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  “What do you wish us to do should we locate our enemy?” Nadeine asked, clutching the hilt of her own sword now. I couldn’t help but not that this was the first time she had chosen to wear it at her side in weeks.

  “We wish for you to destroy him should the opportunity arise,” Dalibor said, turning to look directly at Nadeine. “Of course, we understand this may not be possible and do not wish you to put yourselves in unnecessary danger. Should you be faced with a choice between saving yourselves or taking out our enemy, we wish for you to choose yourselves. You five are too valuable to us to lose so soon.” He raised a finger. “As such, you should consider the main goal of this quest to be to gather information on our enemy, determine what he is planning, and, if possible, put a stop to it. Only if you are able to fulfill all of these goals and see an opportunity to destroy him are you to do so.” Nadeine nodded.

  “We understand,” Nadeine said with a nod. “Thank you for this quest.”

  “And thank you for undertaking it,” Dalibor said, his expression warm now. At that, Godfried rose, and we all turned to exit the council’s chambers and join the scholars in their library.

  2

  Marinka led us across the staircase near the council’s chambers and to another high tower in the royal castle that contained a library I had never been in before. It was different from the other libraries and was full of books instead of just scrolls. I also didn’t see any of the mage’s circles etched on the ground that I used to practice.

  More so, this library had a more old-timey feel to it than the other ones I had been in here. This was what I would picture a library in a fantasy world to be like, full of ornate wooden shelves and awnings and the musty but comforting smell of old books hanging in the air. The shelves were tall and long, reaching up to a domed ceiling covered in carvings. Scattered throughout the room were kingdom elves of varying ages hard at work sifting through the books and writing notes on their own scrolls and in their own leather-bound journals.

  “This is where you work?” I asked Marinka incredulously, turning around so that I could catch a glimpse of every corner of the room.

  “Indeed,” Marinka said, smiling slightly. “Grand, is it not?”

  “Definitely!”

  “Ah, I could never see how you could expend such time and energy on old books, cousin,” Godfried spoke up, waving a hand in dismissal of Marinka’s chosen profession. “Give me a sword or a spell any day.”

  “There is a place for all talents, Godfried,” Nadeine chided him. “I share your preference, but I am wary of dismissing the contributions of others.”

  “Right,” I said sternly. “I think you’ll find that Marinka’s intellectual contributions are often even more valuable than any skills in battle.”

  “Thank you, Leo,” Marinka said, her face flushing a bit at the praise.

  Godfried shut up after that, and I was secretly glad. He struck me as a bit stuck up, with his puffed-out chest and gallant declarations of dedication to the kingdom back in the council’s chambers, though I reminded myself that he was still just a kid after all.

  We made our way over to one side of the library. There, several kingdom elves clustered around an oval-shaped table covered in a clustered mess of books, scrolls, and pieces of parchment. The loose-leaf papers stuck out every which way, and it appeared as if someone had spilled some ink on the corner of the table but hadn’t bothered to clean it all up, opting instead just to relocate the ink-stained papers to another stack. The elves passed papers back and forth, whispering amongst themselves so as not to bother the library’s other patrons, and didn’t seem to have noticed our approach.

  “Ramiel,” Marinka said as she approached the elf nearest to us, reaching out to touch his shoulder gingerly so as not to surprise him.

  It didn’t work. Ramiel gave a start, and several of the pieces of parchment he had been holding went flying every which way.

  “Oh, Princess Marinka,” he stammered before he knelt to the ground, scrambling to pick up the papers haphazardly. “I did not see you approach. I apologize for my clumsiness, as usual.” The elf was probably around forty, or at least the Eviorahn equivalent of forty, and had short black hair sticking out in several directions. Perched on his nose were long oval-shaped glasses with wireframes. He wore maroon mage’s robes, which hung loosely at his side as he seemed to have misplaced his belt.

  “It is alright, Ramiel,” Marinka said, laughing.

  The other elves clustered around the table had noticed us by now, emerging from their own little world and turning to stare at us with dazed expressions on their faces. Marinka took that opportunity to introduce the rest of us.

  “These are my companions, Leo Hayden, Nadeine, Bernsten, and my dear cousin, Godfried.” The princess then gestured to the other elves. “And these are my coworkers, Ramiel, Rhode, Kennet, Vladas, and Zaklina.”

  We nodded to one another and exchanged pleasantries.

  “Have you accepted the quest?” Rhode squeaked. She was a little old elf with her own pair of wire-framed spectacles, though hers were in a half-moon shape. Her long white hair was bunched up haphazardly on top of her head, held together by several pins sticking out every which way.

  “Indeed we have,” Marinka said, nodding. “We will all be traveling to the forest and then to the mountains.” The scholars all looked around at each other and then back at us in what I could only describe as awe.

  “You are going to the mountains?” the young man, probably in what I would call his early thirties, named Vladas asked. His eyes gleamed as he shifted in his seat to face us instead of his books. His jet black mage’s robes matched the curly locks of his hair that stretched down almost to his eyes.

