Chapter 16

Chaos guides Evangeline and Jacks through a secret passage to a hidden library packed with preserved books on the Valors and Great Houses. He warns her to avoid bloodshed and explains the story curse alters texts, but these volumes have changed little because they are rarely read. When Evangeline suggests using the luck stone to navigate, Chaos forbids it, revealing the last key wore it, became reckless, and died. Jacks adds that only the prophesied key can reunite all four stones.

The next morning Jacks is gone, leaving only a curt note. Alone, Evangeline returns to the library and studies the unstable histories. She confirms the Valor siblings’ names and gifts but still cannot find the precise tragedy that led to the Valory’s creation and the family’s beheadings. Mentions of the Great Houses include Acadian, making her worry about Apollo’s deteriorating state under the Archer’s curse.

Seeking leads, Evangeline researches the Great Houses; Slaughterwood yields nothing, while Merrywood reveals a trio of youthful rogues: Castor Valor, Lyric Merrywood, and an unnamed cocky archer—echoing the Archer of legend. The pattern suggests ties between the Valors, Merrywood, and the Archer that may connect to the stones and the curse.

Chaos reappears briefly, dismisses Slaughterwood as brutes, and hands Evangeline The Rise and Fall of the Valors, whose words flicker too wildly to read. When she reaches for the book she dropped earlier, it has vanished, leaving only a single fluttering slip of paper, underscoring the library’s shifting, perilous nature.