¤ Arrival in Ellinia

A foghorn bellowed as the ship floated into the harbour through the mists. While the ship docked, Silver emerged from the cabin to join the passengers gathered on the deck, Jaysen following a little behind her. The vast Ellinia Harbour before the ship was teeming with people, adventurers waiting to board the ship, their family and friends seeing them off, and even more people waiting for their loved ones to arrive.

‘Yo, Jaysen.’ Wayne appeared next to Jaysen, Alessa on his arm. ‘Want to meet up in Kerning soon? You need to get back to the Dark Lord, anyway.’

‘Hmm.’ Jaysen considered, watching Silver as she searched intently through the crowd on the harbour. ‘Sure, why not. Give me a couple of days to settle down in Ellinia. Same time, at the same old table in the Jazz Bar?’

‘Ah, Wayne. Don’t make someone part with his girl when he doesn’t want to.’ Alessa observed Jaysen’s distracted tone in amusement, brushing her russet hair away from her face.

‘You’re just jealous you don’t have a guy’s complete attention for once, Alessa my fox.’ Jaysen retorted, his eyes darting quickly to see if Silver heard. To his relief, the girl was too busy looking for Grendel to pay attention to anything else.

‘She only needs my complete attention, ain’t it, Alessa dear.’ Wayne exchanged a mushy smile with Alessa.

Jaysen rolled his eyes. ‘If you couldn’t make the last few minutes I spend with you two painless, I’ll seriously rethink my decision to meet up with you two again. I mean, my best friend, and my ex? Think about the emotional scarring you’re inflicting!’ He pressed his clenched fist to his heart.

‘Stirge guano.’ Wayne waved Jaysen’s mock indignation away. ‘Look who’s the jealous one, man.’

‘I see him! At the ticketing booth!’ Silver called to Jaysen. She pointed at a figure in pure white standing next to the queue at the ticketing booth. As soon as the ship stopped moving, she dived into the throng of passengers queuing up to disembark.

‘Ach, the lady grows impatient.’ Jaysen said to Wayne and Alessa.

‘See you in a couple of days then, old buddy.’ The two guys grasped hands in farewell.

‘Are you coming!’ Silver called again, before rushing down the extended gangplank and disappearing into the crowd on the harbour.

‘Hold on!’ Jaysen shouted over the hubbub, then gave chase immediately.

A pickpocket bumped into him as he got off the ship and tried to pilfer the heavy pouch of mesos from Jaysen’s backpack. But Jaysen was, after all, the more experienced thief; he quickly dispatched the small rogue with a stern glare and the gift of some broken fingers. Weaving through the crowd that pressed ahead to meet the new arrivals, he made his way towards the ticketing booth, trying hard to keep an eye on Silver’s blue Maro.

‘Grendel!’ Silver made a beeline towards the figure, and skidded into a halt before him. Dropping her backpack and bow, she threw her arms around the wizen old man joyfully. The wizard’s wrinkled face beamed as he patted her on the back. ‘It is good to see you, young Silver. Was Ida fine when you left her?’

‘Yes, she was,’ said Silver, stepping back from the embrace. ‘She said she was going to do some more training before she comes back to you.’

‘That child is determined, that I owe her.’ Grendel nodded in fatherly satisfaction. Over Silver’s shoulder, he spotted a young man in Scorpio armour break through the human tide, then head in their direction. ‘I suppose that would be your travelling companion.’

Turning around, Silver saw Jaysen too, and waved him over. He arrived, a little breathless from the dash. He bowed to Grendel, taking off his Silver Identity in respect. ‘Good day, sir.’

‘You can call me Grendel, young man.’ The wizard smiled. ‘You must be Jaysen. Silver has told me much about you in her communications.’

‘None of it unfavourable, I hope.’ Jaysen grinned as he jammed the Identity back onto his unruly brown hair.

‘You wish.’ Silver said dryly, picking up her belongings.

Grendel laughed. ‘As cheerful as ever, is she not.’ He said to Jaysen.

‘A perfect ray of sunshine, Grendel sir.’

‘I knew you two shouldn’t have met.’ Silver mock grumbled at the combined assault, then walked away pointedly. ‘Come on, let’s get to the Library.’

¤ The Great Ellinia Library

Leaving the clamour of the busy harbour behind, the three of them entered Ellinia. The town, situated right in the midst of an emerald green forest, was dazzlingly vast. Shops and houses were built right into the living wood of the towering trees, wooden bridges and wide branches making walkways between them. A gentle green light that filtered through the green foliage bathed the entire town, creating a magical atmosphere that suited the town famed for its magicians just right.

‘Lady Silver, if you would allow this unworthy slave to replenish your potions for you?’ Jaysen had spotted the sign pointing to Ellinia’s Potions shop.

