Chapter 183 — Lore
Brook did not sleep that night.
He tried.
But every time he closed his eyes, he saw the thread.
Bright.
Alive.
Different from the others.
The image had lasted less than a second.
Yet it refused to leave him.
Brook lay awake inside the room Queen Hebe had given them.
The palace was quiet.
Outside the window, Asteria slept beneath the stars.
Brook looked upward.
He understood the name now.
Asteria.
Stars.
Night.
Something connected to dreams.
His eyes narrowed.
"Of course."
He sat up.
Something was wrong.
Asteria wasn't just another Shinokuni.
Crowley had known that.
Hell had records of the place.
Not clear records.
Fragments.
Enough for Crowley to know its name.
But not enough to understand why it mattered.
And now people were having dreams.
The same dreams.
Brook stood.
He opened the door.
Crowley was sitting in the hallway.
Brook stopped.
Crowley looked up.
"You don't sleep?"
Brook stared at him.
"You were waiting outside my room?"
"No."
Brook looked around.
Crowley sighed.
"Yes."
Brook smiled.
"Creepy."
Crowley stood.
"You felt something."
Brook's smile disappeared.
Crowley had always been observant.
Brook nodded.
"Yeah."
Crowley gestured for him to follow.
"Good."
Brook frowned.
"Good?"
Crowley began walking.
"It means you're finally going to start asking questions."
The others were already awake.
Brook entered a large room and stopped.
Sera.
Henry.
Rick.
Shoyo.
Charon sat on Henry's shoulder.
The Ectoplasm looked at Brook.
Brook looked back.
Charon didn't disappear.
Brook smiled.
"Progress."
Charon immediately turned away.
Henry sighed.
"Small progress."
Brook walked toward the table.
Books had been placed across it.
Ancient ones.
New ones.
Loose pages.
Records.
Brook looked toward Queen Hebe.
She stood beside a window.
"You asked questions."
Brook nodded.
"So?"
Hebe turned.
"Asteria has answers."
Crowley looked toward the books.
"Or old people trying to sound important."
Hebe smiled slightly.
"Also that."
Brook opened one of the books.
The writing was ancient.
Symbols appeared beside the words.
Stars.
A woman.
A night sky.
Brook looked toward Hebe.
"Asteria."
The Queen nodded.
"The name existed long before the Shinokuni."
Crowley leaned against the table.
"Greek."
Hebe looked at him.
Crowley shrugged.
"I read."
Brook raised an eyebrow.
"You?"
Crowley smiled.
"Hell has books."
Brook looked back down.
Queen Hebe walked toward the table.
"In ancient mythology, Asteria was associated with the night."
She pointed toward one of the symbols.
"A Titan goddess."
Brook listened.
"Falling stars."
The next symbol.
"Divination."
Another.
"Prophetic dreams."
The room became quiet.
Brook looked toward the window.
The stars above Asteria suddenly felt different.
Hebe continued.
"The people who founded this Shinokuni chose the name intentionally."
Sera frowned.
"Because of the dreams?"
Queen Hebe shook her head.
"No."
Crowley immediately looked toward her.
"Before?"
"Yes."
Brook stared.
"How?"
Hebe looked toward the ancient records.
"Because Asteria existed as an idea before it existed as a Shinokuni."
Brook frowned.
"That doesn't explain anything."
"No."
Hebe smiled.
"It doesn't."
Brook sighed.
Crowley laughed.
Brook looked toward him.
"Don't."
Hebe opened another book.
Inside was a map.
The original twelve Shinokunis were marked.
But Asteria was different.
It had been added later.
Brook stared.
"A new Shinokuni."
Hebe nodded.
"Yes."
"But why here?"
Hebe looked toward him.
"Because people arrived here."
Brook waited.
"Survivors."
"Builders."
"Soldiers."
"People who wanted something new."
She placed her hand against the map.
"They built Asteria."
Crowley looked toward the map.
"Or they were brought here."
Hebe looked at him.
The room became quiet.
Brook noticed.
"You know something."
