Fragarach

Visit Part III: 'Cave of the Persecuted'

He thought as he looks at Raven hoping to get something as a response but Raven only answered with a smile, he smiled back and turns to the head of the Lenus family, Blake Lenus.

“That tea was made by Instructor Edward from the academy.” Iris said proudly.

Blake Lenus is staring in awe at Iris’ proud proclamation that the young boy is shining brightly in his eyes as he stood proudly with his head held high when all of the sudden a familiar voice broke the atmosphere.

“Father, what are you doing?” Cassiopeia said with a stern voice.

Cassiopeia is standing beside the foot walk a few meters away from the front door of the mansion with her arms crossed. Her usual soft voice and gentle and contented face is nowhere to be seen that it surprised both Iris and Raven at the sight of her.

[It’s my first time seeing Cassiopeia act like that. She is always so quiet and humble inside the academy.] Iris thought as his jaw drop a little open after seeing a new side of Cassiopeia.

[This is the same side that I saw when she asked me to teach her the basics of rune formations. I was a little surprised to see the same expression in her face but now I am sure that it was her determination to learn that urged her to do so.] he thought as he smile gently at Cassiopeia who turns a little red.

“Oh darling, so you are here? I was just admiring both of your guests that I could not wait to meet them so I personally greet them at the gates. Didn’t the maids tell you anything about it? I thought I told them to tell you since I will be entertaining your guests myself. You know how our other family members treats outsiders right? It would be bad if they are going to leave a bad impression to other people you know.” He said with a calm expression. [Thought I doubt that our other family members can threaten them with that young man here. That scene is nailed in my head and I can still remember what happened on that day crystal clear.] he thought as glance at Raven and flashes a smile.

“I hope you didn’t say anything unnecessary to the both of them.” She said with a stern voice trying to maintain her poise in front of Raven and Iris.

“No, I didn’t say anything unnecessary at all.” He denied with an elegant smile. “Well, I will go to my office now that I have met them. I will check on you later, you would not mind if I join you right?” he ask as he walk towards the door while looking at his daughter expecting an answer.

“Of course that would not be a problem at all.” Raven answer as he bows his head.

Iris and Cassiopeia was surprised when Raven answered out of nowhere.

“It would be our pleasure to be in your presence.” Iris supported.

Blake Lenus stop in the front door and glance at the young men behind him.

“Then I will look forward to it.” He said with a smile before he left for his office.

“Good morning Cassiopeia, I hope we are not troubling you with this.” Raven greeted with a bright smile.

“Good morning Cassiopeia.” Iris greeted right after Raven greets Cassiopeia.

“Good morning to you two. Let’s go inside, I have already prepared everything that we might need.” She said as she invited them in.

Cassiopeia entered the mansion as Raven and Iris followed behind her. The interior of the mansion is more extravagant than the design outside the mansion.

[Wow, main families are really wealthy, her father earlier said that they tried to make it simple as possible but this is not simple at all. Now that gets me wondering what is the definition of simple for them because no matter how many times I think about it this is not simple at all. Wait – if this is the simple then what the heck do I have to expect from the other main families mansions?!] Iris thought as he shivers from the thought in his minds as he sweats down.

[Whoa! This is a pretty well designed mansion. This mansion seems like the like the academy in some aspects.] he told himself as he admire the design in awe. [Elves are really different than the other races. Their mana aura is standing out in the crowd, but here. Their mana aura is from every direction. Are they observing our actions? They seem to be concealing themselves from our sights but I can definitely sense them and tell where they exactly are. Well, there won’t be a problem if since we only came here to teach the both of them the basics of rune formation. It would be a good thing if they learn it in secret as well.] he thought as he looks around the mansion.

Cassiopeia led them to a room right beside the entrance.

“This will be the room that we will be using, it is used for family meetings and other stuffs but since the room is not booked for today I decided to choose and use this one for our lesson for the rune formation.” she said as he opens the door.

*KACHAK!*

*Opens door*

When Cassiopeia opened the door, it revealed a long table with a lot of chairs on both ends and sides of the table with an amazing design. The table is made of marble as well as the chairs. The walls have lamps hanging on each side and at the very end of the room is a huge window made of glass and metal casings. Raven and Iris felt the vibrant room full of positive energies which left both of them in awe.

