Chapter 11- Since Time Immemorial

Sunlight crowned over Lake Sey’chey, it folded over the hills and through the ever thickening tufts of indigo leaves that hung from the tree branches. It was well into Rising Season, the flowers bloomed and the grassses beamed, and thoughts of summer consumed the minds of the people of Sohouta. It was called the Summer’s Rush, though ironically it made every day of anticipation drag on longer. The children were excited to run and play in the woods, and the adults were excited to enjoy the quiet and serenity that came with them doing so. Summer in Kellylin was when the Long Traders came back from Nierlyben, bringing with them money, new products, and gifts for their families. Summer was when the Buohram and the Prickled Bear slept all day because of the heat, thus making the woods safe for children who wished to play. But most importantly in the minds of the Kellians, Summer was when the Beyaliss awoke, when no dreams could be had because the lady of dreams walked among them. Which is why they celebrated the Summer with a feast, the feast of No Nightmares it was called, and it is why it was traditional to be kind and cheerful to anyone you meet in Summer, for they could be the Root Mother herself.

The giddy excitement of the city only enhanced Gane’s returning feeling of anticipation. He had stored it away tightly in the back of his mind, but now the Great Library was before him. He awoke early and left with Yhora across town to the Itsusu District. They had said goodbye to Zoll before they left. He carried only a pen in supplies, the rest of the material that he might have used was either gone, or would be available at the Library. They weaved through the morning rush in the streets, crossing small bridges over canals choked with boats, bypassing markets full of clamor, and trading looks with Roni farmers that carried carts of produce. Sohouta’s veins beat with life, and they navigated them up to the brain. 

Upon a hill, raised and displayed over the entire district was the Great Library of Souhouta. It was at the center of the block surrounded by soft grasses and winding pathways leading to its steps. Gane knew about it from home, he had seen drawings so it and heard tell from Rojon of its magnificence. It, along with the Blue Moon tower of Anom Gong, was one of the two most common symbols of Roni society that outsiders knew of. It fit closely with the descriptions that he had heard before, but the presence of the building far outshined all expectations. It stuck out from the rest of the surrounding buildings, not just in its age or opulence, but in the material from which it was built. This was the first building that Gane had seen since coming to Kellylin to be made from stone. There was an outer court of pillars leading up the hill to a squat building that still managed to be the tallest structure in the city. It had one long tower that extended up to about twice the height of anything around it, with rounded edges cut from marble.

“It’s beautiful.” Yhora said as they made their way down the middle of the outside pillars. “I never got to see much of the Library itself when I lived here before.”

“It really is, but the true bounty is inside. It’s a pity that I can’t spend a lifetime here.” Gane responded.

“A whole lifetime?”

“Well you’d have to, if you were gonna finish every one of the books that must be in there. It’s a pity I can’t spend a lifetime in every place like this to take in every bit of it.”

“Come on now, It’s a sight to behold but anybody would be sick of this place after a few months.”

“What do you mean? There’s a mountain of information in there. If I had the time I’d read it all.”

“Sure you would. Trust me, there’s only so many long winded military campaigns and census records you can read until you’ve got the gist. If you really want to learn everything about the world, you gotta go everywhere.”

“Nonsense, he’s got the right idea.” A voice butted in from their right. It was Mandrigon, matching their pace with his cane in hand. “Imagine how much easier your job would be if you could perceive the world all at once. I would sacrifice much for that.”

Yhora looked annoyed, Gane responded with an awkward quiet. 

“You mentioned that you needed to get into the Great Library, well you’re in luck. I happen to have full permissions in.”

“Oh, well thank you. I’ve really been anticipating-” Gane began.

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself there. I’m prepared to let you in for your research, I would just like to know what exactly you intend on researching first.” Mandrigon stopped, just a short way from the door, and the other two stopped as well,  pinned and contemplating their answer.

Yhora gave Gane a look, she clearly didn’t want to tell anything to this man, and wanted to be rid of him. Gane knew another non-answer wouldn’t cut it, so he decided on a half answer.

