“Grandpa … Daddy says that you would soon leave… how long are you going to be away?”
Spera asked, looking up at Fon with eyes willing him to deny her knowledge.
“Oh, sweetie ...” Fon said, picking her up and sitting her on his knees while hugging her tightly.
“I will need to leave in about two weeks. You see because of my affliction, his majesty, your father, had allowed me to reside in the castle for a few months after your birthday, but the less time my troops patrol our kingdom, the more unrest will spread through the four great cities.”
“Four great cities?” Spera asked looking up to Fon curiously. Her parents have never talked about them, only telling her about the main city where the castle was built in.
“Do we have a map?” Fon asked Tiang, knowing the men had the entire Library memorized.
“Yes … wait a moment,” he said, standing up and vanishing in the depths of the library only to return moments later with a large scroll that seemed to be very old.
“This was the most recent map I have found of the Praestolatio Island,” he said, spreading the map on the table, the snacks having suddenly disappeared without Speras notice.
What she saw, stunned her for a moment.
On the map, the island looked like a square, standing on one of its corners, but she could see that the contours of the island had been changed many times, leaving slight traces of the former lines that showed a much bigger island that had more of a round surface.
Curiously, Spera extended her index finger to touch the lines, but her finger was immediately grasped by Tiang who scowled down at her in reprimand.
“Sweetie you have to be careful … Even if Tiang says that this is the most recent map of the island, it’s still a few hundred years old. So you can’t touch it without the right method.” Fon’s gentle voice sounded out from behind Spera, while one of his big callous hands stroked her hair soothingly. He had seen that she became depressed when Tiang had rebuked her.
Spera nodded in understanding. Thinking about it, Tiang’s hands had glowed with Mana when he had carried the map to them.
That must have been the activated technique Fon had talked about.
“Grandpa … can you tell me now about the four great cities?” She said, dismissing the previous incident.
“Alright,” Fon said relieved, flashing Tiang a smile over the top of Speras head, knowing that even if he didn’t show it, he had been worried that his reaction had been too harsh.
Focusing on Spera once again he started to explain.
“You see the island? It is named Praestolatio …”
“Like my name?”
"What do you mean?” Fon said, looking questioningly to Tiang, wanting to know if he had an idea what had once again popped up in her quirky head. To which he just slightly shrugged with his shoulders, but immediately focusing back on the book that he started to read that had suddenly appeared in his hands. Fon gave up. He just couldn’t understand the other man.
“Well, Mommy says that my name is Speraenya Emerthelil of Praesto … is the Praesto from Praestolatio?”
“Oh, you mean that! We will get back to that a bit later. For now, let’s focus on the map, shall we.
“Alright, Grandpa!” She said, turning around and beaming a smile at him before looking back onto the map, her little face only inches from the map, careful not to touch the old parchment.
“Grandpa…”
“Yes, sweetie?” He said, every time feeling a bit of warmth when she called him that.
“Why are the edges so jiggly.” She said, her finger hovering over a spot where many lines where overlapping, each drawn in different intensities.
“Sweetie … I will also explain that to you in a second. Just have a bit of patience, alright?”
“Un!” Spera nodded her head, enjoying his petting once again.
“See, the four big red dots on each cardinal point?” He asked.
“What are cardinal points?” Spera asked while looking at each big red dot with interest.
“You see, since you can’t say up, down, left and right when looking at a map. See if you just turn the map, these directions would be useless. Now a few very intelligent and powerful mages found out, that the Mana veins on Prena, that is the name of our world, given by an oracle, have a very unique pattern.”
Seeing her wanting to ask something again, he patted her head once again, slightly shaking his head, signaling that she had to wait for later.
“You have to understand, that nobody has ever achieved to explore the entire planet, so there is no evidence but there seem to be two directions that the Mana veins flow.
From Perendim to Lindje and from Jug to Veri. Interestingly from Perendim to Lindje the Mana just flows but the quality improves the further you get to Lingje. That is until the forbidden lands. A topic I will not discuss with you until you are older.
