Fallen Haven [Baneful] Book 1

His Intentions?

It seemed like forever before Nicolette finally fell asleep. So many thoughts were flowing through her mind that she couldn't control. She'd never met her grandfather, but seeing her father worried made her wonder what he was like. Every time she tried to bring up why her grandparents never came to visit, Atlas shut down the conversation immediately.

Nicolette awoke to the sun shining brightly above the trees. Were they really going to leave this place far behind, like her parents said? There had to be another way to handle this. Ein was sound asleep, lying beside her. She gently shoved him to wake him up.

"Nicolette? What's wrong?" He rubbed his eyes and yawned sleepily.

"We shouldn't sleep too late. Our parents will be looking for us soon" They both stretched, trying to wake up fully. Nicolette, despite being young, could feel the anxiety coursing through her body. Something felt very off, but she couldn't explain what.

"Uh, Nicolette?" She looked over and saw the concerned expression on Ein's face. Following his gaze, she saw flowers withering around her hand. She stood up, completely freaked out by the phenomenon.

"W-why are they withering!?"

"H-hey, it'll be fine. Let's find your dad. Maybe he can help."

"No! You heard my dad he wants to leave, and if I bring in another problem, he might make us leave immediately" He hadn't thought about that. There wasn't much children like them could do in this situation, so he felt a little helpless.

"I wonder why it's acting up now."

"Ein, I'm really scared."

"It's ok," he patted her shoulder. "Let's go to the library. Maybe something there will explain what this is" Nicolette nodded, agreeing that was a good place to start. The pair headed to the library in the center of Stitem. The Library of Stitem held knowledge about everything in the world, but the restricted area was for adults that carried the knowledge and secrets about magic and abilities of all kinds.

"How are we going to sneak in there? We aren't adults," Nicolette said, disappointed.

"Don't worry; I've got an idea."

"This better not involve that stupid trench coat of yours."

"Well, uh... not anymore," she had seen right through his plan.

"Ein, we have to take this seriously. If my dad finds out I'm trying to get into the restricted section, he'll kill us," Ein gulped. He was afraid of her dad and was far too young to die. He wracked his brain for an idea that she would approve of.

"I know! We need to form some kind of distraction long enough for someone to disable the alarm."

"That's not an easy feat" Nicolette stared at the clock, slowly watching the secondhand click. 'What if they don't have what I need?' She thought to herself, growing more anxious by the second. At this point, Ein's words were muffled in the background as she continued to spiral within her mind. Everything went pitch black before she knew it. Scared, she looked everywhere, trying to figure out where she was.

"Well, this must be little Nicolette," a tall figure lurked in the distance, shrouded by the foggy darkness. Only his icy blue eyes pierced through the fog.

"W-who are you?" She was physically shaking, unable to control the fear coursing through her body.

"They didn't even tell you about your dear grandpa?" Grandpa? That's the person her father had mentioned earlier. What was he doing here?

"W-why am I here?"

"Oh, of course, you'd ask that. Sorry for dragging you in so suddenly. I can imagine you have thousands of questions that we just don't have the time to go over right now" Was there a time limit to this place? "Right now, you have potential, potential that your parents want to hide. They want to keep it locked away" Was he talking about what happened earlier today?

"How do you know about that" he chuckled.

"I know everything that happens in this world. Your grandpa is a very powerful man, and you could be just as powerful if you unlock this part of you" She didn't know what to think. She didn't know this man at all, yet he spoke to her so casually, like he'd known her forever.

"I don't like it here. I want to go home! Ein's waiting for me. He's probably worried" William rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes, I can see just how much you care for that boy, regardless if he's an idiot or not."

"He's not an idiot!" She snapped back, trying to defend him.

"People like us are the only ones who aren't idiots. We see the world from a different point of view. Nyx, our power is far stronger than they could ever hope to comprehend."

"My name's not Nyx..."

"Maybe not now, but soon it will be. Nyx will be your name, your guide, the only thing you'll understand and respond to" What was he talking about?

"You're scaring me."

"Don't worry, Nyx. Soon you'll be in the right hands, away from those who want to suppress your power like it never existed" Everything around her began to spin and distort.

"What do you mean!?" His words scared her. She didn't know what he meant or what he had planned.

"Nicolette Nicolette!" She could feel someone shaking her. "Nicolette, wake up!" She sat up quickly, hitting her forehead against Ein's.

"Oww!" They both held their heads in pain from the impact.

"Geez, you have a hard head flower."

"Hey! My dad says being hard-headed can be a good thing!" When the pain finally simmered down, she looked up and saw his expression. "What's wrong?"

"You were talking to yourself, or at least I think it was yourself. You were saying some pretty scary things. I almost took you to the hospital," what she said in that place could be heard outside of it? So just where did that man claiming to be her grandfather take her?

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to worry you."

"It's ok. I won't ever not be worried about you," she smiled. She could always rely on him to care about her through anything.

