar but I can't figure them out."
"They are based on a language that is very similar to the language from your world known as Latin," Adara paused, considered something, then continued. "Megan, that book is a holy book in this land. It contains our entire history since the beginning of time. Not only our entire history, it also contains our entire future."
"...Future?"
"Yes, Megan. This is a book of prophecies. When I spoke of the prophecies that you, Brandon and Benjamin were apart of, I was speaking of this very book. You don't realize this but you've opened it to the very first chapter about your arrival."
That was too much for Megan. She took several steps back, looked down at her hands, then quickly wiped them off on her pants as if she could get rid of whatever had caused her to turn it to that exact page. She looked between One-eye and Adara, lost at what to say. So she did the next best thing, she changed the subject. "How's Brand?"
"Resting. I'll take you to him. But I must warn you, he is unconscious and could remain that way for some time to come."
Someone forgot to tell Brand that he was unconscious. The moment he passed out on the way to their tent, he found himself standing in the middle of what? He didn't have the slightest clue. All around him, as far as he could see, there was nothing but a thick layer of white mist that rose to his waist. The sky was pure black and there was absolutely nothing anywhere around him.
For a while he walked in all directions, trying to find something, anything. But soon he gave that up and started to shout. Even shouting proved to be fruitless. He started to wonder if he had died and found himself in some kind of weird afterlife. That was when thing really became bizarre.
"No, Brandon, you are not dead. Yet."
Who said that? Brand looked all around and still found nothing at all except for that mist. The voice was all around him, deep and full of power. Someone might say it was the voice of God, if they believed in such things. Brand didn't.
"You should be careful with what you choose to believe and not believe, Brandon."
Confused, to say the least, Brand didn't like communicating with whoever this was just by thinking. So he shouted out as loud as he could, making sure he could be heard. "Who are you?"
"You don't have to shout, child. I can hear your thoughts just fine. You may speak in a normal tone and I'll hear you just the same. As for who I am, I'm not God, no. I am, however, a god. One of the many that oversee this land."
More hocus-pocus, just what Brand did not wanted to deal with. "Who are you, really?"
"In a word that you can understand, although it is not my actual name, you could consider me the Zeus of this land."
"If you can read my mind, then you know I don't believe any of this shit and you know damn well I really don't believe you are some g-"
Blinding light cut Brand off. He staggered, throwing his arms in front of his eyes. When he felt the heat that accompanied the light die away, he carefully lowered his arms and found a strange man standing before him. His skin was pure white and actually seemed to glow. Aside from that, he appeared to be a normal man. Clean shaven, well built, tall and proud.
"It doesn't matter much what you believe in, Brandon. I will not cease to exist merely because you don't believe I exist. Nor will my daughters or my peers or my land. I cannot help it if you don't believe in the very things that stand before you. You will still play your part and you will still become what was meant of you since the beginning."
Oddly enough the words brought shame to Brand. He lowered his head, gazing thoughtfully into the mist surrounding his waist. No, he didn't believe, but he felt damn bad about not believing. Why? He had no idea.
"That is the power of truth, Brandon. Whether you believe it or not, it is true and you feel it is true. You choose to ignore that truth and that makes you feel ashamed of yourself."
"I," Brand looked back up and met the man's gaze, "can't believe in..." His whole argument was thrown out the window, but he wasn't about to change his stubborn mind now. "What do you want from me? It's obvious you have power over me, so tell me what you want."
"The truth is I want you dead."
To be continued...
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