But from Jug to Veri the quality of Mana diminishes but interestingly the overall quantity doesn’t change. There are a few theories on why this happens but this isn’t important right now.
These changes, however, give us the opportunity to determine exactly where we find ourself in the known world.
See here,” Fon said pointing at the corner of the map. Looking closer Spera could see four arrows that were in a right angle with the letters P, L, J and V on them.
“This is always on a map, telling the person looking at it how to hold the map to be accurate. This is very important to remember.”
He said, waiting for Spera to nod before continuing.
“Now back to our beautiful island. As I said the red dots are the four great cities of Praestolatio.” Starting on the top, he pointed at each city in a clockwise fashion, calling out the names.
“Kita, Azuma, Minami, and Nishi. These names existed since the beginning of this islands records. Each city has a port and a town center for the richer population, such as merchants or small noble families. But they also all have an area around them were very poor people live. Even with the great management of your father, we couldn’t reduce the slum sections in the outskirts.
Now this one here,” he said, pointing to the middle of the island where a big blue dot was marked down.
“This is the crown city of our island, where we are right now. Maybe your parents have already told you, but it is called, Praesto, after the royal family. This was since the beginning of the records that we have the name of both the royal family and the crown city.
The city around the castle was also build to accommodate the important noble families of Praestolatio, but this is something you only have to worry about in a few years.”
“But what about the jiggly lines?” Spera asked, even if her head swam from all this information. On one hand, she found it good that she didn’t have to hide her intelligence from her family and friends, on another she knew that some information she got wouldn’t have normally been told to a child.
“Well, these are the infamous underground tunnels of Praestolatio. See here …” Fon said, pointing at one almost invisible line that connected Kita with Praesto. Looking closer Spera could see that all four cities were connected with such lines. No, Grandpa said these were tunnels. And all of the cities had a tunnel to the capital.
But there were also a few lines that seemingly ended in nowhere.
“Many famous geographers have debated if only the Main Island should be under the rule of the Praesto crown, given that through these tunnels many islands are connected to Praestolatio such as Ino, Shila, and Zong,” he said the last name with such a pride in his voice that Spera looked up in astonishment, only to see Tiang sitting opposite of her, blushing.
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“Given that these tunnels give access to almost everything on this island, even the castle, they are only known to the royal family and its closest and most trusted allies.”
“Then what about Tiang? Does he knows this because he is the librarian or why?” She asked innocently, looking up at Tiang who still had a slight blush on his cheeks.
“Hahaha …” Fon suddenly started laughing loudly at her question, his shoulders quivering and his entire body shaking with his laughter, making Spera look back at him asking him if he was ok.
After a few seconds, he had himself once again under control, his voice still shaking with laughter.
“No, sweetie, Tiang just does this for fun. Don’t ask me, I don’t know what fun a room full of books has. No, his real identity is as the adviser of the Praesto crown.”
Shocked Spera looked to Tiang, seeing him having once again an impassive expression on his face.
“Wha- …” Just as Spera wanted to say something, a loud booming noise reverted through the library.
Turning his head towards the direction they had just walked from, Tiang narrowed his eyes.
Suddenly a small smile bloomed on his face. Looking back at Fon and Spera that looked at him with a blank stare, not understanding what had just happened.
“Fon it seems like we have a guest …” Tiang said, and suddenly their surroundings started to blur, making Spera’s mind a bit dizzy.
When everything came back into focus, Spera found herself with the two other man and the table with the two chairs, a few meters away from the door she had entered.
Not being able to have the time to ponder their sudden instant movement, another loud banging sound came from the door, the doors vibrating towards them.
Someone must want to get in here really badly.
Tiang seemed to find amusement in the situation.
Waving his hand, the door suddenly burst open, revealing a disheveled Mesana and two black-clothed figures on each side of her.
