Hundreds of puffs of warm breath against the frigid night air drifted up into the bright lamplights inside the belfry of Tower Four. The silence within the lair of the Thimbles sent a shudder up Raven’s back. He looked all around, waiting for someone to raise their hand, to claim success… to do anything. But Van’s faithful associates stood in ghastly, uncomfortable stillness.

  “Nothing?” Van said in shock. “The Black Rabbit rings no bells to any of you? What about ‘the Professor’ as it relates to anything to do with the Shrale family?”

  Two hundred Thimbles remained silent, looking around as if expecting someone else to have the answer. Raven frowned and closed his eyes, searching his mind for something else he’d overlooked. The disappointment was overwhelming.

  Months of searching, blood, sweat, and tears… now at a seeming dead end. Could it really be? If two hundred sets of eyes and ears poring over every nook and cranny in Roespeye wasn’t enough, where else could he look? Should he ask Valentine to try the Depths again? Should he bring in the Pandora Society on the chance they know something about this Black Rabbit person? Maybe this was all a terrible ruse by Valius to throw him off the trail completely!

  Mere days remained until the challenges. What rock was left to be overturned? What clue remained untouched? The lost pages of Shrale’s tome never seemed further from reach.

  He could hear Rue whispering prayers for him in the recesses of his hearing and was just beginning to think it was a very good idea when the sound of the elevator lift caused him to turn. After a minute, Jack Storne entered the lair, huffing and puffing for air.

  “Sorry I’m late!” he wheezed, pulling off his flat cap and wiping cold sweat off his forehead. “I lost track of the time. What did I miss?”

  He put a hand on Raven’s shoulder, but when he saw his face, he immediately retracted it. “What on earth?” he shouted, aghast. “What happened to your face?”

  Raven scowled with his lone eye. “Don’t concern yourself.”

  “How do you keep hurting yourself? Van, back me up. It’s self-mutilation, isn’t it? He has to like this or something.”

  Van snickered in spite of the situation, and Raven leered at him.

  “The Black Rabbit,” Raven said. “Does that name mean anything to you?”

  “The Black Rabbit?” Jack repeated, scratching his head before replacing his cap. “The Black Rabbit, the Black Rabbit… oh!”

  Two hundred heads snapped to face him. He recoiled in shock.

  “You know something?” Raven asked quickly.

  “Uh… well, yeah! I don’t know if it’s much, but I remember seeing something about a black rabbit.”

  Two hundred groans immediately issued from the rest of the Thimbles.

  “I can’t believe Jack is gonna win the ten thousand crowns!” Little Sister grumbled.

  “This is a set-up!” another Thimble complained.

  “Hey!” Van said, half angrily. “Did you not all get paid incredibly well the last few weeks?”

  Two hundred reluctant nods and mumbled yesses issued in reply.

  “Tell me what you know,” Raven said, facing Jack. His heart beat wildly at the sudden turn of events. “Quickly now!”

  “Well, it’s kind of hard to describe. I think I need to show you. But it’s close by! Tower Eight.”

  “Here in Nine Star Academy? That’s Master Forir’s tower.”

  “It’s pretty late right now, though. It’s probably locked shut.”

  Van grabbed both Jack and Raven by their shoulders. “Let’s not dilly dally,” he said with a smile.

  What happened next Raven could never have anticipated. A blue beast of fire suddenly appeared like a ghost, lighting up the shadowy bell tower. The creature leaped, snatching his arm between flame-licked teeth. Van and Jack were also snatched up and together they were dragged to the ground with a great tackle. But they never hit the floor.

  Swirling lights and sounds consumed his senses as he felt the incredible sensation of rushing speed. It was as if he’d been transported to a hypnotic, whirling two-dimensional plane. Everything looked flat, but they moved too fast to focus. The beast hurdled into the strange horizon, dragging them all along at break-neck speed. Jack screamed, holding onto his hat for dear life.

  There was no pain, but the constant swirling motion made Raven sick. Somehow, he understood what was happening. They were inside the floor! Van’s pandora, Cast Off Tommy, had melded them within the dim surfaces of the wooden rafters, like a shadow of eyes ever observing the outside world from a flat plane. They careened through dark space, twisting and turning. The great blue cat charged toward the exit and then leaped.

