CHAPTER THREE: THE MARK AND THE LEGACY

The door shut behind Karl,leaving me standing alone in the room with myself and my thoughts ,the silence became heavier than the cold night breeze. My eyes remained on the same position he stood,every word replaying in my head,every gesture he made-but out of all the main thing that  marvelled me was,was the dark symbol on his left arm.I crossed the room in three quick steps,I turned towards my desk to turn on the desk lamp before grabbing the torn notebook I kept tucked beside my bed. My hands trembled as I pulled out a pen, trying to sketch what I had just seen.

   It was like nothing I had ever encountered in all my history books or fantasy novels. Three spirals converged at a sharp central point, each ending in what looked like claws or thorns. Tiny runes curved around the edges, so small I’d barely noticed them in the dim hallway light. I spent weeks after weeks making research’s  for ancient symbols decades ago for a creative writing project once, poring over Celtic, Norse, and Native American designs, but this one was foreign to everything I have ever seen.

“What have I gotten myself into” i whispered to myself in shock.

My phone vibrated against my desk. It was a text message. “I hope you are okay. I know this is a lot to take in. Meet me at the old treehouse by the lake tomorrow at dawn. I will show you everything you need to know.” – K

    I stared at the phone screen the words blurred together. It was almost dawn, only four hours away, but sleep wasn’t coming. I walked around my small room, my hands and feet cold on the wooden floor, stopping every few steps to look out the window at the shadowed campus below. Blackwood University had stood here for over three centuries, its red brick buildings and ivy-covered walls hiding uncountable secrets in their mortar. How many of those secrets were like Karl? I thought to myself.

   The first hint of pink was just touching the horizon when I stepped out of the dorms, pulling my hood up to ward off the morning chill. The air was crisp and heavy with the smell of damp earth and lake water, carrying the distant sound of birds chirping in the trees. The treehouse was tucked away at the far end of campus, hidden behind a stand of ancient oaks that had been rooted here long before this old school foundation was laid. I had only been here once before, as a freshman, when some upperclassmen snuck us in for a midnight party. Back then, it had felt like just another forgotten corner of the grounds I walked on. Now, it felt like the entrance to a world I had never imagined existed.

   The was slightly opened, and warm light spilled out onto the dewy grass. I pushed inside carefully, my heart beating so fast I could feel it so hard I was sure Karl would hear it too.

   The treehouse looked different, it had been transformed. Old frames of students that threw parties and wooden rowboats were stacked against the walls, making space for a makeshift workspace in the center. Maps covered every flat surface – some ancients and hand-drawn arts , others printed out with strange markings that looked like heat signatures or energy fields. Books were piled up in one corner, their spines worn and cracked, titles in languages I couldn’t even understand talk more of reading it. And in the middle of it all stood was Karl, wearing dark jeans and a simple blue hoodie, looking more grounded and calm than he had last night we saw.

   “Ohh Liam, you came” he said tucking his wet hair at the back of his ear. I could hear the relief in his voice as he adjusted something on the table.

 “I had find out and know what’s going on with you seriously” i replied stepping further towards his direction,my eyes moving from one strange artifact to the next. “What does that symbol mean? What you are?.”

   Then he turned to face me, and I saw that his eyes were crystal clear now — no sign or trace of the golden flare that had burned in the locker room last night . He pulled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo in full. Even in the warm lamplight, it seemed to shift and twist, as if it were alive.

  “This is the Mark of the Cú Sídhe,” he said, running his fingers over the design with a gentle familiarity. “This is my families werewolf knot.Legends have it that , we are descended from beings who walked between two worlds  – not full humans, not quite something else entirely. They guarded this two worlds, meant to keep the balance and equality  between our worlds and the one that lies just beyond the veil at night.”

  “Beyond the veil you say ?” I shouted , moving closer to one of the maps he spread across the  table. It showed the campus and surrounding area, with glowing lines crisscrossing it like veins. I wondered what the campus had to do with this “You mean like… another dimension or earth ?”