Seeing the figures, Tiang frowned but didn’t comment on their presence.
Mesana immediately rushed towards Fon and Spera, falling on her knees just in front of them to be on eye-level with Spera that had slipped from Fons lap, still holding onto his trousers.
“Darling, do you know how worried I was?” She said while giving her a tight hug.
Immediately she let her go and held her at arm's length.
“Never do that again …” She said while giving her best glare, earning herself an eager nod from Spera.
Relieved, Mesana let out a sight relaxing a bit and pulling her lightly towards her again. Spera, now nestled into her arms enjoyed the feeling of her hair being caressed.
“You had us all worried. We searched the whole castle and couldn’t find you.” Mesana explained her reaction to Spera in a soft voice. Looking up towards her aunt, Mesana could see the surprise at her admission in the little girl's eyes.
Giving her a small smile she continued, “Luckily I remembered that Tiang had just opened a new portal to the library on your floor …” at which she glared at Tiang, only earning herself an indulging smile back.
“Knowing your … Luck, I thought that it could entirely be possible for you to stumble into it.
When Number 7 told me that you suddenly vanished when facing a for him very solid wall, I was very sure that you would be here.”
“Number 7?” Spera suddenly asked, feeling like she had heard that term before.
“Ah right!” Her aunt exclaimed.
“They never got introduced to you, right?” She asked which Spera answered with a nod.
Turning towards Tiang, she asked in the nicest voice that Spera had ever heard her speak, well, disregarding the voice she used when talking to or about Warthon, “Tiang could you allow them entry!” Which made Spera finally notice that the two black-clothed men, that had appeared with her aunt, didn’t move from their initial position by the door.
Turning back to Tiang, she could see him reluctantly swiping his hand towards the men, making golden symbols appear on both men’s hands.
What frightened her, however, was the sudden exclamation of pain that started as soon as the symbol appeared and only ended with both of them kneeling on the floor holding their hands and a fully formed symbol that spread upwards till reaching the elbow. The entire torturous process (of forming the symbol) lasted only a few seconds, but it felt much longer.
In fear, Spera turned back to Tiang.
“Do I also have to have that? It seems painful …” She asked, feeling tears well up while only thinking about the possibility of enduring such pain for her beloved books.
Which caused Tiang to raise one brow. “No, you little monster. Seeing as you are standing here without any problems, which I have to seemingly point out is IN the library, the library seems to accept you without any interference on my part,” he said, enjoying his little jab at her but also seemingly disturbed by her existence
“You speak as if the library was sentient …” Spera said, not sure if she should be frightened or curious at the possibility.
“Well, yes of course it is …” Tiang said as if it was totally normal.
Being to afraid to ask any further and maybe having a distorted sense of normal by associating with Tiang too much, seeing the mirth in the expression of Mesana and Fon a sentient Library was NOT normal, Spera turned towards Mesana.
Looking at Spera's expression, Mesana couldn’t help and let out a low laugh.
“I know … I freaked out when he told me …” She said, patting Spera on the head as if to tell her that everything will be alright.
“But back to the topic at hand …” Mesana suddenly said, the two man having made their way over to the group giving her the opportunity to change the heavy topic, “These are Kuanjing and Heishe, codename Number 7 and 8,” she said gesturing to each one.
Pointing at the slightly smaller man, who had a ‘7’ engraved with black thread on the black uniform at his chest, Spera exclaimed in surprise.
“Aren’t you the one that suddenly appeared when I walked thru that strange wall?” She asked, omitting the fact that she had noticed him way before that for obvious reasons, not noticing Tiang’s flinch when she mentioned the Mana-Wall.
Number 7 immediately knelt before Spera.
“Young Mistress I have to apologize for my lack of attention that has led to such a situation. I will receive any punishment you deem necessary,” he vowed, totally disregarding the fact that he had just asked a two-year-old toddler for punishment.
Hurriedly Spera told him to stand up which he did reluctantly, not perceiving his wrongdoing as forgiven, but Spera felt uneasy seeing him kneel in front of her.
