The Uniter of Aram

“I mean this is unbelievable! Do they seriously expect me to run away like a coward?” I raised my voice as I threw clothes into a travel bag. Caden was silent the entire time. He knew that when I was venting I never wanted an answer. “I am eighteen years old! I have been training for most of my life and this is what they have brought me up to do! They’re hiding something, Caden. I can feel it in my bones. They’re hiding something,” I waved my finger at him.

“Reyna, they’re not hiding anything from us.”

“They are!”

He sighed, “Come on.”

“Where are you going?”

“Getting you out of here. I want to show you something.”

“Caden, we have to pack.”

“It’s mid-day! We have plenty of time. We don’t leave until dawn, come on.” He grabbed my wrist and led me out of the room. “Put this on,” he handed me an orange blindfold.

I gave him a skeptical look, “Why?”

“Why must you be so difficult? Just put it on, I have a surprise for you.”

“I hate sur-“ He cut me off by covering my mouth with his hand, turning me around and placing the blindfold on my face himself.

“Now, Reyna, do you think you can shut up for two seconds and let me take you somewhere?”

I folded my arms; he took that as a yes and continued to led me down the hallway. Despite the fact that I couldn’t see, I could see the shift in lighting through the fabric. I assumed we were in one of the lower parts of the Grand House. It was very cold and I could feel water dripping on my arms. The cellars, I assumed. This is where they kept the spies from Liam when they were caught before they began the torture. Information was key just like in any other war.

“Caden, are you trying to kill me or something.”

He chuckled, “Just one more second.”

My patience was growing thin, “One. Okay, time for the blindfold to come off.” I reached to untie it, but he stopped me by putting his hand on mine.

“Don’t make me kiss you.”

“Oh please.”

“We all know you want me.”

I snorted, “In your dreams.”

“No, in your dreams. Okay, now you can take it off.”

I reached to pull the blindfold off, and when I could finally see I was amazed. It was a hidden room full of objects very unfamiliar to me. “What is this place?”

“This, my dear, is where they have stored everything from before the Dark Ages. Before the fall of America.”

I was amazed; it was beautiful. I could not find the words to express myself. There was everything I remembered from my books and teachings: computers, books, cars, and art, basically anything you could think of. “It’s incredible,” was all I managed to say.

“Let’s look around.” He said just before he dove into a pile of papers. “I can promise you there is stuff in here they left out in our history lessons.”

I raised an eyebrow; he was right. I mean let’s be honest, nobody ever tells you the full story. So, I followed Caden into the mountain of papers to investigate and see if I could piece together what I was told and what is said in these papers. Maybe I can find the truth somewhere in between.

After several hours of reading, Caden finally spoke up, “Reyna, come look at this.”

I scooted over next to him to see what he was summoning me for. “What is it?”

“It’s the prophecy.”

“What’s so interesting about that? We’ve seen it a thousand times growing up.”

“No, it’s different. Look, there’s more than what there normally is.”

I took the papers from him, he was right. “Caden, these are the missing pieces of the prophecy! I thought they were destroyed years ago.”

“Apparently not. If this is down here, someone wanted to keep it hidden.”

It was not written in our native tongue, it was something much older. “Can you read it?”

“I’m not sure, I’d have to see it in better light.”

Just then, an alarm went off and our heads jerked up. Caden went to go see what it was and then came back in a panic. “Reyna, we have to go. Now!”

“What is it?”

“They’ve come! They’ve come for you!”