“Wow, this is a huge room. Isn’t this room a little big for just the three of us?” Iris ask while looking around at the well-designed marble chairs.

“Cassiopeia’s father said that he might join in later, then that makes us approximately four people. I don’t know if there will be others as well so I think it’s a good thing that she chose a huge room.” Raven said as he counts the chairs.

“I don’t think that there will be more since the people around here are busy except for my brother. But who knows.” [This was supposed to be a date between Raven and me but Iris ended up tagging along with us so I don’t really care anymore if more people from our family decides to come and listen as well.] she said as she pouts.

“I hope my father did not bother you too much earlier. He has a habit of going overboard and out of hand at the people that he is meeting for the first time.” She said as she puts the snacks in the table.

Both of them just look at each other and nodded with a silent agreement that they will not talk about what happened earlier to Iris.

[We must not let that memory spread any more. You hear me Raven?] Iris glance at Raven before nodding.

[I hear you loud and clear. That secret will die with me.] Raven smiles as he nodded.

Cassiopeia was confused of the gestures that each of them are doing in front of her.

[What are they doing? Is that a boy’s only thing that only boys can understand or relate?] she thought as she look at them with a confused expression.

The three of them prepared everything before Raven starts the lesson.

“Before we start the rune formation lesson, I have something to ask the both of you first.” Raven said as he stand in front of them.

“Go ahead.”

Both of them answered.

“Okay, hmmmmm- have you ever heard of the Ican Language?” He asked after he writes a character of the said language and shows it to the both of them.

Both Cassiopeia and Iris are clueless of what Raven showed them as they stare at him with confused expressions.

[Just as I thought, Aranx was speaking the truth after all. The mortals only knows how to create a rune or rune formation with the use of the Narian Language for their rune formations. Seeing their reactions right now means that they do not even know the Ican race. Ancient Narian language is a lot simpler version of the Ancient Ican language. In other words the Ican language is the predecessor of the Narian language, the simplified version. But simple version doesn’t mean that the effects are still the same as its predecessor, it weakens in such a rate that with a simple rune I used during the mana manipulation test, the whole rune formation that took the instructor a few months to make crumbled in just a span of few seconds. This shows that it is very much inferior to its predecessor after all.] Raven crossed his arms while wondering how to make them understand the Ican language if they already know and are aware of the basics that they grew up from.

Cassiopeia saw Raven’s concerned expression after he went silent a few moments after seeing their reaction.

“Is something wrong?” Cassiopeia ask with a concerned tone.

“Nothing, I just thought that it could be hard after all.” He said as he brushed off his concerned expression with a smile.

“Is there something wrong? If I remember correctly you said ‘Ican language’ right? That means it’s a language obviously and it’s different from the language that most of us use in rune formations. If memory serves me right, it’s called Ancient Narian language, there are few ancient languages that can be used as the foundation of a rune formation but the ancient Narian language is the most widely used one since it’s effect can be really high but it’s a little hard to understand since most of its characters are lost so we only know how to make a simple rune formation like glow, multiply and so on. Based on what you said at the mana manipulation test, it’s like giving a command to the rune formation to see the proper results.” Iris said as he adjusted his voice.

[So he heard that one as well? This guy has sharp ears.] Raven thought as he look at Iris intensely.

“And you said that if the runes are not written in order the rune formation will not function properly right?” Cassiopeia added.

“That is correct. If the order of words from the ancient language is not correct then it is possible that the rune formation will malfunction or will now work at all.” Raven confirmed with a stern expression. “Wait-“

Raven’s eyes widen as he realize something, he reach out to a piece of paper and a pen.

*Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble**Scribble*

Iris and Cassiopeia stands on their chairs to take a look at what Raven is writing. The instant Iris laid his eyes on what Raven was writing on the paper, his eyes widen with his jaw wide open.

[It can’t be. I have seen those words.] he thought as he started to break some sweat while looking at Raven writing ancient words. [This guy is definitely a genius.] he told himself as he swallows his spit.

While Cassiopeia on the other hand can only identify a few familiar characters.

“Are you familiar with these characters?”