‘Sure.’ Silver pulled out the empty potions pouch from her backpack. ‘We’ll meet at the top of this tree. Get me the best, slave, or else you won’t have dinner tonight.’

‘Oh joy! Perhaps my mistress would sweeten the deal by accompanying me on the fast?’ There was a quirky smirk on Jaysen’s lips.

Silver said sternly. ‘You are not thinking straight, slave.’

‘Eh.’ Jaysen shrugged. ‘Excuse me then, my mistress. I shall visit the Potions shop while my brain catches up with us from the ship.’

‘I thought you left it in Kerning together with your cold, cold heart the day you got initiated as a Bandit!’ Silver yelled after Jaysen as he walked off towards the Potions shop.

‘No, dear mistress, you have my heart!’ He yelled back over his shoulder. Silver rolled her eyes, even as she felt her lips curl up into a small grin.

‘Tch. Sounds like a love confession.’ Grendel stated mildly.

‘Grendel! Fancy you teasing a girl at your age!’ Silver retorted hotly, feeling a blush rising up her neck. ‘He’s just fooling around. He always does that.’

Grendel only smiled knowingly. ‘You aren’t being honest, are you.’

‘That’s what you assume.’ Silver made a face.

Grendel started to lead the way to the Library, planting his tall staff firmly into the moss-covered floor with every step. Although his face was lined with wrinkles and his grey beard curled to almost touch the floor, he still walked with an energetic stride that belied his old age, leaning only slightly onto his staff. ‘You did not say anything about yourself when you last contacted me, Silver. How are you?’ Grendel asked, serious this time.

‘My Project was going smoothly until now, so I’m alright. The sooner I get the book repaired, the faster I can finish the Project.’

‘You know I am not asking about your Project.’ Grendel sighed, stroking his beard.

The old man and the young girl walked in silence for a while, stopping to let a pair of thieves dash past them. (Silver swore she heard the female assassin yell, ‘Why in Ossyria do you need to know how Slimes taste like?!’ in exasperation as she chased a madly laughing male bandit.)

‘I know.’ Silver finally said. ‘I think I am okay.’ Grendel made a soft disbelieving sound. ‘Really.’ Silver’s tone was firm as she tried to reassure Grendel and herself. ‘Right now, though, the Project is the most important. I just want to focus on it.’

‘You were in quite a bad shape when you left us after your last Project.’ Grendel said gently as Silver helped him up a stairway with rails covered in creeping plants. ‘I hope you have gotten over that incident already.’

‘I won’t let someone like him get me down.’ Silver said, her voice turning cold all of the sudden. There was hurt mixed with the determination in her voice, and her eyes were a stony grey. Gripping firmly onto Grendel’s elbow, she supported him up the last step.

‘No, you should not either.’ Grendel stopped and turned to her. ‘But I must warn you about something-‘

‘Oi! Wait up there, mistress! Sir!’ What Grendel was about to say was interrupted by Jaysen’s shout. Dangling two full potions pouches from his hands, he cheerfully scrambled up the stairs to join the two of them. The peculiarly blank look in Silver’s eyes did not escape him though. ‘What happened?’

‘Nothing.’ Silver took her pouch from him and packed it into her backpack shortly. Jaysen’s inquiring look to Grendel was only met by an enigmatic shake of the head as the old man headed up the path.

‘No one tells me anything.’ He grumbled softly under his breath as he followed Silver and Grendel towards a pair of tall wooden doors built into the ivy-covered trunk of the enormous tree closest to them. A sign hung over the doors, written in strange swirly characters that Jaysen felt sure he had never seen before. But somehow, he just knew that they meant ‘Great Ellinia Library’.

It made his head hurt to read the sign though. It hurt like some Cargoes decided to move into his skull and set up residence.

Observing Jaysen’s confused expression as he stared at the sign, Grendel explained, ‘That is the mystic language of old Ellinia. It is not readable by all, but everyone understands it. Do not stare at it so, young man. People who do not know the language will just get a pounding headache.’

Jaysen looked away quickly. It was indeed starting to feel as if the Cargoes were starting a disco party up there.

Grendel pushed open the heavy wooden doors, and ushered them into the cool interior of the giant living building. At the entrance, there was a wide counter made out of a polished red-brown wood. ‘Good afternoon, Mabel.’ Grendel nodded to the young lady that manned the counter, who beamed back cheerfully, before guiding Jaysen and Silver to the railed walkway to the left side of the counter.

Jaysen’s light blue eyes widened in wonder at the seemingly endless shelves of books that lined the walls within. They extended all around the inside of the circular tree trunk, and all along the entire height of the tree as far as the eye could see. Small wooden plaques with swirly characters similar to those on the sign outside hung at each shelf, indicating the different sections.

