The Guardians - Prologue

Prologue ~ The Marble Room



It was supposed to be a day like any other day in The Valley. We followed through with our usual routines of getting up, eating, training, break, more training and eating, and bed. And then it all started over again. But that day something strange happened to us. The incident would change our lives forever. It was the day we found the Library…



The Valley is, indeed, an actual valley. It used to be what was known as Texas in the twenty-first century, a hot, humid, almost desert like state. The Valley was owned by one man: Jaeger. He called it a place where families could live in sunny peace and blissful harmony, for absolutely nothing other than their cooperation. The only other condition was that the children of each family must attend The Valley’s specialized Academy.

         The Valley…It is Jaeger’s world, where he controls everything that goes on in it, and no one aside from its inhabitants knew about it. The Valley was home to one of the greatest and largest cults in the world, and no one could prove it. The parents were all tired people, fed up with ruling their own lives, and believed everything Jaeger said, hung on to every phrase he spoke, as if their lives depended upon it. They never saw what went on inside the academy. A law decreed by Jaeger, the parents were not even allowed to go near the academy doors. In the Academy, we were trained for all kinds of things, but there were those of us whom were considered special. These so called “power users” had extended training courses and taught to use these “powers.”

         In The Valley, there was basically only one rule: listen to what Jaeger tells you to do, ask no questions. Disobeying a law here was dangerous. Any law breakers were severely punished by any means Jaeger felt suitable for you. “Children have to be harshly taught what discipline is.” He says. Amongst the students of the Academy, there were few who did not believe a word Jaeger spoke, but were too scared to voice this. The others simply chose to believe so not to be punished. Then there was us. We were such hypocrites back then. We did not believe Jaeger, but followed orders without thinking. I know what I had been doing was wrong, yet I did nothing to stop it. In Jaeger’s world, fear is an opponent you cannot possibly defeat.

         My name…Whether it was chosen by my parents or Jaeger or someone else I do not know, is Noelle Nights. I am currently fourteen years old, but the last time I was in The Valley was when I was twelve, two years ago. My frien…Comrades, are Celestine Raine, Tallula Saniero, Soleil Lafontaine, and Myrrh Vavasseur. All of us were eleven when it happened, except Myrrh who was nine. The night we found it, Myrrh could not be with us. We had been bored and were on break time. But…Something felt off. I had sensed the trembling of the wind, telling me something strange was either happening, or was going to happen. But Tallula had insisted upon exploring more of The Valley. You see, she’d just arrived in The Valley earlier that year, and was still a very curious and hyper girl. Really…All four of us should thank our bouncy, bright eyed friend for everything…Before, we were under Jaeger’s spell, like marionette dolls obeying the strings that were pulled by one. But when Tallula came, it was like a veil of smoke was carried away from our eyes on a warm breeze, leaving the truth clear and the will to do what was right.

Tallula had insisted upon exploring the outermost reaches of The Valley. We decided to allow such an exploration, for even we had not ventured too far from the main cult area. A long ways away, it was there that we found the Library. It was huge and made out of worn, grey stones that had once been white and pearly, a tower at the center reaching up to the heavens. We walked inside the old and dusty lace, coughing as our feet kicked up clouds of who knows how old dust. There were so many shelves made out of fine, but very faded, wood, with books hanging randomly off the shelves. Books lay about the floor as well, as if someone had torn through the entire library pulling books off and tossing them aside, frantically searching for something. There were rickety desks and chairs as well, but none of us trusted them enough to sit down on them.

“Ooh, that looks interesting!” Tallula exclaimed cheerfully, reaching for a book. Her fingers barely brushed its spine and the book crumbled into dust right before our eyes.

“Boy did you grab that book.” Celestine teased.

“I didn’t mean to break it…” Tallula mumbled.

“We should leave.” Soleil’s voice then was anxious and urgent. Her eyes were wide; I could tell she was very, very worried about being in a place like this. Soleil has always had an extraordinary sixth sense about things, even receiving visions every now and then. Even now I can’t imagine how she must have felt, with her heightened foresight senses telling her the library was forbidding and to leave, but her closest friends wanting to explore more. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. We shouldn’t…shouldn’t be here.”

