Chapter 310 — Peace
Silvet stood in the middle of the road.
There was nothing around him that could have been mistaken for an army.
No Heaven soldiers waited on the ridgeline. No Hell scouts crouched among the trees. No figures watched from the distant fields. There were no banners, no drawn blades, no fire burning behind him to announce that something larger was coming.
He was alone.
The morning had barely begun. Gray light rested over the valley, and a thin layer of mist clung to the grass on either side of the road. The world looked almost untouched by everything that had happened during the previous days. There were birds somewhere beyond the trees. Water moved quietly through a stream below the road. The wind carried the smell of wet earth.
Silvet stood in all of it as though he belonged there.
He looked exactly as he had before.
Calm.
Unhurried.
Watching.
Crowley stopped first.
The rest of Xcution nearly walked into him.
Gabriel caught himself and immediately raised his shield halfway. Sera's hand moved toward her notebook. Henry stepped instinctively closer to Hutena, while Tala's eyes dropped toward the ground beneath them. Athena stopped several yards away from the group, her posture tightening as she recognized the man standing ahead.
Brook stared at Silvet.
He felt the scrap warming before Silvet spoke.
Then Silvet said the same word he had used before.
"Peace."
The word traveled across the road without force.
It did not sound like a greeting.
It sounded like a declaration.
Crowley moved immediately.
He stepped between Silvet and Brook, his hand already resting on his weapon.
"No."
Silvet looked at him.
For several seconds, neither man moved.
There was history between them that Brook did not understand, but he could feel it in the silence. Crowley did not look surprised to see Silvet. He looked like a man who had been expecting something he had hoped would never arrive.
Silvet's eyes shifted past him.
Brook.
Crowley noticed.
"You heard me."
Silvet ignored him.
His attention remained fixed on Brook.
"You've been carrying it."
Brook's hand went to his coat.
The warmth had become stronger.
"What?"
"The piece."
Silvet's gaze lowered toward Brook's chest.
Brook felt the heat through the fabric.
Sera moved closer.
"What piece?"
Silvet did not answer her.
Crowley took another step forward.
"You're not touching him."
Silvet looked at him again.
"I didn't come for you."
"That doesn't matter."
"It does."
"No."
Crowley's voice was quiet.
"You don't get to decide what matters here."
Silvet studied him for a moment.
"You still think you can decide."
Crowley's expression hardened.
"I don't think."
He drew the weapon.
"I know."
Silvet did not reach for anything.
That was what made Brook uneasy.
The man had come completely unarmed.
Either he was confident enough not to need a weapon, or he had never intended to fight them.
Brook wasn't sure which possibility was worse.
Gabriel moved beside Crowley.
"You should leave."
Silvet looked at him.
"You are the one who chose them."
Gabriel's expression changed slightly.
Silvet looked back toward Brook.
"You know what that means."
Gabriel said nothing.
Crowley did.
"Enough."
Silvet continued as though Crowley hadn't spoken.
"The world has been moving toward you for a long time."
Brook's fingers tightened around his coat.
"Why?"
Silvet's eyes settled on him.
"Because you were never meant to remember."
The words hit harder than Brook expected.
He looked at Crowley.
Crowley's face had become completely unreadable.
That was answer enough.
Brook stepped forward.
Crowley immediately moved with him.
"Stay back."
Brook stopped.
"You know what he's talking about."
Crowley did not answer.
"Crowley."
"Not here."
Brook's expression tightened.
The same answer.
Again.
Not here.
Silvet's mouth moved slightly.
Almost a smile.
"He has asked you before."
Crowley looked at him.
Silvet continued.
"And you told him not here."
Brook stared between them.
"How long?"
Neither answered.
"How long have you known?"
Crowley's eyes remained on Silvet.
"Brook."
"No."
Brook's voice was sharper now.
"You don't get to do that."
Crowley finally looked at him.
"What?"
"Tell me later."
Crowley held his gaze.
Brook stepped forward.
"I've been asking you since we left the house."
"I know."
"You keep telling me there isn't time."
"There isn't."
"Then when is there time?"
Crowley didn't answer.
Brook's hand closed around the fabric covering the scrap.
It was burning now.
The heat spread across his chest.
Silvet watched.
"Now."
Crowley turned toward him.
"Don't."
Silvet took one step forward.
Crowley's weapon rose.
Silvet stopped.
"I'm not here to fight."
"You've said that before."
"I meant it."
"You don't get a second chance."
Silvet's eyes returned to Brook.
"I don't need one."
The wind stopped.
Not gradually.
All at once.
The grass beside the road became still.
The trees stopped moving.
Even the stream below seemed quieter.
Athena noticed first.
Her eyes narrowed.
Tala crouched and placed one hand against the ground.
"Something changed."
Gabriel turned.
"What?"
"I don't know."
Sera looked toward Brook.
His face had gone pale.
The scrap was burning beneath his coat.
"Brook."
He couldn't answer.
His breathing had become shallow.
The world around him felt farther away.
He could still see Crowley.
Still see Gabriel.
Still see Sera.
Still see Henry standing beside Hutena.
But their voices had become distant, as though he were underwater.
Silvet walked forward.
Crowley stepped in front of him.
Silvet stopped.
"You will not touch him."
