Ascension

by Selena IR Drake

  The girl gave only a ghost of a nod, then strode from the room.

  “Dákun Daju,” said the Palavant with a half smile. “They are neither overly friendly nor full of words, but they are dedicated to what they do.”

  “Is she the only one at the Temple?” I asked, glimpsing the door she had passed through.

  “Her cousin, the Queen of Katalania, paid her entire tuition upfront,” replied the priestess in black. “Zhealocera has dreams of becoming the first Dákun Daju in history to be a Lady Knight of the Dragonsworn Brigade, and to do that required an education from this Temple.”

  “Another stupid rule of our racist High King,” the Palavant muttered. “He would do everything in his power to ensure that anyone who is not a Hume cannot serve the royal family or be privy to military tactics. Little does he know that his son will be under the protection of a Dákun Daju while he’s here.”

  “When is this High Prince due to arrive?”

  The priestess in black looked at me like she could not believe what she was hearing. “The Phoenix rises in four days’ time. He will be here before that time.”

  “Phoenix…” I whispered, and my dream came back to me in a flash. The strange words spoken to me in a spectral whisper echoed in my mind. It was a warning. Something terrible was going to happen.

  “So,” the Palavant began and I was yanked out of my reverie, “I had heard that you have no memory, not even your name or family. Is this true?”

  I stiffly nodded.

  “I am afraid the only help I can offer you in this case is your name. I hope it will serve as a stepping stone as you work towards discovering yourself completely.”

  “So we have met before.”

  Her silver eyebrow curved upwards. “You remember me?”

  “No.” I shook my head for emphasis. “I know you are the Palavant because I was told, and when I look into your eyes, I feel like we have met before, but it is like looking at a dream of a dream shrouded in heavy fog.”

  The Palavant nodded in understanding. “In that case, I am Palavant Celestia the Third. This Archbishop beside me is Matron Serenitatis. And you, my dear, are Xyleena, a Daughter of the Temple.”

  Xyleena. I silently repeated, and a swell of excitement filled me. The largest of the many puzzle pieces had finally slipped into place. Perhaps with this knowledge, I could begin to fill in the rest of the mystery. Still, something she said was nagging me. “What exactly is a Daughter of the Temple?”

  “It is a title given to orphan girls who have taken the vows to live as priestesses of the Five Souls” said Matron Serenitatis. “Many of them take up the road to become traveling priests, who spread the word of the Gods to towns and villages without a proper Temple. Some of them even return to their home towns to become part of the existing parish or to establish one.”

  I am Xyleena. I am a priestess. I repeated that chant to myself, then aloud said, “So, since I am a Daughter, that means I am an orphan?”

  A strange look flashed across the Palavant’s face. It lasted for only an instant, but I could tell she was hiding something as she spoke. “I am afraid that I cannot be certain of your parentage or origins, Xyleena. Perhaps if you were to meditate in the Sanctuary of Zahadu-Kitai, you will find the answers you seek. You might also remember more about yourself if you attend some of the classes here. If you would like, I can certainly schedule you in for lessons.”

  I did not have to think long on that choice. What better way was there of learning about a world you no longer knew? So the Palavant and Matron sent me away with a list of classes offered by the Temple. I told them that I would have my selections made by the end of the mid-day meal.

  With that, my meeting with the Palavant ended.

  It has been said that, in his search for retribution, Agasei looked upon the face of Wind, and, there, found inspiration.

  – FROM “A TYRANT’S HUMANITY” BY PRINCESS UNÉ SHARVÍN

  Dimitri sat in a secluded corner booth and stared out a window at the midday commotion. The citizens of the city were always worrying about meager things in their petty lives. This was something he hoped to soon rectify. With a sigh, he moved his crimson gaze to his surroundings.

  Godilai had led him to a small tavern called Luna’s then left him to find someone who could read the ancient runes of Kinös Elda. Oddly enough, as he studied his rustic surroundings, he saw the runes carved into the woodwork. There were too many people present for him to investigate the embossed wood. So he sat. And he waited.

