Chương 89: Chapter 85-Chosen Symbol

The Whisperwood forest echoes around me with… well, whispers. The Dark Elves must be around. I assume they're always around, but it's hard to tell sometimes when I don't even catch a glimpse of them. In a way, that's good. If we see them, that means they wanted us to see them, which… isn't good. At the very least, we know we haven't strayed into forbidden territory yet. Taking my Uneven Blade, I poke around in the snow. Not here. Poke. Not there. Poke. Where are you?

Penelope, who's crouched down in the snow, speaks up, "Charlatan, we have been searching this area for fifteen minutes already. You're going to have to accept the truth."

"Accept the truth? That would be giving up. I'm The Chosen One, The Chosen One doesn't give up," I [Lie] as I continue my search in the snow. Hopper hops over and places his hand on my shoulder.

"CJ… It's gone. Your bag isn't here. A stray goblin must have gotten it," he says with a hint of sadness.

"But… Baggy. He's all alone. Who's going to clean him? Who's going to fill him with rocks instead of coins?" I ask dramatically.

"Well, the Goblins might do that," Penelope says, trying to poorly comfort me. Letting out a sigh, I sit down.

"I guess I have to give up for now. So, Ms. Arsonist, you wanted to talk?" Hopper leans against a tree.

"Did you find something out about the symbol?" Penelope nods.

"Muriel and I were talking yesterday, and she told me that there was a book missing from the library."

"A book? Did we forget to bring it back?" I ask. Hopper shrugs.

"We did check out a lot of books. It only makes sense."

"Actually, this book had been missing for about a week before we started researching. Muriel said that it just kind of disappeared from the library. No logs on who checked it out or anything like that. It was there one day and gone the next," she explains dramatically. Hopper listens to the whispers.

"That seems… odd. Do you think there's something afoot or just a coincidence?" he asks.

"A weird symbol starts to show up all over the place, and a symbology book suddenly goes missing. I'm sure it's a coincidence," I say with a slightly meaner tone than I intended. Hopper clocks it and gives me a worried look. I give him a nod as I take a deep breath. That low drone of rage is starting to seep into my personality without me knowing. I'm going to have to watch it.

"You're not wrong. Which is why we're in luck. Muriel is a book enthusiast. She has a personal copy of this exact book," she says as she pulls out an ancient book.

"She just gave it to you?" Hopper asks.

"Penelope here probably asked her in a very particular way. Am I right?"

"Shame, Charlatan. I would never. She was actually the one who was insistent that I borrow it. Something about how she wanted to repay us," she says without giving it much thought.

"So, what's this book?" I say with more than a hint of urgency.

"Ancient Symbology of Lost Races. It's an old tome. From what Muriel told me, this tome dates back to right before the Era of Strife," she explains.

"The Era of Peace," Hopper says.

"Lovely. Now we know when this book is from. Can we get to the contents instead?" I ask with a hint of annoyance.

"You really have no love for knowledge," Penelope says as she flips to a specific page.

"Oh, I love knowledge, Penelope. I'd love it even more if a boiling rage wasn't bubbling inside of me, right now." Penelope sighs.

"Fair. Ah, here we are," she says as she shows us the symbol on the page.

"That's the one. Uh, Princ- Penelope, what language is this?" Hopper asks.

"Oh, this is Old Elvish. Most books from back then are in Old Elvish. Most tomes from most Eras are," she says.

"Why? Weren't the Elves mostly isolationist in that Era?" he asks as I patiently wait for her to start reading.

"Well, funnily enough, although the Elves were isolationist, they kept a pretty good pulse on the outside world. They are also some of the best scholars at the time. Not to mention, they reinforced most of their tomes with magic. So even though there were other tomes written in not Old Elvish, they wouldn't have survived as long," she explains as I stare her down.

"Please. Read the passage. Penelope," I say with a defeated tone. Penelope catches herself.

"Oh, yes. Uh, let's see. My Old Elvish is a bit rusty, but this symbol is… That can't be right."

"What is it?" Hopper asks.

"This is the ancient symbol of peace used by the Giloens," she says in shock.

"Giloens? Why have I heard that name before?" I ask.

"It's one of the races that were wiped out during the Era of The First Chosen One. They were a tribe of empaths that used to live where the Blight is now," she explains.

"How were they wiped out?" I ask as a splitting pain rips through my head. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"The forces of evil slaughtered them. They were one of the first victims that The Great Evil claimed. We talked about it in history class. You were probably asleep," Penelope accuses.

"A whole race wiped out?" Hopper asks.

"Yes. There used to be so many more races in the past, but the chaos created by The Great Evil wiped out many of them. Although I have heard rumors that the other continents may have surviving members of some of those races," she says with a hint of excitement.

"Ok. So, this is an ancient symbol of peace. It doesn't feel very peaceful," I say as I eye the half-eaten body of one of the Goblins.

"No, it doesn't. It says that this symbol was used by the Giloens as a way to promote peace and a sense of calmness to those who saw it. Often used in negotiations and disputes," she reads aloud. I eye the symbol carved into the Goblin. The rage pulsing through my body grows. Peace and calmness, my ass. Penelope looks over the pages.

