Chapter 13
Murphy brings a plate of food down to Roan around lunchtime but he barely acknowledges it or his presence. When he comes back a few hours later and it's still untouched he sighs in exasperation but takes the plate anyways without saying a word. However when he returns for the dinner plate that he'd left for him that is also untouched, he says something.
"You know starving yourself isn't gonna help things. You need to eat. Have you at least found something helpful in whatever you are searching for?"
"Yes and no."
"Well, what the hell does that mean?"
"These books have been collected by my family for centuries and they speak of many things but knowledge of this Key is limited. All I've been able to find is that it's ancient and dangerous." Roan says obviously frustrated.
"Maybe you aren't looking in the right place?"
"What do you mean?" Roan asks slightly confused.
"The Key has only ever been talked about by dream walkers and the only shadow warrior I've heard talk about it was my dad who was bonded to one, so maybe you should look there." Murphy suggests.
Roan nods and begins grabbing books about dream walkers and those bonded to shadow warriors. As he sits at the table with a new stack of books he starts picking at the food on the plate causing Murphy to smile a bit and head back upstairs leaving him in peace.
"He found anything yet?" Bellamy asks as Murphy enters the kitchen.
"Nothing useful but he's still looking. I'm sure by morning he'll have something." He assures them.
"You don't exactly sound sure of that statement." Lincoln notes.
"There's a lot of books with a lot of information down there, so it's possible that even with him looking all night he'll find nothing. Although if something is down there we can use, he'll find it."
"I hope so because every second we waste here is another farther away from Octavia and the others." Lincoln states.
"True but Bellamy said that A.L.I.E. needs him, Roan and me before she can complete the ritual for the power transfer which means as long as we're all here they're still safe." Murphy points out and Lincoln has to agree because he knows he's right.
The 3 of them stay up and talk a while before Lincoln and Bellamy head to bed but Murphy goes back downstairs to check on Roan's progress. He finds him furiously scribbling things down on paper and grabs the empty plate quietly, heading back upstairs, leaving him to his work.
Murphy lays awake for a few minutes before there's a small knock on his door. It's open so he can see the outline of Bellamy's figure in the doorway but doesn't say anything. A few seconds later Bellamy asks "can I come in and talk to you about something?"
"Depends on what it is?"
Bellamy seems caught off guard by his answer at first but then slowly makes his way into the room. He sits beside the bed, takes a deep breath and tells Murphy what's bothering him.
"Roan sees things when he looks at people, doesn't he? It's not just fire magic and it's potential in a person but something more, right?"
"Get to the point Blake." Murphy says off hand and Bellamy freezes.
Murphy looks at him strangely before Bellamy shakes his head and says "I remember you now or at least there's something more familiar about you. It's weird but that one simple phrase was something you said to me a lot, wasn't it? "
"You had a tendency to beat around the bush instead of just saying what you wanted to say and that phrase would frustrate you just enough to make you spit it out. Now spit it out."
"Roan saw something when we were training, didn't he? Something that makes me different from everyone else, right?"
"Everyone is different from everyone else, Bellamy."
"Now who's beating around the bush." Bellamy teases causing Murphy to roll his eyes.
"Look, all he said was you're similar to Mbege but you're also different from him and that he needed time to figure out why. So stop worrying about it and get some sleep."
Bellamy could see that Murphy was done with the conversation and decided to head back to his room to get some sleep. Murphy stares at the ceiling for a few hours after Bellamy leaves before he finally falls asleep but when he does he finds that for the first time since he was a child his sleep is peaceful without nightmares. However, Bellamy's sleep and dreams are a different story.