Gilded Heart

| 12 |

Everything had fallen back into their normal routine during those next few days, Ameerah went and studied and learned with Atlas, making potions, learning spells, and helping him help her understand more about herself and her abilities.

"Tell me again, Ameerah, you just walked up to Master Godfrey and that was it? You just placed your hand upon his head and cured him?"

"Well, yes but that wasn't it," she said, furrowing her brows as she continued to recall the fragmented memories of that time. "I said something, while I placed my hand on his head. It was like an enchantment or spell."

Atlas's brows shot up, his eyes widening. "Pray tell, what was it that you said?"

"You are meant to be together. Spirit wolves, you are the first wolves to walk this earth blessed with the chance to share a mind and body with a strong creature. The Moon Goddess gave you the chance to live again, through this bond between you and him. Live through him, with him," she managed to recite, remembering the words clearer as each day passed. "I wasn't aware, at the time, that I was saying anything and I surely did not know to say that in order to help him. I simply...said it."

"My word," he said, breathlessly, suddenly running across the room to one of the bookshelves. He climbed the sliding ladder and retrieved a book of the top shelf and climbed down. He slammed the thick, white leather-bound book onto the table, using his hand to wipe the thin layer of dust off the top to reveal the name. 

"Lunam Dea?" she spoke aloud, blinking up at the speechless warlock.

"I recognize the words you spoke, very faintly, but I know them to only come from one place," he began, opening the book and flipping through the pages. "This book is said to have been a gift from the Moon Goddess herself, a scripture which accounts of her glory and her wise words of morality, especially when it comes to that of werewolves. It is equivalent to the Holy Bible for humans."

"The Holy Bible?" she questioned.

"We'll cover that on a different day," he said quickly, still flipping through the pages until he stopped. "Here," he pointed. "On the day werewolves came to be, the Moon Goddess descended from her porcelain thrown to her most favored creatures, wolves, and said, 'My spirit wolves. You are the first wolves to walk this blessed Earth, and given the ability to share a mind and body with a strong creature. I grant you the opportunity to live again, through this sacred bond between you and man. Live through him, with him. You are stronger together. You are meant to be together.' And thus came werewolves, a blessing from the Goddess herself, creatures of the moon and night, of Lunam Dea."

Ameerah's eyes widened by the end of it, looking frantically at Atlas. "What does this mean, Atlas? How would I have known such a speech? I have never read that book in my entire life," she whispered, her voice weighed with fear and unease.

"Very few have read this, my dear. I am but the last remaining individual who owns a copy. The other copies have been sealed away in the Vault of Whispers under the castle---" he was besides himself, she could tell, his eyes blinking rapidly. "How could you have known such an inscription? Even if you managed to memorize it, what you said with Godfrey and even now does not sound like memorization. You practically knew it word for word and spoke it as if---"

He cut himself off, his brows suddenly furrowing. 

"As if what, Atlas?" she questioned, her own heart-rate accelerating. 

He moved the book aside and went to the other end of the room, dropping down to the floor to lift one of the floor-boards and reveal an old scroll. He placed it on the desk, rolling it open, his breathing ragged.