Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Lantern Light

After the meal, the Lord and Lady Dragon disappeared into the cobweb of palace chambers and hallways, leaving us in the dining gallery. Korr gestured for us to follow him, and he guided us out of the gallery, through a maze of hallways and doorways, into a massive library with with a domed, painted ceiling so high I had to tilt my head back all the way to see it, and it was too far away to make up much more than the colors.

All around the circular room were rows and rows and rows of books on infinite shelves carved into the stone. More volumes were on the ground floor. And stands with thick stacks of immense sheafs of paper/vellum/parchment/leather bound together with thick iron spikes sat on more stands. Even more sheafs were on the wall, arranged like clothes on hangers.

While the floor and the shelves and the stands and everything that wasn't a book, volume, or sheaf was perfectly made and matched, the books themselves were not, and the effect was a bit jarring. We were also completely alone.

Korr closed the dragon-sized doors behind us and immediately came over to me to take my hands. He gripped them, his thumbs running over my knuckles. "Theia, I swear. I had no idea."

"I know." I dug up a smile for him. He held my hands tight, but not as taut as the rest of him as his shoulders trembled with being clenched.

Ethat wrung his hands.

"Are we alone in here?" Itek asked Korr.

"No one is going to eavesdrop on us here. I know this library completely."

Ethat nodded, hands still wrung together.

"We would hide here," Korr clarified. "I was studying to be a diplomat, and Ethat would hide here with me. No one ever found out."

"The lack of perfection annoy dragons?" Asund asked dryly.

"All these musty, not-matched, imperfect items." Itek headed over to one of the sheafs and hefted the top dozen of so layers to reveal some sort of design or map. Maybe of the palace itself, hard to tell.

Asund pushed Korr away. He cupped my cheek with one hand and pulled gently, brushing my hair off my neck to expose the scars.

"Are you thinking dragons did this?" I asked, leaning into his palm.

Ethat made a panicked hummingbird noise. Korr actually looked startled. "Dragons did not do this to her."

Asund studied the scars. Itek left the sheafs and came over as well, and they studied my scars in careful detail.

"It doesn't look like dragons," Itek told Asund. "It looks more like ravens. But worse than I'd expect ravens to be able to do. But she disappeared long after the last phoenixes. They perished eons ago, and we know from what memories she does have that she was in Haven no later than a thousand years ago."

"I thought we agreed it had probably been two hundred years," I said.

"The fact you have that memory of the wedding at the Temple of Haven makes me wonder," Itek said gently. Then he kissed my spine and pulled my robe back up over my shoulder.

"Wait, there's a debate over how old I am now?"

"We shouldn't rule anything out," Itek said.

"We didn't know, Theia," Ethat said, pushing the others away and trilling like a nervous hummingbird. "I swear, we didn't know."

I hugged him close. "I know. It was a unicorn who died a long time ago."

Ormiss grumbled. "Grotesque."

"At least we know it's not worse, like what you originally though." I turned my head so I could see him, but keep my cheek pressed to Ethat's chest.