The Arena: Ch. 7

Chapter 7: The Library Infinite
The knock at my door came late Sunday night. I flung it open to find Nova waiting outside of my room. She was dressed in a night garb, black long pants and a purple tank top. She beckoned me out into the hallway.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"You asked about my reasearch right?" she recalled.

I nodded.

"Remember the Librarian?" she asked.

I nodded again.

"Follow me," she said, grabbing my hand and dragging me down the hall. The corridor was no longer lit, save a dim light at the very end.

"Where are you taking me," I demanded. She was gripping my arm tightly, black nails digging into my flesh.

"To The Library."

"This place has a Library?"

"No. But the earth does."

"The earth?"

"Yupp, it's underground."

We climbed a spiral staricase and came into her room. It was larger than mine, with black walls and posters all over it. Each poster was a picture of a person with a pair of gold gauntlets on, each dressed in a hood and black garbs.

"Who are the archers?" I asked as she released her grip on me and moved over to a large velvet carpet.

"Oh, them?" she looked up towards the posters. "Those are The Tredecim."

"The Tredecim?"

"Long story, it's from a book I read. Ah! Here we go," she said, finally lifting the carpet off the ground. As the carpet moved, I could see a hole in the ground with a ladder leading down into it.

"A secret hole?" I asked, smirking a bit.

She nodded, moving the bangs out of her eyes. "Yes. It leads to the Library."

She rolled her sleeves up...and jumped into the hole!

I waited for a large thud, but none came.

"Come down! There's no one in here!" she called, her voice echoing of the walls.

I climbed down the ladder, knowing I wouldn't make it down alive by juming. As I descended down the ladder, the light from Nova's room grew dim above me. I entered a wide, dark tunnel that was illuminated only by three blue torches lining the far wall.

"Where are we?" I asked as Nova came up behind me, a blue torch in her hand.

"We're under Diabla."

"In the sewers?"

"No. In the Forgotten City," she sighed, beginning to move forward. The Forgotten City? What was she talking about?

I raced after her down what appeared to be a very, very long tunnel. "The Forgotten City? What's that?"

She stopped in place and groaned. "Torrin, remember the story about the rebellions and human revolts against the Olympians?"

I nodded, recalling The Caller's vivid story.

"Well what do you think happened to The First Civilization?"

"It was destroyed wasn't it? By the gods. And they built Diabla, right?"

"Wrong.You really think the gods would let millions of years go up in flames. Sure, they made it look like it was destroyed, but they preserved most of The First Civilization-"

I cut her off quickly. "And how do you know this again?"

"The Library," she said, turning towards a pair of giant bronze doors I had not seen a minute before. The door was set into the door and seemed to loom 50 feet tall, which made no senes considering we were not so deep underground. The doors were decorated with giant, knotched images of goled eagles with glowing, pearl white eyes. A bronze plaque was plastered on the door. Written on it were weird symbols- a writing I'd never seen before. In big, bold, white letters were the lines: " Όσοι αναζητούν τη σοφία της αλήθειας μπορούν να εισέλθουν, αλλά εκείνοι που αναζητούν τη σοφία για την καταστροφή πρέπει να τιμωρηθούν..."

"What is that? A different language," I asked Nova.

She nodded. "It's Anicent Greek, the language of the Olympians. If I'm correct it means, 'Those who seek wisdom for truth may enter, but those who seek wisdom for destruction must be punished...'"

I wolf-whistled at Nova. "Wow," I smirked. "That's amazing. You know a whole other language...your amazing."

In the blue fire light I could see her face flush with red. "T-thanks," she stammered. Snapping back in focus, she turned to the door and placed her right and left index fingers on the golden eagle's eyes. The door rumbled and slowly and quitley it swung open.

Suddenley I was hit with a fresh blast of clean air and the smell of a newly opened package of paper. Looking into the room behind the doors, my mouth dropped open.

"Welcome to the Vivliothí̱ki̱ Ápeiros, the Forix Infinitus, the Library Infinite."

~

The Library Infinite was amazing. The walls were lined with bookshelves so high, you would have to be able to fly to get to them. There were all sorts of books on the shelves. There were large books, the size of my upper torso. There were books made of solid gold and silver. There were books made of a weird bumpy metallic material- Nova said it was called brail or something. I even found a book written in blood!

"How did you find this place?" I laughed, reading through a hilarious picture book titled, "Teen Titans."

"First night after they chose the contestants. I accidentally fell into the hole under my carpet..."

"So the hole was already there?" I asked. "Do you think that The Arena staff have found out about it?"

"Probably," she shrugged. "But the door doesn't open to the unworthy, remember?"

"Couldn't they just blow it open?" I said, flipping the page of my book.

"I doubt it. According to Transmuation of Metals, that door is made up of Olympian Marble, Hadian Gold, and Hermetic Bronze. Combined, those metals make an indistructable mineral known as Elysian Metal."

I nodded, barely understanding what she said, but nonetheless paying attention.

We sat there for hours, just looking at books and books and...

