The white dragoness tossed and turned in her bed. Despite her best efforts no amount of crushing her head under the pillow could drown out the rain that was pelting down on the roof of the dormitory building.
She peered into the darkness with her emerald green eyes, everyone else was sleeping just fine, surely they wouldn’t notice her taking a midnight stroll to calm her nerves. She pounced from beneath the covers into the dimly lit room, a sudden wave of icy cold hitting her body. She reached for her pale green school cloak and swung it over herself before slowly stepping out towards the doorway.
The hallways of the old school were mostly abandoned this time of night, the faint glow of the blue Aetheric torches lighting the wide corridors adorned with trinkets and school livery.
She slowly made her way down the hallway towards the far end. The library was always warm, maybe some light reading would help her sleep, maybe catching up on today’s lesson. Her arm still hurt from having to block a blow from another student with the Aether gauntlet. The padding was worn, and the bare crystal left a bruise on her upper right arm. She rubbed her arm as got near the heavy dark wood door to the library. ‘Strange’, she thought, the heavy door was usually closed by the custodians after lessons, but today it was left slightly ajar. No matter, it was easier to open anyway.
She pried at the large heavy door, which opened surprisingly easily. The hinges were always well maintained, it’s not surprise, the school was one of the best in all the land of Andia. She stepped into the empty library, it’s mammoth bookshelves stretching floor to ceiling, each with a wheeled ladder for the kobold custodians to clamber to the top and collect the many thousands of ancient tomes for the students that made use of its services.
She took a deep breath, taking in the smell of books, parchment, and fountain ink. She enjoyed the scents of the library, it always calmed her after a long day of lesson.
She approached one of the many study tables, shuffling one of the soft pillows closer to sit down upon. A powder blue kobold peered their head from one of the shelves: “up so late my dear? Were the lessons hard today?” her voice sounded like a songbird.
“Oh, nothing out of the ordinary Shi’na” (Shi’na is an endearing name for a kobold custodian in the native tongue) she smiled: “we had more physical training than mental today”.
“Oh, I see, always nice to have a change of pace, anything to read deary?” the kobold waddled to the side of the desk anxiously awaiting orders. “Do you have anything on the Dark Sacrament? Teacher spoke of them, and I was interested to learn more.”
“Ohh, tough reading for a young one deary, but I’ll see what we have up in the rafters”, the kobold custodian waddled off towards the tall bookshelf labelled with the draconic letter D and disappeared down the corridor, returning a short moment later with an old heavy tome, the very same as her teacher had had earlier the day. “There you go deary, do take care, scary book that one.” She placed the book before the young dragoness: “Anything else deary? Maybe a cup of tea?”.
Khi’nai smiled: “That would be lovely Shi’na thank you”. The kobold did a small bow and disappeared down one of the corridors.
Khi’nai slowly moved the heavy cover of the book, paging to where she had been before. The page had spoken about the hierarchy of the Dark Order and the rules shared between the members. She placed her claw on the page following the text as she read:
“It is always observed that the members of the Dark Order are assigned a personal custodian, or servant to assist with their tasks. These custodians are well trained and provided with every tool needed to perform their duties.”
“Typical custodians are gryphons, smaller wyverns or kobolds. They are held to the following rules regarding the Dark Sacrament:”
- A custodian may never see their teacher or handler’s body or the runes thereupon.
- Custodians are sworn to a blood oath with their handlers, any falter or disobedience is punishable by death.
- Custodians are sworn to absolute secrecy about the activities of the Dark Order, if questioned, they must disavow all knowledge of the Order and its members.
The powder blue kobold returned with a small trolley, upon which, a tray with a teapot, ornate teacups, and a small plate of various biscuits.
“I brought you a midnight snack deary. Nothing fancy I’m afraid, just some biscuits we had left over from tea”, she placed the tray down beside the large book.
“Thank you Shi’na, that’s very thoughtful of you”, Khi’nai reached for one of the biscuits, it smelled like sweet caramel, something she was quite fond of. The custodian poured her a generous helping of the sweat warm tea into one of the ornate teacups. “Anything else deary?”. She shook her head, “nothing for now Shi’na, thank you.”. The kobold took a small bow: “I’ll be off then, shout if you need me deary.”
