37 | Sunlight Library

Eyes aching with the sudden light after so long in near darkness, Eli blinks and blinks. Klia pushes up in front of him, her head bumping into the underside of his chin as she shoves aside his beard. He lets her scramble out into the chamber.

Elijah Jyce

the Reaper, the Unknown, the Elder

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30/97 Buds | 2/10 Roots | 2/5 Filaments

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Stems

Bladewielder (15), Minddreamer (2)

Well, that’s helpful. He wishes his physical abilities and health—rather, roots, he needs to become accustomed to the new words—would raise, but how should he expect them to under such circumstances? Perhaps the next skill he will learn shall be Soulsight, as Klia’s is.

Eli pushes out into the chamber, dragging his bag along behind, stepping away from the steep stairs.

Once, it may have been a library.

Vast towers of carved stone reach the likewise decorated ceiling. Bottles and jars decorate many of the lower shelves, some smashed beyond recognition, whatever contents they once maintained spilled out and spoiled forever. Anything stored on the higher levels has been cleared out, at least in these first aisles Eli can see, but the shape and stature of them certainly suggest books or scrolls may have once been housed in their shelter.

Much to Eli’s joy and relief, he is able to see all this from a shaft of sunlight beating down into the room, misty and pale as it always is, swallowed by magic, but it is bright, brighter than he’s seen in many a day. A hole in the cavern roof must go all the way out onto the surface. Eli cannot imagine how long a fall down it must be, and stands in a pile of dead leaves directly in the beam of warmth. Little twigs and other such debris have fallen, and Eli is more than a bit surprised to not find animal bones from some unfortunate critter wandering too close.

Perhaps this will be their way out. He knows not how, for it is so high up to even reach the crack in the ceiling, let alone the climb it would be after, but an old man can hope.

Klia is scurrying in and among the isles, exhaustion momentarily forgotten. Eli seats himself against the nearest stone shelving, still in the sun, closing his eyes. He hears the girl crunch through the leaves, and she digs around in his bag for some of the berries. Next, the rustle of her book and the soft scratch of her pencil on the wrinkled paper. It’s quite a bit of writing.

Eli cracks an eye open before he falls asleep.

Did Fa send us to you because he loves us?

Eli has to blink several times to ensure he’s reading correctly. He scoots into a sitting position and takes the book, staring at the words. For a girl who’s barely interacted with him and written very little even once they found the book, it certainly is a deep question with which to start.

“Don’t you know he loves you?” he asks gently.

She nods with such an expression Eli believes she does indeed know. Still, it seems wrong to leave her words so permanent when his are spoken to the air. He takes her pencil and writes under the words. I know, even with just meeting you, that your Fa loves you more than anything.

She smiles a little and points at the question again.

“I don’t know why he sent you here. He must have wished to protect you from something, which means that yes, it was because of love.” He can only guess what might have happened, but this seems a reasonable enough guess. He knows his son enough for such belief. “Why do you ask such a thing?”

She stares at the book for a while, before writing again. I thought he would come find us by now.

Eli feels his face twist but forces the expression away. “I don’t know what happened before you two were sent here, but I’m sure if he could come to find you, he would. Maybe he is. There is no reliable way to transport through the air, you understand? I’m not even certain how he did it with you, he probably can’t do it with himself. So, it would take him quite a long time to get here.”

She nods, fiddling with the corner of the book, staring at the ground.

“There is a good chance he may be stuck in Monsetyra, so we’ll have to go get him together after we get Thistle back.”

Again, she nods, and Eli doesn’t know how else to comfort her. He knows so little about the situation, not enough to answer honestly. He doesn’t wish to lie, even to make her feel better in the moment.

“Klia,” he says gently. “We’re going to find your brother, and I’m not going to leave either of you, I swear it.”

Finally, she looks him in the eye, then crawls into his lap. Growing more accustomed to having a person close to him once again, he tucks her into his arms. She wiggles around so she can sit and write in her book while staying in his hold.

I still don’t hear him.

“It’s alright, we’ll keep going up. You picked him off from far away, we’re bound to run into it again. Even if we don’t, we’ll keep hunting.” His fingers catch in her hair, and he frowns at it, trying it back with a string off his pack before it gets more tangled. He’ll have to figure out a way to comb it out. “Is there anything you can tell me about what happened before your father sent you here?”

She twirls the pencil between her fingers for a while before writing. He was very upset.

This much, Eli gathered from Thistle's anger. “Do you know why?”

She shakes her head. He was talking about fixing the magic. He said it used to be good. I don’t remember it being good.

“It was before your time,” Eli murmurs.

He was working on it with the others. But they left. We’ve been alone. Fa does not give up, but he was very upset.

Eli nods against the side of her head, not knowing what to say.

The city was shaking. There was light. Thistle yelled a lot. Then we met you.

Earthquakes are quite a bit more common after the mutation of the magic, Eli imagines more so at the heart of the city where it all began. He thinks of the light on Thistle's skin.

“Was your brother causing the light?”

Not that time.

Eli nods. Something else is at play. He tries to recall his son’s many notes and experiments and obsessions, but cannot bring them all to mind. Sunlight, in particular, he considers, but though he remembers in general Abner speaking of light and plants, he can call nothing to mind specific enough to be of use. He shall ask Thistle. He is likely to know more, even if the struggle will be to get the kid to reveal secrets to his grandfather.

“Is that all you know about how you came to the monastery?”

She nods, and under her other writings, puts, We just came.

Eli pats her head. “Thank you. We should sleep a tiny bit, but not too long this time, alright?”

Again, the girl stays curled up in Eli’s arms while she naps. Lyra would adore her, he tells himself. Eli doesn’t sleep much, nodding off here and there, troubled and unable to clear his mind even though exhaustion. The rest is enough. He inspects the stone pillars and their shelves, observing the fading of the light as the short days of sun in the above world fade quickly. He does not wish to leave this place, to return to the oppressive dark and cold, but they have little choice.

When Klia stirs from sleep of her own accord, they get to their feet with little said. He does not need to encourage or pester her to get going, but she keeps tight hold of his hand still, careful of his injured arm. Tired of carrying his pack, Eli holds it loose in his stronger hand, leaving the weak shaft of sunlight still shining through and heading deeper into the library. There are indeed books sprinkled here or there, ancient, so much so Eli is frightened to touch them, even if they were low enough to reach. Through each aisle, he checks for doors in the walls, hidden and closed or otherwise, but keeps up a steady pace toward the front of the hall.

Finally, the stone pillars shrink, and a massive archway of carved stone opens before them.