Shadows of a Broken Past: A Shard of Faith (Book one)

Chapter 3:

Pixl and Stella had been up for hours already, reading through book after book as they desperately searched for any evidence of Xornoth's existence of the feud of the Great Stags. Eventually, they fell asleep. 

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Pixl woke up at dawn to a weight on his shoulder. He looked over and almost jumped out of his seat. The lavender-haired elf was asleep on his shoulder. Frowning, he shook her gently. "Stella."

The elf made no response but moved off his arm, resting her head on her own arm. 

"Stella won't wake so easily." Said a voice from behind them. Pixl turned around and blinked in surprise. A white-haired female elf was behind him at a bookshelf, tapping the spines of the book. She had deep blue wings and swirling magical star antlers. She turned to look him up and down. "She has a very deep sleep. Especially when she's researching. Who might you be? A friend of his majesty?"

Pix nodded. "Yes." He said. "I am Pixl of Pixandria. And you? Another of the Council, I believe?" 

She smiled faintly and nodded. "I am. My name is Artemis, and I am the Clairvoyeur, if you know what that means. Greetings, King Pixl." 

"Now, how do I wake her? We need to get back to researching about Xornoth and the Great Stags." 

Artemis laughed shortly. "If you are trying to find information on them, I'm afraid this isn't the place to look."

"But this is the Great Library of Rivendell. I thought everything was stored here." Pix said, frowning. 

Artemis shook her head. "Come with me." She whispered a spell under her breath and Artemis woke up. 

"Stel? Did I fall asleep?" The black-winged elf looked up. "My sincerest apologies, Pix."

"It's fine." The Pixandiran assured her. "Artemis was just going to show us to a new room with more possibilities for our search."

Stella lit up. "Thank you, Artemis!"

Artemis put a finger to her lips. "Hush. Only the Council knows of this library." She said. 

"I've never heard of it." Stella said, frowning. Pixl frowned too. 

Artemis flicked her wings almost irritably. "The reason we haven't trusted you with that information is because you're young. I have been with Galaxya on the Council for almost a century. We are very cautious with younger ones. But now is a good time." She gestured for them to follow. 

Pix and Stella followed the older elf through the labyrinth of bookshelves until they reached a particular shelf. Artemis glanced back at them before intoning a spell in elvish and stepping right through the shelf. 

Stella gaped as her fellow counsellor vanished into the wall, then she and Pix stared at each other, shrugged, and followed. As they walked through the wall, it slowly regained it's solidness. They emerged in a passageway behind Artemis, who was speaking quietly with a smaller-sized elf. 

He wore an orange poncho-like overcoat with an icy blue-green shirt and dark gray pants. He had gray-tinted white hair and pale tan skin with kind, smiling eyes. His antlers were like fire swirling in a container, speckled with little white flecks and his wings were a pale yellow. 

"Pyro?" Stella asked, confused. "But what is he doing here?"

"Art! How nice to see you!" The elf, Pyro greeted. 

"He's younger than me!" Stella protested to Stella. Pixl watched the conversation and then something came to mind.

"It's because he's Solosi and Galaxya's son, isn't it? He may be young but he was brought up by your council. You trust him more than Stella, who has most likely been training longer." He said.