"I don't have to."
Silvet raised his hand.
Brook's body reacted before he could.
The scrap flared with heat.
He grabbed his chest.
Pain tore through him.
He dropped to one knee.
Sera caught him.
"Brook!"
Crowley turned.
"What did you do?"
Silvet didn't answer.
Brook's vision blurred.
He could hear Henry shouting.
He could hear Gabriel moving.
He could hear Athena saying something in the distance.
Then Crowley's voice came through clearly.
"Brook, look at me."
Brook tried.
He saw Crowley's face.
For the first time, there was something there that Crowley couldn't hide.
Fear.
Not fear of Silvet.
Fear for him.
Brook reached toward Crowley.
"Tell me."
Crowley grabbed his hand.
"Not like this."
"Then tell me."
"Brook—"
"What is it?"
Crowley squeezed his hand.
"You're not ready."
Silvet spoke quietly.
"He is."
Crowley turned toward him.
"You don't know him."
Silvet's expression remained calm.
"I know what was put inside him."
Brook heard the sentence.
Something in it reached deeper than the pain.
He looked toward Silvet.
"What did you say?"
Silvet took another step.
Crowley moved to intercept him.
Silvet did not stop.
The distance between them seemed to collapse.
Crowley swung.
Silvet moved aside.
Not quickly.
Not dramatically.
He simply wasn't where Crowley's strike landed.
Crowley turned immediately and attacked again.
Silvet avoided the blow.
Gabriel moved in from the side.
Silvet slipped between them.
He did not strike either of them.
He wasn't fighting.
He was walking.
Toward Brook.
Crowley caught him from behind.
The two men collided.
Crowley's arm locked around Silvet's throat.
Silvet remained calm.
"You can't hold me here."
Crowley tightened his grip.
"Try me."
Silvet looked over his shoulder.
"Your promise is why you are still standing here."
Crowley's face changed.
Only slightly.
But Brook saw it.
So did Gabriel.
Sera's eyes widened.
Brook didn't understand the sentence.
Not fully.
But something about it hurt.
Crowley shoved Silvet away.
Silvet stumbled two steps.
Crowley raised his weapon.
"You say that again and I kill you."
Silvet looked at him.
"No."
Crowley stepped forward.
Silvet shook his head.
"You won't."
Crowley's grip tightened.
"I've killed better things than you."
Silvet didn't respond.
Instead, he looked at Brook.
Brook was still on one knee.
Sera had one arm around his shoulders.
Henry stood several feet away, pale and frightened.
Hutena had opened the Book of Future.
The pages were turning by themselves.
Fast.
Faster.
Hutena tried to close the book.
It wouldn't close.
"Stop."
The pages continued.
Gabriel moved toward her.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
One page stopped.
Hutena stared.
Her face drained of color.
Gabriel looked down.
There was no image.
Only a black circle.
Inside the circle was a tiny white shape.
A child.
Hutena whispered, "No."
The page turned.
The image disappeared.
Brook felt the pressure increase.
His breath caught.
Silvet looked at Hutena's book.
For the first time, his expression changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
He moved.
Crowley blocked him.
"No."
Silvet stopped.
"You know what that book carries."
Crowley said nothing.
Silvet looked at Hutena.
"Close it."
Hutena stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because you don't want to see this."
She closed the book.
This time it worked.
The instant the cover shut, Brook's pain became unbearable.
He screamed.
The road disappeared.
Not physically.
His eyes simply stopped recognizing it.
The trees stretched.
Crowley became distant.
Sera's hand slipped from his shoulder.
Brook reached for her.
His fingers passed through her sleeve.
Or perhaps he only thought they did.
He could no longer tell.
The world tilted violently.
He heard voices.
Crowley shouting his name.
Henry yelling for Sera.
Gabriel calling for everyone to move.
Athena saying something about the earth.
Silvet saying nothing.
Then the road was gone.
Brook fell.
There was no ground beneath him.
He expected darkness.
Instead, there was light.
A room.
Cold stone.
A ceiling he had never seen.
The air smelled old.
Not dusty.
Old.
There was a sound.
A baby crying.
Brook froze.
The sound came again.
Small.
Terrified.
He turned.
There was a table.
Someone was standing beside it.
No.
Several people.
Figures surrounded a child.
An infant.
Brook could not see the baby's face clearly.
Not yet.
The room seemed impossibly far away.
He tried to move toward it.
His feet wouldn't respond.
He tried to speak.
No sound came.
A man stepped into the light.
Brook knew him.
He didn't know how.
He simply did.
Another figure stood beside him.
A woman.
She looked toward the child.
Brook's chest tightened.
The woman looked familiar.
The man did too.
He couldn't understand why.
Then someone spoke.
A name.
"Michael."
The memory moved.
Brook was not watching it.
He was inside it.
The room became clearer.
The faces became real.
The infant cried again.
A hand reached toward him.
Brook tried to scream.
He couldn't.
He knew that child.
He knew the man.
He knew the woman.
He knew the names.
The realization came all at once.
Adrian.
Elena.
His parents.
Brook's eyes opened wider.
The memory continued.
And somewhere far beyond the room, beyond the road and the valley and the present world, Silvet remained standing.
Watching.
The past had finally opened.
End of Chapter 310