Chapter 26
Roan knows he's dreaming. He has to be because there's no way his mother is standing over him in reality. He swears this is some trick of Murphy's because he's still pissed at him but when he does all the things he was taught to wake himself up from a dream, she's still there.
"You can't be real. I watched you die." He says in disbelief and before he can stop himself he reaches for her only to go right through her.
"What do you want from me? Why are you here?" He questions as she continues to stare at him in silence.
He's beginning to get seriously freaked out and is about to yell for Murphy when her hands suddenly grabs his head as her mouth opens and this blinding light engulfs him. He's suddenly thrust back in time to when the temple was still standing and full of monks and priests of the Order. He stares in silence and confusion as his mother pulls on his arm, intending him to follow her. He does but not without hesitation because he's not sure what is happening or how it's even possible. As they walk through the temple he notices that no one seems to be bothered by their presence and he wonders if they can see them at all.
As if in answer to his question, one of the monks passes right through his mother without a second thought and he's about to ask her what's going on when she suddenly stops at a door that's slightly ajar. He can't see around her or through her to see what's behind it but she's staring at him expectantly, like she wants him to go inside.
"You want me to go inside?" He questions and when she nods he looks at her suspiciously.
"What will I find in there? Why do you want me to go inside? What's going on? Why won't you talk to me?" He continues to question but his mother remains silent and pushes him closer to the door.
He slowly pushes it the rest of the way open and finds he's standing in what looks to be a huge library. There are floor to ceiling shelves lining the walls filled with books and in the center of the room is a table and chair that has a man hunched over them with papers strewn about. He turns back around to ask his mother who he is but she's gone. He searches the immediate area frantically wondering if all of this is some kind of hallucination when he sees her standing beside the man in the chair. He cautiously makes his way over to them and once he does, his mother points towards the papers in front of him. He glances at them quickly at first but then something on one of the pages catches his eye and he picks it up to examine it more closely.
Most of it is in that language that he never bothered to learn and he feels his mother's gaze on him like she knows exactly what he's thinking which makes him hang his head in slight shame. He really should of paid more attention to her when she tried to teach him it but like all children his age, he never thought he'd need it. However the more he examined the page the more the symbols seemed familiar somehow but he couldn't place how. He looks at his mother to ask her another question even though he was certain she wouldn't answer him whether she knew the answer or not when a hand grabs his wrist. The movement was so quick and shocking that he didn't even register that it wasn't his mother until a voice spoke to him.
"I was wondering when you'd come. I've been waiting for you. We have much to discuss and very little time to discuss it." The man in the chair said to him as he loosened the grip on his wrist.
"You can see me? How? What's going on? Where am I and who the hell are you?" Roan asks in confusion and looks to his mother who is no longer there.
"She's gone son. She's served her purpose and now she's gone. We weren't sure who exactly to send after you but in the end we figured your mother would have the best chance of getting you here." The man says before he can even voice his question, like he knew what he was going to say.
"And where exactly is here? Who are you and what did you mean by she's served her purpose? Where is she now?"
"You are in the Temple of The Lost. Before we became The Order that your family has been a part of for centuries we were a place where those rejected because of their gifts could come and live in peace. We helped many lost souls who were either cast out because of what they could do or were afraid of it. We took in those who couldn't control their abilities and those who simply wanted to understand them. We were what some would call an orphanage but we were so much more than that."
"You keep saying were like something happened that changed it. What happened? I mean I just figured The Order had always been here and that it was always the Temple of The Elders."
"It became so much later. The Temple of The Lost was a good place and we were able to help many people but there was one who was just too far gone. When he came to us many thought we should of turned him away right then and there but there were some who insisted that we help because it was what we did. In the end we did take him in but we soon wished we hadn't. He was powerful, too powerful for someone of his age and we tried to help him control it but his rage was too all consuming. He was angry at the world it seemed and nothing could curb it. Nothing until he came to us. He was powerful too but whereas the other lacked control, he had too much. It was almost like he was afraid of his own abilities and purposefully lowered their potency because of it. They soon became inseparable and it wasn't long before we noticed a change in them both. It seemed that they began to act like each other in a sense. The one who lacked control became more controlled and the one who was controlled became less so. Some thought we should separate them but when they tried things didn't end well. They sensed each other, it was as if they were two parts of the same whole and now that they had found each other, they wouldn't be separated again. When one was out of control the other knew it and could instantly calm him but something happened one day that no one expected. We had a visitor that changed everything." The man who Roan assumed was one of the monks told him.
"What happened? Who was this visitor?" Roan prompts when the man stops speaking and becomes lost in thought like he was remembering what had happened.
