Chapter One
Káne woke up early, trying to remember her dream. It had been about her Spirit Crystal....
She instinctively touched it, and feeling its reassuring hum of power, she climbed out of bed. After changing from her nightclothes to a simple blue shirt and a long, dark pair of pants, she tiptoed down the stairs to her family's Yáhayarúh, the prayer room.
The room, which was dark to show respect to Yáretá, goddess of darkness and mother of the Eleven, had a black sphere resting on a round, black table in the center of the room. Káne went to the table and knelt down. She tapped her silver Spirit Crystal, and whispered, "Akíná, Yáretá's daughter, send me the reason for my dream." She held the silver Crystal before her eyes. Nothing happened. Káne was disappointed, but she was not surprised. One hardly ever got an answer when one talked to the goddesses, much less one of the Twelve. She tried again with her violet Wisdom Crystal.
"Mara, Yáretá's daughter, give me wisdom about my dream." Again, nothing happened. Káne tried for the last time. "Raela, Yáretá's daughter, Elven-Mother, give your Child your thought," she said, touching her Water Crystal. All she heard was a bell, a note over the mountains.
Káne shrugged, made her daily prayer, and then heard her brothers waking up. She smiled at the stars leaving the sky as Íbrohmá's vessel, the Sun, rose into the sky. Leaving the Yáhayarúh to go to the kitchen, she shrugged off her feelings of worry as feelings of hunger took their place.
Around the corner from the Yáhayarúh was the kitchen, where Káne found her parents sitting at the table and working. From the look of it, they had been working since well before dawn. Their jobs were to create small, ornamental Glass Crystals, though the new ornaments had only a fraction of a true Glass Crystal's power. There had recently been an enormous order from one of the larger stores that sold these magic storers, so Káne's parents and others with the same job had been working far too much lately.
Káne took an apple out of the bowl on the counter and twisted the stem off. The apple was bright red, but not as red as her Fire Crystal. She took a bite and picked up one of the finished magic-storers. It was a twelve-petalled flower, colored blue for both the elves and water. She mentally used her Physicality Crystal to set it back on the table. As an afterthought, she asked her parents, "Could I take this?" Her parents, too busy working to respond properly, waved their hands in a vague expression, equivalent to a casual dismissal, so Káne put the storer in her pocket. She already had storers like these up to Gray—the Spirit Crystal—and she was trying to get one for each of the twelve colors. Now all she needed were ones for Wisdom and Equality, colored purple and black.
With the apple in her hand, Káne stepped through the arched wooden doorway onto the Crystal-paved road. The road Crystals were not real Crystals; they were only weak imitations with miniscule power compared to the goddess-created Crystals. But they had a small amount of magic in them, replenished every night, which refilled travelers' Crystals towards their full potential powers.
Nobody knew the full powers of any Crystal. Káne doubted whether even the sages or the dragons knew all the magic found in Crystals. As far as she knew, their only limits were in the magic-power left in them, one's creativity, and one's use of magic. Of course, it helped to be a Child of the element one was using. A human would have more trouble with a Water magic than with Physicality magic, and dwarves were next to hopeless using Air magic but quite deft with Earth magic.
Káne walked down the street to her friend, Liri's, house. Liri was the same age as Káne: both were eleven years old. Both were also nearing adulthood, when they would receive their final Crystal: the Crystal of Equality. Then, their other Crystals, which were only children's marbles, would become much more powerful, just as each Crystal did when a new Crystal was added to the black wire.
Káne knocked on the doorpost, noting the small magic-storer set in the doorknob. She put her wire of Crystals around her neck to appear polite. A little girl came to the door. She was hardly five feet, and had black hair and skin and blue eyes, like Káne.
"Oh! Káne!" the little girl exclaimed, jumping up and down. In one hand, she held a wire with each of the Crystals up to teal. That meant that she was eight years old. "Come in, come in, Liri is over here, come on! She's making something really awesome, come see it!" The little girl ran into the house, holding Káne's hand tightly.