“We’re looking to do some research into... old rituals and religious ceremonies.” Gane said, receiving a skeptical look from Yhora. 

Mandrigon looked unsatisfied. “Indeed. This city is awfully preoccupied with that sort of thing…” He trailed off for a second. “Well my other apprentice is here with me today, perhaps she could help you find what you’re looking for.”

Gane began to refuse, but before he could even get any words out, they arrived at the door. A Mighty Marble frame cut into the walls of stone with a large archway, from the top of the arch, a thin waterfall of light pink liquid fell. Gane held back for a second, but watched as Mandrigon walked straight through it. He and Yhora followed. He was surprised to emerge on the other side totally dry, the magic liquid didn’t cling to him, but fell into a grate on the floor. 

“It’s purely a safety precaution on behalf of the books, that magic eliminates fire. You’d have to bust through the walls themselves to burn anything in here.” Mandrigon added. 

“Why are they so worried about people bringing fire in here?”

“It’s not the Roni’s policy, it is the policy of the guardian of the library.”

Gane looked out over the shelves of books, tomes, and papers that lined as far and as high as the eye could see. There was a second and third floor that wrapped around the shelves of books which extended all the way up. Gane was about to skip giddily into the endless rows when a cold hard hand clamped down on his shoulder. 

“Note Of Permission Please.” Droned a large man-shaped marble creature. 

The Automaton stood two head lengths taller than him, and looked to weigh more than several full grown cows. It was carved from white with shining green eyes and silver seems mending its large body together. 

Gane instinctively reeled back but got nowhere, with the vice grip hand still holding him. The Automaton began to tighten its grip, when Mandrigon spoke up to stop it. 

“That’s not necessary Gaardir, he’s here on my accord.” 

“Apologies Count Mandrigon. And This One?” He referred to Yhora. 

“Why not? You’re welcome to join as a friend of Gane’s.”

Yhora and Gane exchanged a look, he could tell she didn’t want to be around Mandrigon much longer. 

“Welcome To The Great Library.” He said through an expressionless stone face. 

“Gaardir here has been protecting this place for as long as I’ve known it.” Mandrigon added. “If you’re going to be here researching you’ll want to get used to him. He has one rule, no fire, which is to say no candles, hence the fireflies.” Mandrigon gestured to a single little firefly buzzing in front of them, there were others crawling about on the shelves and flying through the air. “Without candles or windows they must be available at all times, which is why they’ve been magically altered to live in shifts apart from each other, with emboldened lights as well.”

They admired the dainty display of whimsical lights and followed the Count to the middle of the floor, right in front of the endless walls of books. Yhora silently urged Gane to go, and Gane was beginning to agree with her. Mandrigon noticed this and assured them.

“I insist, you must meet my apprentice, she can tell you so much about these halls.”

“That’s quite alright, we met the Riftwalker the other day.” Yhora hissed through her smile. She was failing to hide her growing contempt. 

“No, not Riftwalker, she is elsewhere at the moment. My second apprentice is in here somewhere. She had offered to help you with your research.”

“It’s really alright, we can handle it on our own.” Yhora pulled Gane away and they disappeared into the rows of books. Mandrigon was left watching from where he stood. He furrowed his brow and sat down at a small wooden table.

“Can you believe that guy!?” Yhora whisper-yelled to Gane as they navigated blindly through the rows of books. 

“Well he did let us in here for free.” Gane responded. 

“For free?! He made us break into a clan estate and give him deeply incriminating files on the most powerful people of the city. I give him a stack of incriminating data not more than two days ago and tell him to handle it with the utmost care, and he doesn't even so much as acknowledge my existence the next time we see each other! You gotta stay away from that guy, there’s something about him that just doesn’t sit right.”

“You’re right, I felt that same way about him when I was in his office the first time. We don’t ever have to see him again after we get what we need from this library.”

“And what do we need from this library exactly?”