Raven asked as he lifts the paper and shows it to them though he is already too late since they watch him write every single thing he had written on the paper the moment he started writing.

“I can only see some familiar characters but it’s not a lot.” She said as she looks at the characters intensely.

Their eyes moved to Iris as he sits down to his chair.

“I am quite familiar with those characters.” He mumbled.

The corners of Raven’s lips rose as soon as he heard the words that left Iris’ mouth.

“How did you know about them?” Raven interrogated.

Iris looks at Raven with a pale expression that caught Raven and Cassiopeia in surprise.

“Ahhm- it was when I was a kid. I was a little mischievous back then, I go the everywhere I like and do everything I want. One day, I tried going to a nearby forest. Being a kid, I just wanted to have fun back then. So I saw a cave, not knowing what will happen I went inside to take a look. I always brought with me a stick with a rune embedded on it the ancient Narian character that means ‘Light’, so I used it to light the inside of the cave and saw some weird writings on the ceiling of the cave. It was so amazing that I decided to visit the cave on that day onward. I am got quite fascinated by the writings on the ceiling, one day three kids that used to bully me followed me at the cave. I was so absorbed in looking at the writings that I did not even notice their shadows coming behind me. They startled me by throwing a rock behind me, saying that I was hiding here all along. They were looking at me with malicious eyes and started walking towards me, one of the kids tried to throw another rock at me when all of the sudden, that kid fell lifeless on the ground. This startled me even more, and the other kids cried in fear after seeing their friend died in an instant and started running out of the cave. With the shock of seeing a kid my age die in front of my eyes, I crawled back even further from the cave and saw a few set of bones lying beside me. It took all my courage not to scream even a little after seeing the sets of bones beside me. My fear was eaten away by my determination to leave that I slowly stood up and started walking from where I was earlier. I saw the blood of the kid form a sentence in our language ‘Here lies a sinner’ a chill run down my spine after seeing that scene so without looking I tried to grab my stick with the rune and dash towards the exit of the cave. I was so scared of what happened that I run home without even looking back the I realized that I did not bring with me the stick but a small tablet with the same writings on the ceiling right after arriving at home. I was so surprised that I threw the tablet on my table and hid myself under the protection of my blanket.” He narrated with a pale face.

Both Raven and Cassiopeia were shocked after hearing Iris’ story.

“A cave that murders a kid?” Cassiopeia mumbled.

“No- based on what Iris said, the blood made a sentence ‘Here lies a sinner’. That means the kid have sinned.” Raven said as he look at Iris. “Do you have that tablet?” he added.

With Iris’ pale face and shaking body, he nodded and reach out to his bag.

[He brings it with him?!] Cassiopeia cried in horror that the hairs on her body stood like trees the instant she saw him grabbing something from within his bag.

Iris took a very old looking tablet with the size of a book and handed it to Raven with his shaking hands.

“I brought it with me, hoping to find an answer as to what is written on that tablet. I never thought that I would get to have my hope answered today.” He said with a nervous tone.

[If the cave claimed a life that easily basing on what Iris said about the blood writing then the rune formation written on the cave ceiling might be some sort of a defensive barrier, but for what? There are so many events in the past that Aranx told me about when I was in training. It might be something that involves in some things that I have in mind since there are no other events in the past that can match Iris’ definition except for a few ones.] Raven thought as Iris hands him the tablet.

Raven holds the tablet tightly as he reads the writings embedded on the tablet.

Both Iris and Cassiopeia are anxious to know what is written in that old looking tablet that Cassiopeia starts to tap the marble table with her fingers.

[What is exactly that cave to claim a life that easily?] she thought as she bits her nails in anticipation.

*BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP**BUDUMP*

Their hearts raced with each second that passes by.

The room is engulfed in silence while they wait for Raven to tell them the meaning of the characters in the tablet when they saw Raven’s expression change to sadness when he puts down the tablet on the table.

[I knew it. It was that time when Aranx told me about the time when the Ican people are called witches and evil beings were chased out of their lands and forced into hiding. They who uses the language of the immortals, were wiped out. I guess that cave is one of the last places that the last Ican people resided and died in hunger.]

“The Cave of the Persecuted. That is what is written on the tablet.” Raven said with a sad tone.