The Butterfly Effect

{-Jacqueline-}

She actually got a kind of comfort out of knowing that Eldrianna had been here. It made those uncertain feelings, the foreboding air, actually mean something—it gave them a reason to exist, beyond simply her imagination. Even if it came with its own set of questions and concerns, the explanation was enough to at least justify herself.

But, of course, that kind of reassurance was only momentary, until they started to come across much more definitive proof.

Neville had led them to the town hall, and they’d all gone to different parts of what might have once been the main room. All Jacqueline could find were decrepit walls, worn furniture, and everything else that was to be expected with ruins. But for better or worse, it wasn’t like that for long.

“Neville, how long is paper supposed to last?” Verity asked.

He thought about it for a moment, then answered, “In conditions like these, I would expect a couple of years, at most. While our ancestors were rather good at making things capable of being passed down from generations, I don’t believe anything here would’ve been considered the ideal storage conditions.”

“So, I take it… certainly not in a legible condition?” She paused. “Or, I think it’s legible. I can’t tell. Whoever wrote this either had terrible penmanship, didn’t know how to spell, or both. I can barely tell what it says.”

That certainly piqued his interest. “You found something, then? Why don’t you show it to all of us?”

They all walked back towards the center of the room, and Verity placed the object of interest—a very old-looking book—on a piece of rubble. Jacqueline watched her brother’s eyes light up immediately when he saw it, and how his fascination only grew as he carefully opened it up and skimmed through some of the pages.

“Nearly all of this is in remarkable condition,” he mumbled. “It’s clearly as old as everything else here, but it’s still completely legible, far more than I would expect from something that has been here for however long…”

Gently, she prompted, “That’s definitely interesting, but… do you know what it says? It sort of looks like you do.”

“Yes. It’s rather old, but as luck would have it, Sokratas and I were just discussing ancient language.” He was practically beaming at the accomplishment, or at least she felt like he was.

“So you can read it?” Verity asked. “And it actually means something?”

He nodded. “Give me a moment, please. I should be able to decipher it.” He paused. “It does seem quite long, though, so I’ll keep it to the brief version. From what I can tell so far, it looks like it might’ve been a journal—not everything in it will be useful to us.”

It wasn’t a moment later that he completely gave himself to the effort of translating it, and Jacqueline knew there was hardly anything that would get him out of that concentration. She simply brushed some dust off of another piece of rubble—it might’ve been the fragments of a step—and sat down, gesturing for Verity to join her.

“I’m not sitting on that,” was Verity’s quick response. “Who knows what kinds of things have been on it. You can do whatever you want, but I’d much prefer to stand.”

“I just thought, we don’t know how long he’s going to take,” Jacqueline pointed out gently. “The only thing we have to do right now is wait, unless you want to see if we could find anything else.”

“Whatever this is should probably be enough. Even if it isn’t, it seems… too convenient if everything we needed was all in one place like this. I’d like to hope that this was all there was to find here.”

After a couple of moments in silence, Neville spoke up again. “I believe I understand the gist of it. The author of this journal was a townsperson here—perhaps even for their entire life. But something had recently started to bother them… the arrival of a mysterious individual. A mysterious individual who seemed quite fond of the town’s leader, and who must have called herself ‘Dree’ among them.”

“Do you think..?” Jacqueline didn’t feel it was right to even finish the thought. It was the whole point of why they were reading the journal in the first place, yet… it still felt too wrong to utter aloud.

He nodded grimly. “I believe this confirms our suspicion. While ‘Dree’ could be anyone, the author also mentions some of her qualities. She seemed to hold an air of shadow, and… she had wings. Dragonfly wings, to be precise.”

“So we really are dealing with Eldrianna?” Verity prompted. “What’s our mission supposed to look like from here, then? Will we need to do anything special in order to get rid of all of her remaining presence or something?”

He let out a soft hmm as he considered it. “No, I don’t believe we have to change our original plan of destroying this place. At least for the time being. We should still try to gather more information, however, to be sure we will be as thorough as possible when dealing with this information.” He tucked the book away in his coat. “For now, I will hold onto this. As evidence, it will need to be destroyed, and it’s better if it stays accounted for.”

Both Jacqueline and Verity nodded.

“Are we just going to look around more, then?” Jacqueline prompted. Nervously, she added, “the more we learn about Eldrianna’s involvement here, the less willing I am to see what else there is, though…”

Verity shrugged, though perhaps she too understood a bit of the sentiment. “It’s not like anything here can hurt us. Without the threat of Skiá or any of Eldrianna’s other tricks, there’s hardly anything to be afraid of. Anything that remains will simply be distractions.”

Jacqueline shrunk, mumbling some kind of half-agreement, half-apology.

“You and I can go together,” Neville offered, “and Verity can investigate on her own. While it’s true that we should get this done as quickly as possible, and that there is nothing that can harm us, we should all still be comfortable. Having two teams seems like a fair compromise.”

She gave a small smile and nodded. “I’ll be alright with that. With you there, I’ll know for sure that there’s nothing to worry about.”

“The two of you are nearly as sentimental as Calum,” Verity muttered. She didn’t seem to have any real complaints about it, though, because she waved and turned around. “Though I suppose you’ve got more sense than him. I’ll go and look more about here, you two can go wherever. I’ll let you know with the charms if I find anything else.”

They both agreed, and walked back out of the ruins of the town hall.

“Where do you think we should start..?” Jacqueline prompted. “There’s still so much here, but even what looks like it might have something might not…”

“I believe it might be best if we simply look around,” Neville decided. “There is… something I noticed back at the entrance, however. Something I feel is worth looking at again.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions too early. If I’m right, then our mission might be a bit more complicated but, if I’m wrong, then I would worry you for nothing.”

“Let’s just see what’s there, then.”

“Yes.”

They walked together to the entrance, and she stood and waited while he looked through some of the ruins. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary here—but she wasn’t as perceptive as he was, so maybe that was why.

When she saw his expression grow darker, she prompted, “What did you find..?”

“I don’t believe we were the first to come here,” he said, simply. “There’s someone else in the area.”

And just as she was about to ask who, a completely unfamiliar voice came from behind her.

“Oh, hello there, strangers! Didn’t think I’d see anyone else out here in these parts. Are you researchers, too, perhaps? Look a little young but, eh, I’m not one to judge…”

The voice soon gained a visible host, though he was far from intimidating. He was short and clearly older—she was nearly surprised he had the strength to carry his huge backpack and other supplies. But it wasn’t something about his appearance that made her afraid.

It was the fact that a mortal was so close to interfering with the gods’ work.