me. It was daunting. Every other Martis looked at me with venom, like they were facing down their doom. But, Al seemed to have taken the opposite approach and they hated her for it. She was obviously the old squeaky wheel in the lot. She made her presence known after she'd seen me the first night at the Villa. After that they'd kept such a close eye on us that she wasn't able to teach me more. I practiced refining my visions without her, although I did not see the black mirror again with Collin trapped on the other side. When someone has so much faith in you, it's difficult not to believe in yourself. At the same time, when everyone else keeps saying you're evil, it's hard not to doubt yourself.
I felt lost and resentful. The Martis trapped me in the compound much longer than I'd wanted, but since I still hadn't found the information I was looking for, I couldn't leave yet anyway. Days slipped into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Nearly three months had passed and I was no closer to freeing Collin than when I started. I visited the library every day. Julia's ability to only speak the truth - a trait that all Martis possessed - worked in my favor. She lured me here with access to the ancient tomes and couldn't revoke her promise. Well, maybe she could have, but she didn't. It kept us apart until whatever was going to happen would happen.
Meanwhile, I flipped through dusty pages of ancient books looking for information on Kreturus. He was my enemy, my nemesis. It wasn't Collin as I'd once thought. It wasn't the Valefar. It wasn't even Julia. The one being that could make or break me was Kreturus. He wanted me. He needed my powers for himself. While I wasn't certain what was happing, I knew Al was right. My powers were changing. It was as if the magic took on a life of its own. I had no idea how to conjure it or use the melded magic, but I was sure that Kreturus did. I was the key to him unleashing his evil plan on the world. Without me, it couldn't happen.
The prophecy boggled my mind. What could possibly happen that would entice me in the slightest to join forces with a demon? It was unfathomable. There was nothing that would cause me to do that. There was no way I'd sign onto that. Irritation was building within me. I'd been flipping through book after book, but there was nothing in these pages about Kreturus, besides the original tale of how he was captured.
The story was interesting. It was during the last battle that raged thousands and thousands of years ago. The demons were winning after creating the Valefar. The massive number of Valefar, combined with the demons, overpowered the angels. If the angels hadn't made the Martis, they would have lost; and life as I knew it wouldn't exist.
But, they did create an immortal army of Martis. The angels bestowed all their powers on the Martis, but they spread the powers through the people so that no one person was more powerful than another. It created a cohesive force, with massive powers when they worked together. In the beginning, the Martis did work together. The Seyers were revered and worked hand-in-hand with the Dyconisis. It was nothing like Al and Julia's relationship. Julia thought Seyers were a dead breed and disregarded Al's usefulness. There was nothing about Martis Tribunals, banishments, and hearings.
The Martis back then relied on each other to overcome the demons. Not only did they lure Kreturus into a pit and trap him there, but they also pushed into the Underworld further separating humans from the evil creatures that reside there. The chasm between our world and the Underworld was well guarded, but eventually the Martis pulled out only leaving guards behind.
The books didn't say why the Martis left. There was no explanation of the current animosity between the Martis either. I had no idea where it stemmed from. The original Martis sounded great. They protected humanity from soul-sucking demons. They moved unseen and un-thanked, and they preferred it that way. They sounded like people that I would have liked.
The early Martis were responsible for ensnaring Kreturus in that pit in the Underworld, but they didn't kill him. That seemed like a colossal blunder to me. Why would they let him live? But as I read the