  They popped out of the surface, reanimated into three-dimensional form. Cold blasted their faces. The leopard had leaped right over the edge of the tower! The great cat plummeted to the ground. Jack hollered in terror as they fell, and Raven felt like joining him. But instead of ground impact, they instead merged once again, painlessly returned to the two-dimensional plane. The cat bounded and pranced between the two planes, surging back to Nine Star’s Courtyard while dragging them all helplessly behind. In the blurred haze, Raven was able to glimpse Forir’s tower among the strange visions, and he somehow recognized when they passed under the locked doors with ease.

  The leopard made one final leap out of the ground, releasing his hold of the three passengers by its brute grip. Van landed on his feet. Raven landed on his butt. Jack landed on his head. The blue beast retreated without a sound.

  “Ow, ow, ow!” Jack shouted, rolling across the floor.

  “Shh!” Van reprimanded comically. “Master Forir might still be here.”

  Raven felt both exhilarated and angry. “You could have given us warning,” he said, taking Van’s extended hand and getting back to his feet. “That was absolutely wild.”

  Jack winced as he joined them, looking green. “I feel sick. If I wasn’t so excited about getting ten thousand crowns, I’d be pretty upset myself.”

  Raven smirked. “We’ll see about that. We’re in Forir’s tower. Now what?”

  He stopped himself from throwing up. “It’s over there,” he burped.

  He pointed to the wall near the door leading to Forir’s study. Only one small pandora light existed, placed above the doorframe to provide illumination to the deep domed theater at night, but it was enough to see what he was pointing at. Along the wall beside Forir’s door were rows of paintings of the former Battle and War Tactics masters in Nine Star Academy history. They approached, and Jack scurried to one on the bottom row.

  “I was in here a week ago, because I understood the Shrales go way back in Roespeye,” he said. “Turns out some were teachers. A lot of them. I came in here looking for information, hoping I could talk to Selim Forir…”

  He trailed off, looking confused. “Wait… Selim Forir. Now that I think about it, isn’t he the brother of that man that got murdered in Zaliance? The one you were looking into?”

  “And here I stood, thinking I was about to be amazed by your memory,” Raven replied in amusement.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he replied, irritated. “Anyway, there are four Shrales who taught Battle and War Tactics in the past.”

  “I know all this.”

  “Even I know that,” Van quipped. “We’ve read enough history on the Shrales to fill a hundred books.”

  “Well, maybe you two should be just a bit more observant then. Because when I perused these little pictures here, I caught a glimpse of this!”

  He pointed to the painting next to him. The nameplate on the frame read “Diggory Vampton.” The portrait portrayed a dignified man, similar in stature to Valius. Black hair sat slicked against his head, trailing down to a ruffled black collar. An incredibly large nose and pale, oily skin did not accomplish enough to shake the poise and grace in his countenance.

  “I know Vampton,” Raven said. “He was Master at Nine Star during Shrale’s time.”

  “Look where I’m pointing!” Jack half growled.

  They peered even closer. A small pin had been affixed to the man’s petticoat in the painting, lying under the shadow of his high collar. The insignia of a black rabbit was now unmistakable.

  “Holy Wild,” Van said.

  “The Black Rabbit,” Raven whispered. “This has to be him!”

  “But he’s not a Shrale.”

  “Valius told Valentine he gave it to a friend. This fits.”

  “So… does this help? Did I win?” Jack asked.

  “This is an immense discovery, but I still don’t have the pages. Do you know anything about this man?”

  Jack reached into his pocket and produced his notebook. He shuffled through the pages while Van perused the paintings.

  “I don’t remember reading anything about this guy,” Jack finally admitted. “But then again, I wasn’t looking for anything on him. I just noticed the pin. Didn’t think nothing of it at the time.”

  Raven’s mind churned with next steps. If Vampton was given the precious instructions to find the missing pages of the Star Tome, then his heirs might still have them. He could only hope they still lived in Roespeye.

  Two loud thuds interrupted his thoughts. He turned to find Van looking apologetic. The paintings on the left and right of Vampton’s portrait had fallen off their hooks. The frame of one sat broken in pieces.

  “Oops.”

  Raven shook his head. “You always have to touch things, don’t you?”

  “Well, you might be thanking me. Look at this!”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He put his hand on Vampton’s picture frame. It didn’t budge. He touched a few others and they all swayed on their hooks. Then he touched Vampton’s again. The picture didn’t move at all.

  “And now that I think of it,” he said. “The pin in the picture looks a little weird doesn’t it?”