On large wooden platforms jutting out into the trunk’s centre, countless of people in dull coloured homespun robes busied, bent over tables or scurrying around with piles of scrolls and books in their arms. Lift pods carved out of some dark wood glided smoothly up and down the height of the library on chains and thick rope, carrying more people and books within the graceful flora lattices that served as guardrails.

They stopped at a small platform, and waited for a lift pod to arrive. One decorated with carvings of violas hovered level to the platform, and the three of them approached it.

‘Where to, sir?’ The auburn-haired boy inside greeted Grendel respectfully, pushing his glasses up with a finger as he spoke. ‘My office, young Rei.’ Grendel answered, patting the yellow-robed librarian on the shoulder. Rei nodded, and was about to reach for the switch on the lift pod’s control panel, when suddenly, he caught sight of Silver.

‘Silver!’ Rei cried out, surprised.

‘Hey, keep your volume down, Librarian.’ Silver smiled, seeing the flabbergasted expression on her old friend’s face. He pulled her into the lift, and the two embraced tightly, Rei grinning hard enough to split his face into two. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?’

‘What, and give you an excuse to skip the lift duty you love so much?’ Silver said lightly.

Rei’s eyes widened, his glasses slipping down on his nose. He turned to Grendel, ‘Did I just hear her joke, sir?’

‘Yes, you did.’ Grendel nodded seriously, trying to hide the bemused look in his eyes. ‘How things have changed, have they not, young Rei?’

‘Stop it, you two. Act your ages, please.’ Silver rolled her eyes and said exasperatedly. ‘I’ve only been a few months away, and you two behave like I evolved into some new species of Mushroom or something.’

‘That sounds more like the old Silver I knew.’ Rei laughed now, patting Silver on her head. ‘Welcome back, my friend.’

‘Please accept my congratulations on your happy reunion. Now, can I please get inside?’ Jaysen said a little impatiently from outside the lift pod, where he had been cut off from the lift by the happy gathering at its gates.

‘Ah, sorry.’ Silver moved further into the small lift, making space for Jaysen. Once the bandit was safely inside, Rei shut the door grill, and hit the switch.

With a stomach plunging swoosh, the four were swept upwards towards the top of the tree.

From where Jaysen stood, he could only see a dizzying drop that plummeted straight down to dimly lit depths. He gripped hard onto the guardrail, fighting the suicidal temptation to look down. Oh, a fine time to rediscover my head for heights. Or the lack thereof.

Hearing the strangled whimper Jaysen let out, Grendel said, ‘Relax, boy. These things have been running for centuries. No one has died on them yet.’

‘Sir, what about those who fell off?’ Jaysen blurted out, before clamping his mouth shut, partly in mortification at his rudeness, and partly just in case he vomited.

‘You are still sharp, young Jaysen. You are not so sick after all.’ Grendel gave a booming laugh. ‘Well, truth to be told, I think the librarians got tired of updating records of such deaths. They complained it was too much work to transport the scrolls after the first ten years.’ Jaysen shot him a sickened look as his face turned green.

Rei chortled at Grendel’s retelling of one of the library’s time-honoured jokes. Silver laughed too, then gave a contented sigh as she breathed in the mild scent of old paper and ink in the air. Leaning on the guardrail, she closed her eyes against the sight of the shelves rushing past the exterior of the lift pod.

The gentle hum of the lift’s engine, the distant murmur of people speaking in hushed voices, the comfortable undercurrent of power in all the knowledge accumulated in the books: these had been part of her life since she had entered the Ellinia Library as an Apprentice all those years back.

Silver sighed. Even with all the bad memories, it is good to be home.

——————————————————————-
Next chapter: link

Links to previous chapters:
link link link link link link link link link link link
link link link link link link link link link link link
link link link link link link link link link link link
link link

Did you catch that? It’s Az and Li! Actually, they were the first cameos that I wove into the story, because I always loved the whole idea of ‘How do Slimes taste like?’. (Kudos, Desomaniac ^^) Then I became better at the whole cameo business. I’m sorry I couldn’t poke our favourite thief duo a little more, but I shall try and steal them again for another time later on. Try, being the imperative here.

And there has been Progress on the Battlefront with Major Exams! I’m actually remembering all my Organic Chemistry reactions! Shock! Applause! Maybe I’ll pass Chemistry, for the first time this year.

And for people who have been asking ‘What did Alessa do?’, I’d recommend that you click on the previous chapter, scroll all the way down, and read the Almighty Munky(paste)’s comment. Then worship Da Munky(paste)!

Cookies with Chocolate Cream! Finger-licking goodness. Just don’t sue me, KFC.