The Scrollrunners

Chapter 12 | The Warning

It was a pleasant morning in Alexandria. As the sun was just peeking over the horizon, Letes sat with her family in the lazily filling market while they ate breakfast. They'd just parked their paint stall in a highly-coveted spot (near the street corner next to the popular bakery) and decided to eat before finishing setting up the stall. Letes's family's usually hectic morning went unusually smooth. Everyone— including Lenion, who was not a morning person— was up and ready before the sun itself, so the family decided to get a head start in the competitive market square.

Letes leaned against the creaking stall beside Lenion, while their parents had dragged out one of the benches from behind the stall. The four enjoyed their figs and dried meat while chatting about nothing in particular.

The twins' father, Rune, asked Lenion, "How has school been at the Library lately?"

The siblings gave each other wary looks before Lenion answered noncommittally, "Oh, just fine. Been keeping up my grades." He gave a sleepy smile.

"You'd better be. We're lucky you can even attend the Library— thank the gods Hemut chose us to be his main paint supplier all those years ago, otherwise, you'd never have had an in to go to school at the Library. Do you have any classes with him?"

Lenion shook his head and tugged at his curly poof of hair. "I haven't had a class with him for a couple years now. They leave the art to the younger boys. Especially lately... Hemut hasn't been around as much because a lot of his classes were cut."

Nadira and Rune frowned, and Nadira said pensively, "No wonder we haven't seen him as frequently as we used to. Why were his classes cut?"

But Lenion was saved from answering a question that might lead to too many other questions by the sudden yipping of an over-excited puppy followed by a, "Hiiiii, Letes!"

Jogging up towards the stall were Gaia and Hexa, and the new puppy Hexa rescued that had become a permanent fixture at her side (except, of course, when she was in the classroom and had to tie it outside because of its accident proneness).

Nadira and Rune swiveled on the bench to see who was calling their daughter's name, and whose obnoxious dog was making all such a racket.

"Gaia, Hexa, I'm surprised to see you here!" Letes exclaimed, her features lighting up at the sight of her friends.

"Well, little Rus escaped this morning, and we had to chase him around half of Alexandria before we caught the rascal." Hexa explained giddily. Her older sister, Gaia, rolled her eyes, clearly not happy to have had to run after a puppy all over the city so early in the morning.

Letes laughed and asked, "Have you two met my family before? These are my parents, Nadira and Rune, and this is my twin brother Lenion." She stood up and waved a hand towards her parents and nudged the still sitting Lenion with a foot.

"It's good to meet some friends of Letes. And here we were thinking Talibah took up all her time. Which one is Gaia and which is Hexa? I can tell you two are sisters." Asked Nadira as Rune smiled and gave them each a small bow of the head.

"I'm Gaia, nice to meet you." Said the reserved older sister.

"I'm Hexa, and this is Rus! Short for Papyrus!"

Gaia elbowed her sister in the ribs, clearly worried that she would give something away about the classroom with Rus's alluding name. Letes felt her heart jump a bit at the name, too, but her parents merely laughed good-naturedly, not seeming to suspect anything.

"What a peculiar name— I like it." Answered Rune.

But wheels were turning behind Lenion's eyes as he asked, somewhat suspiciously, "How did you all meet?"