“Come now, Soleil,” Tallula brushed her worry off like the dust that fell around us, “Just a little further in? We didn’t walk all the way out here just to leave right away, right? We should at least take this time to explore a bit of this library.”

Soleil was frowning; I could hear her accelerated breathing, could sense her pounding heart. Her entire body was shaking with the forbidding sensation, and I placed a hand on her should to reassure her that Celestine and I would make sure nothing happened to us. So, we trekked forwards, heading deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the ancient library. We clicked on the flashlights we had brought and headed into the sea of crumbling books and dust before us. Perhaps it was a mistake, ignoring Soleil’s warnings and allowing Tallula’s curiosity to drag us deeper into this unknown library. We hadn’t had a clue where we were going, searching blindly in the barely lit hallway of this mysteriously eerie place. But then the hallway split into two separate halls.

“Soleil, you and I will take this right hall.” Tallula said, unwavering.

“We shouldn’t split up.” Soleil protested.

“And you two go down the other, okay?” She continued, ignoring Soleil’s comment.

“Are you sure about this.” Celestine had warned, “It seems…a bit dangerous to me, splitting up like this.”

“It’ll be fine.” Tallula reassured us in her cheerful voice, “What can happen? It’s not like this place is made of wood and can break easily. It’s made out of stone. We’ll be fine; don’t worry so much. Just don’t sit on anything that doesn’t look safe.” She giggled, and then proceeded to drag an unwilling Soleil down the right hallway.

“How did we get ourselves dragged into this…” I remember sighing in exasperation.

Celestine shrugged it off and motioned for me to join her. I stood next to her, and we began to go down the hall. It was so quiet, the eerie silence making our nerves stand on end. We continued in the silence, just hoping the hallway would end soon so that we could turn around and go back to our rooms at the Academy and forget all about the Library. I pursed my lips in frustration as we had seemed to have been going nowhere, just walking in an endless hall of darkness and moldy old books. A shrill sound suddenly filled the hallway, making both of jump in shock. The sound came from a distance, bouncing off the stone walls and echoing through the entire library. It took Celestine and I a moment to realize the scream had come from none other than Tallula. We turned to each other when our brains connected the scream to our bouncy friend, shouting, “Tallula!” before turning on our heels.

We bound back down the hall, nearly tripping on the stools and chairs left in the same place for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years. Our minds, on edge from the unnerving library, were only focused on Tallula and Soleil, and the reason behind Tallula’s scream. Soon, the place where the halls parted was in sight. We raced down their hallway as fast as we could; hoping and praying were weren’t too late. Too late for what, we didn’t want to think about. Our minds disheveled and not thinking clearly, we nearly ran Soleil over and almost toppled straight into the hole in the floor Tallula had fallen through.

“Soleil, what happened?” Celestine questioned, “Where is Tallula?”

“The floor,” Soleil’s face was pale from shock and fear, tears filling her eyes, “It…It just cracked! And Tallula…! She…She just fell through!!”

“Tallula!” I shouted down what I pictured a black hole in space to look like, “Tallula, are you alright?”

“I think I scraped my leg pretty badly.” Tallula didn’t sound that least bit worried, “But other than that, I’m fine. But I can’t see anything. I’m not sure where I fell to…”

“We’ll find a way down there,” Celestine told her, “If there’s an opening under the floor, there has to be some sort of way to get there.”

I unexpectedly felt the floor beneath myself disappear. Eyes wide, no time to think, the ground cracked and threw us down black, empty space. We crashed to the solid floor with a hard thud, the wind knocked out of my lungs. Debris and dust flew everywhere, coating us thoroughly and making us cough and sneeze violently, and unable to see.

“Great,” I said sarcastically, half coughing, “Now we’re all trapped down here.”

Celestine shined her flashlight around where we had landed and was astonished to see how far we had fallen. The stairs leading up were off to the side. We were now in a large room made out of the same type of stone the library was made with, faded as well, but there were strange carvings all over the tall walls. We looked from picture to picture, trying to comprehend in the dense darkness what the pictures were trying to convey. The most frightening picture was that of something I had thought of as another universe or world. There were men and women fighting at all sides, and the image held many cracks and lines, as if the very world had shattered.