The white dragoness dipped the soft biscuit into the warm tea and swirled it all around for a bit. She looked up towards the door, noticing a sudden shadow pass the doorway. Someone else was up? Maybe the rain was too much for them too. No matter, it wasn’t against school rules to study late and long as you didn’t fall asleep during lessons.
She lifted the biscuit to her mouth and took a bite as she did, a brown head peered in through the doorway: “E-e-excuse me? I-is this the l-l-library?”
Khi’nai swallowed the piece of biscuit before speaking softly: “yes, you’re in the right place.”
“O-oh good” a short brown kobold waddled in through the doorway. She had never seen this one before, but he was wearing a school uniform, so he must have been a fellow student. He waddled towards the desk she was sat at standing near her with a goofy grin on his face: “m-may I join you? I have s-some les-s-sons to catch up on.” She scootched over with the rest of the biscuit in her mouth. The kobold pulled up a low chair placed it beside the dragoness. He was a fair bit shorter than her despite her age and needed a chair to reach a comfortable high for reading.
The powder blue custodian poked her head out of the corridor, “another one this late? Deary me the weather’s got everyone up and running amok. What will it be deary?”
“S-s-sacred sanctums of the a-a-ancient g-grove by Taro N-na-t-sui, please” he said with some trouble, he spoke softly and slowly to try and combat his stuttering. “Sure thing deary, a moment please”, as the custodian disappeared into the shelves he peered at the book Khi’nai was reading. “D-d-dark Sacrament. Y-you like to l-live dangerously.”.
Khi’nai scratched her head, “Yeah, I was just curious, you know anything about them?”
The brown kobold shook his head furiously, “m-me? N-n-never, I keep to m-myself.”
He turned away to look for the custodian, who had just come out the corridor. She lifted the old dusty book up and gave it a hard blow sending off a cloud of dust: “My, my this one has not been read in quite some time I’m afraid. I’ll need to clean off the spine, it’s awfully dirty.”
The brown kobold shook his head: “N-no need, I-I don’t mind the d-dust, I w-won’t be long”, the custodian nodded and placed the book before him, which he started paging through furiously. Khi’nai nibbled on the next biscuit: “Looking for something in particular?”
The kobold froze for a moment before looking at her: “I n-need to l-look for something about some t-t-text I saw.”, he stopped on a page that featured a detailed drawing if a large tree with runes inscribed upon in. He furiously ran his claw along the text.
Khi’nai peered over his shoulder while popping another biscuit in her mouth. The kobold snorted loudly, “…it’s not here, Shi’na, I n-need a different b-book”. The custodian approached him, “about what deary?”. He pointed to the runes on the tree, “t-this, w-what do they say, b-book on the elder r-runes”
Khi’nai blinked, “LUNOS KIRIN N’SEPTINIEL DOMAS ILLUMINIA”. The kobold turned to her with a stone face, “w-what?”. She took a sip of her tea, “Lunos Kirin N’Septiniel Domas Illuminia, it means ‘the darkness falls at Septiniel’s light’ referring to the elder beast Septiniel patron of the sun.”
The kobold frowned: “y-you read elder text?”. Khi’nai nodded: “My parents studied the runes of the ancient ones; my father wrote a book on this stuff. My mother was once a member of the Order of Grove when she attended this school with top honours.”
He blinked and gestured to the custodian to leave, “h-have you ever b-b-been to the grove?” Khi’nai slurped her tea, “Which one?” The kobold stammered, “w-w-which one? T-there’s more than o-one?”
She popped a biscuit between her teeth before paging to the end of the book he had in front of him, she tapped the page with a claw“you see, so called Sacred Groves are everywhere, they form where there’s an influx of Aether.” The kobold stared at the map and snorted, “the t-teacher had the wrong grove”. “Who?” Khi’nai swallowed the biscuit.
“N-nothing, i-it’s getting l-late”. In a smooth motion he ripped the page from the book, stuffed it into his cloak and scampered out the door.
“Hey! You can’t just rip pages out of books you know, the school has tough rules about that”. The custodian peered out of the corridor: “Ripped? Why that little rascal, oh my and such a rare old manuscript too. Did you happen to catch his name? I have it in my right mind report the little bugger to the headmaster.”
“N-no, in fact, I’ve never seen him around here before. What a strange fellow”
