Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

46. Shattered Clock

"I have to admit, the Countess might be a manipulative liar, but she takes good notes," Abby said. 

She was looking over her father's shoulder as he read through the notebook they had taken home from the earlier meeting. Once they had gotten home, Abby and Jake had been told everything and they decided to go through the new information they had together. Which was why they were all seated among the living room, Abby and Rafe and Lili on the couch, Jake sprawled on the carpet, and Eternity sitting crookedly in an armchair, eating a poptart. 

"Well hey, even narcissists who get everyone's name wrong have to have a few good qualities," Eternity snarked, before taking a bite of her snack. 

Jake looked up at his father from his place on the floor, "did you find the stories of the destroyed pieces, dad?"

"Yes, I did," Rafe said. Lili scooted closer to him, and the others perked up, giving him their attention and showing him they were ready to listen. 

He began, "the first of the three, she told us some about. It spent many years buried under decaying Roman ruins, where it remained from the fall of Rhakotis until an associate of the Countess sent it to her thinking it might be of interest. The Countess didn't know what it was, and got bored with it easily. She was preoccupied with keeping the town of Cambridge Falls under her control and searching for the Atlas. So she kept the scroll in her office on the boat where she contained monsters and sent prisoners."

"The one mom rescued all the kids from with Dr. Pym and uncle Michael's help?" Abby asked.

"That's the one," Rafe nodded.

Jake perked up, "she kept a monster there too, right? One that was afraid of water? And then Aunt Emma and Gabriel killed it?"

"You're right," Lili told him. 

"And during all that, when the dam broke and the waterfall was freed, the boat was destroyed as it went over the cliff. That's when the scroll was destroyed as well, by the collapse of the boat and the force of the water," Rafe explained. 

"Oh wow," Abby said, "that's... strange to think."

Lili huffed a laugh. It was strange to think, but of course, they were Wibberlys. Their entire lives were strange. So of course, the night when Kate, and Michael, and Emma, as well as Gabriel and Dr. Pym and King Robbie and all of them, concluded their first adventure in Cambridge Falls and the discovery of the first book of beginning would have such longstanding repercussions that never could have been predicted. Of course the night Kate discovered her destiny, the night she first encountered the Dire Magnus, was still changing her family's plans, even now. Lili might have appreciated the poetic aspect of it, if the destruction of the scroll wasn't a huge blow to her family's plans. 

She was snapped from her thoughts by her little brother asking, "what about the other two? How did they get destroyed?"

"The second one was passed down through a family descended from the Rhakotis sorcerers, who eventually settled on Loris and started a company growing and selling magical plants from all across the world," Rafe read from the notebook.

"Oh," Abby muttered, "that's cool."

Rafe smiled at her. Abby had been given cactus plants for her eleventh birthday by Wilamena and had been dutifully tending to them ever since. She actually had a bit of a green thumb, something the rest of the family lacked, but she embraced.

Abby seemed to realize the pause her interruption had caused, and blushed, "so, um, what happens next?"

"The family helped to maintain the gardens of the Rose Citadel. They hid the scroll in a secret compartment under a paving stone. After the Battle Of Loris - the first one, not the one with the ghosts - they realized the island wasn't as safe as they had thought, and decided the scroll was already forgotten to the world and it was time for it to die before being uncovered by the wrong hands. Apparently they created a dissolving potion, retrieved it, and completely destroyed the scroll," Rafe explained.