After shining the flashlight from one wall to the other, its light fell upon the wall that had been directly behind us. We were astonished to see that this was not simply a wall, but a large set of double doors big enough to fit a giant through. The doors, I had thought, were very strange. They were made out of a beautiful white marble that didn’t look in the least bit faded, let alone ancient like the rest of the library. Upon the double doors, a giant octagram had been carved into the marble. In each of the eight legs, a large, white gem had been placed.

“I wonder what all of this means.” Celestine pondered.

Together, the four of us approached the mysterious door. Unsure of why, the hair on the back of our necks began to stand on end. Our eyes had been wide, our breathing rapid, adrenaline pumping. Simultaneously, we reached our hands forward and lightly brushed the cool, smooth surface of the door. All at once, four of the white stones began to shine, changing from white to silver, green, blue, or purple. A creaking sound was heard and the huge doors slid open by an unknown force, splitting the octagram right down the middle.

The doors had opened into a gigantic circular room. I still remember that room so vividly…It had opened to the tower at the center of the library. The entire room was made out of the same white marble as the door, and was so smooth we could see our reflections in it. The room didn’t seem to have aged at all. The light there had been very bright; the room was lit by the eight spinning crystals some two hundred feet up on the ceiling. The shimmering light was like a white light from heaven, shining in all directions. Slowly and cautiously, we entered the room. At its center was a stone pedestal, made out of white marble too; it had strange writings carved into it in a language we could not even recognize, let alone read it, written in crushed jade. Gold lines extended from the base of the altar and extended out to the circular walls of the room. Upon further inspection, we realized the gold lines made the entire room into a giant octagram. The white light mainly shined on the thing the altar held up: a thick, leather bound book with a large gold lock. Tallula, her curious eyes glowing from the white light, reached for the book.

“Don’t.” I grabbed her hand before she touched the book.

“I just wanted to see it.” Tallula reasoned.

“It doesn’t appear as if we should touch it.” Celestine had commented, looking at the book with suspicion, “I think we’ve explored far enough. We should just leave it alone and go back to our dormitory rooms.”

“Aw…You two ruin all the fun…”

I remember that we had been so preoccupied with convincing Tallula to just go back that we did not see Soleil go for the book. I felt her movement, turning in time to see her wide eyes gleaming in the white light. Her hand entered the beam of light coming from the ceiling. Her hand, so very gentle, brushed the cover. One of the crystals above flickered for a moment before turning purple, shining down upon us with the white light. A strange wind suddenly picked up, making our hair and clothes thrash about in the turbulence.

“Soleil, what’re you – ?” I had said.

Soleil reached her other hand inside the beam and grabbed the book. Shocked, as the wind began to move faster, we reached for her hands. Gripping her by the wrists and arm, the three of us had been intent on pulling her back out of the beam. What we had not anticipated was the three more of the lights above going out, before changing to the colors green, blue, and silver. We pulled back, the four of us toppling to the hard, cold floor amidst the torrent of wind. Four of the legs of the octagram suddenly changed into these four colors as well, shooting beams of their light up to the ceiling above. The pressure in the room was bruising. The four of us were pushed onto the floor on our stomachs, almost impossible to stand. I remember looking from one side of myself to the other. Both Soleil and Tallula had already fallen unconscious, the pressure too much for them to handle.

My body had been riddled with pain as the pressure increased. All of a sudden, I heard strange whooshing noise, as if a giant mouth were sucking in a steady stream of air. Struggling to look up in the direction the noise was making, my entire body felt limp as I stared up into a gaping, spinning, black vortex that seemed to be expanding larger. I had been frozen with fear, my mind not working; I could do nothing as it came closer and closer to swallowing us up. I think Celestine, who was always calm and level headed, knew that I could not move. Instead, she pushed herself, somehow finding the strength to stand even under the growing pressure the wind was creating. I was both astonished and amazed when she began to shine a starry blue color, most of her power accumulating in her hands. As the four of us were in the same class at the Academy, I’d seen her power up many times in a similar fashion, but never had it been so beautiful, so bright, her stance had never been filled with such purpose.