  He reached out and pressed a finger onto the canvas. The circular pin suddenly gave way, like a button. There was a click, and a large section of the wall gave way with a splitting crunch. Grating screeches echoed in the chamber as the wall moved back on its own, and then shifted to the side, opening up a hidden chamber.

  “Yes! Yes!” Raven exclaimed.

  The revealed chamber was small and empty. A near identical portrait of Diggory Vampton hung on the far wall, covered in dust. There were just two differences. A pair of pandora were affixed to the top of the frame. One card featured two fork-tongued lizards while the other pictured an ornate lantern. Both cards were ghostly white – very near heavenly retirement. The second difference was the pin. The man still wore one in the painting, but instead of a rabbit, a seven-pointed star was pictured.

  “Another painting?” Van said in confusion, holding up a light pandora to grant illumination.

  “Not just a painting,” Raven replied. “A true work of art.”

  “I appreciate that,” a voice replied.

  Jack and Van whirled, expecting someone behind them. But no one was there. They turned back and noticed Raven had come face to face with the painting. When they joined him, they quickly realized what he was staring at so intently. The man in the picture was looking back at them.

  “Long ago, I had come to accept that no one would find me and provide me what was required,” Diggory said, looking both relieved and unnerved by their presence. The painted lines swirled and flowed as he moved within the picture. “As you can see, very little time remains until my pandora becomes utterly spent.”

  “You set all this up?” Raven asked. “Tell me why. Although I am sure I know the answer.”

  “My dear colleague Valius Shrale died protecting something of utmost importance,” the genteel man replied. “With his dying hours, he bestowed upon me explicit instructions for the protection and the potential granting of his Star Tome to his true heir, someone worthy of it.”

  “And that is why we are here.”

  Diggory nodded, sighing tiredly. “I knew it was important to my friend. He told me very little except how the tome should be protected. He prepared a test for the one worthy of the pages. The test would lead to me.”

  “The Black Rabbit.”

  He nodded. “A title I used to loath but came to appreciate later in life. After Valius passed, I waited for so many years. He told me someone might come, but he doubted it. When my own final days drew near, I felt a firm conviction to carry out his wishes beyond my own final days. With my special pandora, I was able to carry on like this… oh dear.”

  The paint around the edges of the picture started to ooze, dripping down the canvas.

  “This conversation hastens the retirement of my pandora, I’m afraid,” he said. “We must speak quickly.”

  “Where are the two missing pages of the Star Tome?” Raven asked directly.

  “That you should know exactly two pages are missing speaks to your worthiness. But I must follow Valius’s instructions to the letter. What is the password he left for you to find? Speak it to me now.”

  Raven shrugged. “I have no idea. The clues he left behind were long destroyed. It has been a hundred years since his death. So, we went to him directly, speaking with his pandora, which I now hold.” He held up the Class Seven pandora for Diggory to see.

  “Oh, my dear friend,” the painted man lamented. “Still nowhere near retirement. Have you truly cut yourself off from the world? How I wish you would have told me what horrible thing you did so I could have comforted you in your last hour.”

  “His shame is what brings us here. We are desperately trying to reverse the curse he bestowed on Roespeye.”

  Diggory’s face fell in anguish. As the paint further dripped down his canvas, threatening to erase him, conflicting emotions splayed across his face while the watchers waited with bated breath.

  Finally, he replied with sad dignity. “You are the second person to have circumvented Valius’s clear instructions and come to me with no answer. I cannot tell you where the pages are. His instructions were clear. If you are unable to tell me the words of passage he required, your search is at an end. I am sorry.”

  He looked around as more paint flowed down all around him. The two pandora attached to his frame were now milky white.

  “It would seem my time is up.”

  Raven scowled, but he did not reply. A second person?

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Van shouted. “Do you know what we’ve been through to get here?”

  “I can only imagine. But there is nothing you can say to convince me. I am resolved.”

  Van seethed. “Before you go, you should at least know… Valius Shrale murdered a kid!”

  Diggory looked at him in shock.

  “Worse than that, actually. He ripped the soul out of her and turned her into the Sleeping Devil! His act destroyed Reyk Roespeye! Is that what you’re actually protecting?”

  “I don’t believe you,” he replied with a shaking voice.

  Raven stared at him darkly. “Yes, you do. But it matters not, because as you said, your time is up. Die knowing you protected a monster for a hundred years.”

  Before the man could reply, a swath of paint ran down his face. He stopped talking, and the two pandora melted away into starlight particles that quickly faded into the darkness.

