Something Lost (Original Draft)

Chapter 36: God's Oath

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The warm light of the fire lit the pages of Strare Harei that was nestled safely within my lap. I wanted to explore the book before I went to sleep. I looked down at the pages with a different emotion in my heart. The intimidation I had felt earlier was gone; in fact, as I studied its decorated sheets I found I admired it. It was a beautiful work of art, the words were all inked in curvy calligraphy, and detailed illustrations graced almost every passage. The scribe who created this book was not only a magician, he was an artist too.

The pages were not marked with numbers, but by my guess there must have been hundreds of them. I flipped through them in large sections as I examined the pictures, just as a child would, who hadn't learned to read but was curious all the same. I stopped at a picture that reminded me of courage and strength, of Berthold's King. It was an illustration of a majestic eagle with a viper caught in its powerful talons. The beak of the bird was open and its head thrown back, from its mouth a dagger-like tongue escaped, piercing the sky above. I imagined it was shrieking some sort of victory call, so all could hear. My fingers traced the crosshatching of the wing feathers, it still held the indentations of each stroke, just as prominent as it was the day it was drawn.

How I wanted to know these words, they were beautiful to sound out, to hear as they leapt from my mouth one by one. I could only guess their meanings, by the clues the depictions shared. But, Alexander knew these words and soon would teach them to me. I smiled as my thoughts drifted to him, thinking of the time we would share together in the future. It was going to be nice, to get to know him, to bond with him in a way that nobody else could.

Stop it, Stop it, Stop it, I scolded myself.

I had almost lost James because of our little experiment. Thinking about Alexander that way was... was... ridiculous! And I thought James was unavailable, this man was the epitome of unavailability. He was royalty, he was older, he was significant, and not to mention engaged to a princess.

 

There was that, I sighed, but found my smile once more. It grew large across my face, strong with the secret it concealed. I could still dream, and fantasize, that wouldn't hurt anybody, well, except myself. And besides, it was just a mere thought, an unimportant feeling, it was nothing.

I turned the page.

The illustration that took over the next sheet swept all of my thoughts away from Alexander and my foolish daydreams. I became lost in the picture. It was a drawing of two women that were mirrored to each other. They both sat in front of an oval mirror, and both wore the same bored pose. The only difference that could be noted was within the mirror. The lady on the right mirror reflected her portrait, while the mirror on the left was blackened. Without thinking I began to speak the words that danced across the top of the page. Mani sahre A'avi, I repeated wondering what the words meant. Was it a spell of change, a teleportation spell? I had no clue, but the picture intrigued me all the same.

My eyes began to flutter against the weight of my eyelids. I pressed a feather bookmark against the page and closed Strare Harei. I really needed to get some sleep before the day began. I crawled into bed and watched the lanterns die, one by one.

 

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