  A fight suddenly erupted amongst a trio of drunkards. Dimitri watched them roll about on the floor exchanging blows. They spun under another drunk and knocked him off his feet, turning a three-way brawl into a free for all. Dimitri watched, entertained, as the drunken patrons fought each other. Other customers managed to escape the frenzy of flying limbs as the fistfight turned into an armed battle. One of the drunks who started the fight screamed in agony and rage as the sword of another severed his hand.

  “Nan dasai nevoa!” The voice of a young woman rose above the shouts and swearing.

  Almost immediately, the combatants were caught in a thick, black fog. They stopped fighting and danced around, unable to see. Dimitri’s gaze was drawn to the Dákun Daju woman standing in the doorway. He could not tell what color her eyes were over the distance between them, but her face betrayed rage. Magenta hair fell like water over her shoulders and covered but a small section of the sheath of a sword wider than the length of Dimitri’s own forearm. Like every Dákun Daju, she was clad in armor that consisted of a blood red leather bustier and snug-fitting burgundy leggings, both of which were adorned with overlapping plates of flat black steel. Leather bands around both of her muscular biceps and thighs sheathed a number of throwing knives. She wore cloth boots to silence her footsteps and allow her to move silently, thus telling Dimitri that she—like Godilai—worked as an assassin.

  “All of you, out of my bar this instant!” she roared.

  Dimitri snorted. He was not about to leave, no matter what kind of death that Dákun Daju threatened him with. He watched as she stepped aside to kick the drunks out. When the last of them was sent rolling in the dirt, Godilai entered. She looked amused at the antics of her fellow clansmen. The two of them spoke for a moment before Godilai pointed in Dimitri’s direction. He took this as his cue and strode toward the two Dákun Daju.

  “This is the Hume I spoke of. Dimitri, this is Luna Graves.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you,” Dimitri said, exposing his throat in the honorary display of Dákun Daju greeting. He looked into Luna’s stark-white eyes.

  Luna crossed her arms as she spoke. “How is it you came to be schooled in our ways, Hume?”

  “My mother was Dákun Daju. She raised me.”

  Luna snickered. “A Hume-aju.”

  Dimitri resisted the urge to rise to the insult.

  “So, what is this relic you wanted me to read for you?”

  “Dimitri paid me to scrounge the Grand Library for some ancient book,” Godilai explained, taking a seat at the nearest table. “As it turns out, the cursed thing is written in the ancient form of Kinös Eldic runes.”

  Luna quirked an eyebrow at Dimitri. “You want me to read a book to you?” She unstrapped the gigantic sword from her back and sat opposite Godilai. She propped her feet up on the seat next to her and sneered at Dimitri. “How much are you paying?”

  He expected that. “How much are you asking?”

  “Let’s say…two thousand bits.” Luna watched as Dimitri weighed the leather pouch at his belt.

  “Make it one thousand bits.”

  “Fifteen hundred.”

  “Twelve.”

  “Done.” Luna held her hand out.

  Dimitri took a minute to count out twelve gold-plated coins then slid them across the table to her.

  Her long fingers curled around the pile. “And just where is this old book?”

  Dimitri gingerly laid the book on the table before him.
“This is it.”

  “Interesting…” Luna lowered her feet from the chair and turned the book toward her. Her fingers brushed the embossed runes of the cover. “Meo Resuko. My Diary.”

  “You paid me to steal a diary from the library of the high king?” Godilai shot a look at Dimitri. “I thought you said this book was a source of great power. Now it’s just a stupid diary?”

  “If you would give her a chance to actually read what the diary says, you will learn just how special it really is.” Dimitri finally took the seat next to Godilai. “Please, Luna, continue.”

  Luna flipped through a few pages during the silence that followed. Many of the runes had long ago faded into the aged and brittle parchment. With a sigh, she returned to the first page.

  “Meo namae wa Agasei DéDos. Esté buko wa meo resuko, bó et tel né rité sterim et Kohnbín Nírigone.”

