Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

“Oh. And… why are you here?”

“To save you.” She walked closer, careful not to step on the runes, but studying them minutely. “You realize what’s happening, right? Imagine trying to write on the margins of a book, only with the same ink and quill as the original. At some point, the new words have to start covering the old, right? Making it hard to read. Could even get to a point where the book says something different than it originally did.”

“You’re saying I’m rewriting, or writing over, my code, basically?”

She frowned. “Sure, if that works better for you.”

I nodded.

“You’ve met Glitonea. You’ve seen the runes on her skin?”

“I have.”

“There you go.” She folded her arms and smiled, as if that answered everything.

“Oh, the runes on her skin!” I exclaimed as the realization hit me. “As in, her brain was full?”

Mizoa chuckled. “You could say that. More than yours, even. Which is part of why she is the way she is.”

“Too much of this and I could go a little crazy.” I scrunched my nose. “Fuck.”

“Precisely.”

With a glance around, she nodded, starting to fade.

“Wait!” I shouted, suddenly at her side, holding her wrist. “Where are you? The progress…?”

She continued to fade but nodded. “Glitonea is with me. We’re still on the search. But, it won’t be easy.”

“Meanwhile, the Order is split,” I pointed out. “You heard of the attack? I was there, and if we can’t bring all of this to a close, fast—”

“Let me stop you right there. You’re not one of them anymore, so don’t talk like them. Don’t think like them.”

“Them?”

“Mortals, Jericho. You have risen above them, and have to think bigger. Yes, there’s a battle ongoing, one it would be best to win. But in the end, it’s just one battle among many in this ongoing war. When this one is done, you will find more beyond it. What matters isn’t necessarily that you win, but that you don’t give up, that you keep on fighting.”

“And the final battle? When is that?”

She cocked her head. “There will always be another battle, Jericho.”

For a moment, I tried to grasp what she was saying. But no, I couldn’t accept that. “Maybe what you say is true, about not quitting, about being the last one standing—but we’ve lost men and women. Some, permanently. I refuse to lose any more than I have to, and for me, that’s the end result. Each time one of them dies and is gone, we’ve lost a little more. Even if we win the final battle, which I insist there has to be, we will have still lost in that way.”

“Well then…” She offered a smile, almost gone, mostly just that smile, actually, and a gleam of eyes.

“What are you looking for?” I asked. “Before you go, tell me.”

“Stones.”

“Stones?” I frowned, shaking my head in confusion.

“There used to be several stones that worked with the Liahona in specific ways. In truth, it fit into a larger statue that was part of a temple in Avalon. While the Liahona is the key, there is so much more to this puzzle that you don’t understand.”

“And if you find the stones, what then?”

“A better chance of victory.” It was only her voice then, the rest gone, and then she said no more.

Knowing I didn’t want to do any more damage to myself, and looking forward to telling my team about this interaction, I exited this land of my subconscious and saw that no more than a couple of seconds had passed in real time.

We arrived at the house, then moved through the secret entrance, glancing back over my shoulder to ensure I wasn’t followed. Pausing to take in the orange streaks across the yellow sky, I had to take a breath and take stock of where I was in life. Able to alter myself with runes, like brands both physical and mental. Magic at my fingertips, a spellbook copied over—albeit partially—into a digital screen I had created with the same transmutation powers that most of my life I had misinterpreted, thinking I was a freak, or delusional.

Twelve-year-old me would be standing on his tippy toes fist-pumping at the thought of this, whooping and hollering with joy. Sometimes I thought I would do so now, if not for the anxiety related to feeling like saving the world was up to me.

And in that moment, for the first time since this all began, I really wanted to reach out to my parents and make sure they were okay. A thought hit me, making me wonder if it were possible. Mizoa had entered my subconscious just now in a non-aggressive way. Was it only because I used magic, or was it bigger than that?

I took another step and closed the entrance behind me. Enclosed in darkness, I let my mind focus on my parents, linking in through my DNA and sending out a sort of signal in search of them in that sense. An odd sensation came over me as I felt the world around me, sensed numerous people with shared DNA, so many relatives out there that I had never known about… and then a match.

Suddenly, I was there with my mom and dad, standing at the edge of a mountain range. Wait, in a cabin, looking out at a line of tree-covered hills, a rusty old cannon nearby. Maybe something from the Civil War? They were holding hands, both in silence, watching. At first, I wasn’t sure what they were looking at, but after a moment there was a flicker of light. Then another.

Fireflies!

I laughed, taking a step closer to get a better view. Growing up on the West Cost, I’d never seen the things. Well, unless you count the fake ones in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. The sight was stunning, watching them flicker in and out like little pieces of magic, yet not really magical at all. I think that’s what was most stunning about them—the fact that they could elicit that sort