Lumina

14 - Yaran

Devhan

He coasted silently down the pitch black corridor, footsteps silent. Not even the faintest echo would sound were he to sprint- only his breath would give him away to keen ears.

Of course, the only ones with hearing that advanced within these walls were the infiltrators and pretenders. Like the Yarans.

Like him.

Devhan skirted around a corner, not needing his heightened vision to see the sharp right. He took this forgotten servant passage often enough. The humans aged so quickly, it was no surprise how time had hidden so much away from the newer generations.

There was a time when his kind did not need to hide.

Approaching a dead end, he stopped and placed his hand between two protruding stones. A latch released and the Yaran stepped through the fake wall, letting it reseal behind him with a click.

In a simple gown of coarse fabric, his chief stood and turned to him.

Devhan offered a small bow, "Ke Peshala'in," He spoke in soft greeting. They were high up in a tower's attic, far from prying ears, but one could never be too careful.

"Te misatu." She replied just as quietly and stepped forward, shadows masking her in the darkness of the windowless attic. "You know I mustn't keep my duties waiting."

A breath of laughter tumbled from his lips and Devhan retorted, "You mean you don't like to wait."

"You say after insisting we meet so immediately!" She straightened, "I am not the impatient one."

Devhan bit his cheek to hide his smile and straightened to the woman he was working on this mission with. Over eighty years he had known her, and knew many more would come. Yarans were not immortal, but they lived much longer than the humans. "I have good news-" At her expectant inhalation Devhan put up his hand, "-that also comes on a platter of issues."

"I should've figured," the maiden deflated with a sigh and waited for him to continue. At his hesitation she asked, "Well?"

"The young Lumina found a parchment for one of the books we seek, though I should warn you it's not a match to the one the Regina has," and explained his afternoon with Maizie, not bothering with honorifics. "She found it hidden within a book from the queen's private library."

Devhan was only here under orders by this woman, his chief, he swore an oath to a lifetime ago, and still would honor to his last breath. Once they completed the mission and disappeared from here, the royal family would become a dark memory he would be more than happy to put behind him. The princesses never deserved the fate that ultimately met them by the hands of their so-called 'Queen'.

But he wouldn't dare intervene. The humans had made their disdain towards the yarans more than clear, and he had no business sticking his nose where he wasn't wanted.

"A parchment? Just one?"

"Yes," Devhan swallowed, rueing that his next words were truth, "and it was from our book."

Her shoulders fell. "So then. . . the book the queen has-"

"Isn't ours. But it is still one we need. We can continue here, then use the parchment the Lumina found to locate the rest of the book."

"How did she possibly get it? And how do you know it's from another book? Ketna, Devhan, why didn't you take it?"

"And risk blowing our covers?" He waited for the bombardment of Yaran flying from his chief's mouth to finish, her face pale as a sheet. "Somehow it had been hidden in some history book," he answered. "Even the Lumina was surprised when I mentioned the parchment came from a Yaran book."

"You told her the pictographs were Yaran?" Though the woman's voice remained quiet, it became strained.

"What was I to do when she was ready to toss it like trash? Don't write her off yet, forla, the little Lumina is strong willed. She could be useful to us."

Eyes of swirling silver caught what little light drifted in the dusty space of forgotten furniture from ages past, stalling the breath in his lungs, "Absolutely not. Don't antagonize me, Devhan, by invoking such a casual title while I act as your-"

"Eikala? Why, when we have so many of our people in this castle available?"

"Our clans wouldn't survive another war."

"We have been at war with the crown for hundreds of years already!"

"You know what happened the last time we intervened!" The woman's voice turned shrill in grave warning, "We have been hunted by the crown, taben. You remember the last battle, you were there-" now her voice was small at the history that haunted them both, "-do you remember what you saved me from? What the Queen's soldiers would have done to a child?!"

He did, and even he could not have imagined at that time how she had survived until he and his men had arrived.

"That," she continued, "is why we hide in our own lands- it was that or be exterminated." In a much quieter voice she whispered, "Even now we pay for our ancestor's mistakes."

Reclaiming the ancient book the crown had stolen would bring hope and power back to their people they desperately needed. The parchment to help them find the next book would make them nearly invincible. Especially with the knowledge held inside. Thanks to a trusted spy, they already had one waiting in a safe location. Once their clan held all four. . .

Each book held vastly different information from Yaran's originating history and culture to forgotten spells that had been used by ancient civilizations.

A magic of such magnitude was too risky to leave in the hands of their enemies.

It was why the books had been left with four different reigning clans at the time; when Terralum's land had been shared with the Luminae, instead of being hunted by them. Separated, each clan had equal responsibility to the realm to protect the knowledge the books possessed from being abused. And to keep outsiders from learning of their contents. Together, they would make the land prosper.

Or bend it entirely to the user's will.

Devhan was originally part of the Sentry that protected their copy before Vita had led the attack that cost them their late chief and the book. A debilitating blow to his clan.

When he was recruited to be the current chief's right hand, he swore his help in any way to get it back in their honor.

She stepped forward now, placing an understanding hand over his shoulder, and said softly, "I tire of watching the needless deaths as much as you, but until our own clans are whole again, this is not our fight to start."

He swallowed. "I understand."

"Good. She found it in a book, you said?"

Devhan nodded, already knowing where her line of thought led. So when her demand to retrieve the parchment sounded, Devhan brought a fist to his chest and confirmed, "Lei, Peshala'in."

*~*~*

Another new point of view. Were you surprised at what was revealed? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!