  Godilai looked at Dimitri. “Et Kohnbín Nírigone?”

  Luna looked up from the page. “This book was written by Agasei himself. He says it is the key to finding the Shadow Dragons.”

  “See, Godilai?” Dimitri smirked at her. “This stupid diary is the key to the Shadow Dragons and ultimate power.”

  “You plan to release the Shadow Dragons from the gate?” Godilai faced him with a cold stare, but her cyan eyes betrayed amazement.

  “I thought only the Dragon Keepers or their heirs could control the dragons,” Luna said, looking into Dimitri’s eyes.

  He smirked in response.

  “How did you even know about this book to begin with?”

  “My mother told me about it as she lay dying from a wound caused by a Hume’s blade.” Dimitri’s hands slowly turned to fists at the memory of his mother’s death. “I swore to her that I would find my father’s diary and have my revenge on the entire Hume race.”

  “Your…father?”

  “Agasei is your father?”

  Dimitri looked at the two women. “Yes.”

  “But the Dark Keeper died over four hundred years ago,” said Godilai. “How could you be his son?”

  “Immortals cannot die. My father is merely entombed and locked away, maybe beyond the Dragons’ Gate, as well. And I”– Dimitri’s eyes glinted mischievously– “ am four hundred and thirty-two years old.”

  “Impossible!” Godilai hissed.

  “It is more than possible.” Dimitri growled. “The dragons are immortal and through them so is my father and anyone in his bloodline. I have seen the ages come and go. I have lived things that have long been history. And I have spent the last century searching for this diary. Finally, I have found it! And with it I shall unleash the Shadow Dragons.”

  “And just how do you plan to do that?” Luna asked, looking up from the page she had been reading.

  “With that diary, that’s how,” Dimitri answered, glaring at her.

  Luna sighed and pointed to a line on the page.

  “Agasei did not write this.”

  Dimitri leaned in to read the green ink scribed in the margin of a page.

  He knows not where the Dark are hidden.

  The key lies with Amorez, written.

  “What?” Dimitri roared.

  Godilai snatched the diary away from Luna and read the ink for herself. “It is in standard…and the ink is centuries fresher than the rest. I wonder who could have written that.”

  “I can’t believe…” Dimitri slumped back in his seat. Guilt settled heavily over him and he sighed in defeat. The promise he made to his dying mother would now be nothing but empty words. “After all those centuries of searching, my own father’s diary turns out to be absolutely useless.”

  “Well, it is not completely useless, Dimitri. After all, it did tell you that the key to finding your father’s dragons does not lie within these pages.” Said Luna with a half shrug. “You will just have to find the key Amorez had.”

  Dimitri shook his head, disheartened.

  “Watch, it will be another diary,” Godilai muttered, shoving the book away.

  Realization struck him like a ton of bricks and he exclaimed, “Godilai, you are a genius!”

  She looked at him coolly. “Yeah, and your point is?”

  “Amorez kept her own diary as well. I am certain that if the key to the Shadow Dragons is hidden with Amorez as that little riddle states, her diary is where we will find the route to the Dragons’ Gate.”

  “Hold on there.” Luna said, moving Agassi’s diary off the table. “Even if Amorez actually kept a diary of her own, where would she have hidden it? I don’t know about you two, but I do not want to spend the next century looking for it.”

  Dimitri scoffed. “I doubt either of you would live that long anyway.” He raised his hand to silence Godilai’s retort. “And I know for a fact that Amorez kept a diary, as well. During my search for my father’s, I found many records that mentioned Amorez’s handwritten account of the events leading to the rise and fall of the Dragon Keepers. However, the records never gave a specific description or location of where the diary might be found.”

  “You did not happen to see any books similar to this one in the Grand Library, did you, Godilai-sortim?” Luna asked.

  Godilai shook her head. “I did not really have the time to look, but there were many ancient-looking, leather-bound books.”

  “Curse it all.” Luna sighed. “Where else besides the Grand Palace could we find an expansive library that would include ancient texts?”