“Uhh…” Gane once again walked headlong into a figurative tree-trunk. This was where the loss of page 138 became incredibly detrimental. The page itself had held a full set of instructions and decoders that were meant to give one access to the map to the Gourd of Nestra. Without that they would have a lot of work on their hands. He did still remember choice bits however. “From what I recall… something about being in the heart of the library?”

They looked around, this library was built like a labyrinth, if there was any building in Sohouta where such cryptic language was less helpful, they had yet to hear of it. 

“Then I guess we really should start in the ‘religious ceremony’ section, do you know where that is?” Gane asked.

“Well it’s been a while since I’ve been here, but most of the cultural and Asdacist stuff should be near the back.” Yhora led them through the maze of old papers and under the canopy of long swaying shelves. 

They arrived in a dark antique corner, everything in this building looked like it was at least one hundred years old and this corner looked old amongst it. There were cobwebs twenty feet up, and books bound in dried leather with no titles that hung in a delicate balance from the shelves high above. 

“How am I supposed to get any of the books that are up that high?” Gane asked as they stared up at the mesmerizing height. 

“Are you serious? Like this.” Yhora casually trotted up to the side of the mighty bookshelf and knocked twice on it. “Shelf 62 please.” The bookcase groaned as it sucked in shelf 62 and a clock-like noise of thumping led them all the way down until they popped back out at exactly arm’s height in front of Yhora. She pulled two dusty old tomes out and handed one to Gane. “We should start pretty far back. If this ritual happens every thousand years then whatever clue we’re looking for must have arrived here that far back at the most.”

Gane was still partially in shock by the weirdness of this place. He voiced as much to Yhora. “This place is incredible. How does this library do stuff like that?”

“Because it’s practically teeming with magic, I’m surprised you can’t smell it in the air in here.”

“What does magic smell like?”

“Like a mix of vanilla, wet grass, and mystery.”

They both chuckled.

They sat down in piles of records and poured through ancient books on religion, and festivals, and the spiritual tradition of the library. Skimming became a necessity, seeing as how most of it was petty details about mundane celebrations and how exactly to sit, what exactly to eat, and when exactly to stop. Gane’s mind had wandered off while his finger scanned the page of the fourth book he’d picked. He was suddenly pulled back as his finger found a word was looking for. 

“Gourd! Gourd! I’ve got something!” He bursted with delight. 

Yhora scrambled over to see what he had found. It was a recipe for gourd soup, to be served at the autumn harvest in the town of such and such. They both sighed in annoyance. 

“Sorry, I got a little excited there.”

“It’s okay, I don’t blame you. Why do they even call it the Gourd of Nestra anyway?”

“Beats me.”

After that little excitement, Gaardir lumbered over and peeked at them. “Are You Finding Everything Alright? Count Mandrigon Asked If You Would Like-”

“Oh yes we’re fine.” Yhora interrupted. “We’ll let you know if there's a problem.

“Very Well.”

Gaardir lumbered off, the echoes of his mighty steps bounced in wild directions from the utter nonesicality of the bookshelves that surrounded him.

Gane decided to slow his pace, he read deeper into the religious ceremonies, it was interesting enough, but Yhora was right, no amount of description could do the real thing justice. What’s frustrating is, the more he read the less sense it began to make. All of the festivals described lush fruits, something the Roni were prone to eat, and the leaves of dew trees, they mentioned the mists of great waterfalls and poison of dart frogs. None of it added up, all the bits of nature that were described seemed totally off from what he had seen in Kellylin, and they made little mention of the region or the Library itself. He turned to see how Yhora was doing, she seemed equally perplexed. 

“Did you find anything?” he asked. 

“No, nothing good. You?”

“Well it seems like we’re searching in the wrong direction, from what I’ve seen of Kellylin, these books don’t describe Kellylin. There’s not even a single mention of a Humming Hawk.”

Yhora sighed. “Well I’d hate to imagine that we’ve been wasting our time all this long. Where else could we even think to look?”