  Marinka nodded, and he continued, his voice brimming with excitement as he gestured around wildly.

  “You must collect as many artifacts as you are able. Our knowledge of the mountain elves is so scarce. We could learn so much from their realm…”

  “I plan to do just that, Vladas.” Marinka held up a hand to cut him off. “A large portion of my role on this quest will be the collection of such artifacts. And I promise you will be the first to study them.” She smiled at him warmly.

  “Excellent,” he said as he turned back to face his books. “I look forward to your return with much anticipation.”

  “As do I,” Marinka sighed and moved to sit in an empty chair between Vladas and Ramiel. “I will miss our work while I am gone.” Then she gestured to me and my team, “Come, sit with us, my friends. We will make room.”

  The scholars all moved to do just that, and Vladas jumped up to go grab some more wooden chairs from a nearby table. Ultimately, I found myself squashed between Bernsten and Godfried on the other side of Ramiel.

  “Alright, the council said you were able to decipher the message this guy left for Viktor,” I said when I was settled, eager to get straight to the point. “What does it say?”

  “Not much, I am afraid,” Ramiel said, straightening his glasses on his nose and ruffling through the pieces of parchment he had retrieved from the ground moments earlier to reveal the tattered paper that Freyja had found in Viktor’s fortress. I eyed the ink stain on the table next to my elbow with unease and secretly wondered whether Ramiel was the best person to be tasked with keeping such an important document safe.

  Vladas, seeming to share my concerns, reached out across Marinka to take the parchment from Ramiel and spread it out on a blank spot he had made in the middle of the table. “The mountain elves speak a similar language to ours,” he explained, pointing with a quill at the characters etched on the parchment, “but it is still quite a bit different.”

  True to his word, I recognized many of the characters, though I didn’t understand them. They were a lot like the writing on the kingdom elves’ own spell scrolls, though there were marked differences. The shapes and strokes of the characters were sharper and more jagged, and not just in a way that would indicate a difference in handwriting. It reminded me
of the difference between English and Spanish, similar characters but different languages.

  “And as we have rarely had access to mountain elf artifacts or scrolls, we have never been able to make much progress in deciphering it,” Vladas continued. “Though, to be honest, our forebears did not make much of an attempt. Anything to do with the mountain elves was considered tainted in some way and dangerous to attempt to understand.” Vladas shook his head and scrunched his eyes closed, clearly annoyed with past scholars.

  “Vladas has had a lifelong interest in the mountain elves,” the female elf named Zaklina, who looked to be around the same age as Ramiel, chimed in. She had shorter hair than the other female kingdom elves I had met thus far other than Nadeine, though Zaklina’s still reached down to the middle of her neck. Her mage’s robes were a vibrant orange that stood out against the backdrop of the library’s more muted tones. “He has been a great asset in our attempts to decipher this message.”

  “Thank you, Zaklina, your praise means a great deal to me.” Vladas opened his eyes and returned his attention to the parchment. “So, we were able to compare this message to the few other artifacts and written records that we have of the mountain elves, as well as to our own writing. It took many weeks, and we had to try many combinations of different interpretations of the characters, but we were able to decipher it.”

  “Wow, you were able to crack a whole other language in a few weeks?” I said, thinking back to my own second language classes in school back on Earth. It certainly hadn’t been that easy. “I’m impressed.”

  “To be fair, this is a simple message,” the quiet older elf named Kennet said, piping into the conversation for the first time. While older, Kennet wasn’t as old as Rhode and still appeared to be physically fit despite his age. He had a calm demeanor about him, matched by his light green mage’s robes, almost the color of a bird’s egg. “And we did have some previous research with which to begin our work.”

  “Additionally, we must admit, we are quite intelligent,” Rhode added with a grin, and the scholars all laughed.

  “Indeed we are, Rhode.” Vladas grinned back as some of the tension left his face. He seemed like a pretty intense guy, and it was kind of fitting that he was so interested in the mountain elves. “But I digress. As I am sure you are already aware, this message merely confirms much of what we already expected, but these are important confirmations. We believe it to read as follows: Stay where you are. Do not flee. Should you choose to do so, or should you reveal any information to our enemies, you will be struck down. You know this to be true. You and your abilities are expendable. My plans will long outlast you.”

  We sat in silence for a few moments after that, digesting the words as they hung in the air. Finally, I broke the silence to voice my interpretation of what we had just heard.

  “So,” I said carefully, staring down at the table in front of me, “this mountain elf definitely killed Viktor, and he definitely has plans that stretch long past taking away your magic.”

  “This is what we believe as well,” Vladas said, and I raised my eyes to look at him. Though his expression was still grave, I caught a glimmer of excitement in his eyes and the way his skin crinkled around them, as if the message invigorated him. “We believe that this mountain elf has a plan to destroy us that stretches far past what we have already experienced.”

  “The good news is that Viktor did manage to give us some important information before he died.” Marinka’s words lightened the tone at the table a bit. “And we did manage to regain access to our magic thanks to you, Leo, so we are in a better position right now than our enemy hoped we would be.”

