Splitting a Soul~Chapter 16

“You!” Aisling, Kimi, and I all shouted in unison.

“Him!” Jack called, but he obviously had no idea who he was.

“Me!” the Collector shouted, pointing to himself. “Now that introductions are out of the way, may I ask what you three are doing on this beautiful winter’s night?”

“I should punch you right in the face!” Aisling yelled and moved forward, but I grabbed her shoulder.

“Now isn’t the time,” I whispered in her ear and pointed up. We all looked up and saw about a dozen owls looking down at us with their dark eyes. Every so often, one would flutter their wings, but their eyes never left us.

“No violence in the library I’m afraid,” the Collector said as he rose to his feet and adjusted his glasses. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to break another pair of these; very expensive I’m afraid.”

“Where did you even get a pair of those?” I asked. “I mean it isn’t like they sell Mist-shielding glasses at the local glasses shop.”

“These old things? Like all of man’s greatest achievements, I had to invest in a team of specialists to make them,” he said as he placed a finger on the rim. “Took quite a large amount of money as well. I had to trade my entire collection of Norse artifacts from the Viking age to the Smithsonian as a matter of fact.”

“Where did you even get started?” I questioned. The Mist was supposed to block anything that mortals would consider strange, so how did this guy even know about the Mist enough to filter it out.

“Amazing story really; I’ll tell you all about it on our way to the Great Guardian section,” he proposed and ushered us forward. We all looked at each other, a little iffy on whether or not this was a good idea.

“What do we have to lose?” Jack concluded and began following the Collector. We then all followed Jack down the long aisles of books.

“This feels so weird,” Kimi commented as we walked. “We should be capturing him or something. Maybe explain how he is throwing all the Elementals out of control.”

“He wouldn’t listen, he hasn’t before anyway,” I answered. “Besides, maybe we can learn something from this.”

“We are in a library,” Aisling added as we walked. She then walked up to the Collector and looked at him. “So about those glasses, where did you get them?”

“Ah yes, the glasses. Well you see, about two decades ago there was this huge event in New York City. Everyone just fell asleep in their cars for days and no one could explain what had happened. The news chalked it up to some kind of gas leak that spread across the city and was blown away by some freak storm system, but I knew it wasn’t true,” he said as he scratched his beard, which wasn’t nearly as long as it used to be.

The Fountain of Youth water actually had taken at least forty years off the guy. His once grey hair has now completely black as it must have been in his youth. The wrinkles that once covered his face also seemed to have faded as clear skin took its place. He also seemed to be incredibly fit; not ‘body builder’ fit, but ‘someone that works out at the gym three times a week’ fit. According to Circe however, once he left her island he would never remember where it was or even be able to mention it to anyone. I wondered if anyone else had noticed that he was now a lot younger or if the Mist somehow shielded this fact from those close to him.

“How did you know that,” Jack asked, looking up at the guy.

“I had woken up during this amazing battle. My car had been hit by something and the shock woke me up. I stepped out of my car a looked around. There was some kind of battle going on, but my mind didn’t seem to understand what I was seeing,” he explained, but then his face took on a sadder tone. “Then, this young child jumped in front of my and was hit in the chest by something. I looked at it, but it seemed to flicker, like it wasn’t really there. The baseball bat the bow was holding was the same way. I would turn my head and I could see a sword, but looking at it, I saw a baseball bat. I picked it up and hid it in my car, hiding out for the next few days until everything seemed to settle.”

“That must have been the Battle of Manhattan,” Aisling concluded. “When Kronos tried to destroy Olympus!”

“Why would Kronos be attacking New York City if he wanted to destroy Olympus?” the Collector asked, raising an eyebrow at Aisling, but he quickly returned to his story. Anyway during those days, I would keep looking at it and it kept changing. I’d close my eyes for a minute and open them to see a rifle. Sometimes it was bat, other times it would appear as a cheap sword from a Halloween costume. I knew I had stumbled onto something amazing. For years, I had scientists study the object until one day they discovered a way to see it clearly.”

“And that was when you made a pair of glasses that allowed you to see through the Mist,” I guessed.

“Correct, but of course I swore the team of scientists to secrecy. I couldn’t allow the public to know about any of this, at least until my collection was complete,” he smiled as we turned another corner. While we had lost our owl in the multitude of library aisles, the Collector seemed to have one of his own that was much slower.

“Come again?” Jack asked.