Celestine had held her arms out, gathering more energy, arms extended off to her sides. Looking up at the vortex as the wind beat and crushed her body, glittering blue, dazzling stars emitted from her. They filled the room with their shimmering blue color, rising up to the vortex. They crossed from side to side, top to bottom, of the vortex, leaving a trail of lights. I soon realized Celestine was using her power to weave and mend the hole that had opened up in space, like you would mend a torn piece of cloth. I tried calling out to her, but the pressure had gotten to me, and soon I had fallen into unconsciousness.

When I finally awoke, for a moment I hadn’t been sure if I had opened my eyes, for the brightly lit room was now completely pitch black. I felt around and my hand soon hit something hard. It was the book Soleil had taken from the altar. In my hands, it somehow began to shrink, till it was convenient for me to carry. I sat up, feeling movement in the room, and began to call out to them, “Soleil! Tallula, C – ?”

“We’re alright.” Celestine’s calm voice reached my ears.

I felt around and realized it would be impossible for me to find my flashlight, and even if I found it, it was probably broken anyway. “Great.” I said in frustration, “Just great. What are we going to do now?”

“We improvise.” Celestine said, holding her hand up as it began to glow once more with her shiny blue power.

“What were you thinking, Soleil?” I said harshly, “Trying to take that book!”

“I…I don’t know what came over me…I just felt this strange feeling that I should take the book.”

“It’s called curiosity.” Tallula’s giggle rang out in the dark empty room.

“It wasn’t that…” Soleil said quietly, “A voice…I remember hearing a voice telling me to take the book, that we would need it later…”

We had not the time to process what she had said, for immediately after the words left her mouth, a rumbling noise filled the echoing marble room as the ground began to quake violently. I felt myself tense and Celestine, sitting beside me, went rigid as well. I heard Tallula squeak out of fear and felt Soleil’s nervous shock. “The building, it’s collapsing!” Celestine shouted as she dragged Tallula and Soleil up onto their feet; I stood on my own. “We have to go, now!”

Celestine turned on her heels and ran out of the room. We followed her out, running up the stairs to the ground floor of the library, the light emitting from Celestine’s still power-lit hand the only thing showing us the way. We ran across the hall, frantically searching for a way out of this dark and mysterious library. I could feel Celestine as she turned around and around, wildly looking for any possible exit. She suddenly seized Soleil and Tallula’s hands and said, “This way!” She pulled the two as I followed her to the right. “Jump!” We barely registered the command, jumping up just in time to crash through a dirty and moldy old window, the building collapsing behind us in a cloud of dust.

Panting, Tallula said, “That…was way…too close.”

“Now do you see why we never go out this far?” I scolded Tallula, who looked down at the ground in embarrassment and shame.

“Let’s just get back to the Academy dorms.” Celestine’s mellow voice calmed us all down, “Before we get in trouble for cutting curfew.”

“Noelle,” Soleil said, her quiet voice reaching my ears, “What…are you holding on to?”

I looked down and I was shocked to see the book from the altar in my hands, “I must have carried it out of that marble room without thinking when we were trying to escape.”

“It can’t be helped now.” Tallula stated, looking back at the library that lay in a heap of dust and debris, “I don’t think anyone can ever get back into that marble room again.”

So many strange things happened after that fateful night we spent in the marble room. Needless to say, we were all punished severely for not only cutting curfew, but also for destroying that library where the marble room had been. We were all greatly affected, but Soleil even more so. After her punishment, Soleil was never the same again; she became so very distant even from us.

In the weeks after the event, here in the hot, southern tip of North America, we received information from our sister cult in the cold expanses of Russia, The Abbey. Every year, we met with them at least once so that Jaeger may “catch up” with the leader of The Abbey, Regina. This time the news involved Jaeger’s own son. Jaeger’s son had run away. He and his good friend Tayte had somehow escaped the iron clutches of the cult. They had actually escaped Jaeger and Regina.

For some reason, after that Celestine became restless. She was barely able to fall asleep at night and could not concentrate in class at all, which was extremely dangerous, not to mention completely unlike her. Later, I was to find out why. One night, with the encouraging comments from Myrrh, we created a plan to escape The Valley. We packed few things on the night of our escape. One of the things I decided to bring along with me was that book from the marble room. It was strange; ever since I had got the book, I could never find the heart to discard it. On the night of our escape, everything went smoothly, just like we planned. We crossed the fences marking the end of Jaeger’s territory and were finally, finally free from him. Or so we thought…