Chapter 540: Digging into the past

Sebastian didn’t let the kiss lead anywhere further, knowing his wife needed her sleep, and that if he let himself get carried away, she’d stay up with him the rest of the night instead.

He pulled her against him after awhile and pretended to drift off, until she had no choice but to close her own eyes and finally fall asleep genuinely. Once he was certain she was truly out, Sebastian carefully slipped away from her, easing out from beside her, resting her head gently back against the pillow.

He pulled the covers up, tucking his own pillow in against her in his place for her to hold onto instead, then quietly left the room, grabbing his coat on the way out.

Sebastian left the building and stepped out into the deserted winter night. He got into his car and drove slowly along the snow-covered roads toward the building that housed Silver’s entire history, dating back to its founding and the reign of its very first Alpha.

The streets were eerily quiet, illuminated only by streetlights and the flickering glow of billboards cutting through the hazy darkness. With winter keeping most people tucked safely indoors, the streets were nearly empty, unlike during summer, when people would usually be out and about well into the night.

Few minutes later, Sebastian parked outside the building and stepped out of his car, still wearing his house slippers and sleepwear. Snow continued to fall softly around him, settling on the ground and gathering in the drifts beneath his feet. He lifted his gaze to the two-story building before him, knowing that within its walls lay so much of his people’s history.

Sebastian walked the rest of the way to the front of the building, where his face was scanned and the door opened automatically for him, since his status as Alpha could unlock any door in the pack. He stepped into the dim, quiet building, greeted by the smell of old wood, books, and musk settled deep into the walls.

Sebastian had actually never had reason to set foot in here before. Whatever history he’d needed had always been handed to him already summarized, already simplified without him searching for originals.

The front desk stood empty, but as though his presence alone had been felt, a short man with a white beard and a thick knitted brown sweater came hurrying down the stairs, flashlight in hand.

"Who is_Supreme Alpha!" came the man’s panicked greeting at the sight of such an unexpected guest in the building, since the Alpha had never once stepped foot in this building before, and honestly, hardly anyone did, which left the caretaker visibly rattled that his Alpha had arrived at this hour of the night at all. "H-how m-may I help you?" The man asked, bowing the moment he reached the front desk, his hands trembling.

Sebastian looked at the small man, then up at the long bookshelves lining the wall behind the desk. "Where are the books on our founders stored? I need all of them." He said, his voice flat and emotionless, his eyes drifting back to the man, who nodded quickly.

"R-right away, I-I’ll bring them down for you immediately!"

"No need to bring them. Just show me where they’re kept, I’ll find what I need myself." Sebastian figured he could find the books himself faster than it would take the man to run back and forth retrieving them.

The man nodded. "Follow me, they’re on the second floor. Which section are you looking for, Supreme Alpha?" He asked, already leading the way, switching on lights as they climbed the stairs.

"Everything related to Vaelor’s history. I was told some time ago this building even holds his personal diary, his and his brother’s. I want all of it." He told the man, who gulped but nodded again without question.

They reached a door on the second floor, and once inside, Sebastian noted the man had clearly kept everything in excellent condition. Books ran floor to ceiling, and some pieces were even preserved behind glass, displayed like museum artifacts.

Sebastian sat down at a reading desk in the library while the caretaker brought several books over. "These hold the documented history of how our pack has grown over the years, and—"

"Bring me his diary first." Sebastian cut in, removing his coat and hanging it behind his chair, rolling up his shirtsleeves, fully intending to learn as much as he possibly could about this ancestor of theirs, and exactly why he’d done what he’d done, the act that had cursed their entire bloodline.

Very few people had access to this particular section of Silver’s history, let alone the diary itself. But since it was the Supreme Alpha asking for it, the man didn’t hesitate. He carefully removed it from its protective glass case and gently placed it on the desk in front of Sebastian.

"Supreme Alpha..." the man said with a bow. "These are written in a language nobody has been able to read. That is why they have been stored away untouched for so long, becoming more of a precious thing to be admired than something to be read. And if anything happens to them... I will be hanged according to Silver law, and—"

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at the small man, who was clearly trying to caution him.

"Who holds the law?" he asked.

The man nervously peeked up at the Supreme Alpha. "You."

"Good that you know."

With that, Sebastian looked away from the man and down at the diary.

The pages had turned brown with age, so fragile that they looked as though they might crumble apart if handled without the utmost care. Sebastian could understand the man’s concern. No other Alpha had ever bothered to request this personal item, and he doubted anyone had even taken it out of its glass case since the day it had been placed there.

"You can go. Turn the heat down in here too, it’s far too hot." Sebastian said, already beginning to examine the item, which wasn’t actually a bound book at all, but a loose stack of parchment, tied together with brown string, worn soft with age.

Holding it in his hands, Sebastian hated the strange sense of familiarity that washed over him, as though he had held this diary countless times before, despite knowing he never had. An unwelcome truth began to settle in, that somehow, he was indeed connected to whoever had once written these pages.

"We’re nothing alike. I don’t keep a fucking diary." He muttered to himself, carefully untying the string, noting absently that the heat had indeed been turned down, though he found himself still sweating anyway, for reasons he couldn’t quite place.

Vaelor’s handwriting was so poor it might as well have been scratched out by a caveman, bad enough that Sebastian had to rub and massage his own eyes just to focus. "Is this even written in a language I can actually read?" He muttered, turning the page. "If I’m supposed to be you, I should at least understand this shit you wrote down."

Sebastian was starting to lose his patience, beginning to think he’d made this trip for nothing, the language entirely indecipherable, until he closed his eyes, took a slow breath, and looked again. This time, something shifted in his mind, and the words suddenly came into sharp, clear focus.

*[I met a strange girl by the rivers, while my brother and I were fishing...]*

Sebastian relaxed slightly as the words finally made sense, and he began reading silently to himself, though some of the messier handwriting still gave him trouble here and there.

*[She was a strange creature, one I’d never seen in all my life. She had the body of a fish and a human at once, and worse still, humiliating really, I was the one saved by her, after getting caught in my own fish trap.]*

As Sebastian read through the diary, he found himself picturing the scene almost vividly in his mind, as though it weren’t just ink on old parchment, but something closer to a distant memory of his own.