“Yes, once I have all the Elementals in my possession, I will flush out the last of them and I will have a collection like no other in the world. Truly it will be a sight to behold,” he said almost wistfully. This guy was crazy if he thought that was a good idea. “Then maybe after that, I’ll open a zoo with all kinds of mythological animals! The children will love it.”

“You’re completely out of your mind,” Kimi announced, which kind of shocked everyone. Kimi wasn’t exactly the kind of person that would be so blatant with her words. “You’re not a collector; you’re a monster even worse than the beings you keep taking for yourself. Do you even know what you’re doing?!”

“I know exactly what I am doing. During my visits to this beautiful library, I have seen a prophecy that explains it all. It is actually right over there,” he said, pointing over to a class case with a stone slab inside. Everyone went silent as we looked over to the case. My mind went back to thoughts of a Great Prophecy that Chiron and Joe had avoided telling me about when I asked them. As I looked at it, I felt almost drawn to it and before I knew it, I was right in front of it.

It was an old piece of rock for sure, but it was made from a rock that I couldn’t even identify. The rock was the color of silver, but the texture looked different somehow. It gave off a rainbow of colors from the light shining on it. The most obvious thing about the slab however was that the bottom half seemed to be missing, obvious from the uneven marks. It was almost as if someone had taken a chisel and just gone to town on it.

“What does it say?” Aisling asked, looking over my shoulder. It was kind of funny, but I was so blown away by the stone that I hadn’t actually read it. I looked down and began to read the words out loud:

''When the forces of nature go to war; The earth will be shaken to its very core. The guardian of all will wake and join the fight; But fall to nature’s overwhelming might. A knight will rise…''

That was where the prophecy ended, as the rest was cut off. I tried to wrap my head around the words, but I knew that trying to figure out a prophecy was useless. However one thing was for sure, the Guardian was waking and the prophecy said it would fail.

“You see what I mean, I’m saving the world,” the Collector explained, pointing to the prophecy. “It says that the Guardian will fail, so I’m collecting the Elementals in order to prevent that from happening. And if I just so happen to make one of the world’s greatest collections in the process, then that is just an added bonus.”

“But this prophecy is incomplete, you can see that the last part is cut off,” I pointed out. “Prophecies never turn out as we hope and this one isn’t even complete. You could be causing more harm than good.”

“Please, what harm could I possibly be causing?” the Collector asked as his face lit up in a smile. It was actually kind of unsettling how sure this guy was that what he was doing was the right thing to do.

“Well for one, the Elementals are pretty much on a rampage,” Aisling pointed out.

“Ya dude, some lava monster was rampaging down Main Street a few days ago in Albany,” Jack added. “Hate to see what else is going on in the rest of the world.”

“Minor setbacks,” the Collector commented as he waved his hand, obviously brushing us off. “I have quite a few Elementals already. I will simply use type advantages to claim the others. Water beats fire, fire burns plants, plants break rock; it is really just a game of rock-paper-scissors when you think about it.”

“And what about the Elementals?” I demanded. “I have seen how you treat them. You use their powers with force; you’re hurting them.”

“My dear boy, something needs to have feelings for it to feel pain,” he responded with that same self-assured smile. I wanted to punch this guy right in the face, but thankfully I didn’t have to. Before anyone could even react, Kimi had slapped him right across the face with enough force for the sound to echo across the library and almost knocking his glasses off in the process. The Collector looked more shocked then us and rubbed the red mark slowly forming on his cheek, which clearly looked like a hand.

“I’m actually surprised that hurt you, as you need to have feelings to feel pain,” Kimi told him.

“Right on,” Jack commented, raising his hand and waiting for her to give him a high-five; but Kimi was too busy staring daggers at the Collector.

“Hey guys, we might have a problem,” Aisling notified us as she looked up. I followed her gaze and saw that more owls had appeared in the few minutes we had been distracted. By now, there were well over a hundred owls looking down on us from their spot on the shelves of the book cases. Then a huge shadow appeared, completely blocking out the light from up above. An owl then landed in front of us, but this was no ordinary owl. It was much bigger than any of the other owls, being about the size of a full grown elephant. Its feathers were completely black except for the silver feathers that made up its face. Just like the other owls however, his eyes were almost completely black and I could see all of us reflected in them.

“So I may not be the genius of the group or anything,” Jack said as he began taking a few steps back. “But I think we better start running.”

Jack then took off and we all followed soon after. Kimi gave the Collector another dark look, but followed us soon after. The owl on the other hand extended its huge wings and let out a cry that echoed through the entirety of the library and the owls all returned the call back to it.