First Light-Asetheran Chronicles

The Great Sage

Rahni practically ran through the halls of the Great Library following Rahavin.

"I've finally found it!" He shouted gleefully, his long pointed ears flushed with excitement and his golden eyes shining. She rolled her eyes.

"You've said that literally a hundred times! Found what!?"

He laughed, but continued running, waving a now somewhat crumpled piece of paper in the air.

They dodged past sour faced monks and keepers in the hallway until they reached the laboratory wing. At least Rahavin slowed to a brusque walk as he passed through. Even so, engineers and smiths glared at them. Some of their contraptions were fragile, if not downright dangerous.

Rahni nodded apologies as she ducked under the oversized table of a vulpine Zrall whose ears quivered with irritation.

He really should know better than to upset any of the ambassadors. They were usually already out of sorts having to adjust to the nocturnal schedule of the Drakyr.

As they cleared the worn and scorched floor of the lab, Rahavin made to break out in a run again but she finally caught him by the hood of his robe and pulled him to a halt with a strangled cry.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" He cried.

He was genuinely confused. She rolled her eyes again at her best friend. Keepers really were oblivious some times, so single minded in their quest for knowledge. Even apprentice ones.

"What in the name of Shade have you found, blockhead"

He practically shoved the paper in her face. "Only the thing the Master has been searching for for like... ever?!"

Rahni pulled his hand away so that she could actually see what was written on the page. Her eyes were still adjusting to their new perspective when he snatched the manuscript away and took off again down the corridor towards the Great Sage's chambers.

Rahni huffed. A Keeper had no right to be so swift. They spent all their time reading and writing and findinf and filing away books. She was a Surveyor and she was ashamed to admit that she couldn't keep up. She huffed and turned away. He could come and find her later when he actually wanted to talk.

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"Fascinating." The Great Sage muttered, his spectacled face only inches from the parchment. He reached mindlessly to his desk and Rahavin slid a heavy tome within his reach. The Sage grunted in a vague acknowledgement at his assistance which left Rahavin internally beaming with pride.

Rahavin stood to the side with his head down, awaiting instruction from his master, who rifled through pages of the tome and compared them with the manuscript, muttering to himself.

Rahavin took great pride in his position as the Great Sage's apprentice. It had been three years since the Second Sage had been tragically killed in an explosion in the laboratory when a Dwarven ambassador had been given an outdated reference scroll by an absent minded Keepers apprentice.

It was an unfortunate incident, but it reinforced the importance of the keepers and their duties. Now Rahavin was only a year away from the completion of his apprenticeship and he had high hopes of being selected as the Second Sage, and eventual successor to his master. He had accepted all that it would cost him- his family, and his name, but he believed in the service that the Library provided Asetherans of all races, and it was a sacrifice that he would give gladly to serve.

"Pass me that, Boy"

The old Drakyer waved a hand in the direction of the shelf to Rahavins right. Immediately Rahavin carefully took down the brass contraption on the shelf above his head. It was very delicate, but he placed it above the tome on the heavy desk.

The Sage pulled a small driver from a drawer and flicked down a second set of lenses over his spectacles, and Rahavin adjusted the crystal lamp so it shone with a bright, white light.

He watched at a respectful distance as the Sage made some adjustments to the angles of the curved arms of the device. Seven stones glistened and refracted the light into rainbows that shone through the room. A shimmer of amethyst light struck Rahavin's arm and he raised his hand and watched it travel across his dusky skin. The Sage glanced up, and Rahavin dropped his hand and bowed his head in apology. His master bent back to work, but froze.

"That's it!" He whispered.