  “Indeed,” Nadeine said, nodding. “Far better. We must not lose sight of this.”

  “But our progress as magi is rather slow,” Bernsten reminded his sister. “We are not learning nearly as quickly as Leo Hayden.” Godfried perked up at that as he clutched the hilt of his sword tightly.

  “I agree,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder if it would be best to stick to the skills we have spent all our lives learning, instead of attempting to master a new craft so soon when we face such a formidable ancient enemy.”

  “It would be folly not to take advantage of what we have been given, cousin,” Marinka said, shock on her face.

  “I am not suggesting we neglect to take advantage of our magic,” Godfried explained, “but rather that we do not cast aside the strengths that we have already cultivated throughout our lives.”

  “But we are not doing so, as the swords hanging on both of our belts demonstrate,” Nadeine gestured to her own sword.

  “And how much sword training have you partook in recently?” Godfried asked her, his confidence not wavering.

  “Admittedly not much,” Nadeine said, hesitancy appearing in her tone. “But--”

  Godfried cut her off before she could get a chance to say any more, looking at her pointedly. “What constitutes much? How many training sessions?” I opened my mouth to intervene, but thought better of it. I didn’t know this kid, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of a family argument.

  “Many before our last quest,” Nadeine started to say, but Godfried cut her off again.

  “You know very well that this is not the time period about which I am asking,” he said. “How many since our magic was returned to us?”

  “I do not remember having participated in any,” Nadeine relented, her shoulders slumping slightly.

  “None?” Godfried asked, raising his eyebrows, leaning back in his chair, and feigning surprise. He had a way of appearing beyond his years when he wanted to, allowing his confidence to drive him. “I must say I believe this proves my point exactly. We are about to face our greatest, most ancient enemy, and our skills have been left to rust.”

  “That is not fair, Godfried,” Bernsten said, reaching out a hand on the table in front of the younger elf. “We have been expending great energy and resources on developing our newfound abilities, as you well know.”

  Godfried was unphased by this, and I liked him less and less with each passing moment.

  “And you yourself just relented that you have not advanced in these new abilities as quickly as you would have liked,” he retorted. “I can attest to it myself that our efforts here in the royal castle have had similar results. Do not misunderstand me, friends, I am grateful for the return of our magic, but if I am to go into the mountains and face the most powerful enemy our people have ever known on his own soil, I will have my sword at my side, and I will not forget how to use it.”

  “I would argue that even the most rudimentary magic is superior to relying only on our crude physical weapons, cousin,” Marinka said. Though her tone was not unkind, I could tell from her furrowed brows that she was growing annoyed.

  “Would you?” Godfried raised his eyebrows even higher now, causing his eyes to widen. His green irises matched up nicely with the deep yellow of his mage’s robes. “And how far has your magic advanced in these few short months that it is able to withstand the most brutal attack from my sword? I must admit my own abilities have not progressed that far. Please enlighten me as to how your experience has been different, as I must say that from my own observations of our many training sessions together since you returned to the royal castle, I do not believe it has been.”

  “It is true that my magic is not as advanced as I would prefer it before traveling into the mountains, cousin.” It was clear that Godfried had pushed her too far, and there was an unmistakable harshness in her tone now. “But they are undoubtedly more advanced than yours, and paired with my sword, they are better than my sword alone.”

  “Your unpracticed sword,” Godfried corrected her.

  Marinka opened her mouth to respond, but I thought it was high time I intervened, even if getting in the middle of a family argument wasn’t exactly comfortable for me.

  “Look,” I said, holding out my hands to each side to silence both Marinka and Godfried. “I don’t really know about your sword train
ing, but I think the elves that I’ve been helping develop their abilities have gotten pretty good.” I glanced over to Nadeine. “Plus, Nadeine is right. It’s not an either/or situation. You can use both, and you probably should. Arguing like this isn’t exactly going to help us work together any better, which is the most important thing we’ll need to do in order to be successful.”

  “This is correct. Thank you, my friend,” Bernsten said and then turned to Godfried. “While it is true we are not progressing as quickly in our magic as Leo Hayden did in his, we could not possibly expect to do so because of the advanced knowledge he already possessed of our magic system before arriving here in our world.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “But it is because of this advanced knowledge that those of us working with him at the training grounds have progressed far more quickly than our forebears did. Don’t worry, Godfried! You will have the opportunity to work with him and benefit from his knowledge too now that you have joined our quest party.”

  “This is true, cousin,” Marinka added. “I advanced far more quickly with Leo at the training grounds than I have here. I am certain that you will, as well.”

  “But fear not, Godfried, your point is well taken,” Nadeine said, doing her best to diffuse the tension between the two members of the royal family. “Given that we are embarking on this most dangerous of quests, we will make a point of training with our swords and other weapons as well.” She shook her head slightly. “But I have studied with these crude instruments all my life, as have you. I am more concerned about the rusting of my magic than my skills with a blade.”