Chapter 2 - Lessons

After Elneiel left Arya's room he walked down the hall with no purpose whatsoever. He could not get the thoughts of Arya out of his mind. Her body deemed of only a goddess, and her eyes that showed an endless well of magic. It had been a miracle he had kept his calm when he was in her room…

When he was a couple yards from him room, he bumped into a servant with a message. He said, “The king and queen want your audience, my Lord Prince. They seem to have urgent need of you.”

“Not again…” said Eleniel as he ran down the stairs, two at a time in order to make it to his parent's audience room faster. Once he entered the room he noticed Medea was there too.

“… It has to be her, why else would she take out this book,” said at the man sitting on the throne.

“What book, father?” asked Eleniel.

“The Book of the Ancients, son. She picked it out a few moments ago. When Medea picked it up it was open at the page with the prophecy of the Foreign Warrior.” Said Eleniel's father.

“Istmeil, think reasonably. She could have just read the title and opened it to this page to make us think that she's the center of the prophecy.” Said the woman on the throne next to his.

“I don't believe that it could he a coincidence, Merilwen. It is too well set up.” Said Istmiel.

“She told me that she didn't know how to read Elvin, how could it have been set up mother?” asked Eleniel to Merilwen.

“Well… wait a minute, what were you doing with her? We already punished Belllethiel for his actions. You do know that you are to be married to the Duke of Carlon's daughter when you turn eighteen.” said Merilwen, letting her voice trail off for added emphasis.

“I only wanted to know how she was adapting, and she seems to be doing fine. I told her that I could teach her how to speak Elvin if you would agree.” Said Eleniel as humbly and sincere as he could. I truth he only went to see her to prove to himself that she was real and had not disappeared into thin air, but no one needed to know that, especially not his step-mother.

“I don't know… letting you go to a girls rooms on a repeated basis might ignite rumors…” said the ever-skeptical Merilwen.

“I believe that it is a grand idea!” boomed Istmiel's voice, “Eleniel is the smartest one in the family and he could benefit with more contact with people, or else he will start to talk to his books.” said Istmiel with a smile in his voice.

“Fine, but you have to meet in the library, not her room. And you have to report her progress to me once a week,” said Merilwen, knowing that she had lost that certain battle. Eleniel was determined to know what Merilwen was doing here. Nobody knew where she came from and she had risen to power to quickly to not have wanted power. She also controlled his father, but that was a relatively simple feat. It was so secret that she liked to surround herself with puppets, and Eleniel was one of the few who she could not control that she could not banish. Istmiel was too proud of his genius protégé of a son to make him leave his side. This last encounter had proved one of his suspicions; Merilwen did not have Sedena's best interests at heart.



The next morning Eleniel made his way towards the library. Bellethiel was really annoyed that Eleniel had a reason to see Arya everyday. Times like these, Eleniel was glad he was a book maniac, the comments about talking to books were even worthwhile.

When he walked into the library, Arya was already inside. She was walking between the rows of books, her blood red dress rustling behind her. He hurried after her. When he reached her she was sitting on the ground, with a book open in her lap.

“Yande istnal thandas thalenti yande namorden jadenlasti,” said Arya, concentrating on the open page in front of her.

“Since when can you do that?” asked Eleniel, thoroughly shocked.

“I said it correctly?” asked Arya, as surprised as him.

“Yes, but… are you sure you don't know Elvin?” asked Eleneil, asking himself if Merilwen there was any grain of truth in what she said yesterday.

“Trust me, I have no idea what I just said, I'm kind of scared of it myself.” Arya said, looking as shocked as possible.

“Come, I will make sure that next time you do something like that you will know what you are saying.” Eleniel said, extending his hand to help her up. She ignored it and got up on her own.

“I don't need anyone's help to get up, no offense intended.” She said.

“None taken, there are table where we can sit down in the middle of the library.” He said walking down the seemingly endless row of books. Once they got to the tables he saw that Merilwen had commandeered a table for herself. She was sitting down with an opened book in front of her. She showed no interest in it whatsoever, instead she was observing them while they walked down to the nearest free table. Along the way, Eleniel had taken a couple books that he deemed easy reading and he took a pile of parchments from a desk they had passed. Dropping his stuff on the table, and still looking at Merilwen suspiciously he sat down on the closest chair.

Arya sat down next to him and asked, “Why are you staring at her?”

“Everyone knows that she hates books, the fact that she's even here is extremely suspicious.” Stated Eleniel.

“Who is she?”