Liri, who looked like an older version of the little girl, sat at the kitchen table, with a look of deep concentration on her face. In front of her there was a shimmering not-thing made of magic, in the shape of a dragon holding a sword as if in a battle stance. Her Crystals, up to her Water Crystals, were set in a line in front of her, her fingers splayed out over the Crystals, tapping out a magic. With each tap, the figure grew clearer.
Liri looked hard at the figure, glaring at it as if she could see something in its light. Drawing her hands away from the Crystals, she put her fists together, and then brought them apart in a straight line. She touched the figure gently on the head, and a black spark jumped from her finger to the dragon-figure's head.
Sitting back in her chair, Liri watched the figure on the table. It had lost all semblance of immaterialism, and looked exactly like a miniature dragon. Liri smiled tiredly and in anticipation, then, moving her hands back to her Crystals, she started tapping out another magic. The figure started to walk around on the table, jabbing and parrying with its tiny silver sword.
Eyebrows raised in surprise, Káne asked, "What is that? It's pretty strong magic if you ask me."
Liri answered good-humoredly, "Nobody asked you, and to you everything looks complicated." Both girls laughed. "It's for my Orange-class's work. I think the teacher may give me extra allowance and credit for it." Liri explained as she put the figure into otherspace, using her Glass Crystal.
Káne laughed. "As if you don't already have enough to buy the city! I don't suppose you'd give me any, would you?" she added beseechingly.
"No," conceded Liri. "But we would best be going to school now. It's due to start any time now." Fastening her Crystal necklace, as Káne did the same, Liri hurried out the door, Káne lagging behind.
In silence they rushed down the street, Crystal strings wildly swinging. The little children, who only had Control classes just after lunch, stared at the two funny girls running down the road.
Liri stopped suddenly and swore. "What are you doing!" screeched Káne. "We'll be late! No, you rissi! The school is that way!" Káne pointed towards the rising-path.
Liri turned around. "Yes," she said, while walking backwards, "but the coronation is this way." She set off at a run.
The coronation? Káne racked her brains, trying to remember. Coronation... coronation.... Her eyes widened, and she shot off to the setting-path, overtaking Liri in a matter of seconds.
Why didn't I remember, thought Káne. Tennarye's coronation is today, and I don't have a present for her! How am I supposed to come up with something so quickly? Maybe I could make something...with this much time? Five harannia? Not even that much.
But do I have anything? No... no—yes! The storer! Thank the Goddesses! By the High House, I'm saved! But now... now all we need to do is get there.
Liri might have been smart, but she could not run quickly at all. Rolling her eyes, Káne took an extra bit of Orange magic and twined it with Red magic to make a rope attaching herself to Liri. She yanked at the rope, and Liri slid up next to her as easily as if she had been water-walking. The rope slackened, then again tautened, as Káne pulled in the magic.
"At the rate we're going, we'll be back in Tyalline soon," joked Káne, but it came out rather weak.
"Don't you think I'm trying?" retorted Liri. She was obviously exhausted. Three harannia, and still nearly a half-mile to go. Closer...closer...closer...they were—there!
Bursting through the first row of people lining the Coronation Street, which was perpendicular to the one they had come down, both girls gasped for breath, Káne releasing the magic. A kind woman nearby gave them a spell to breathe easier—white and green for air and health. "Thank you," managed Liri, and Káne shone a weak blue light to thank the lady as well.
Still breathing deeply, Káne extracted the storer from her pocket. Faintly hearing the approach of the coronation procession, Káne stood straighter. Next to her, Liri was doing the same, and fishing a gift out of her ever-expanding otherspace, a spell that she had undoubtedly woven months ago in anticipation of the coronation procession. She placed the chiefly teal spell in a spellpackage that she had drawn out of the otherspace as well. Writing with her Wisdom Crystal, she drew on the package letters in the most common elven alphabet, saying "Plant-growth and strength." Obviously a fertilizer spell, it was uninteresting to Káne.
The procession grew louder. Káne could make out words in the songs that were being played.
Nallai darede Tennarye!
Elliya minesse, maruwa maresse!
