will.
Sophia didn’t want to know; she needed to know. Too much was at stake to stay willfully ignorant.
“Given the repeated reference to Light and Darkness, sacrifice and surrender, I cross-referenced those and similar concepts in both the Zodiac and Ecliptic Scrolls,” Eveline said. “It’s much easier now that I have virtualized most of the Cove’s library.”
“You’ve been busy,” Seth noted with admiration.
“It’s my job,” Eveline brushed the compliment aside. “I’ve only begun to do the same with the Shield’s archives, so your help today is much needed and appreciated.”
“I should help too,” Sophia said.
She was good at research, and almost as adept with languages, ancient scripts included, as Eveline was.
“You have other priorities,” Jade reminded her with a knowing twinkle in her eye.
Sophia ducked her head as heat suffused her cheeks.
“Pay attention people,” Eveline reminded them, and everyone snapped their eyes back to the Seer.
“Remember when we were researching into Inanna’s past? When we didn’t know whether or why the union between a Dark One and a Pure One was forbidden?”
The female in question nodded. “That was when you also found the article with the clues that led us to Japan, to Papa.”
Inanna reached for Tal’s hand as she spoke, and the General squeezed her back reassuringly.
“Yes, but it’s not the accounts of Ishtar and Tal’s union that I find most relevant here, though that is part of it,” Eveline said, her eyes alighting with that fierce spark that Sophia had noticed before.
“It is the issue from the union that I think is most pertinent. Legend has it that the child of the ‘Leader’ is the ‘Light-Bringer’. Someone who will appear when the world is in turmoil. This person will help us distinguish right and wrong and find the way to the truth. It is written thusly in the Zodiac Prophesies, as well as the Zodiac Scrolls.”
Inanna looked at Tal and nodded.
“Yes, that is why I now have this title among the Pure Ones, is it not? The Leader is Papa, and I am the Light Bringer.”
A slight grimace, almost apologetic, passed over Eveline’s face.
“Well…I may have misinterpreted those lines,” the Seer admitted, abashed.
“Misinterpreted how?” it was Tal-Telal who asked, staring at her with his piercing, aquamarine eyes.
Though the opacity of his forced blindness had begun to clear recently, he remained unseeing. At least, not in the normal sense. His Gift allowed him to “see” in a different way.
“The text refers to a ‘child,’” Eveline explained, looking back at the General, “and now we know that you and Ishtar have more than one child. Twins. A boy and a girl. It could very well be that the Crea…er…Erebu—is the prophesized Light Bringer instead.”
Again, Sophia’s heart thrashed in its cage, flashing her body with hot and cold. This felt right. It was important.
She looked across the table at Tal and Inanna and saw that they felt it too.
“I’ve always wondered why my Gift hasn’t changed at all,” Inanna murmured. “I thought that being the Light Bringer would lead to crucial revelations, something to help us turn the tide of this subversive war with our enemies. But I feel no different. Only stronger physically, mentally and emotionally because of my Mating with Gabriel.”
A loud buzzing started in Sophia’s ears, deafening her to external sounds until she felt like she was listening to the debate around her from the bottom of a pool.
Nevertheless, she inserted, speaking past the muffled noises in her ears, the numbing sensation of cotton in her mouth, “What are the exact words, Eveline? Is it ‘child’ or ‘offspring’ or… ‘progeny’?”
Eveline’s eyes lit with alertness. She practically dove across the table to reach a worn piece of parchment, scanning its contents.
“The best translation is ‘descendent,’” she read, immediately looking back at Sophia.
“What are you thinking?”
Sophia’s eyes slowly, involuntarily slid toward the golden boy beside her, who still held her hand in his small, chubby one.
Her heart pounded so fast and furious, she thought she was going into shock. She couldn’t breathe, gasping in short puffs, her chest unbearably tight.
Erebu had made her promise not to tell anyone. She and Liv were the only ones who’d guessed the truth. But this was too important not to share. It could be the missing piece in the puzzle to end all puzzles.
As she struggled to find the voice to speak, everyone looked where she looked. Everyone focused on Benjamin.
“What?” the little boy truly whispered this time, his eyes going round.
Sophia made her decision, one she did not have the time to ponder or