Chapter Two

Caldren’s first instinct was to run. He edged back towards the trees quietly hoping he wasn’t noticed. His food and all his equipment were still by the fire however including his knife. Not that I’d be able to do much with that, he thought to himself but maybe if I hide whoever this person is would just leave. They hadn’t reacted to his presence yet so he crouched behind some trees to get a better look.

He took a few steadying breaths, then edged around a tree for a better look. Whoever it was, their back was to them and Caldren couldn’t quite make out what they were doing. Once the panic subsided he found that he missed a bunch of small details in those first few seconds. Instead of some bandit or imperial this was a slight woman with flaxen hair pulled back into a tight braid. She was wearing what looked like a uniform, but not one that he’d ever seen before. Once the thundering of his heart subsided he could just make out that she was humming to herself. She has the air of someone who was patiently waiting and Caldren was really hoping it wasn’t for him.

Caldren shrunk back a bit further behind the trees trying to decide what to do. She didn’t seem armed so he probably wasn’t in danger of physical violence unless there were others hiding about. He peered into the lengthening shadows trying to discern if there was anyone there but as far as he could tell they were alone on this ridge. The temperature was starting to drop and the rational part of his brain started lecturing him on the dangers of cold exposure and wild animals. Then the emotional part of his brain started getting indignant that he’d let someone half his size take his fire and food and demanded he march in there and take it back. Caldren told them both to calm down and that they all needed to work together to form a rational plan.

Caldren rubbed his face running his hands through his beard. Muttering under his breath that he needed to stop talking to himself so much. Not that he had a choice as he had been alone for almost a month. He felt a sudden longing to go to the fire, if at least to have someone to talk with to help alleviate the loneliness he’d been enduring. He looked over again and she hadn’t moved from her spot seeming content to wait for however long it took.

Caldren cast his gaze around and found a rock that was passable sharp and palmed it. If this turned violent at least he’d have something to defend himself with. He took a stilling breath then quietly circled around the clearing until he was facing his visitor. She still was staring into the fire and hadn’t seemed to notice him. She was younger than he initially though and had fair skin with a light crop of freckles on her cheeks with green eyes which were fixated on the fire which was now burning a bit brighter and giving off waves of heat into the cool night air. After staring for a bit rom his hiding place he started as he realize the first wasn’t shimmering, it was her.

This is definitely getting a lot weirder, he thought to himself. What if she’s some sort of vengeful ghost that I angered in some way and she’s here to haunt me until I go crazy and fling myself from this ridge? Shaking his head to clear out that thought he mentally chided himself “Ghosts aren’t real, there has to be a rational explanation for this. Maybe it’s a trick of the mountain light or something”. He stood there for what felt like a long time trying to come to a decision on what to do. Currently his cowardice was winning, as usual, and he just crouched there in the dark and cold watching someone else enjoy the fire he worked so hard to build.

As he was wrestling with his choices the girl moved for the first time and looked right into the woods where he was hiding. The corner of her lips turned up a bit and she called out “It has to be cold out there. Please, come sit by the fire I mean you no harm” then she waved to a log on the opposite end of the fire, inviting him to come sit.

Caldren sheepishly came out of the woods and walked slowly over to the log ready to bolt like a spooked deer at the very first sign of danger. She didn’t say anything as she tracked him moving to sit across from her. She didn’t seem dangerous but that didn’t mean she wasn’t. She gave him an encouraging smile and waved again to the log. “Please, sit. The night grows cold and things stir in the woods. You shouldn’t be in the darkness on this eve”

Caldren was intrigued by her very formal way of speaking and his curiosity won out over his fear and he finally sat down heavily on the log as his adrenaline ran out and his legs just gave out. He noticed that the fire seemed larger than when he left which was odd as he didn’t collect enough wood to fuel a fire that big. He looked across the fire at the girl and he noticed that the shimmering was less pronounced up close but it was still there It was as if she was made of light somehow. Some sparks flew off from the fire and seemed to go through her which Caldren found fascinating. The silence wore on as Caldren tried to make sense of what he was seeing but she didn’t say anything just looked at him expectantly.

“Who are you?” He ventured

“My name is Imogen, thank you for sharing your fire this evening scholar”

“You’re welcome” he replied then what she said seemed to register “Wait, how do you know that I’m a scholar? What else do you know about me?” He asked hesitantly as the fear that he took so long to suppress started bubbling to the surface again. She stared into the fire for a few minutes then looked up to meet Caldren’s eyes.

“I miss a good fire on a cold night – the heat soaking into your bones to drive away the cold. I miss mostly the camaraderie of friends around a fire as the wine is passed around and stories are shared getting more outrageous as the wineskin is emptied” she turned back to the fire with a wistful look on her face. Caldren was taken aback by the switch in tone from her initial speech and just stared at her unable to form any cogent questions.

She sighed and looked back up from the fire “To answer your question, scholar I’ve been watching you since you entered the pass. Instead of those men with their swords and their avarice you came with only a book, so it wasn’t hard to determine that you came seeking knowledge. You’ve been here for weeks when other men gave up after a few days so I ask you what you are seeking here”

Out of habit Caldren started running through his usual lies and half truths but something about his guest seemed to want to draw out the truth and since he was already out here in the middle of nowhere there didn’t seem to be any reason to pretend anymore.

