Axel reached for a book while wondering what information was contained inside it.
The moment Axel's fingers touched the leather binding, an image flashed in Axel's mind, and he could see himself holding that book and reading it.
The book was written by a witch named Holly describing her visits to a temporary settlement in the South-West. The dwellers there were outsiders with tall and lean bodies and pointy ears. Holly admired their archery skills and how they could move about stealthily. Those people consumed a vegetarian-only diet, they loved to sing, and she depicted encounters where they would exchange jewelry made of leather, colorful stones, and beads.
Axel realized that he saw a glimpse of the future. He will read this book and find nothing useful.
He made a grumpy face. His premonitions so far always came true. Will he really need to waste time reading this book?
Instead of pulling the book out of the shelf completely, Axel pushed the book back and waited for some Godly intervention that will force him to read it. His expression changed with every passing second because nothing happened.
Was it possible that he saw the future where he read the book, and he didn't need to read it in the present?
If that was true, his ability evolved and that would be huge!
Curious to test this theory about his ability evolving, Axel hooked his finger on the next book and saw images of him reading that book.
The book was signed by a witch named Zoe, and it spoke about her raising a fawn that she adopted from a merchant that had dark skin and was covered in heavy layers of clothing. There was a sketch of a man and a caravan of merchants that Zoe befriended. The fawn's mother died due to illness, and they wanted to eat the creature because they didn't have the conditions to raise him, but Zoe traded several magic crystals for the fawn.
Axel took this book out and flipped to see the sketches. The book was full of them. And then he kept the book back.
His face lit up when he realized that the still remembered the contents of the first book even though he never opened it. But… should he open it to confirm the contents? If he opens it, won't that make his vision come true?
Axel got an idea.
He gave that first book to Serena. "Can you tell me who wrote this and what it is about?"
Unaware of Axel's intentions, Serena opened the book and flipped through it. "This was written by Holly. It's about her encounters with a tribe that stayed in the South-West. I remember them. They were tall and pale no matter how much time they spent in the sun. They didn't eat meat and were very good with bows and knives even though they pledged never to kill because they believed in reincarnation and how every creature could contain the spirit of their ancestors." Serena paused. "Holly should be working on potions in the lab. Do you want to meet with her and ask about those creatures?"
"No, no…", Axel responded breathily while keeping the book back. He confirmed that he didn't imagine it. What he didn't read in the first book was truly there.
Axel's mind was working a million thoughts a second.
Did his ability to see the future really evolve? Yasmin told him that it will be beneficial to get close to the fountain during the ceremonies because the energies will impact everyone, even the audience, but… did this mean that he was finally able to see the future that CAN be changed?
Somehow, it made sense. He could see the future where he would read a book, and even though it didn't come true, his knowledge of that future remained.
He realized that this could backfire. What's the point of a premonition if it won't come true?
Ah! So far, he was stressing because he was unable to change what will happen, and now he was stressing that he will change it.
He decided to focus on the positives. How can he put that to good use? Well, for now, he will start touching each of those books and reading them without actually reading them.
Serena frowned at the sight of Axel who started moving slowly, pausing for a few seconds with each book to touch the cover before moving to the next one.
Axel was elated to confirm that this was working, but even with this super-speed, there were so many books, and it will take ages!
…
After Axel and Serena disappeared among shelves, Feya turned to Talia and Damon.
"What topic interests you?"
Seeing that Talia was struggling to answer, Damon asked. "Do you maintain a Catalogue of your archives?"
"Yes, we do."
A minute later, Talia and Damon stood in front of a massive book that was placed on a chunky stone table that looked like three cuboid rocks stacked on top of each other.
It was THE Catalogue.
Talia opened it and started flipping the pages.
'What are you hoping to find?', Damon's voice sounded in Talia's head through the mind-link.
'Something about the Guardians', Talia responded.
Damon understood Talia's intention. At this point, Guardians were their biggest threat as their interest in Talia was unusual. Their invitation for Talia to join them came abruptly and Damon suspected that it had something to do with her impressive show with that glowing sphere. The Guardians made Damon nervous. They had the ability to suppress Alpha's aura, and he had a guess that they are not a bunch who will take a 'no' for an answer.
Evanora said that there are no male witches, but what if Guardians were some other types of magical creatures? Damon remembered reading stories about dragons who had their own magic and could shapeshift into human form.
It didn't take long for Talia to realize that the Catalogue was useless. It had names of authors and titles, and everything was neatly categorized in alphabetical order, but unless it said, "THIS IS ABOUT THE GUARDIANS", Talia would definitely miss it.
Dejectedly, Talia closed the massive book.
"You didn't find what you were looking for?", Feya asked, startling Talia. The witch was standing on the side quietly and Talia completely forgot about her.
"I was hoping to find something about different creatures that can use magic.", Talia said sadly.
Feya smiled and waved her finger while chanting something under her breath.
The Catalogue started shaking and words shot out of it to hover in the air.
Feya produced a long sheet of paper and words flew into it, the whole sheet shimmered until the magic settled down for Talia to see a list of books. There were authors, titles, and numbered shelves where those books can be found.
"I believe this will be helpful.", Feya said while handing the paper to Talia.
Talia facepalmed. How did she forget that she was in the realm of witches? Magic. Did she really think that witches will do things "manually"?
"That's a long list", Damon grumbled from the side. He was itchy to leave this realm, yet now it seemed they will spend days (or weeks!) in this place reading books.
That was NOT his idea of a vacation!
"Let's call Keith and see if he can help us find something useful.", Talia said and Damon's eyes lost focus as he was already mind-linking the Coach to come.
"If you tell me what you are looking for, I might be of assistance also.", Feya offered.
"We are looking for creatures where males can use magic.", Talia said right away. It was the truth and even if Feya reports this to Evanora, it won't be anything new.