  Van punched the wet canvas, tearing a hole through it. “Now what do we do?” he asked desperately.

  Raven smiled triumphantly. “He gave me everything I needed.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  Instead of answering, he produced a small sheet of paper from his pocket and a pandora pen. He used the wall to write a quick message. Folding it up, he handed it to Jack.

  “You’ve earned your ten thousand crowns, Jack.”

  “I did?”

  “Make your way to Reyk Zaliance. Follow those instructions perfectly, and you’ll be well rewarded.”

  “Wow, I was not expecting this after that exchange. What an entirely bizarre series of events. But this is fantastic news! Will do!” He looked all around, puzzled. “Now uh… how do we get out of here?”

  Raven looked at his friend. “Van, take us to Marcus Shrale as quickly as possible. You can drop Mr. Storne off on the way.”

  Van smiled jubilantly, grabbing his shoulder and then Jack’s.

  “Oh no!” Jack protested.

  But before he could do anything else, the blue leopard ignited, leaping out of the ground and crashing into them. They were snared by his jaws and dragged back into the floor. The cat careened through shadow, pulling them under the doorway once more and out into the frigid night. The beast leaped, pulling them up with it, but at the height of its arch, it let Jack go.

  Raven normally would have laughed watching him land on his back, but the sensation of Van’s pandora was still far too stomach-turning. The cat leaped and zoomed through the dark night. With concentration, Raven was able to make some semblance of the world that flurried by. When they reached the streets of Roespeye, he saw the light of lanterns the cat deftly avoided. When they reached the Black Side Tunnel, he could make out the suddenly steep mountainside, and the boulders, trees, and snow mounds over which they rapidly traversed. And when they entered Supenheil, the flickering lights and snow-covered huts and tents passed in a blur.

  In short time, the leopard bounded out of the snowy ground one last time, releasing Raven and Van from its grip. This time, they both landed on their feet. The blue blur vanished in moments. Raven shook his head, allowing time for the spinning world to right itself.

  “So why are we here?” Van asked, staring up at Marcus Shrale’s hut.

  “Diggory Vampton gave away the whole thing. Did you see the pin? And his pandora?”

  “Uhhh…”

  “His pandora featured a familiar lizard design. And the pin showcased a peculiar star. I’d seen both before… on the same object.”

  “Oh!” Van snapped his fingers. “Marcus’s third treasure in the bell glass! I remember. It had initials on it.”

  “D.V.”

  “Diggory Vampton! Holy Wild! But how do you connect finding the instructions to that? It’s just a statue, isn’t it?”

  Raven climbed the steps to the hut. “Maybe, but that doesn’t matter. It’s what Diggory said. ‘True heir.’ He said Valius wanted to give the pages to his true heir.”

  “I got it! That’s what Marcus has been prattling on about endlessly! Brilliant! So, Marcus must have the instructions somehow. Does he have the missing pages to the Star Tome, too?”

  Raven kicked the front door, smashing it open. His eye narrowed as he scanned the darkness. “He wishes.”

  He stormed inside, making for the stairs to the second floor landing. Marcus appeared at the top of the staircase, sleepy and bewildered. When he laid eyes on Raven marching straight for him, he panicked with a shriek, retreating. Raven and Van quickly followed, bounding up the stairs.

  “GET AWAY FROM ME!”

  They found him huddled in the far corner of the ornate room, clutching to his Facker Chest. Tears streamed from his eye as we wept in terror. Raven slowly approached, gaze alight with deadly rage, like the devil come to claim his soul.

  “I want the pages to the Star Tome, Marcus,” he said darkly. “I will have them.”

  “NO!” he shouted, clutching to the chest. “I am the true heir! ME!”

  “You are NOT the heir!” Raven roared. “I AM THE HEIR! And I will not be hindered one more second!” He grabbed Marcus by his tattered robes. “Valius didn’t leave your family the Star Tome because he knew they weren’t worthy of it.”

  “You’re wrong!”

  He shook him. “Would the true heir gamble precious heirlooms away? You have never been worthy!”

  Marcus wailed in bitter sadness. “I hate you! I HATE YOU! Who are you? Some spirit sent to torment me? All I ever wanted was the tome! It’s my birthright! You can’t take this from me! It’s all I have left now. This is all I am! AND YOU’VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!”

  Raven dropped him and Marcus retreated back to his corner, weeping all the more.

