Dhanurana

Chapter 8: The Records

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"If they're here, they'd be in this hall," Aarushi Aabha said, wrapping her hands around the bronze lock bar to the Keep's records. She prepared her stance, ready to war it free, and yanked it to the side. The thick door creaked as it slid open.

The hall inside was a corridor descending in levels like an elaborate staircase. Rows and rows of shelving sat on each section of the walls, filled with slabs of clay detailing every possible record from taxes to war, conversations or raids between governors, even a few reports dating far back to the Rivers and their fall including the descriptions of how the spillover of their collapse created the Lost Valley south of Daksin. There were even codices of foreign lands and their magic. Desks waited on every level diving deep into the earth. Should an extension be needed for new records the hall was simply lengthened with the most commonly used volumes kept at the front. Janurana took a few tentative steps forward, half forgetting she didn't need permission to cross every threshold inside a house into which she was already invited. Her eyes quickly focused and adjusted to the darkness as she searched for the end of the corridor. It was almost hypnotic. She closed her eyes again, taking a deep breath of the scent of aging knowledge only the nobles knew.

Dhanur pulled a piece of pyrite and flint from her belt. She prepared to strike up a small wick on a nearby table, but noticed the last remnants of an oil lamp's wick flickering away further into the hall. She walked down to light a much larger torch from the wall sending the warm light flooding into the hallway.

The light from the torch traveled far further than the lamp and knocked Janurana back two steps through the door. Just like the fires outside the walls, she was unable to pass through the new barrier. Instead of asking, she continued to gawk at the hall of records until called.

Dhanur watched Janurana stare, standing on her tiptoes as if she were peering over a cliff. She narrowed her eyes.

"Come on," Dhanur beckoned.

Janurana quickly pushed through the barrier while Dhanur twisted the torch to let the fire catch a hold all around it and blew out the lamp.

"Shzahd?" Aarushi made her way to the enormous clay index slab sitting upon a pedestal worthy of its girth in the middle of the path leading down. "Shzahd? We would first begin by trying to remember your family name or a trade."

Wishing she could continue staring deep into the abyss, Janurana took a quick glance around the room. There were no other nobles, nor even a guard. She caught eyes with Dhanur, who simply nodded. Janurana sighed. She shook her head, patted her temple, and picked at her cuticles.

"Malihabar. That is my family name. But, that's all I have." Janurana sucked her teeth.

"You surely must remember something more, Shzahd. Perhaps you have your family seal?" asked Aarushi Aabha, offering a reassuring tone.

"I would have mentioned!" Janurana snapped. An almost unearthly rage growled from her deepest depths. "A moment to—!" Janurana caught herself and bowed, hands pressed together and touching her forehead. "I apologize, Great Maharani. I've found myself emotional, excuse my outburst."

Dhanur and Aarushi were taken aback by such vehement anger, sounding as if Janurana currently sat upon a throne with armies under her command ready to act out her rage. Regardless, Aarushi returned to the task at hand first with simple minded focus.

"I'll start searching. Do you remember the region in which they resided?" Aarushi Aabha spoke softly, bending over to scrutinize the miniscule carvings in the clay.

"How did you get Inside? How do you not have a seal?" Dhanur pulled Janurana aside.

"Do you?" Janurana shot back and yanked her arm away.