"The Elven author speculates that this feeling of calmness was most likely inherently magical. Probably in the same vein as magic circles. Wait…" Penelope walks over to the carved symbol and places her hand over it.

"Penelope, what are you doing?" I ask as my anger is overtaken by worry.

"Testing something," she says absentmindedly as her hand begins to glow.

"Princ- Penelope, I don't think-" A blackish-red energy suddenly erupts from the symbol. The simmering anger within me boils over. Everything turns red as violence carves itself into me. Hopper grabs me as I struggle to stand. His face drips with worry… It would look better caked with blood. Red mixed with the white. His brain splat- I push him away abruptly.

"CJ?! Penelope, whatever you're doing, stop it, now!" Hopper yells with that grating voice of his.

"I already did. Charlatan, are you okay?" she asks with genuine worry that genuinely annoys me. Grabbing my wrist, I carefully trace the bite mark. Relax, CJ. It's only rage. You know how to deal with that. Take it one step at a time. Look around at your surroundings. Snow, trees, light, Hopper, and Penelope. Feel something, anything. The cold breeze, the heat from the sunlight, the bark of this tree. Now, just think about something. Anything.

"Your hair is really… not suited for combat. I really don't know how you don't end up getting it caught on anything when you're swinging around," I say to Penelope Penelope gives a small smile.

"I'm just that good. Are you feeling okay?" Boiling rage subsides back to a simmer.

"I'm fine. I have it under control," I [Lie]. Hopper looks over at the crackling symbol.

"What was that, Princ- Penelope?"

"I gave the symbol some mana and… it activated. Just like a magic circle. This might be more of a problem than we thought," Penelope says.

"Why's that, Princ- Penelope?" Hopper asks as he pats me on the back.

"This thing has been seen all over this forest, and I'm not just talking about the ones we saw. I asked our classmates, and they've been running into this symbol as well. Along with stronger and more violent creatures," she says as she flips through the pages of the book. Hopper looks around as I catch my breath.

"So, this thing is all over the forest? Wait, you're not sayin-""I am. I think somebody is planning on activating every single one of these symbols. They're creating a large magic circle. What for? I don't know, but it can't be good," she says as she looks me over.

"Why did it only affect me?" I ask, finally regaining my composure.

"I don't know. This symbol is supposed to bring calmness to everyone, but instead, it's filling certain people with rage. You, Lupin, and probably more people than we know. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason, but given enough data, we can figure it out," she explains.

"Lovely. Just so we're clear. I'm good at dealing with this, and I almost smashed Hopper's brains in."

"You what?"

"Now imagine what people who aren't me are going to do if they get exposed to this. It's not going to be pretty. Especially now that the symbol has shown up at the school," I say, remembering my would-be assassin. The whispers in the forest grow as a Dark Elf appears in front of us. Specifically, it's Alyver, the daughter of the Chieftain. She says something in Old Elvish, which Penelope promptly translates, " Chosen betrayer, your presence is required in the village. It is of grave importance."

"What is it?"" It is something we would rather speak of in a more private location. Follow me," Alyver says as she walks into the forest. Penelope turns to me.

"It's hard to translate, but the word she used for grave importance is one of the more serious forms of it. Something only used in life or death matters."

"Okay, I understand that, but should we be following random Dark Elves into the forest?" Hopper asks with a hint of worry.

"Probably not, but I assume we don't really have a choice," I say as I pick up on the bad feeling all around us. It's not the type that signals immediate danger, but more of a… situational danger. The Dark Elves around us are on edge. Why?

"Let's go," I say as I follow the waiting Alyver.

"This is a bad idea," Hopper says as he follows.

"Noted. Now move it," I say as Penelope walks up to me.

"By the way. Sorry… uhm, for the symbol thing that happened back there. I wasn't thinking and let myself get carried away," Penelope says. Taking a breath, I take the first response and shelf it. It's probably tainted with rage anyway. Then I take the second response and shave the edges off it. It's probably also tainted with rage.

"I understand. We all get carried away. It's not like you meant to hurt me. You just did. Maybe think on it a bit more than just a second next time," I say and immediately regret it.

"Sorry. The rage is still lingering. I didn-""That's okay. I know what you meant. You may be a liar and a cheat, but I know you're not cruel," she says with a small smile.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because you never could be," she says and then rushes over to Alyver.

"What does that mean?" I ask out loud.

"It could mean a lot of things, CJ," Hopper says as he matches my slower pace.

"You really need to let up on the eavesdropping," I say as I put my arm around his shoulder.

"Maybe find somewhere private instead of talking out in the open," he says with a mischievous smile.

"You're a lot more like me than you let on. Aren't you?" I ask as I let out a small chuckle.

"No, of course not. Although if you ask Luna or Lu, they would say that I was the biggest troublemaker out of the three of us."

"I saw your fight against Lupin. I believe it." As our conversation begins to let up, the sight of the hidden Dark Elf village comes into view. Which isn't really a view usually. Just a sheer cliff wall, but carved into the sides of the entrance is a new addition. The Giloen symbol of peace.