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Jayda, telling her that darkness had consumed the man she loved. Jayda was taken by mistake by the ruler’s guards. When she stood before him for punishment, the darkness left, and Jayda and the ruler lived a very long life completely in love,” August explained.
     
    I could feel astonishment come over Perodine; her face lost all of its color, and she slid into the chair in front of which she was standing.
     
    “Are you OK?” Landen asked.
     
    “I just...I just remembered Donalt from long ago...he wasn’t always...cold,” Perodine said in a quiet voice. She looked at me. “I told you that at one time I did love him. I...I lost our first two children. The grief changed me, and I went months without even seeing him. I just don’t remember when he changed. I mean, I remember coming to him, wanting to try again, and...he felt empty. He made me feel like a nuisance,” she said. She sighed and looked to the shadows of the room, then to the scroll. “I just want to know what I’m fighting: the man I gave my life to, or a darkness that took him from me.” Perodine reached for the books and turned the pages, then looked up at August. “Can you read this? Tell me more so I’ll know.” she said.
     
    “I’ll show you what I know,” August said, placing his hand on hers.
     
    “Have you learned anything else about the scroll?” Landen asked, stepping closer to the table.
     
    August broke his stare with Perodine and looked up at him. “Perodine has assured me it’s not the orbit that brings the trails,” he answered.
     
    I looked at her. “Then what is it?” I asked.
     
    She looked up into my eyes, and I could feel her grief. “After Donalt saw you for the first time, he was furious – he knew that you would end his dark reign. I had him watched, and my spy witnessed the chant that envisioned the battle you’re in.”
     
    “Chant? Like a curse? You’re saying I’m cursed?” I said, gasping for a clear mind as hopelessness consumed me.
     
    “No,” she said, rising to come to my side. “No one can ‘curse’ us; our thoughts control our lives. Even if it were possible to be cursed, I’d already protected you at that point.”
     
    “What was the purpose of the chant then?” I asked, growing too tired to understand half-spoken myths.
     
    “Its purpose was for him to see each time you’d be strong enough to strike him, to cause his rein to crumble. In his mind, he thought if he could see when you were coming, he could cause you to fail.”
     
    “I’m not coming for him. I wouldn’t even know he existed if it weren’t for Drake coming after me with the blue moon. Why would I chase a devil?”
     
     
     
    “You’re seeing this from the moment you’re in now. Try to imagine a grand scheme stretching across a multitude of lifetimes. In reality, a million different circumstances could have lead you there on that night. The point is, there are ten moments in this lifetime that you will be strong enough to bring the devil to his knees. These moments are reflected by the universe above – eight planets beyond the sun and moon will be your power to come full circle and defeat the dark ruler,” she answered
     
    “Can you see the moments? Can you tell me when the next one will be?” I asked with pleading eyes, shaking in fear of what was to come.
     
    Landen came to my side and tried to push peace into my body; the numbing feeling was chasing away my fears, but I still trembled.
     
    Perodine fought back tears before turning to walk back to the table to look at the scroll. “Each moment was traced by the stargazers of that time and recorded here. Some will be easily seen, like the Blue moon; others will be more obscure. The only thing I know for sure is that the influences will come in order of the orbit. To find the time, we’ll have to watch the skies above and the prediction of the scroll; when they match, we’ll know that the trail is upon us.”
     
    As we all felt the weight of