“My evil step-mother,” he said tearing his eyes from Merilwen and looking at Arya.

“Just like in Cinderella…” whispered Arya.

“What?” said Eleniel, not understanding what Arya had just said.

“Never mind…. What does that mean?” said Arya, pointing at a word in the title of one of the books.

“It is said tanthislea, it means children,” he said.

“So is that a story book?” asked Arya, suddenly very curious.

“Well, yes…how did you know?” he asked.

“Well… it has children on the cover, and you said that you were taking easy books to read. It's kind of obvious.” Arya said with an air of self-satisfaction.

“So you are smart as well as beautiful… no wonder my brother could not resist you,” he said as Arya blushed. He opened the book and flipped to the first page. “This is the story, Ilthanis yande thandenrush. It means Ilthanis the wanderer. Can you translate the first sentence?” he asked.

“Ilthanis…lived…with his…” she said concentrating on the text in front of her. “I can't do this,” she said.

“You were doing fine,” he remarked.

“It's not that,” she said as she got up. Once she was free of the chair she bolted towards the door. Eleniel followed right after her. She had no idea where she was going, he noticed after she did a couple of turns in the hallway. Eventually she reached the bridge connecting the palace to the ruins of the old castle that the ancients had built. One she got to the ruins she fell to the ground and hid her face in her hands.

“What is wrong?” asked Eleniel.

“Noting, just go away,” responded Arya stiffly, apparently trying to hold back tears.

“One thing I learned, being alone only makes everything worse. “ He said sitting down behind her and wrapping his arms around her. “And there is so use holding back tears, it will only make everything harder afterwards.” After some time he started singing a song to no one in particular. Slowly Arya calmed down and relaxed in his arms. Once the song stopped Arya placed her head on his shoulder.

“What song was that?” she asked.

“It is Mitholinst Galenthista, it was written very long ago and it is in the Old Language, no one knows what the words mean anymore. My mother sang that song to me when the older kids teased me. I used to cry a lot back then. But now I don't see them anymore. I spend my time with books.”

“What happened to your mother?” Arya asked, hoping to make him feel better.

“She died when I was ten. Everyone says that she died of Senith Thurninsta, a close relative to your `sleeping sickness'. But Merilwen was too happy about my mother's sudden demise for it to have been accidental. There is a poison, Thenelista, that has practically the same symptoms.”

“Then why don't you tell anyone about your suspicions? Your father could banish her or something,” said Arya.

“It's not that simple. Merilwen controls my father, she can make him do anything she wants.” Said Eleneile with a sigh. Suddenly Arya stood upright in his arms.

“I feel people coming,” she whispered to him, “and they doesn't feel happy.”

“Come,” he said as they stood up. He entered the ruins and picked his way across the crumbling rocks, Arya followed carefully in his footsteps. They hid behind a large slab of rock that had once been a column and watched the scene before them. It did not take long until they saw Merilwen walking with a couple of her guards down the bridge.

“They aren't here, Siladheil!” stated Merilwen.

“But…but they passed onto the bridge not ten minutes ago. They couldn't have gotten anywhere, we were guarding the only exit.” Said the man next to her, stuttering.

“Well they aren't here, they had to get away somehow. It would be too much to hope that they jumped over the river and smashed to their deaths on the rocks below… the only other way out would be the ruins… of course! Guards search those ruins for the mischievous brats!” she said.

“We have to go, now. If we are caught I don't want to know what will happen,” whispered Eleniel. She nodded and they were gone, scrambling up rocks and hiding whenever Arya felt people close by. After a while it became a game, their previous melancholy forgotten, they ran across the ruins like little children.



They ran for hours, but to them it seemed like only minutes. At some point they stopped in one of the few building s still upright.

“Anyone near us?” asked Eleniel folded over and panting. They had nearly bumped into a group of guards and had done their best to get out of the area. When Arya didn't answer he looked up at her. She was tracing a picture on the wall.

“Aryathandathalentidore,” she whispered, still staring at the wall.

“Thandal sounds a lot like savior, but I do not know the rest.” He said coming up behind her to look at the picture.

“There's my name too. Do you know what it could mean?” asked Arya.

“No,” he lied. He knew it was bad to lie, but he did not deem her ready for that kind of knowledge yet. The picture showed a woman dressed in leather armor holding a sword above her head, she was facing an army all alone. Next to her were a couple stars, and a rose intertwined with a dagger. Eleniel was engraving the picture in his memory when Arya poked him, hard, in the shoulder.

“Wha… oh,” he said seeing the three guards at the doorway.

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