Tony watched Maverick sit down next to Lucy where she lay on the couch, still unconscious, taking the white swan's place of vigil, and put his hand on her forehead, closing his eyes and slowing his breathing at the same time. Tony had experienced Maverick's powers firsthand when he had first come to work for him as a boy a long time ago. He knew that reaching into someone's head on a good day could be dangerous, but reaching into the head of someone as powerful as Lucy, when she had no idea what he was doing, could be deadly.
"How did she do?" he asked the white swan as she put on her leather jacket with a flourish.
"The swelling is gone from her brain and arm. But the mind can be a finicky place; sometimes the damage can be hard to see. You won't know for sure until she wakes up," she replied and then added, "She's an important find for Maverick, isn't she?"
"It seems so. Her presence has roused all the evil within the city. Hopefully Maverick can find out why."
"I'll stick around then. If Maverick finds anything else when he's in there that needs my expertise, just have him call me. I'll be in the neighborhood," she said with a wink before leaving.
Tony watched Maverick for a moment longer until Daisy called him over to the large oak table that was already strewn with books, intermingled with boxes of Chinese takeout. He sat down in a chair, taking a box of fried rice and a pair of chopsticks in his hand, as he looked over the table at the books that were laid out.
"Geez, Daze, did you leave any books in the library?" he asked through a mouthful of food. Daisy replied by rolling her eyes and shoving an entire eggroll into her mouth at once. She chewed with relish and then chugged a Dr. Pepper before saying anything.
"This text is interesting," she said, tossing a book across the table to him. "It talks about the first sun eaters, you know, the nursery rhyme we heard as kids?"
"I remember," Tony said, nodding. "The witch spoke of it."
"Well, it looks like it might be more than just a nursery rhyme. That text was a copy of a copy of the original work, and it has a much longer and more detailed version of that rhyme. Do you remember how it went?"
"There was a boy and girl
Who went to see the moon.
It made them fall asleep
And brought about their doom.
Their loving father saw them
And said amidst his grief,
'The sun must wake them up
If the moon put them to sleep.'"
"That's all I remember," Tony said as he reached for the carton of egg rolls, only to find it was empty. He gave Daisy a reproachful look and tossed the box aside, disappointed.
"Yeah, that's the gist of it. This text," she said, pointing to the one Tony held, "says that the boy made a machine using levers and wheels, steam and fire. He made a balloon to carry them up to the moon."
"That still sounds more like a fairy tale than a historical account," Tony said.
"Agreed. Nevertheless, it describes in great detail what the machine looked like, though there isn't a picture. It goes on to say that the father brought back the sun at great cost to himself. He only lived long enough to write down in his journal the account of what happened."
"Death by epic sunburn?" Tony asked, making Daisy toss an empty box of Chinese at his head, which he barely dodged.
"Hey now!"
"Take this seriously! Whether it's true or not, it might help us figure out what the witches think Lucy can do. Besides, I kind of like her. She has that 'save me' aura about her that I just can't resist," Daisy said more seriously.
"I know what you mean," Tony replied, matching her tone and pulling the book closer to look at the text before adding, "We have to save Bali too."
They sat quietly for a moment, taking a minute to process what had happened in the last twenty-four hours and feeling the loss of Bali and the addition of Lucy, who seemed to bring with her a whole host of problems and questions. Finally, Daisy cleared her throat and pointed to the book in Tony's hand again.
"It says that when the father gave the children the sun, that light shone out of their eyes for a full minute before it faded away, and that when it was gone, the children were not the same; they were altered."
"Altered how?" Tony asked.
"It sounds like they began to have powers. The boy could run faster than any human alive; he could jump over trees, and some accounts say he could even read minds. The girl could visit people's dreams at night, walk through walls, and disappear at will."
"Unicorns," Tony said.
"Exactly. The first unicorns. It's believed that it's their bloodlines that brought magic into the world for the first time. Everyone with power has some link back to these first two."
"Why don't more people have multiple powers? I haven't heard of anyone with more than one power in my lifetime or Maverick's, for that matter."
"I don't know. Some people think that as the years went by, the powers were diluted through marriages. What we have today is less than what they had back then."
"What about this book?" Tony asked, picking up a smaller book with a rough, dark leather binding that had a picture of the sun shining onto a human who had a shadow behind him that was taking a step in a direction the human wasn't walking.
"I haven't read it yet," Daisy replied.
Tony picked it up and opened its rough binding, skimming through the first few pages until he came to the place where shadow eaters were mentioned.
"Listen to this, Daze," he said excitedly. "This is my account. It is the true story of the first sun eaters. The nursery rhymes are a watered-down lie, for I was there that day, and I know the truth. The boy did not eat the sun because he didn't need to. The moon did not put him to sleep because evil was already in his heart, and when he ate the moon, it awakened the darkness that was already within him. It was with dark magic he made a machine that could travel to the moon, and it was dark magic he used to poison his sister that night. He was the first moon eater, and I know this to be true, for I was his shadow, and this is my account."
"Well, that's a plot twist. How has this version of the story never been told before? No nursery rhymes for the moon eater?" Daisy said. Tony continued.
"I watched him eat his first shadow. He cut it from a little boy who lived down the street. When he ate the shadow, his eyes turned black like the night for a moment, and when they had cleared, he was able to compel the boy to do tasks for him against his will. I knew he would grow more powerful, and I became afraid—not because I longed to be good, but because I knew he would not spare my life. One night, as he slept, I cut myself free, not knowing if I could survive on my own. I did survive, though my master hated my betrayal and vowed to hunt me like a dog for the rest of his life. He continued to eat shadows and steal people's lives, growing more and more powerful, and I fought him, in my own way, by sneaking into houses and setting shadows free from their masters before he could find them. Together we brought chaos and darkness into the land of light."
"Wow," Daisy exclaimed. "So the brother started the shadow war we are still fighting today? Does it talk about the sister?"
Tony shook his head as he scanned through the pages of the book, which was surprisingly short. "It's only a memoir of the shadow. He goes on to describe how the boy began teaching false magic to other humans, and that is how the witches began."
"He sounds like a real asshole," Daisy said.
The two sat silent for a while, reading through various manuscripts and old books as they picked at what little remained of their food. Daisy picked up a larger book that was buried beneath all the others. After a while of silence, she finally said, "Check this out," before reading out loud.
"The witches have had a prophecy which we discovered by accident when a crystal ball was taken from one of their order. It spoke of a reincarnation of the first shadow eater, that one would come who had power like the first, and when they ate the shadow, the father of deception and darkness would rise again."
"That is creepy," Daisy said.
"Yeah, definitely sounds like witchcraft and witch propaganda. Their prophecies are not reliable," Tony replied.
"True, but some part of it might be true," Daisy replied, closing the book with a sigh. "I need a break. I think I'll try to get a power nap real quick. Wake me in five minutes, or if anything interesting happens over there," Daisy yawned, nodding towards Maverick and Lucy before lying her head down on the pack of books and immediately beginning to snore.
Tony shook his head as he watched his partner sleep on command. He had never known anyone else who could do that besides Daisy. It was quite remarkable. He suppressed a smile and set a timer on his phone for five minutes before pulling another stack of books closer to himself, flipping open the first one with a sigh.