Love lines (15 page)

“
He is your keeper, you are his power,”
- Eileen
said quietly.

“What are you talking about?” Evan asked.

“There, on the lake, she heard another voice - a male
voice and he said this particular phrase. We just didn’t understand what it
meant, but now... now everything is clear. We have the same bond. I am her
Keeper, and she is my Power,” I explained.

“Good grief!” exclaimed Evan. “So this is the reason why
she could give you part of her power. But still I don’t understand the part
about the keeper.”

“When Christian is near, I feel safe. I can use as much
power as I want. When I experimented with the water, I knew that it would take
a lot of energy. But when Christian came, I was strong again. Even then I could
feel it, but just couldn’t explain!” said Eileen excitedly. “Wait, you said
that we shouldn’t be apart, but what will happen otherwise?”

            “You can die without each other,” Evan said quietly,
staring into a book.

We didn’t expect such a response. Eileen froze. We
looked at each other's eyes, not believing what Evan had just said.

“It’s written here that this can happen only if, for
example, you, Christian use up too much power and won’t be able to recover if
Eileen won’t be there at this time. But it also may happen if she spends too
much energy, but you won’t be there to give her your strength. In other words,
if you Christian, always stay near Eileen nothing will happen to her. But it is
unknown if this
“near”
can be translated into steps or miles.”

“So, we just need to be careful in the use of our
powers, right?” I asked.

“Not really. You should also always be by her side like a
personal guardian.”

 “This is probably the most pleasant part,” I inhaled
deeply, trying to smile at Eileen. “I hope you don’t mind?”

She answered only with a passing smile. I stood up,
walked over to her and embraced her, holding firmly.

“I know, today is not the easiest day in our life,”
kissing her forehead, I said. “We'll fix it.”

“But what don’t you like?” asked, smiling Evan. “I wish
I could be bound to some slender blonde too.”

Eileen couldn’t see him saying that, when he looked at
me gravely, silently saying that we really should be very careful.

“I could recommend you someone to bind yourself to,”
trying to make a joke, said Eileen. “There’s one girl who is waiting
impatiently for your affection.”

“Really? Will you show me her?” asked Evan enthusiastically.

“Be sure, I will,” she said, smiling to me. I knew she
was talking about Amanda, but I couldn’t understand whether Evan knew about it
too.

Chapter 16. Forces
of elements (
Eileen)

We stayed in the garden for some more time, reading our
discoveries, and in turn commenting on something new. When it started getting
dark, and it was difficult to make out the text, we headed to the dining room,
where Amanda had already been waiting for us. When her classes ended, she
called me and we agreed to meet in half an hour.

“Hi, detectives!” she greeted, meeting us on the spot. “Whoa!
You are just like
“Men in black”
!”  she added, looking at the three of
us. Up to that moment we didn’t pay attention to the fact that we were all
dressed in something black, and started laughing.

“That's who we really missed today!” Evan said, hugging
my friend's shoulders. This meaningless at first glance gesture, caused a whole
sea of emotions among the present. Christian frowned, and Amanda... Well, she,
of course, was very happy, although she was trying to hide her smile really
hard.

We told her all about the day. Moaning, Amanda managed
to forget that, being an
inaccessible princess
she should have removed
Evan’s hand from her shoulder, who definitely wasn’t going to do it himself.

“What a turn-up for the book! Why on Earth I’ve chosen
so many extra-curricular activities! Now I’ll miss all the fun!” Amanda
complained.

“I'll tell you everything,” still hugging her, said
Evan.

Darcy came to our table.

“Hi guys! I had some free time and went to the library.
I’ve found something that may help you. Here,” she said, handing me a book that
we had failed to take.

“And here we just thought no one could take it away,”
said Evan.

“Thank you,” I replied.

“You're welcome,” she said.

“Darcy, can I ask you something uh...
personal
?”

“Sure.”

“It's about your grandmother. I heard she was a local
historian, right? “

“Yeah,” Darcy smiled sadly, “she was a remarkable woman,
among other things. And a fantastic fate reader. Unfortunately, she died a few
years ago, but that's the cause of her death that brings about so many
questions. It was during the winter break, I went to visit my parents, and when
I came back, I found out about that. They said that she was poisoned by
accident, but I don’t believe it. Did you want to ask about this?”

“Actually, yes, but why don’t you believe that?”

“She was too smart and experienced. She couldn’t just
mix up the liquids. This is only possible if the charmed water was added to her
drink. But since every Feta can identify a spell in every liquid, it was
supposed to be a very strong charm. Such a charm could only be made by a very
powerful magician. In general, there are many inexplicable facts, so I don’t
believe what they say.”

“Did your grandmother know Frederic Fairey?” Evan asked.

“Of course. Even as a student, Frederic spent much time
with his favorite teacher - my grandmother. She was always proud that he had
been her student. He was always interested in the lines of fate, always tried
to learn something new. Why do you ask?”

“Just read about it in one of the books and thought that
your grandmother must have known him,” said Christian.

“He still often visits me and says that I have Camilla’s
talent,” said Darcy. “Though  he never allows to read his palm. He says that
everyone should have his secrets, because if my grandmother was still alive,
many of them could be revealed,” laughing, she added, and, suddenly more
serious, said:

“Oh, God! So that's it… She could have been murdered
because of this!”