  “Marcus…” Raven now said gently.

  The man looked up at him, reducing his cries to sniffling.

  “You know what Valius did, don’t you?”

  He wiped his eye, looking down. “Yes,” he replied quietly.

  “And can you fix it? Can you save Sheeharu Rendan and undo his evil act?”

  He sat silently, swallowing hard. “I don’t know.”

  “Yes, you do.” Raven reached inside his robes and produced Valius Shrale’s pandora and his insignia ring. “You are not the heir. And you cannot withstand the madness Valius warned about. You know this. But I can give you back your legacy. In exchange for hope and in exchange for mercy, I offer these back to you.”

  Marcus stared in wonder, slowly getting up. “You would give my treasures back to me?”

  “Yes. Like you… I have been looking for something precious, something righteous. Do not let Valius’s madness become your own. Give me the way to find the pages. In doing so, you will redeem your wayward ancestor’s legacy and become a true hero in Shrale lore. And you would help me save my friend. Please, Marcus.”

  Marcus wiped his face with his sleeve, looking upon the objects in Raven’s hands in wonder and desire. For several moments, the trio stood in silence as the desperate man wavered to and fro in observable confliction.

  Finally, he picked up the Facker Chest. With a grimace, he placed his hand on the clasp. When he did, the top popped open. The marble statuette of the lizard with a flicking forked tongue lay inside. He pulled it out and placed it on his desk.

  “I discovered the secret in Uncle Diggory’s statue when I was a child. Purely accidental. Later, when he passed away… I made sure to take it from his study before anyone noticed. Ever since, I’ve been trying to restore the Star Tome.” He issued a deep sigh of relief and acceptance. “But you are right. I’ll never be able to read it. I just… wanted to restore my family honor before anyone found out what Valius did. So, if you will keep quiet about his crimes, I accept your trade.”

  “Very well.”

  Marcus placed a finger on the curled tail of the lizard, pressing down. When he did, a hidden compartment sprang open at the base. A severely yellowed letter lay inside. He picked it up and handed it to Raven and then took back his precious heirlooms. Joy unrivaled spread over the man’s face.

  Raven quickly opened the letter, heart pounding. Van joined him and together they read.

  Professor Vampton,

  My friend, how I wish we could share one last brew together, as is our choice leisure, but time is of the essence. I write to you now in a desperate hour of need. My death draws near, so I must task you with a dying request. Please do not deny me, as I fear the world might unravel if my instructions are not followed.

  I place in your care these two pages of my Star Tome. I have isolated them because they contain within them despair. Please do not read them, as you may not survive what produced my own doom. Forgive me for not destroying them, and I would not fault you if you did so, but I could not bear the thought, as the discovery is as massive as it is dangerous. My soul, blighted as it may be, has told me our era may need my happenstance discovery one day, a salvation against darkness, for indeed the miracle is in its light. But it is unfathomable to me that anyone but the finest soul in Fallowreyk could ever hold such a thing and maintain a sound mind.

  Therefore, I would ask of you this. One day, one who is worthy may come to you. My true heir, one not currently found within my own lineage. He will say to you “Ten is Completion.” I have left designs for my heir to find these words of worth. Only the one who says these words to you should be given the page you keep. And I say ‘page’ because I must also task you with a second commission. The pages I have torn from my Star Tome are contained within the two golden rods my messenger has just handed you. They are, in fact, keys. Relics of a time lost to history. They must be combined to open and retrieve both pages.

  Give one of these keys to Master Braven, our dear friend and Mathematics professor. Tell him nothing except that he is to keep the key with him and to keep it safe. Express the dire nature of his acceptance but tell him nothing more except that the key should be passed down to the next Mathematics professor after him. If he knows these are my instructions, he will follow them. In doing this, the pages shall remain in Roespeye always, but safe from harm or exposure. And thus, the resolve of my heir will be further tested, as he should obtain the second page through his own devices. Only brought together will my Star Tome unify.

  The pages went on for some paragraphs more, but Raven stopped reading. He couldn’t. His whole body tingled in shock.

  “The keys,” Van repeated, flabbergasted. “You can’t be serious. Fanny’s necklace? She had one of the pages this whole time! But, that means…”

  Raven looked at him and then Marcus.

  “Marcus… who has the other key besides Fanny?”

  “I think you already know,” he said sadly. “Diggory’s key was passed down to the current Battle and War Tactics master. Selim Forir.”