“Perhaps in the History section.” A voice poked in from around the side of the bookshelf. The voice walked around and revealed itself to be a short young Cavaul woman with cloud white hair and a massive winter coat on. In fact she was covered head to toe in a winter get up as if she intended to go hiking across a mountaintop. 

Gane and Yhora didn’t quite know how to respond and were silent for a moment, the woman misinterpreted this as them taking offence. 

“So sorry! I didn’t mean to- I have a bad habit of- I don’t mean to intrude. I’ll just leave you alone.” She stuttered. 

Yhora put out her hand. “You’re fine. Don’t worry about it. I’m Yhora Va’Nohanja and this is Gane. What’s that about the history section?”

“Oh- well…” The woman plopped down beside them in the row and held out her mitten to shake both of their hands. “I’m Allene Susant, a student Magician from the University of Lejacia in Cavaul. I couldn’t help but overhear that you guys were looking for information on the Gourd of Nestra. Is that right?”

Gane and Yhora gave a cautious nod. 

“Well if you’re looking for info on that, you won’t find it in Roni records.” 

“Why not?” Gane asked. 

“Because it’s probably been here longer than the Roni.”

Yhora slapped her forehead upon this revelation. “You’re right, the Southern Roni didn’t migrate to these woods until around 500 years ago. All those records would have been before The Split.” 

Gane interrupted. “Hold on a minute, how’d you miss that?” He asked Yhora.

“Well when a people live in a certain place for over 500 years they tend to start thinking of it as home. I’ve never even met a Northern Roni.”

Gane continued. “And how did they leave the information here 1000 years ago if nobody even lived here?”

“Because the Great Library has been here since time immemorial.” Allene answered. “This place has been a historical and magical anomaly since it was first discovered. They say that the Automaton Gaardir has been running this place since before there were civilizations to speak of. The Kellylin Roni are merely the denizens now.”

Gane checked his pocket watch, they had been there around 5 hours. Time passed in odd ways when there were no windows, like time took the chance to run as fast as possible while you weren’t looking. It had been draining to dig through old records for that long, but if this was really the right track then it would be worth it. Gane got up and agreed to search the History section for their remaining time in the day. Yhora agreed as well, and they both asked Allene to lead them in the right direction. 

Allene took them around several corners to an even darker and older portion of the library. Set up at the very edge of the building against a large marble wall. Here there was dust so thick it caused Gane to cough and his eyes to water. Books of ancient history were stored here, along with records of long outdated information. Yhora and Gane took books of history off of the shelf, ‘A History of the Age of Green Rains’, ‘Blue East: The Kellylin Woods’, ‘A Temple Older Than Time’. As they opened them up Gane lamented on the disuse of this corner of the Library. 

“You’d think more people would come back here, this stuff is interesting.”

Allene agreed. “I know what you mean. But as famous as it is, this library is very exclusive. All the nobles who use it ever want is pretentious political ballads like ‘Ennobling of the Worm’. They only go back this far for records of lineage.”

These tomes were far more helpful for narrowing down what they were looking for. The Last Restoration took place 1000 years ago, from the records it was completed by a sister and brother named Alay and Unlay respectively. This pair, after completing the ritual, took the appropriate steps of hiding the Gourd of Nestra. Apparently it was a part of the ritual to hide the Gourd for the next thousand years so that it would not be tampered with in the intermit, a series of clues would be laid out and distributed to various locations believed to be safe. The first set of directions was given to the High Priesthood in Quelpanion, those directions made their way into the hands of Mr. Rojon and eventually onto Page 138 of Gane’s notebook. They had led him here, where the next set of directions would lead to the next location. It was an overcomplicated system of protecting the Gourd, but it was meant to protect an incredibly powerful magical object for one thousand years, so a little convolution was in order.

This was all well and good, but it gave no hint as to where the actual next set of directions was located within the building. This Library was full of enough books to keep them digging for years. It was infuriating, they learned the last thousand years of history to find this clue and all that it could tell them was that they were looking for a needle in a haystack. 