Noticing that we all carefully were hiding our eyes,
thinking the same thing, she asked:

“Do you know something? You couldn’t just ask about it,
huh?”

It was Evan who decided to break the ice.

“Darcy, today we’ve found Camilla’s diary. And she often
mentioned Frederic’s name there, and judging by the context, your grandmother
knew some secret, that he was trying to hide.”

“I never knew that she kept a diary. Do you still have
it? Can I look at it?”

I took the diary from my bag and handed it to her.

“Yes, indeed, the handwriting is definitely Camilla’s.
But why some pages are torn out?”

“We don’t know. Maybe this was done by someone, whose
secrets were revealed on these pages,” I assumed.

“And you think Frederic did this?”

“Unfortunately, we don’t know this either. But we think
he is one of those who could be interested in something like this.”

“And where does this come from?” Darcy asked, showing us
a note hidden in the cover of the diary.

“What is it?” we asked in unison.

“
Alea jacta est.
What means from Latin...”

“
The die is cast,”
said Evan.

“It's Alexis’ handwriting,” Darcy said. “What does that
suppose to mean?”

None of us knew the answer to the question. There wasn’t
even any assumption.

“All of this is quite weird. I didn’t even know that
Alexis had any relationship with Camilla. As far as I know, she generally lived
somewhere in Europe at that time, and came back here only after my
grandmother’s death.”

“Will there ever be an end?!” Evan exclaimed. “The solid
puzzles, more and more of them! Why do we possess all these supernatural
abilities, if we still can’t find out anything?”

“There are people, Evan, who are willing to do anything
to hide their secrets forever,” noted Darcy. “I don’t know why you guys are
digging in all this mess, but I want to help. I want to know the truth too,”
she said with determination.

Thus, our ranks were joined by one more
adventurer
.
Darcy promised to find out as much as possible about the role of Alexis in the
story, and left. The rest of us, as always in the evening, went to our room to
find something useful in the book of Dever’s legends.

Among the list of them, we found the one that interested
us most. The Legend of the Black Lake. It was kind of a brief retelling of the
life of Medellin Wizardy.

…Having given birth to a beautiful, like a ray of
sun, daughter, a magician settled with her and her eldest son on the bank of a
lake. Every night, she lit the lake with a few bright stars, and asked the
forces of the night to give her little girl the best supernatural powers.

 Thus, the moon gave the baby Lillian the gift of its
light, so that the girl could always find a right way in her life. The dark
night’s gift was the ability to see in the darkness, to make all that seemed so
terrifying to the little girl, bright and beautiful. The stars gave Lily the
wit and wisdom, and the black expanse of the lake gave her the power to control
the element of water, the part of which it was itself; the element of fire,
that it itself could overcome; the element of earth, whose banks held its own
forces and the element of air, that controlled the flow of its own waters.
Lillian’s own mother gave her the power of magic.

Over the years, the girl became more talented and
powerful. She loved nature, spoke with animals and understood the language of
the wind. Lillian has always helped those who needed her help. She used her
powers only for the good.

Many years passed. The girl grew up and turned into a
beautiful young woman. She was loved by all who were fortunate enough to become
her friends. One day, while walking along the shore of the Black Lake, Lillian
met a young man whose name was Gabriel. They liked each other at first glance
and had never been apart since then. A few years later, their daughter, named
Paola was born. The baby took all the best from both parents.

Gabriel adored his little treasure and Lillian… Until
one day he met another woman. She was older than him and had two sons. The
woman fell in love with Gabriel and wanted him to become her husband. Though,
he already belonged to Lilly. One night the woman came to Gabriel’s house,
killed Lillian and took her to the Black Lake.

Waking up in the morning, Gabriel didn’t find his
wife at home and went to look for her. Having found only fragments of her
clothes on the shore of the lake, he decided that Lilly had drowned.

He had been mourning the death of his beloved wife
for a long time, but he couldn’t believe in his loss and went for help to the
old magician - Lillian’s mother. She came to the lake, and with the help of
magic, forced the dark waters to tell the truth about what had really happened.
For many years she had been trying to find a woman who had stolen Lilly’s life,
but failed. That woman came to Gabriel herself and asked to forgive and stay
with her.

But he said “no”. Unable to accept his refusal, she
cursed him and his daughter, saying that there will be no happiness for any
women of their family. Wishing to save his child, Gabriel went to Lillian’s
mother once again. But no matter how hard she tried to take the curse off,
nothing worked. And then she thought of a new spell, saying that over the next
seven centuries no girls would be born in Gabriel’s family, and only then the
old spell force would be broken by the power of true love, born in the heavens
and destined by fate.

After saying the spell, the witch left this world,
going down to the bottom of the Black Lake, hoping to see her beloved daughter
Lillian for the last time. All her powers she gave to her eldest son Alexander.

“It turns out that Lillian was able to possess all the natural
elements,” having read the legend, said Evan. “I’ve never heard about this
before.”

“Not all of them. It says nothing about the spirit,” I
noted.

“Indeed. Why is there no mention of the spirit?” asked
Christian. “I don’t think Medellin didn’t know about it.”

“Spirit - is the power of the Fairey. As you know, the
Wizardy may possess spirit just in case if they were the Fairey from the birth,
or if they learn how to control it,” said Evan. “Who knows whom that Gabriel
was?”          

“Which means that we really haven’t learned anything
new, except Lillian’s ability to possess the power of multiple elements,” I
said disappointed.