Bracken x reader (Fablehaven)

Chapter 2

As I stepped into the room I saw Warren conversing with Bracken heatedly. "Kendra, do you trust this guy?" Warren asked once he saw me. "Yes, I do, he's a Unicorn.". "So I've heard." he replied, disgruntled. "We need to leave now. I know of an escape route.". "Wait how are you here and how are we supposed to be sure it's really you?" I asked concerned.

Warren held out his hands to Bracken and said, "let him check.". Bracken clasped his hands around Warren and closed his eyes for a moment, "it's really him. I did not anticipate this, the Sphinx really?". Bracken asked, seeming confused.

"What about the sphinx?"I asked. "It seems that someone slipped Seth the translocator and the Sands of Sanctity before he escaped. When he returned to fablehaven and couldn't find anyone he went to Graulas and healed him." Warren said before I interrupted him.

"Why on earth would he do that?". "He must have thought he was giving him mercy.

Anyway after he healed him, Graulas broke free of the treaty and overturned fablehaven, Coulter was killed in the process." tears stung my eyes as he continued. "Graulas then stole the artifacts and came here. He is now vying for control against the Sphinx and is campaigning to free Nagi Luna, another powerful demon who has been in captivity for centuries.". "This is bad as misguided as the Sphinx is; he has always maintained only to open Zzyzx on his own terms." Bracken said with a mixture of shock and amazement.

"So now he wants us to escape." I said clarifying. "Thats right if he cant open Zzyzx himself he doesn't want it open at all, he is going to stay here and work to get the artifacts back and become a spy on the inside.". "We should seize the opportunity while we have it, we'll have to leave everyone else behind a small team will be crucial to our success.". I said resolutely.

Warren looked at me with poorly concealed surprise. I assume he expected me to campaign to find more friends and build a larger force, but I can't let anyone else risk their lives. This mission was my responsibility as the most powerful and I failed , I have to make things right.

"We should get going then." Warren said, moving towards the door. "Hold on, does anyone have a coin?" Bracken asked. Warren fished around in his pockets and produced a quarter. " excellent" Bracken said and clasped his hands around the coin as he clenched his eyes shut. "This coin will now work as a contact point between us and the Sphinx."

Warren led the trio out of the cell and around the corner before they stopped in front of a blank wall. " Here" Bracken questioned,"I must be losing my touch". " the sphinx assured me that it is perfectly concealed." Warren said before reciting strange words if you could even call them words, when he finished the wall became semi transparent. I assume the other side was wrought with darkness but it has been a long while since I have been truly physically in the dark.

We walked through winding corridors until we came upon a stairway, near the top Bracken stopped abruptly and grabbed my arm, " your brother is contacting me". Warren and I stared at him as his lips twitched, presumably he was conversing with Seth while mumbling the words he was thinking. He looked up done with the mental conversation.

" Seth is distraught; he is blaming himself for Fablehaven falling and Graulas getting free, but he has received sound advice from an ancestor of yours. Hopefully it will be enough to keep him from falling to despair." I nodded swiftly, the tears from earlier once again welling in my eyes.

"The most we can do for him right now is keep going," Warren said, resuming our progress up the stairs. Once at the top we are met with the sight of a large room and in the middle there was a being that appeared as a man with a bull's lower half.

"A lammasu" bracken said under his breath, he and the being conversed quickly when they were done the lammasu bowed to Bracken and he ushered them along towards an exit that had appeared in the back of the room while they were talking.

Once outside I smiled in the light of the sun before asking ," what is the plan". "The sphinx suggested a course that will lead us away from the more dangerous parts of the preserve and the hunt for me. However once we get to the dome it is guarded by an actual Sphinx who will pose us riddles for entry.". Warren said. "I can handle the riddles." Bracken said with a faint smile. Warren nodded and started off towards a grove of trees.

We're gonna time skip until they meet the actual Sphinx outside the shrine(the fairies found them weapons)

Fairies alighted on my shoulders as we neared the giant metal dome, as we got closer I noticed what I assumed would be a sphinx. I reached back and rested my hand on the handle of one of my scimitars as Bracken walked forward leading us to meet the Sphinx.

"We would like access to the shrine "Bracken said. "Consider two sisters," the sphinx intoned in a sultry voice. Audible to the ears, the words also penetrated directly to the mind. Though she spoke in a subdued manner, each word somehow arrived with the force of a shout. "The first is born of the second, whereupon the second is born of the first."

"The sisters are Day and Night." Bracken said without a beat

"I surround the world, yet I dwell within a thimble. I am outside of" "

You are space" Bracken interrupted. The sphinx compressed her lips and gave him a hard stare. She spoke again. "In the morning I walk on four"

" the stages of a man's life" i interrupted, as attention shifted to me " i researched famous riddles, with my luck i figured i would run into a situation like this at some point.".

" very well, you may pass, 3 riddles for 3 people" the Sphinx intoned. She rose from her position and stalked toward the other side of the dome. I looked at Warren and Bracken and we walked towards the gargantuan dome.