"It was Talon's mother. Talon was the one who couldn't control his abilities and when his mother came to see him none of us knew the impact it would have on him. We never knew much about him because he never talked to us outside of us trying to teach him control so we didn't realize that she wasn't good for him. She was only with him for a few minutes before Rayce came in and threw her out of the temple but in those few minutes she had managed to destroy all that we had worked so hard to achieve with him over the last year that he'd been with us. He destroyed the temple, taking most of the monks and children with it. The few of us who got away in time managed to magically lock ourselves in here while Rayce tried talking him down. He almost had him but somehow his mother was able to get inside his head and before Rayce could stop her, she got him to lose complete control. It was then that The Key was born. He was just a scared and angry child who had been manipulated his whole life by people who were supposed to love him and when he finally found someone who did and a place he could belong, they ruined it and him in the process. Maybe if he'd of come to us sooner or if him and Rayce had found each other sooner they both could of been saved but..." He continues but tails off as a deep sadness takes him and Roan wonders if they were closer than just monk and student.
"What happened to them? How was The Key dealt with?"
"Rayce sacrificed himself to save Talon. He knew the boy he loved was still in there somewhere, he just needed to find a way to reach him. So when Talon, consumed by his darkness and power tried to kill a small child he found hiding under one of the beds, Rayce put himself between them. He knew the darkness wouldn't think twice about killing him but he hoped that Talon was still strong enough to not let that happen. He was partially right. Talon wasn't strong enough to stop him from killing Rayce but watching the man he loved die by his own hand and not being able to stop it did. He was able to take back control and managed to use what was left of his power to send The Key into another dimension where it could no longer hurt anyone. However the power that it took to do that killed him. They were buried together and we hoped that they would find the peace and happiness that was denied to them while they were alive in death. We rebuilt the temple and took in more children. A few decades later a young boy came to us out of control and many believed it was Talon all over again but I chose to believe otherwise. Unfortunately I was wrong. It was like Talon and Rayce all over again but with different people. The little girl who Rayce had saved came to us one night with a journal that she'd found under her pillow. She insisted that it wasn't hers, she'd never seen it before and had no idea where it came from or how it wound up under her pillow. As I began to look though it I realized rather quickly that it was Talon's but it was the entry on the last page that really drew my attention. It was a spell, one that was too advanced for someone like him but I knew that him and Rayce had cast it because it was the only explanation."
"What do you mean? What was the spell?" Roan asked overwhelmed by all the information he was receiving but still curious as to what it had to do with why he was there.
"It was something akin to reincarnation but not exactly. They cast this spell long before his mother showed up and I think it was why they were so close. They believed in their love for each other so much that they cast a two souls are one spell. However the problem with that spell is that it keeps repeating itself throughout the generations until the two souls can truly be together and happy. Since Talon killed Rayce, their souls found two new people to inhabit and tried again and when that failed, they tired again. They'll keep trying until their souls are finally able to be together in life and in death. Once we figured this out the Temple of the Elders and The Order were born. It was our hope that someone would find a way to finally bring their two souls together and they could find peace. The Key however kept finding a way back into our world and stopping them from being together completely. We were never able to figure out why and then the temple was just forgotten. Thankfully The Order was still around. Unfortunately most of the information that we had managed to gather over the centuries had been lost."
"The prophecy. That's why it was written, wasn't it? To truly stop The Key, Talon and Rayce's souls must become one and together they can destroy it."
"Precisely but The Key has always managed to force one to kill the other so that never happens."
"What about the people the souls occupy? I mean do they have their own souls or is it just Talon and Rayce's?" Roan asks trying to figure out how the regenerating souls worked.
"We believe that their souls find two people who truly belong together and who are already forming that relationship and take over them. They still have their original soul but its kind of locked away until Talon and Rayce get what they want or the people they occupy are dead."
"So Murphy and Bellamy are actually Talon and Rayce but still Murphy and Bellamy?"
"I know it sounds confusing but it..."
"Actually I understand it completely. It makes sense. There are times when Murphy isn't really Murphy but Talon and Rayce don't fully take over, do they? Murphy and Bellamy are still themselves but at certain times there's a subtle shift and if you don't know them you'd never notice it. Is the only way to help them to stop The Key?" Roan interrupts.
"Yes and I know that you've been having a hard time trying to decipher things and figure out how to do that so I'm going to help you out. This is my family's journal. It has been passed down through the centuries and has all of our research and findings on Talon and Rayce as well as The Key and the spell they cast. Also just a little piece of advice before you go, Murphy's father's journal has a key code in it, correct? Well, it's the key code for the language of The Elders. We wanted to make sure that you had some help if we couldn't reach you in time. Use them both wisely and hopefully you can save those boys and stop this cycle from repeating again."
Before Roan can say anything else, the book is thrust into his hands and there's this blinding light again and once it subsides, he's back in the basement, sitting at the table like nothing ever happened. He looks around in confusion and wonders what the hell kind of hallucination that was and if he should wake Murphy up to kill him for it but as he gets up to get him some coffee and food something heavy hits the floor at him feet. When he looks down to see what it is, he shocked to find that it's the book that the monk had given him in his hallucination which would mean that it wasn't a hallucination at all and that he had really been there. He stares at the book a bit longer before picking it up to look at it. When the monk gave it to him he didn't really pay much attention to the cover but now that he was staring at it, what he saw almost made him drop the book in surprise. It has his father's name on it. The monk was the man his father was named after which meant that the monk was his ancestor and it also meant that he was much more a part of this than he ever thought.