“We’ve made some progress, why don’t we come back tomorrow?” Yhora suggested. 

It was tempting, there is a unique type of exhaustion that you gain from spending a whole day digging through books in a stuffy library. “I guess I can’t complain, I certainly took in a lot of local history.” Gane joked. 

Yhora smirked at his remark, she seemed worn out as well. 

“But I don’t know if I want to go yet, I feel like we’re on the verge of something.”

“Come on Gane, we’ve made it as far as we’re gonna for today, let’s head back, I haven’t eaten since this morning.”

A low blow, Gane was starving as well. But he just couldn’t shake the feeling that he was just another tug away from pulling up the whole root.

Yhora seemed adamant, she shut her book and began setting things back in their place. “Thanks Allene for showing us this section.”

Allene looked over from her book. “Of course, and if you guys ever need help looking for stuff I’d be happy to lend you a hand. I could even ask my master, Mandrigon, to help you as well, he’s got this uncanny ability to find things that are mislaid.”

“Wait a minute! You work for mandrigon?” Yhora seemed suddenly more alert.

“Yeah, I transferred to learn under him from the University at Lejacia. Do you know him?”

“Yeah, we’ve seen him around.” Yhora gestured for Gane to get up. She began to pick up her books to leave in a haste. As they walked out Gane let out one final “Thanks again for the help” in order to not seem so rude.

Gane whispered to her as they walked briskly for the door. 

“What are you doing? So what if she works for the same guy that let us in here?”

“I don’t like Mandrigon being so close to us. He’s up to something, guys like him always are.”

“You may be right about that, but that’s no reason to be rude to Allene.”

“She’s working for Mandrigon. He clearly just sent her to spy on us.”

“But she helped us, we wouldn’t have found anything today if it weren’t for her.”

“Listen Gane I- I just can’t work under these conditions. I can’t work with Mandrigon, I get a sickening creeping feeling around him, like he’s staring into the back of my eyes.”

“But he’s blind.”

“I know, it doesn’t make any sense, but there’s something about him I can’t put up with. But the biggest thing is those documents, I handed him the evidence of what could well have been my parents murder, my only chance to sweep together the scraps of my Hieskarn, the only chance I have to maybe make amends with my Clan, and he does nothing with them, not one word to me about them.”

“...Yhora. I wouldn’t pretend like I understand how you feel, I’ve never lost my family before, and before this quest I’ve never considered the possibility of having a destiny. But if we’re gonna do this, at least until we get out of Sohouta, we’ve gotta work with him.”

Yhora sighed and looked off into the buzzing firefly lights above. 

“I can ask him about those documents if you’d like.”

“Don’t waste your time, it’s all leverage to him, I know his type.”

“Well then I can…”

“I’ve gotta go do something. I’m done here for today. I’m sorry Gane.”

Yhora walked off through the book maze towards the entrance. Gane was left standing awkwardly in the middle of the row. He had some books in his hands to take back to his room at the inn. He wanted to go after Yhora, but she seemed like she needed space. He had never known how to be tactful in moments like these, he wished he was better in situations like that. He remembered the last time he had messed a situation like that up, at the very beginning of his journey. He blamed himself for it, no great hero fumbles a confrontation like that with their partner, and only a fool could mess it up so badly twice, not in any of the stories he had been told.

Gane meekly wandered around the library for a little while longer, he half wanted to keep going with his research, maybe find some clue to come back with, to make the day feel worth it. He agreed with himself that he would leave if he found the exit, but would continue researching if he found something good, without Yhora he was wandering blindly around the labyrinth. After a few minutes of aimless meandering, he stopped, hearing movement around him, Gane looked around, and jumped back. Gaardir was standing behind him. The Automaton thumped forward/

“How long have you been following me?”

“I Saw Your Altercation From Afar.”

“Sorry about that, I’ll try to be more quiet next time.”

“I Saw You Two Searching.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re Late.”

