0586 Secrets
Horn watched Bryan Watson intently, and his eagerness for answers was written plainly on his horse face. He yearned to know how this mysterious young wizard had co by such detailed and accurate knowledge of the centaurs' most closely guarded secrets.
However, under Horn's inquisitive gaze, Bryan remained silent. He simply walked up to the door leading to the third and final secret chamber before slowly turning around to look back at Horn,
"Mr. Watson—" Horn began, his voice catching in his throat. The old centaur knew what that look in Watson's eyes ant. He tried with all his might to resist the pressure hidden in Bryan's calm gaze. "This chamber...it is of the utmost importance to the centaurs,"
Horn said with great difficulty as each word felt heavy on his tongue. "If you are willing to let us keep the secret of what lies within, you will have our eternal gratitude. We will forever be in your debt—"
Bryan raised his eyebrows in surprise, taken aback by Horn's emotional plea. He had not expected the proud centaur elder to say such a thing, to practically beg him to leave the chamber be.
After pondering for a long, tense mont in front of the door, Bryan finally shook his head. Normally, he would not be so overbearing as to insist on opening the centaurs' most secret chamber against their wishes. However, the faint yet overwhelmingly, fatally attractive force emanating from behind the sealed door, made it impossible for him to turn and walk away.
"I must see what lies inside, Horn," Bryan said in a firm, unwavering tone that allowed absolutely no refusal. "But I give you my solemn word that I will not cause even the slightest damage in there."
Horn's haggard face trembled. He still wanted to try and persuade the resolute wizard, to beg him to turn back, but the fiery determination blazing in Watson's eyes made it clear his request was bound to be futile.
"I sincerely hope you will keep your word," Horn said with a heavy, mournful sigh, his shoulders slumping in defeat. The centaur elder stepped forward and, with great nervousness, opened the final door, just as he had done before.
The instant the ancient door swung open, a blinding, dazzling brilliance gushed forth, spilling out into the room outside. The sheer intensity of the blinding light was so great that it gave Bryan the staggering illusion of being caught in the middle of a raging torrent!
Bryan's eyes widened as his gaze abruptly focused, locking onto the breathtaking sight of the final chamber stretched out before him. For a long, long ti he simply stared, awestruck and speechless.
Just like the chamber he had seen hidden deep beneath Azkaban, housing that hauntingly mysterious door, the chamber before his eyes was not a room in the traditional sense. No, this was a vast, limitless stretch, a boundless ocean of glittering stars stretching out endlessly, like an entire universe contained within four walls.
Dazzling points of light danced and swirled, drawing intriguing, srizing trajectories through the void. They flowed together converging and rging to form a magnificent grand galaxy. This scene was indescribably stunning!
"Ah, the mysterious starry sky—"
No one could remain calm in the face of the unfathomable universe. Even Bryan couldn't help but sigh with feeling. He strolled into the chamber, his gaze wandering left and right. In this vast universe, a profound sense of self-insignificance arose spontaneously.
"The trajectories of the stars contain all the secrets of this world—" Horn said in fascination, even though this was not its first ti entering the chamber. "The great Sage rlin himself is said to have received revelations from fate amidst these very stars..."
Bryan pressed his lips together and said nothing. His gaze was fixed on the stone platform in the backdrop of the galaxy, supported by a bottomless void.
The platform itself was unremarkable. What truly attracted Bryan was the object enshrined upon it.
Bryan strode across the void to the platform and gazed at the item—it was a clay tablet, about the size of an ordinary spell book. The brown tablet was covered with crisscrossing cracks, looking like it had been molded from clay and then sun-dried.
"What is this?" Bryan asked softly, strongly suppressing the palpitations in his heart as his eyes were deeply drawn to this inconspicuous tablet that emitted a strange fluctuation.
Horn seed quite nervous about the tablet. He followed closely behind Bryan to the platform, gazing at the tablet with a respectful look. Faced with Watson's question, Horn was silent for a mont.
"Our ancestors followed rlin to this forest and rlin left revelations, telling us to live here and not leave. Before departing, he left this clay tablet and instructed us to guard it. Its na has been passed down orally among the elders, called the 'Tablet of Destiny.' For over a thousand years, we have firmly rembered this mission. Even in the most difficult tis, we have never lost it—"
Bryan stared at the ordinary lump of clay with new eyes.
"The Tablet of Destiny," Bryan murmured. "Did rlin tell your ancestors the purpose of guarding this tablet?"
