SILVER-HAIRED-Chapter 167: Altered

There was a prolonged silence between the two and Celeste grew nervous by the second, her eyes moving back and forth between her two brothers, Nicklaus was an unpredictable type and it made her fear for what might happen, Nicklaus was the wildest and untamed of them all, there was a reason he was called the bringer of darkness.

And she wasn’t so sure he would take this news lightly, maybe she should say something, anything! To keep her brothers from roaring at each other for he could remember last time they held a quarrel, it wasn’t called a quarrel when fangs were involved, who knows one of their heads might roll this time.

She opened her mouth to speak.

"Is that all?!" Nicklaus intoned.

And her body stilled, gods his words were cold, he was awfully cold towards anybody this period, they all knew why which is why Alaric lying out his confession wasn’t exactly a good idea right now,

"Y-Yes brother" Alaric answered, although he stammered in his words he still stood bold, he had his reason for saying this to him right now, it was the first step of moving on with his feeling for Lena, this was the first step, let’s hope he doesn’t die by the hands of his brother this very moment before he could actually complete it.

"Good... because if it would have been more than that I would have separated your head from your body"

A hot chill ran down Alaric’s spine, he gulped at his cold words. He resists the urge to hold his head hoping it won’t fall off from his mere words.

"We don’t have time for this, both of you follow me... unless you prefer to ram in guilt about having feelings for my wife" he stated before turning to leave.

"That went well," Celeste said with a breath of relief, surprisingly well except for the fact he threatened to kill him.

"Of course it wasn’t Sister, he had the intent to kill me, didn’t you feel it?" he motioned as his finger waved in the air, so chilly and his words still got to him.

"No I did not, just a chill in the air" Celeste shrugged amused, it was fun seeing Alaric this way, the only person that can make him shaken as he is now was Nicklaus.

Alaric rolled his eyes, trusting Celeste to feel amused at this very second.

"I guess it’s time you moved on then, you have freed yourself from your feelings, I’m sorry I always held you back from ever telling him, I feared he might have done the worse to you" she spoke sincerely.

"I still care about her and that will never change!"

Celeste smiled. "Then let’s find a way to get my sister back, dearest brother seems to know a way, or else he wouldn’t have led us to wherever this place is"

Alaric smiled but then paused. "But where exactly is this place?" he said, studying the hall.

"Let’s find out" Celeste said walking ahead, Alaric took a deep breath brushing some strands of his hair back before following behind.

They made a turn and then they came in view of what looked like a cathedral, the wide outline of it was merely stunning.

"This is..." Celeste said, stunned.

"I think his spell library?" Alaric said as they both stepped in.

Nicklaus stood at the center, a rectangle table laid there and a black book embodied with golden designs on it.

"Brother is that your Grimoire?"

"Yes"

"How come we have never seen this?" Celeste said observing the black book, when Nicklaus opened it, she gasped, the pages were black also and the words were written in gold, such unique craftsmanship.

"Because this the Grimore of forbidden spells, and it doesn’t exist on the timeline"

They paused at his words. "So that means..." Alaric trailed.

Nicklaus shifted his gaze to them. "Yes this very room is off space"

"Y-You mean we are in-between time right now?" Celeste said it merely stunned her but it seemed genuinely intriguing to her.

"This book was a parting gift from Basker"

"The Genie of the Holy library?" Celeste asked stunned, so this very book was from the very library said to be the first knowledge of the world.

"Yes sister"

"Coming here you must have a reason brother? Tell me is there a way to break Lena’s curse in this Grimoire? Then we need to know, ’’ Alaric said.

"Unfortunately there isn’t"

"What?!"

Nicklaus rested his hand on the table. "A curse cast with one life is eternal, not even forbidden spells can break it"

"Then... Then what do we do? Lena will remain cursed forever?"

Nicklaus was silent, his gaze drifting back to the Grimoire, bored into them for a prolonged time.

Alaric ran his fingers in his hair frustrated. "Then why the bloody hell did we come here!"

"Alaric!" Celeste snapped at him, he shot her a look and she shook her head, Alaric sighed as his eyes drift back to Nicklaus, he noticed it, Nicklaus’ face was emotionless than usual but he could clearly see the feeling of loss within his green orbs.

"Every spell has a foundation, every curse too" Nicklaus began flipping through the pages. "A source, a connection, and also a crack"

"A crack?" Celeste asked.

"Yes"

"Why think a crack would be in this curse? You said it yourself, it’s eternal, even when you were cursed yours wasn’t... she wanted you to undergo trial so thereby not eternal which is why you could break free because of the crack" Alaric explained.

"Yes it is as you said, brother" Nicklaus intoned. "But I have a feeling we might find one"

Alaric eyes narrowed.

"Edwina has always wanted nothing more than to separate Yelena and me, her main goal"

"Where are you going with this Nicklaus?" Celeste asked.

"Over the time I have asked myself why she hated me, was it because her daughter chose me over her and her people or because of my reign, I never got the answer, if I try to think about it too much I get nothing"

"Are you saying there’s more to this hate?" Alaric asked.

"I’m saying there is something missing"

"Something missing?", Celeste’s eyes narrowed.

"When she came to me in her spirit form, she said something about the truth from 2 thousand years ago, I do not understand what she meant"

"So there’s a truth that none of us knows but she does and you think that is the reason she hates you, must be something grave," Celeste said.

"Exactly my point, but when I think of it I cannot tell what it is, its like a-"

"A missing memory" Alaric cut in. "Your memories are altered" he finalized, this was the only proper explanation for this.

"Do any of you remember the exact details from 2 thousand years ago?"

"Well you were cursed after Yelena’s death, when the Mother goddess found out she blamed you and so she cursed you to the Mortal Realm to spend your human days in misfortune, love misfortune," Alaric says.

"Go deeper into details"

"Well, that’s it! Yelena’s death, when the Mother goddess found out she blamed you and so she cursed you to the Mortal Realm to spend your human days in misfortune, love misfortune" he said with a shrug. "Why are both of you looking at me like that?" he adds, noticing their intense gaze on him.

"Because you just repeated the exact same words you said," Nicklaus intoned.

"Without going into details" Celeste clarified.

"What?" Alaric said amused, they must have lost their heads, there was no way he would have repeated- Alaric’s eyes went wide "F*ck!" he cursed, rubbing his temples. "My memories have been altered too, haven’t they?!"

"I guess mine too because if you asked me the same question I would have said the exact same thing," Celeste said for certain. "Someone has altered all our memories"

"Is that even possible?" Alaric said, still trying to wrap his head around it.

"I have a feeling it not just our memories that are altered," Nicklaus said,

"Probably the bloody entire Realm!" Celeste barked.

"Or all magical Realms" Alaric pointed out, running his hands in his hair and walking in circles. Because he knew ALL knew the story of Nicklaus and Yelena, how he was cursed, it was like bloody poetry!

"Who the bloody hell would cast such a powerful spell that would alter all our memories?!" Celeste said scoffing. "To such a point..", and then a realization struck her. "All centered on Yelena’s death, why cover her death?"

"I think it has everything to do with it," Nicklaus said sternly. "When Yelena was beginning to come to with her memories as she should, I tried stopping it, a little effort because I believed it was what was best for her, that our future matters, I didn’t want her death to be something she remembered", his teeth clenched as he bent his head in regret.

"Nicklaus," Celeste said, worried , placing a hand on her brother’s shoulder.

"I have made the biggest mistake of my life... Because Yelena is the only one capable of remembering what really happened 2 thousand years ago"