Élen was puzzled. He was sick of being puzzled. He had been eager to learn Nerei magic, as he thought it would let him understand the intricacies of the divinity, but the Nerei knew nothing. They mindlessly used the power they had the chance to access as a tool and nothing more. There was only one thing he wanted: control. Control over what? Information, knowledge, he wanted to understand what happened to foresee what will happen, but ever since Adei first walked into the library, the only thing he understood is that he had no control. Surely that's what he was seeking, surely that's what he would find. Seek knowledge and find power.
The last three months had been full of change, and for two librarians who had spent their lives with their minds stuck between black verses and white spaces, change was more than welcome.
After Nomu left to go seek Adei, Élen and Katala had immediately pledged allegiance to the queen, Palae. She seemed far too nice for a ruler that had imprisoned Adei, and when she talked to them in secret, the words she muttered were so striking they still resonate in his mind:
"For you are the future of this world, and when I will be overthrown, our infection will have reached our deepest core. But you, I see in you resilience, I see you will not be consumed by our fire, I see you will bear my torch. Now come, my children, it is time to learn our mastery."
That was enough to win the Pamathans' heart. They were then invited to sleep in the queen's appartements, in one of the many rooms right next to her throne room, but that did not mean they would live the next few months in comfort. The next day, they were woken up before sunrise to start their… "meditation", for lack of a better word.
The librarians, the queen and a few Nereian warriors sat in a small circle, eyes closed.
"We are a planet" the queen started. "A celestial body, drifting in the aimless void. Our core is of lapis and our rings are of mahogany red ice. There is a sun in the distance, but it is far, elusive, useless. Now imagine the planet's moons. 14 of them. We are the moons. We are a moon. An irregular, erratic moon. Feel it. Feel this gentle light peering into your soul. Not the sun's light, the planet's light, and slow down. Slow your breathing, slow your thoughts, slow your heartbeat." Élen could now feel it, it was lifting up his heart. "Feel the planet's gravity pulling you in, now that you are too slow to orbit it. Feel it come, feel it grow, and all of a sudden… Impact. You crash on its surface to merge into it, you become an incandescent circle around the surface of the planet, you become circular."
Élen's eyes then burst wide open and his hand sprung up. From it, a minuscule flame emerged and immediately extinguished.
"Impressive" noted the queen. "we can see you already have a small connection with Vica."
"That's not fair! I didn't feel a single thing!" protested Katala.
"It comes with time, and don't worry, people who were already healed with a Balan often learn faster at the start, but progress is just as slow."
"So can I simply always make small flames now?"
"If you can do this mental exercise every single time, yes. But you must repeat it each time. I've never been good at it, that's why I govern."
That made Katala smile.
Two weeks later, Katala too made her first flame, and soon, they could reliably create… microscopic fire. They hoped progress would be faster. The looming expectations of Nomu pressed on their shoulders hurried them to make progress, as they knew every single day that they spent struggling to become even marginally useful, their friends were facing litteral Death, and every single time they would beat it down, it would spring back on its feet and swing its deadly scythe in an agonizing shriek. Or at least that's how they saw it, stuck in the yard of the palace, with only themselves and a constantly busy queen to share their thoughts and feelings to.
Training became more serious. Their routine was meditation (Oh here's a better word: a cult!), combat training, eat, running around the inner circle of Nerei, meditation, sleep. Every day. They made sure to never sympathize with anyone. The only thing that kept them sane was the few words they exchanged before going to sleep, and the warmth of each other's bodies kept them feeling safe.
They lost track of time. At the end of the first two months, they were promoted to warlock novice, which allowed them to use their flames in public spaces and they earned a little emblem with a sword on it. When the chief officer handed them their insignia, he did not even remember Élen's name. The librarians promptly burned the emblems that same night. They added to their daily routine target practice, where they shot small flaming balls towards a target. Life was surely not simple, neither was it eventful, but somehow, it was fulfilling. Giving their lives to a cause day in day out suited the new warlocks like a charm. Then the queen was overthrown.
"But Life was never made to one day stagnate.
No matter its nature it crosses the gate.
It evolves changes, for better or for worse,
Such is the Tritonian power's loving curse."
Nopte's eulogy, Promises and Pacts.
"I can still picture myself in that situation, my dear. It still haunts my nightmares…
All of a sudden, I am standing in the yard of the throne room apartments, training with Élen. Crash. The wall behind me falls, a huge white sword emerging from it. For a single moment, I can hear my breath. I feel my hands shaking. It's like the world stops going, and then they come. They break down the walls. "Where is she?" they cry. I cry. We sprint to the queen's bed. Nothing. Nothing but a note: 'I know they are coming, leave and don't look back.' So we run. The monsters don't even seem to see us. We run past the screaming houses in ruins, the ones who were in favour of the queen. We run past the people watching a cheering, who, eyes filled with bloodthirst and satisfaction, glorify their new ruler: not Nopte, but the Fire. I feel the tears rolling down my cheeks. Élen grabs my hand and pulls me forwards, but he is crying too. We run past the city gates and exit the dome. My dream end on one last promise. The promise that one day I will be strong enough to never have to run away again."
Adei took Katala in her arms. There was another promise. A more silent one: that no matter how strong she got she would never let herself be consumed.
"… so how did you end up here?" asked Nomu.
Élen smiled. "That, you see, is thanks to a thing we both share, our Balans. Your Balan left a clear trail which mine could pick up on to follow your tracks." He chuckled. "Your Balan has better foresight than you do."
"Hey!"
"I'm joking. Anyways, when the track ended, we chose to continue in the same direction, even when we found a strange valley, as since it was all white, it was obviously a Tritonian trap. We ended up finding this black mist without facing a single enemy. We were still confident as we could use Vica as a light source… what fools. We could see through the mist, but our enemies could see us through the mist too. With little to no actual fight experience, we did surprisingly well. We burned down a few monsters before more came flooding in. Our last resort was building a temporary wall of fire and running. If the Hynocamps had not found us immediately and pulled us underground, we would have been dead."
"Oh boy, yet another close call to death. When are you gonna stop being chicken, huh auhor? When is someone dying?"
Nomu gave him a confused look. "Ocy what the hell are you talking about?"
Katala burst out laughing.
"I'm happy to be back with you guys."
The room they were in was the break room, but their definition of a break was… peculiar. There were benches to take a break, but most of all, it was a place to play and train, there were wooden targets, dummies… and nothing else. They were underground, after all. But training was for later, first, they still had somethings to tell each other.
"Anyways," continued Nomu "While you trained for three months, we feel like we only left a few days ago, but I have a good idea of what happened." Adei nodded.
"That damned shrine, I knew something was off with the time there." Said the blade.
"Wait, my dear, you mean that you experienced time differently? But that's not possible!"
Nomu laughed. "You have a lot to learn, don't worry, it will come with time, but as a Pasmathan that conjures fireballs, you should stop being surprised by the ridiculous things of our world. And for that reason…" Nomu pulled out his still sheathed blades. "Let's train."
He had a concealed smile on his face. It had been far too many years since he had said that.