Horn hesitated for a mont, then shook his head. "The first ti I entered here, I also asked Dean, the previous elder, this question. Elder Dean told that the long years have caused us to lose so key information of our history. We no longer know, if indeed we ever did, the true purpose behind rlin's command to protect this tablet."
Bryan fell silent. He gazed for a long ti at this tablet that seed to be made of the most ordinary yellow clay. Struggle and desire alternated in his purple eyes. Finally—
Bryan raised his hand and lightly touched the clay tablet with a finger.
Seeing this, Horn's face changed drastically. Although they no longer knew the purpose of guarding this tablet, it was nonetheless from rlin and had been their reason for existing in the Forbidden Forest for over a thousand years. It absolutely could not be lost!
Shocked, Horn instinctively reached out to pull Bryan Watson away from the edge of the platform. But when he was about to do so, he discovered that he was already pressed in place by a tyrannical force, unable to move at all, or even make a sound. He could only glare with resentful, angry eyes at Bryan Watson, whose fingertip was approaching the tablet!
The instant his fingertip touched the tablet, the first thing Bryan felt was an icy coldness, as if this unremarkable clay tablet was the coldest object in the world. This bone-chilling cold rapidly spread from his fingertip to his entire body, as if even his soul would be frozen.
What changed was not the object the centaurs called the Tablet of Destiny, but Bryan himself!
As the coldness engulfed his body and Bryan was about to summon Fiendfyre to resist it, a silver-white silhouette uncontrollably flew out from his body and circled above the platform.
This silhouette was a bizarre snake with black and white wings on its back, its entire body shrouded in a lustrous white light, looking both sacred and sinister!
Bryan realized his Patronus had appeared in the real world without being summoned. The circling winged serpent suddenly dove downward, plunging into the Tablet of Destiny before the shocked eyes of Bryan and Horn!
Buzz—
The Tablet of Destiny, silent for over a thousand years, started trembling, and its tremors caused the starry chamber housing it to shudder in synchronization. Every star in sight, moving along mysterious trajectories, was quaking, making the galaxy ford by the stars seem to be boiling!
The chaos of magic broke Bryan's suppression of Horn. The old centaur blankly looked at the surroundings and blurted out, "What's happening?"
But there was no ti to even begin to voice a response, as at that mont, the Tablet of Destiny did sothing extraordinary.
Enveloped by a haze of shimring, ethereal light, it rose from its stone platform as if lifted by an invisible hand. The tablet that had devoured the silver snake hovered in front of Bryan's head, as if confirming sothing. A few monts later, without any warning, the tablet suddenly burst forth with dazzling starlight. It lted in the boundless radiance, then transford into a teor-like brilliance that disappeared into Bryan Watson's heart.
PAIN.
Agony beyond agony, tornt beyond all estimation crashed over Bryan in a wave of anguish. He felt as though he was being burned alive, his mind and soul shredded by thousand knives. He had no basis for comparison, as he had never experienced the Cruciatus Curse... but in this traumatic, sanity-crushing mont, he was certain that not even that unforgivable curse could match the suffering he now endured.
The intense agony and fainting sensation caused Bryan to collapse to the ground. In a daze, a flowing gray mist appeared before Bryan's eyes—he hadn't seen this gray mist for many years!
After he realized he had entered the world of Harry Potter and his mory was improved, he had tried using magic to recover his forgotten plot mories. However, no matter what thod he used, the pursuit of those mories always ended in failure. A gray mist would always block the path to the truth.
But now, in this mont of agony, as his very soul was being torn apart, the mist... split. Parted like a veil by an unseen blade. And Bryan SAW.
An image appeared in Bryan's mind without warning—he was floating in a boundless void, passing through a doorway. No words could describe the vastness and majesty silently emanating from this huge door made of the sa material as the clay tablet, as if it represented the most mysterious secrets of the universe!
The person passing through the door, whose body appeared ethereal, was undoubtedly himself. He wouldn't fail to recognize his own appearance. However, he had no mory of this scene at all. Amidst the intense pain, Bryan fell into deep self-doubt.
The vision lasted no more than a heartbeat. And then, as quickly as it had co, it was gone, swallowed once more into the impenetrable fog that enshrouded Bryan's mind. But in its fading trail, a strange, ancient voice suddenly rang out!
"In the starry sky lies your way ho."
*******************************
For More /FicFrenzy
Reviews
All reviews (0)