    “Yes you could say that,” Karl said, pulling out a wornout book with similar marking he had on his armand laying it open carefully. The pages were filled with handwritten notes that looked like it was written decades or centuries before now. “We call it the moon realm. It’s always been here for years , stickinh with ours in certain places – like the pool, like this treehouse, like the old stone circle in the woods. For most people, it’s just a feeling – a sudden cold spot, a sense of being watched, or a déjà vu that hits hard and fast like an adrenaline rush. But for us… for those born with this inevitable Mark… we can feel it more deeply. And sometimes… we can cross over without control.”

   I was short of words as I stared at the book trying to pick up my words and speak my mind was racing to process everything seemed like I was just in a trance. “But the changes I saw – what happened in the locker room – that’s not just crossing over, is it?”

  Karl’s expression darkened, and he looked away for a moment . “That’s what happens when the balance shifts,it interrupts and affect the person in one realm which could not only endanger myself but someone around.This happens only when the barriers between two worlds grow very thin. Our blood responds to the raw energy of the Moon Realm, and our bodies… adapt. It’s not something we can control easily – especially when we’re stressed from a lot of life activities, or when the barriers are at their weakest point . Which is exactly why the regional championships are such a problem for me.”

 “ True though regionals”  I frowned, thinking back to how everyone had been talking and having endless practice sessions.

   He nodded, tapping a spot on the map where the university pool was located. “The pool was built unfortunately on ome oof the strongest convergence points in the entire region. Every year, when the championships roll around – when hundreds of people gather there, all carrying intense emotions like excitement, fear, ambition – the barriers weaken dramatically. My family has competed on the swim team for six generations because it lets us keep watch over the convergence point. We’re supposed to protect it from whatever might try to push through or ruin it.”

  I say down on the wooden chair. My head was spinning three-sixty degrees this was a lot to take in. “So you mean to tell me Karl, you are not just a star-swimmer but a guardian of the moon realm?”

   “You can say that too” he repeated, his voice very calm. “But it’s not as noble as it sounds. For centuries, our family has carried this heavy burden alone. We’ve had to hide who we are, live in the shadows,move from city to city never letting anyone get too close. And we’re not the only ones who know about this Moon Realm.” 

He walked over to a wall covered in newspaper clippings, old pictures, and police reports from years back. Some were yellowed and torn with age- dating back to the 1800s – showing people who shared Karl’s strong jaw and fiery eyes . Others were more recent as of now – missing people’s notices, stories of strange animal sightings in the nearby woods, reports of unexplained accidents at the university over the years.All this were never posted in the school very strange.

    “The Order of the Silver Knight,” Karl said, his voice hardening with rage in his eyes . “They’ve been hunting people like us for hundreds of years. They believe we are abominations to the face of the earth,they think of us as threat to humanity . Their goal is to kill every last one of us, then use ancient rituals from their ancestors to seal the Moom Realm away from this earth forever. But they don’t understand the great use we could do,the balance works both ways. Seal it completely, and our worlds would die. The energy from the Moon Realm feeds the earth, the water, even the plants and animals around us. We need each other to survive in life no matter what.”

   I looked from the clippings back to Karl’s face, seeing the weight of his secret in the lines around his eyes. “Have they found you? Your family yet ?”

  “Not yet,” he said, running a hand through his hair again. “But they’re getting closer and I can see it.I have the gift of seeing an event before it happens and there have been signs – their symbol painted on trees in the woods, surveillance cameras set up near all the convergence points, someone trying to find out about my family’s history at the university archives. They know there’s a guardian here, watching over the pool and everything convergence point . They just don’t know who it is yet .”

My mind went back straight to how he looked so bothered and not right  – the way Karl had been struggling to catch his breath, the strain in his voice when he spoke to Coach. “Is that why you were feeling off yesterday? Because the barriers are already thinning?”

   “Yes Thats why” he replied retracing his focus back to the map. “Regionals is one week time and the energy is slowly building up and it’s getting hard to keep control alone as the only guardian here ,that’s why i need you help.I’m scared of involving you but I can’t do this alone I need your help”