Crowley shook his head.
"I suspect something."
Brook waited.
Crowley looked toward the stars carved into the walls.
"Asteria's name is too convenient."
Hebe raised an eyebrow.
"You believe a name is evidence?"
"No."
Crowley smiled.
"I believe coincidence is."
Brook looked down at the books again.
Then—
he felt it.
Death.
The presence inside him moved.
Brook froze.
The others noticed.
His eyes slowly moved toward a page.
There was a symbol.
A closed eye.
Brook stared.
The moment he touched it—
the room disappeared.
Brook stood beneath a black sky.
No walls.
No buildings.
Nothing.
Only stars.
Thousands.
Millions.
Brook looked upward.
Then one fell.
A bright light crossed the darkness.
Another.
Another.
Brook turned.
A woman stood behind him.
He immediately reached for his weapon.
She didn't move.
Her face was hidden.
Her voice reached him.
"The future is not written."
Brook stared.
"Who are you?"
The woman didn't answer.
"It is seen."
Brook's expression changed.
"What?"
The stars above him began moving.
Threads appeared.
The same threads he had seen earlier.
Thousands of lives.
Thousands of possibilities.
They twisted.
Changed.
Split.
Brook watched.
Some disappeared.
Others appeared.
Then—
one became brighter.
Brook.
He stepped back.
The woman looked toward him.
"You are seen."
Brook's jaw tightened.
"By who?"
The woman raised her hand.
The stars moved.
Brook saw destruction.
Walls falling.
Fire.
A massive figure walking through darkness.
Then—
Silvet.
Brook froze.
Silvet stood somewhere beneath the stars.
Watching.
The woman spoke again.
"The one who searches for tomorrow has forgotten where tomorrow sleeps."
Brook looked toward her.
"What does that mean?"
The woman slowly faded.
Brook stepped forward.
"Wait."
The world disappeared.
Brook returned to the room.
He stumbled backward.
Henry caught him.
"Brook!"
Brook looked around.
The others stared.
Crowley stepped forward.
"What did you see?"
Brook breathed heavily.
Brook looked at the book.
Then at the symbol.
"I don't know."
Crowley grabbed the book.
"What?"
Brook shook his head.
"There was a woman."
Sera immediately stepped closer.
"What woman?"
"I couldn't see her face."
Crowley looked at the page.
"What did she say?"
Brook repeated the words.
The room became silent.
The future is not written.
It is seen.
Hebe's expression changed.
Brook noticed.
"You know something."
The Queen looked toward Crowley.
Crowley nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
Brook looked between them.
"What?"
Crowley slowly placed his hand against the table.
"There are records."
Brook waited.
Crowley continued.
"Old ones."
"From Hell."
Sera frowned.
"What do they say?"
Crowley looked toward her.
"Not much."
Brook folded his arms.
"Then why bring it up?"
Crowley's eyes narrowed.
"Because there is a name."
The room became silent.
Crowley looked toward Brook.
"The Book of the Future."
Nobody spoke.
Brook stared.
"A book?"
Crowley shook his head.
"That's what Hell calls it."
Hebe walked toward an older record.
The pages were almost falling apart.
She opened it.
"Not a physical book."
Crowley looked at her.
"Maybe."
Hebe ignored him.
Brook waited.
The Queen read.
"Those who seek the future will search for words."
She looked up.
"But those who understand it will search for dreams."
Sera's expression changed.
Brook immediately understood.
"The dreams."
Hebe nodded.
Crowley stepped forward.
"The Book of the Future can show what comes next."
Rick frowned.
"Can?"
Crowley looked toward him.
"That's what the records say."
Shoyo had been quiet.
Now she spoke.
"Who has it?"
Crowley looked at her.
"No one."
The room became silent.
Brook frowned.
"What?"
Crowley looked toward the table.
"No one possesses the Book."
Henry looked confused.
"So where is it?"
Crowley's expression hardened.
"That is the problem."
Queen Hebe walked toward the window.
Outside—
Asteria slept.
"The dreams began six months ago."
Brook froze.