Standing next to Number 8, both men took off their masks, revealing features that in Spera's former world would be associated with people of Asian descent, with black hair and eyes, Kuanjing having a light blue while Heishe had a light purple shimmer to his hair.
But what got most of Spera's attention were the bright purple markings that ran from their ears over their cheeks down to their mouth and formed some kind of collar on their neck.
Looking closer she could see a black light flashing from them from time to time.
Looking at them in fascination, her gut feeling screaming in dread totally ignored, Spera asked her aunt in a hushed whisper “What are those?…”
“They both wear the collar of servitude,” she said disregarding their strange markings. Looking at her aunt and seeing her hard eyes, Spera knew that she wouldn’t get any information on the markings … well, she did have other sources that she could ask. She thought, shuddering at the birthday that would be in a few months.
Shaking off these thoughts, Spera showed interest in the collars. “Doesn’t that make them slaves?” She asked, a new memory piece having told her about stories on earth wherein most fantasy worlds there was slavery.
But she was immediately rebuked by her aunt that looked at her in shock.
“Where did you hear that? You are too young for that kind of information! But only know that, if you come across a slave, it means that that person has no free will whatsoever. And you can’t save them from that. However, the collars of servitude that Kuanjing and Heishe wear are proof of them being retainers of your father.
This is a great honor. Of course, given these times we live in, your father can’t trust people outside our immediate family with our lives so these collars have the restriction that the retainer can’t purposefully act against the Lord and our family. They can even refuse orders given if they are against their morals…” She said, but she saw that Spera’s attention was once again on the strange markings on the men's faces.
Giving an audible sigh Spera turned towards her.
“It’s not that I can’t tell you what they are, but that I won’t. Even if you are more intelligent and mature than your normal toddler …” She said, earning herself a snort from Tiang, “Nicely formulated.” He uttered with a smirk, ignoring Mesana’s glare.
“As I was saying… you are still a small child, there are things we keep from you, not because you wouldn’t understand them, but because we want to protect you for as long as we can.” She ended by giving her a sad look and pulling Spera into her arms once again.
“I understand …” Spera muttered into her shoulder.
Even if I do understand it, doesn’t mean I approve of that … but like she said, when I get older I will get that information!
A few moments the entire library was shrouded in silence, nobody knowing how to continue.
“Enough of that!” Mesana suddenly exclaimed, not being able to endure the silence.
“Let’s go! Your mother is extremely worried, seeing that you went missing while under protection …” She said, causing Number 7 to flinch, “and the impossible sibling trio started to blame each other for their negligence when I left to get you, I still can’t understand how you got them on your side. I really have to praise you for that,” She said, finally standing up from the crouch she was in since entering the library.
Walking to her father, who sat totally forgotten in his chair with a depressed expression, she pressed a kiss to his cheek cheering him up.
“Bye dad, let’s talk later, alright! I have to pacify Thelil, she is having one of her ‘mother nature’ phases because of Spera’s disappearance and try to survive the next few hours,” she said cheerfully, gabbing Spera’s hand and dragging her out of the library without sparing Tiang another glance.
“Bye-bye!” Spera called to both men, waving her free hand while being pulled and stumbling along behind Mesana that blushed at her show of affection.
Almost at the barrier, Spera suddenly heard Fon scream “Tiang did you see! She kissed me! My little girl kissed me! Does that mean that I am finally forgiven?”
To which Tiangs soft voice answered “Yes, it does indeed seem like you are forgiven … But she still blames me for stealing you away …”
But before Spera could hear more Messana pulled her through the barrier, all sounds of the library suddenly disappearing.
What did Tiang mean? Spera pondered, not noticing Mesana having pulled her back into her room and her mother rushing towards her before she was enveloped by her mother's warm hug.
The excitement of the day catching up to her, she could only murmur “I’m back,” before falling asleep in her mother's arms.