“I seek Temerith” he said quietly

She tilted her head and considered him. Caldren felt stripped bare by the look as she seemed to be seeking way to see inside of him. The fire crackled into the cold night as the silence dragged on. They sat opposite each other and the tension built but Caldren was afraid to say anything f that might cause her to leave.

“Why?” She asked leaning closer to the fire. “A Promise I made” he said softly. She seemed to consider this for a moment then replied “Who did you make this promise to?”

Caldren stared at the ground as the memories of that terrible night, long pushed down started to rise to the surface. He struggled with himself for a moment trying to get his emotions under control. Angrily wiping away his tears he couldn’t meet her eyes or bring himself to relive that night. He simply shook his head and said “I made a promise to someone who meant the world to me and that’s why I’m out here in the middle of nowhere talking to someone who I’m not entirely sure isn’t a figment of my imagination. What are you? You aren’t really here I can see the fire smoke going through you” the anger he was feeling at reliving the night his mother was taken from him was bleeding into the conversation but if Imogen was bothered by it, she didn’t show it.

She held his gaze for a long moment, then sighed. “I… am not what I once was.”
She spread her fingers. A faint shimmer of light danced along her skin, slipping between the flickering firelight. “I am a Lucent.”

“What is that?” Caldren asked. He’d never heard the term nor read it any of his books. She raised her eyebrows with a shocked expression and said “Surely you know of us? Has all knowledge of this place been destroyed?”

“If you mean Temerith, then yes. The empire has done a very thorough job in removing all traces of this place or any reference to magic” He very pointedly did not bring up his part in that effort, small as it was. “In fact most people believe this place to be a myth” The expression on her face turned from one of surprise to one of true sorrow “A myth? How long has it been? I sometimes have trouble with the flow of time” Caldren did some quick math in his head using historical records from the time and gave her his best guess “I’d say approximately five hundred years give or take a decade”

Imogen let out a gasp. She sat there quietly and to Caldren she seemed to be trying to come to terms with what he just told her. He wasn’t sure what she was or why she was here but he felt like she might have the answers that he really needed so instead of pestering her with questions he simply patiently waited for her to speak again. There were a mix of emotions playing across her face but the final one seemed to be a determined look like she had made a decision.

“Has it truly been five hundred years Scholar? She asked quietly. He nodded and she continued “Again, I am a Lucent – a being created to be responsible for managing the great library. Once there were many of us but I am the last. I am.. alone” she paused, hugging herself, as if the weight of that statement was almost too much to bear.

Caldren wanted to shoot out of his seat in excitement. Temerith was real – he was speaking with someone from the library. One of the beings of legends and most importantly she knows where the library is! He held himself back however as the aura of sadness around the girl seemed to have a physical presence. He knew, even in his excitement, that she needed time to process what she was feeling having been there that night many years back when his life was ripped apart.

Closing her eyes, she spoke again “Once, I was alive. I was orphaned as a child by the wasting and took to begging and stealing to survive until a passing templar caught me trying to rob him on the road. He was a kind man who served the God of compassion so instead of punishment he took me here since he frequented the library and knew they always had a need for servants. They took me in and I worked in the library as one of its clerks. While it was hard work I felt like I had finally found a family after all that time alone.” Her wistful expression fled her face and something bleak replaced it. Then one morning I started coughing up blood and was swiftly brought into isolation away from my new found family. In a cruel twist of fate the wasting that had remained in my system dormant suddenly started to spread. The prognosis was grim and that’s when they came to me”

She paused to collect her thoughts then continued “They explained that the wasting was a disease created by magic and as such their healers were unable to purge it from me. They asked me if I wanted to become a Lucent. They explained it was completely voluntary and painless. They would transfer all my memories from my failing body into the beings of light who manage the library. The only restriction was that I couldn’t leave Aethervale and had to follow a set of rules that governed access to the information. I would still be me – I would have the same thoughts and emotions but I would be a soul trapped in an immortal construct of magic.”

Caldren just stared at her as he tried to take in all that information. The soul was inviolate, even the darkest of magics couldn’t strip you of it unless you allowed it. To be trapped fully aware in a place for eons, how does one remain sane? Who would make that choice?

She must have read the expression on his face because she grew angry and pointed at him saying “I had just found my family, scholar and I couldn’t lose them again. I knew I would likely watch them grow old and die but I could have that time with them, so the choice for me was easy” She turned away and said with disgust “Then the emperor’s hounds came and killed them all anyway and there wasn’t anything I could do to protect them. They somehow had a way of harming us as well – swords of an oily metal streaked with red.”

“Arcinium blades” Caldren breathed – the fabled captains of the empire carried these swords and something about the properties of the metal interfered with magic effectively negating it. He could see how striking beings like Imogen would destroy them. “How did you survive?” Caldren asked, his voice hushed in awe.

Imogen’s eyes belied the anger she was feeling and she grounded out her reply “I hid, scholar. Not just myself I hid the entire library. When the hounds and their masters reached the library proper they just found empty rooms. That was the failsafe and it could only be triggered by a Lucent as we were bound to the laws of the library and to protect it. It was my duty as the only remaining Lucent to activate the failsafe and pull the entire library through the veil into the resonance.”

“The Resonance?” Caldren asked

“Have we truly lost so much knowledge that even the fundamentals are lost to time?” She asked sadly. “The resonance, scholar, is the place where magic resides and the veil is what separates that raw chaos of magic from this world, do you understand?”

“I don’t understand much of anything you’ve said since I sat down here” he said shrugging apologetically.

“Would you like to learn?” She asked.