  “I have been in pretty much every library in the world except the Grand Library and the Temple of Five Souls,” Dimitri replied. “Though some of the books in those libraries are old, not one of them is written in Kinös Eldic runes.”

  “I’ll bet ten million bits that Amorez’s diary is in the Temple of Five Souls.” Godilai banged her hand on the table for emphasis.

  “Why do you say that, Godilai-sortim?”

  “Do you not remember any of the old tales, Luna? Amorez was a Temple Monk. It would only make sense that she would hide her diary in the one place she would call home.”

  Dimitri frowned. “The Temple Priests do not allow just anyone to search their rare books. I have petitioned for access at least a hundred times in the last four hundred years, and not once was I granted permission. So how do you propose we gain access?”

  ◆◆◆

  Dimitri rubbed his temple, feeling a headache coming on. He had spent the last few hours reviewing the layout of the Temple of Five Souls. His Dákun Daju companions shot down one idea after another. Forcing their way into the Temple library was now completely out of the question. The security of the Temple was dwarfed only by the security around the ruling family.

  Impersonating traveling priests would not work either. The Dákun Daju– or anyone appearing as one– would never be granted access to the rarest books. If not for his crimson eyes, Dimitri might have attempted that. What other options did they have?

  “Any other ideas?” Godilai asked, sounding bored.

  A sudden trumpeting from outside interrupted the meeting. Luna leaped over the table they were seated at and raced to the door. She pulled it open and stood in the doorway as another blast of trumpeting sounded.

  “What is that ruckus?” Dimitri growled.

  Godilai joined Luna in the doorway. “The high prince is on parade. I wonder what he’s showing off this time.”

  “Aside from his gold wyvern? Nothing.” Dimitri leaned back in his seat. “The so-called high prince is a joke. If my father was still the high king, the—”

  “That is it!” Luna exclaimed.

  “What is it?”

  “I know how just to get into the Temple. But it will take some acting on your part, Hume-aju.” Luna grinned and turned to face Dimitri.

  He cocked an eyebrow in question.

  “Yes. Yes.” Luna’s grin widened the longer she looked at him. “The resemblance is uncanny.”

  “What resemblance?”

  “Dimitri, do you not recall that the high prince has been sche
duled to appear at the Temple of Five Souls for the Festival of the Phoenix?” Luna’s exclamation took both Dimitri and Godilai by surprise. “And you look almost exactly like Valaskjalf. All you would need is a haircut, an armed royal escort, and a gold wyvern. You could walk right into the Temple!”

  Dimitri crossed his arms. “There is a flaw in your plan, Luna. Where do we find this armed royal escort? Prison?”

  “How much money do you have?” Luna asked, sealing the door with a slam as another blast from the trumpets sounded.

  Dimitri snickered. “Enough. Why?”

  The Dákun Daju pointed her thumb towards the door. “There is a Judge out there, probably riding with the prince. He’ll get you an army if you pay him enough.”

  “And exactly how much is enough?” Godilai asked, glancing out the window.

  A burly, old soldier paced between the houses. He was short, balding, red-faced, and atrocious. His plain, plate and chain armor was marred with old signs of combat and an enormous axe was strapped to his back.

  Godilai’s lip curled in disgust. “Disgusting Hume.”

  “They all are,” Dimitri muttered.

  “So says the Hume-aju.” Luna smirked when Dimitri’s growl reached her ears. “So, are you going to buy him, or should we forget about those Shadow Dragons?”

  Dimitri sighed. “Very well. Bring him here.”

  Luna jerked the door open. “Hey! Ugly!”

  “Brilliant, Luna,” Godilai muttered, trying hard not to laugh.

  Dimitri, on the other hand, was almost doubled over with laughter. A moment later, the old Judge barreled into Luna’s tavern. Luna back flipped out of the way to avoid being bowled over. The fat man roared in rage and reeled around to swing his giant axe at Luna. She caught the blade between her fingers and smirked.