"Whoa! Look at this! Look! I found this journal," Nova said. "It' written by someone from the rebellion..." I scooted over to her and peered over her shoulder at the leather bound journal in her lap. I began reading to myself as she read aloud:

"Dear Diary,

''It's been days since the war began. The Olympians are slowly destroying our regiments. They've discovered almost all of our hidden camps and have razed them like Spartans raise villages...I'm sitting her in my blood stained tent, arm blown off, weapon destroyed, and a shortage of food on my plate. General Blade is asleep; he needs it. He's been fighting day in and day out...I doubt he even knows that I am pregnant with his son's child. His son- Garret-...ah he's the love of my life. But only if we hadn't spent that one night together....I fear my child will be born either dead or ill...I'm not being nourished properly and I'm constantly fighting. I'm seven months though...my stomach's as large as a cannon ball...I can feel the baby kicking as I write to you now, Diary...if it's a boy he'll be named Torrin...if it's a girl I'll name her Terra-"''

Nova stopped reading. "What in the world-?"

I froze above her. The words Torrin written in this stranger's hand writing poked out at me. As far as I knew I was the only Torrin to ever exist...

"When was this written?"

Nova scrolled down to the bottom of her page. "Um...2030...45 years ago..."

Torrin breathed a sigh of relief. "Then it can't be talking about me. Maybe Torrin wasn't that exotic of a name back then...Let's keep reading."

They continued reading. The rest of the pages mostly talked about life during the rebllion, death, etc...untill Nova stopped. "Oh my god...Torrin read this." He looked down at the page and read in big bold words:

"Dear Diary,

'Today I had my child...I've named him Torrin. He looks just like his father. Shaggy, spiky blondish-brown hair and the same nose. I know he'll be tall, like me. He has my complexion and cheeks...but he has his grandfather's eyes. That melting caramel brown... But he's premature...more so than other pemature babies. He's smaller than my right hand...I cry whenever I hold him. I have nightmares that I might crush him...."'

"Why did you want me to-" I began, but Nova waved my words away. "Keep reading," she said with wide eyes.

"Dear Diary,

'The Olympians are coming. The war is over...and the rebellion has lost. I know I will be murdered, as will Garret and General Bladewood. I'm putting little Torrin in a Cryo Chamber Pod, where he will be nourished by an invisble magic and will be able to grow into a regular, healthy baby...It will take ata number of years for him to grow however...but whatever lies in the future for Torrin I want him to know that his mother loves him. Hopefully one day he will inherit the sword, the Olympic Bane...hopefully some day he will be found by a caring, loving family...hopefully someday he will save us all from the gods...'

Wishing the world the best, Natasha Wood "

Tears were streaming down my eyes. This was no lie...this was written by her. My mother...I knew I had always been adopted, my parents-or adoptive parents- had told me. But I never knew that I was this...this product of the rebellion...

"Torrin..." Nova began, but I stopped her. I stared down at my hands, the smoky symbol on my bicep. I thought about Olympic Bane, lying under my bed.

"I'm...I'm the grandson of the leader of the rebellion?"

"Torrin...this can't possibly be-"

"True? Is that what you were going to say? This woman has the same last name as me! She speaks of my appearance, an exact discription of what I look like!"

"It's not that discriptive," she mummbled.

"WHO CARES!?" I explode. She flinched at this, but I continued. "I AM THE GRANDSON OF THE MAN WHO PUT ME IN THIS ARENA! BECAUSE OF HIM, I'VE BEEN FORCED TO KILL PEOPLE! I MIGHT DIE, AND FOR WHAT?! BECAUSE HE REFUSED TO WORSHIP THE GODS?! BECAUSE HE WAS A STUBBORN LITTLE SON OF A-!"

And then she was upon me. Nova's lips sliped into mine, the soft, fleshy taste of her face on mine. My eyes widened, but then relaxed. She pulled away and covered her mouth.

"Oh my...I'm so sorry," she gasped.

I was shocked..."What just-"

"I don't...I'm sorry..."

"No, no...I didn't say I didn't like it," I smirked.

She blushed, scratching the back of her head. "I just...you were raging all over the place..."

"Nice way to calm a guy down," I chuckled. She laughed along with me, but then suddenley stopped.

"So that's why you're in here...The gods probably personally asked for your name to be chosen..."

"But I've been of age since I was 13..."

"Yeah, but now you're old enough to fight well. You actually stand a chance, as you've proven to the city," Nova said. "The gods are messing around with you, Torrin. They're playing a very dangerous game...a game that you're more than likely to lose..."

"Wow," I groaned. "How optimistic of you..."

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I'm just being realistic."

"Yeah, well realistic wont help me win The Arena. A quick swing of the blade, on the other hand..."

She nodded in agreement. "You have to win this thing...you have to finish what your grandfather, your father, and your mother started. You have to beat the gods, make them know that humans aren't their slaves...or else everyone from The First Civilization will have died in vain..."

I stared, blank expression, at her. "Are you kidding me, Nova?! I can't...I can't kill gods!"

"No," she said with a short pause, "but you can do to them what they did to the Titans."

"The Titans?"

"Yes, the Olympian's forefathers. Zeus, king of the gods, banished them to Tarturus, a large, black pit of chaos hidden deep within the Underworld. You can send them to hell with their uncles, Torrin. You have the power to. I know you do."

"Nova, I don't," I began but she came closer.

"I bet if I kissed you again you'd change your mind,"she laughed sarcastically.

"Probably..."

"Well then, here goes nothing," she said. And as she kissed me, the only light around us was the torch. The blue torch flickered for a second as our wet lips met. As love circled around us, the light extinguesed, leaving us in total peace and darkness...

Next Chapter: Chapter 8: Torrin vs Blanca