"We should focus on getting into the restricted part. We probably wasted time" Ein nodded and poked his head around the corner.

"If my powers were here, maybe I'd have something like teleportation, then I could get us in there so easily!"

"Wouldn't teleportation be a basic power" she teased.

"Hey, I could be like those cool superheroes in the movie last night teleportation is awesome!" She rolled her eyes and giggled.

"What about the ventilation system? It runs through the entire library."

"That could work. Come here. I'll give you a boost" Ein got on his knees. Nicolette climbed onto his shoulders and tugged on the vent hatch until it opened. "Can you fit?"

"I think so" She climbed inside, barely small enough to fit. "It's uh," she struggled to keep moving, "it's a bit tight i'll try to meet you in the restricted section. You're bigger than I am; you probably won't fit" Ein looked around the area, trying to find another way inside. The security guard was highly intimidating, all big and muscular. Ein felt his body going limp at the thought of being caught.

"You got this, Ein, don't be a scaredy cat, come on," a pep talk made him feel better. He slowly snuck to the chained-off door.

"Hey, you!" Ein froze in his tracks, thinking he had been caught and was done for. "There's been a spill on upper floor three" The guard wasn't talking to him but to the janitor.

"Again? What part of no food or drinks do people not understand!" Had to feel bad for the guy. This was clearly not the first time this had happened. Ein took the opportunity to sneak the keys out of the guard's back pocket. There were at least thirty keys, and he had no idea which one was correct.

Nicolette was making her way through the ventilation, trying not to get grossed out by the large amounts of dust lingering inside. Taking a peek through the vents, she could barely see into the restricted zone. She carefully removed the hatch before crawling out and landing on her feet. It seemed like nobody had been here in ages. The shelves were covered in thick layers of dust.

Ein struggled to get the chains unlocked, trying key after key. "This is such bullshit," he mumbled under his breath. She could hear him struggling at the door. Avoiding bumping into anything, she placed her hands on the chains. They wrapped around the entire door, held together by a massive lock on the front. Carefully and slowly, she concentrated her energy to her hands. They watched as the chains slowly began to rust and fall apart.

Soon the magic took it's toll on the lock, and it fell apart, allowing Ein to enter, but just when they thought they were safe, the lock hit the ground, creating a loud thud that caught the guard's attention.

"Crap!" They were so done for. Nicolette grabbed Ein and pulled him inside the room, shutting the door as quickly as possible.

"We need to find a place to hide!" That door wouldn't stop the guard from getting in, and if they didn't hide in time, it would be too late. They scrambled to find a place to hide, but it was so dark neither of them could see very well. Sure enough, the doors opened, and the guard walked in with his flashlight.

"Who's in here? Don't think I won't find you!" He scanned the area with his flashlight looking for their silhouettes. They couldn't afford to get caught by him, but what could they do? Ein felt like it was his turn to help out and took out a small device his brother Niko had given him. He wasn't quite sure how it worked and just pressed the button Niko told him to ages ago.

Laughter came from outside the room catching the guard's attention. "What the hell?" They heard his footsteps slowly get further away over a small duration of time. Nicolette let out a sigh of relief. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. Ein had no idea what the button did or if it did anything, but that laughter might've saved them. Scanning and ensuring the coast was clear, they quietly closed the doors again.

Nicolette found a lamp and managed to turn it on. This part of the library was much bigger than they had expected.

"How are we going to find anything in here?" Ein asked unsurely.

"I have no idea, but this place was locked down securely, which means there has to be something in here that can give me some answers" They split up and began looking through the shelves brushing off the dust as they went.

"Alchemy? Don't we learn that in class?"

"Uh, briefly, but they don't really dive into it."

"So cool! Ein scanned through the pages, intrigued.

"Stay focused Wolfie we can come back to that later"

"Right sorry" He placed the book down a part of him still wanting to read it.

"Necromancy, I mean, that sounds promising as it involves death to a certain extent" Skimming through the pages Nicolette became more discouraged. The more she read, the more she found little similarities between her abilities and Necromancy. "This isn't it," she put the book back. "I don't understand the restricted section has everything on magic and inner abilities anybody could ever wish to know."

"Maybe that's it."

"What is?" Nicolette looked at Ein, confused.

"Maybe your ability is something people refuse to acknowledge, something they wish didn't exist and nobody would want to read about" That didn't make her feel any better about herself. Ein saw her frown. "W-what I mean is maybe what we're looking for isn't within this library but hidden somewhere else, somewhere only a select few people are aware of" What he was saying made sense, but if that was the case, how were they going to find it?

"This ability I have is scaring me. I can control it to an extent, but I don't even know where it ends. I don't know it's full potential" Ein placed his hand on her shoulder.

"We'll figure it out, Nicolette. I promise we're not going to stop looking" She faked a smile. Something inside was still eating away at her and it was what that man said. "Sugar honey iced tea"