SILVER-HEART
Chapter 151: The Cost

Chapter 151: The Cost

Having your life flash before your eyes is one of the scariest things you can ever imagine, you think of memories that provide you comfort, or a flush of regret that consumes you right at that point in time. But in my case, I experienced nothing of this... I was only scared, scared for the life growing inside of me.

I blinked awake, feeling the hard surface of the ground, groaning and forcing my body up, trying to recall how I got here in the first place, and then it took a minute as everything flared in my head, and terror, unlike anything I have ever felt consumed me.

"No!" I placed my hand on my tummy, closing my eyes and trying to sense her aura... "Please" I silently begged to myself as tears streamed down my cheeks. "Please please, please," I begged but the more I tried to sense an aura I came up with nothing.

"No, no!" I cried holding my tummy tightly and cried for the loss of a daughter I never got to meet. She has been in just how many hours and yet she was taken, it is not fair.

I would rather give my life than have her go, please... even just a gesture, please tell me you’re okay, please. I broke more as I came up with nothing but silence, I could no longer feel her and it broke me until I passed out.

☆☆☆

THE HOLY LIBRARY

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William spread a large brown paper on his table, his eyes scanning through every single incantation and instruction.

"Are you sure about this Master?" Severus asked probably for the 10th time today. "Basker might be affected by this spell"

"I know that," William says.

But Severus knew this cannot be all.

William traced his hand on the paper. "Summoning an avatar such as Basker will cause a temporary shift"

Severus’ eyes widened in realization. "T-That means Basker will be here as he first was but with his memories and no attachment to what may have happened, that means this spell will no longer have an effect on him"

William rolled back the paper and walked past Severus while tapping on his shoulder, But Severus still had more to say for he had read through the incantation already.

Following behind William they got to the middle of the library and William finally halted his steps.

"B-But in summoning Basker, the cost is your life force!"

William said nothing as with a wave of his hand the shelves shifted in a wild wave and created a space at the center, revealing a design in the marble floor, consisting of what seemed to be a craft of the 6-point star in a hexagon.

"Master!"

"I know that!" he snapped at Severus facing him. "But what is the point, Severus? I feel like I’m already dead, my heart does not beat and I hear a voice in my head, I see images. I feel like a mad man"

Severus understands everything his master has just said to him, he has never seen his master this way before, so lost, and confused. He was always composed and had the answers to everything but right now... he didn’t see a demi-god, the first of his kind, or the Fox guardian of the Holy library, he saw only a broken man held on by a fraction of sanity, a sanity that might break in any minute.

But the moment Severus was made William’s butler and to assist him in the library ways, he knew he had to be there for him always. If he could take William’s place in using this spell in summoning Basker he would do it, but sadly only William can conjure it because of the connection he has with Basker.

"Your life force is connected with the library, sealed with it. From the very day your heart stopped beating the library has lost its warmth, everything is cold just like the northern wing, and each day we are worried about you Master" he began.

And William inhaled sharply but said nothing.

"Sophia cannot come close to you anymore because your aura is too cold for her, Elvenia is scared to talk to you again because when she does it feels like she is speaking to a dead man, and me?" he pointed to himself. "I feel like I have lost my Master"

"Maybe you have," William said, backing him.

"If your life force gets depleted, the Holy Library will lose its function, the realms will be in chaos, and the humans will know nothing but madness without knowledge or without a lead. Are you willing to risk it all? On a lost memory?"

William’s lips pressed in a thin line and his lifeless gaze on the 6-point star symbol crafted on the floor he stood on. Severus’ words hit him hard like a hurricane, all sense of reasoning was laid forth with everything he had told him and William knew all that, he knew he was taking a risk.

Everything will be damned when he does this. He was about to doom the Holy Library.

In his peripheral vision, William saw two little feet standing before him, at the sudden presence he slowly lifted his gaze and followed from her green velvet gown and to her face seeing Vermilion’s eyes with a mix of green staring back at him.

He would have narrowed it down to those flashes of memories about a girl in the forest, but this wasn’t the girl from the forest, this one was different, he could feel it and she looked somehow familiar.

"Who are you?"

She said nothing as a smile found her lips, spreading wide against her lips.

’I am she who connects all and breaks, my name is Estel’

Her delicate beautiful voice echoed in his head like she was speaking to him through a direct mind link.

"Estel" William said and at the mere mention of her name, the 6-point star responded by glowing beneath his feet and giving a pulsating sensation.

Realization struck William, he had just said the activation word in summoning Basker, but how? He doesn’t feel his life force being depleted in any way.

"You," William said to her with wide eyes and she glowed along with the hexagram before vanishing in shiny lights.

The hexagon circle formed around William like a circle and everything in Williams’ vision turned blank white. But the next time he opened his eyes he was in his chambers, seated on a couch facing the fireplace, he looked around before darting his gaze above the fireplace where a familiar root head was.

Getting to his feet William approached him. "Basker"

"I was hoping I won’t get to see you in this plane," the old man said, raising one of his eyebrow roots.

"This plane?"

"Did you not read the spell you cast to see me? This is a plane of death, only souls stay here and you’re very much alive"

"I wasn’t the one who cast the spell," William said thinking back to that little girl he saw, but the more he thought about her the more he couldn’t remember what she looked like, even the sound of her voice in his head.

What was her name again?

"Ha, look you’re all grown up"

William darted his eyes back to Basker and a faint smile found his lips. "And you’re still the same"

Basker coughed awkwardly. "Now... the longer you be here the less alive you will become, tell me what brings you closer to death, Son of Nicklaus"

"I come in search of a memory, a memory you might have"

"A memory? Memories are yours William, not mine"

"I think it was erased and taken away from me"

There was a puzzled look on Basker’s face. "Is that so..." he trailed.

"Do you know something? Tell me!"

"I guess that was the consequence of your actions"

"What?"

"Aveline"

"Aveline" William tasted the name on his lips and it sounded off.

"Well Ava is what you called her"

And for an odd reason that sounded better to his ears.

"Listen to me William," Basker began in a serious tone. "I can connect you back to your memories... but first you need to know this, your fate which was only meant to be bound to the library for eternity became intertwined with an entity far greater than any of us has ever seen, Aveline is an energy known as the Yin but she was reborn as an Elf due to a curse"

"A curse?"

He nods.

"Hold on Basker, what are you saying?"

"I’m saying you got yourself entangled with the elves, took their princess, and hid her in the Mortal realm away from her brother. Her same brother found out about your actions and knowing he cannot kill you... took your memories as a punishment"

William gulped at his words.

"Aldon is not a force to be reckoned with... he is a dangerous being that you were foolish enough to cross paths with but I guess I cannot blame you for your pure intentions, you were only a boy"

"I need to know Basker," William said sternly. "Everything"