The same moment he had fallen unconscious.
Crowley noticed.
Hebe continued.
"At first, people thought they were nightmares."
"Then they repeated."
"Not every night."
"Not for every person."
"But they continued."
Brook looked toward the Queen.
"And now?"
Hebe turned.
"Now people have begun dreaming of things that happen."
The room changed.
Rick frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Hebe looked toward him.
"A child dreamed about a fire."
"The next day, the fire happened."
Sera's expression changed.
Hebe continued.
"A woman dreamed about a building collapsing."
Brook waited.
"It collapsed."
Henry slowly looked toward Charon.
Charon stared back.
Crowley stepped closer.
"Who?"
Hebe looked toward him.
Crowley repeated himself.
"Who is dreaming?"
The Queen was silent.
Crowley's expression hardened.
"Someone is causing it."
Hebe nodded.
"Perhaps."
Brook looked toward the books.
The Book of the Future.
The future was being seen.
Not written.
Seen.
Brook remembered the woman.
The one who searches for tomorrow has forgotten where tomorrow sleeps.
Silvet.
Brook's expression changed.
Crowley noticed.
"What?"
Brook looked at him.
"Silvet."
Crowley immediately understood.
Brook continued.
"He's looking for it."
The room went silent.
Crowley looked toward the Queen.
Hebe slowly nodded.
"That's what we believe."
Sera stared.
"Silvet wants the Book of the Future?"
Crowley nodded.
"Or whoever can see the future."
Rick looked around.
"Why?"
Crowley smiled without humor.
"Because he's Silvet."
Brook stared.
"That's not an answer."
"No."
Crowley looked toward the books.
"But it might be the worst possible answer."
Far from the palace—
Silvet stood inside an empty house.
A woman slept upstairs.
He could hear her breathing.
Silvet remained downstairs.
He wasn't there for her.
Not exactly.
He had watched hundreds of people sleep.
Children.
Adults.
Soldiers.
Merchants.
Every person who had reported dreams.
Every person who had predicted something.
None of them were the one.
None.
Silvet looked toward the ceiling.
The woman upstairs moved in her sleep.
Silvet waited.
Then—
she whispered.
"Tomorrow."
Silvet's eyes narrowed.
He slowly walked toward the stairs.
The floor creaked.
The woman suddenly sat up.
Silvet stopped.
She stared into the darkness.
"Who's there?"
Silvet didn't answer.
The woman looked terrified.
Silvet stepped into the doorway.
She screamed.
Then—
stopped.
Silvet looked at her.
"What did you see?"
The woman trembled.
"I—I don't know."
Silvet smiled.
"Yes."
He stepped closer.
"You do."
The woman began crying.
Silvet watched her.
"What happens tomorrow?"
She shook her head.
Silvet sighed.
"Wrong one."
The woman froze.
Silvet turned away.
Then stopped.
He looked back.
"One day."
The woman stared.
"One day, you will dream again."
Silvet smiled.
"And when you do…"
He disappeared into the darkness.
"…I will know."
Inside the palace—
Brook stood beside the window.
Crowley joined him.
Neither spoke for a while.
Then Brook looked toward him.
"You said Silvet knows everything."
Crowley smiled slightly.
"I said almost everything."
Brook looked toward him.
Crowley's expression became serious.
"And that's why this matters."
Brook looked back outside.
Asteria.
Thousands of people.
Thousands of dreams.
Somewhere among them—
someone was seeing tomorrow.
Silvet had searched.
Watched.
Waited.
But he still didn't know who.
Brook remembered the woman's words.
Tomorrow sleeps.
He narrowed his eyes.
"The Book."
Crowley looked at him.
Brook continued.
"It's here."
Crowley nodded.
"Yes."
Brook's expression hardened.
"And Silvet doesn't know who."
Crowley stared at him.
For the first time—
Brook saw uncertainty in his eyes.
"Yes."
Brook looked toward the city.
Somewhere beneath those stars—
the future was sleeping.
And Silvet was searching for it.
End of Chapter 183