“I’m sor-” Gane stopped himself, he knew now what this stone golem was getting at. If the next step in finding the Gourd was left here one thousand years ago, and this one has been watching this place since time immemorial… “Do you have the information I need?”

“I Do. They Told Me That One Would Come For It After Another Thousand Years.” Gaardir lifted a stone patch in his torso out until nails snapped out from him. He made no flinch as he removed a parchment scroll from his insides. It was delicate, but ultimately well kept after one thousand years, the writing was in some ancient language, but the map had an arrow drawn across it, that pointed out from the Kellylin woods, over the Mondranor Mountains, and into a land marked Ynmoriidj. Gane held the map close. 

“Thank you for your guidance, but I have to ask, how late am I?”

“I Cannot Say. My Perception Of Time In Here Is… Not Precise.”

“Alright, thank you nonetheless.” Gane wrapped the scroll up carefully and fit it into his bag, he began for the door. 

“Wait, Great Vigorator. You Must Have Two For The Ritual.”

“I understand.”

 Gane turned away and began back towards the front of the Library. His mood lifted up significantly, this was it, this was what he needed, the map to the Gourd of Nestra, all he needed now was his friend back. He finally found his way out of the library, it was a nice place, maybe he’d come back to do some reading for pleasure. As he made his way to the door, he heard a familiar voice call out to him. 

“Gane! Before you go, I have something to ask of you!”

Mandrigon was there waiting for him, blindfolded head pointed out towards the glowing bloom of the rooftops. It was at this point that Gane began to question, was he looking at the splendor of the city, wasn’t he blind?

“ Did you find all the things you were looking for?”

“I-uh... yeah I did”

“Excellent, I’m glad I could be of assistance. Now Gane I’m afraid I have another thing to ask of you, it’s nothing major, more of an opportunity.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can.”

“Please just hear my proposal, you’re free to follow your heart’s whim.”

“I really shouldn’t…” 

“Gane I’m disappointed. When I first met you I was struck by your wholesome innocence, you are the perfect picture of what I once was, fresh faced out of my tiny home village.”

“I thought you were from Tiralgo?”
“No. I moved there out of necessity, not many of us country folk have an ancient ritual to rise us up the social ladder. I wanted to extend this opportunity to you as a favor from one from one true son of the Niern to another.”

Gane thought about it, he was surprised to hear that Mandrigon wasn’t from the cities, he fit the part so well. Then Gane thought back to Yhora.

“I’ll hear your proposal if you tell me something.”

“Of course, whatever do you need to know?”

“Those documents we stole from the Torpec Clan, the ones that Yhora gave you, what did you do with them? They’re very important to her, and you’re supposed to be an arbiter of justice in the city, isn’t that right?”

“Of course I still have those documents, I figured you two would be smart enough to know that. I haven’t buried them, I’m holding them close, if you really want to see justice brought unto a powerful group of people, you have to wait for the perfect moment. Trust me Gane, the best lesson I can impart onto you is to always strike while the iron is hot.” as he spoke, a massive KAHBOOM! rung out through the city as a column of fire rose up from near the docks. Mandrigon spun around towards the direction of the blast.

“What was that!?” Gane yelled in shock.

“That wasn’t my doing. The iron might be hotter than I thought.”

“Are we gonna do anything about it?”

“I doubt there is anything we can do, the guards will handle it for now and I’ll be forced to put the culprits to trial.” As he spoke, a light rain began to come down. “That should at least handle the fire. Gane my proposal is an invitation, I would like you to stay here in Sohouta a little longer, in two weeks the upper echelons of Sohoutan society will be gathering in Rosin Hall for a banquet, I would like you to attend. You can see the justice be brought forward in person.” 

The rain began to come down a little harder. Gane pushed his shoulders forward to protect the books. He wanted to get out of the rain, to protect his new scroll, and he wanted to be back in a warm bed. But he wanted to do the right thing for Yhora, to help her where he had failed Sajazar, if this banquet was going to give her closure, then he would go.

“Alright. I’ll be there.”