Nallai mitadikâ,
Nallai mitadikâ,
Nallai mitadikâ, Tennarye! (A)
The songs were in the Parrava-larinya, the book-language better known as Parrava, the form of language known by the educated. Many songs were written in Parrava, because some of the uneducated still liked to listen to the sound of the language. Though nearly everyone spoke Tessiya, the common language, there were still many other languages. The official language of Vidire, the capital of the Kingdom, was called Essitarya in Parrava.
The Kingdom, more properly known as the Kingdom of Vannire, was the center of the main continent. It was named after the first ruler, the queen Vannire, who had united the main continent after a once-grand empire had broken apart and left its remains sparring with one another. She had taken the middle portion of the continent for herself and her eldest daughter, and the other five kingdoms were given to her five younger daughters. Each of the kingdoms' leaders was descended from Vannire, and the other kingdoms were named after her daughters.
The Kingdom came in contact with the other five kingdoms on the continent, and the other two large landmasses were quite close to the Kingdom. One, a desert, was uninhabited but for, as legend had it, a few goddesses, and dragons and other Children. The other continent was divided into two parts: the left and the right. The left part was mostly water, and the only land was made of piles of earth brought up from the ocean floor that formed roads. Paths were continually collapsing and being rebuilt, and cities were often natural mountains or volcanoes. The right portion was inhabited, though not as densely as the main continent. It was full of emerald jungles and rushing rivers.
Meiyanissisá, meiyanissisá,
malarasâ tulyannirela?
Virucarinasa ha tarillipeivi—
saryisa ninyâwana mekitala?
Uya telika meralledaula
kue tuyane, meralleryihe sinnaye?
Sareha aturillisia nayunni?
Tulyannirela mayetiriya,
masoralyisá wa malomoveya?
Meiyanissisá, meiyanissisá,
malarasâ tulyannirela? (B)
The Parrava song, one of Tennarye's favorites, drew Káne's attention back to the procession, slowly making its way down the street. The crowd was cheering, and a wave of noise seemed to creep towards Káne and Liri as they watched the approaching parade.
The new queen, only thirty-six, had waited the full time before inheriting the scepter from her mother, the talarri Ammirade. She was coming down the street in her magically fashioned vehicle, in which she sat on a throne and held the Scepter of Vannire in her right hand. Having pasted a now-frozen smile on her lips before the coronation parade had started, she still looked regal and eminent. Guards patrolled around the queen's throne, and every now and then, they checked to make sure that the vehicle was running properly. It had been named "Masuyla Ranantidai", which meant "Air Walker". It used magic to keep itself in the air, and so it floated over irregularities in the Crystal roads.
The queen was an elf with dark hair and dark skin, as opposed to those elves with yellow hair and light skin, who had become like that from Raela's friendship with Siria, the goddess of light. She had no brothers or sisters, so the scepter would pass directly from her to her inheritor. Radiating from her was a sense of superiority, and after giving his or her gift to a uniformed guard, each person in the crowd knelt down and raised their common eyes to the queen, of a position much higher than any other person's own.
When individual collector guards, dressed in dark blue, came to collect each person's gifts, they opened an otherspace portal, which put the gifts in Tennarye's personal treasury. Káne knew that the gifts, though later sorted, would be in total disarray for a few months after the coronation. The collectors advanced down the right-and-left street towards Káne and Liri, who held their gifts out so that the collectors could more easily take them.
The collectors were of different statures, but each was protected by magic. Two of the ones coming on the setting side towards Káne and Liri were black-haired, while four others were yellow-haired. All but one of the five on the other side had dark hair. The first three collectors on the side of the street that Káne and Liri were on passed the two girls, but the fourth stopped at the group of people around them. Offering her gift, Káne felt uncomfortable under the yellow-haired elf's stare. She shuffled back into the crowd, not meeting his gaze, and the man walked on, but not after his glance had drifted to her hand.
Káne saw the shifting of his eyes and wondered what he had looked at, and looking at her right hand, she saw nothing at first. Then, examining the tips of her fingers, she saw the letter âsa on the middle finger, which stood for Yáretá and Akíná: darkness and the keeping of the dead. She shrugged it off as being a magic burn, and she ignored the man: he was only a guard that saw her burn scar and had been curious. But she could not forget the man's scrutinizing eyes.
"What is it?" asked Liri, who motioned for her to bow down like the rest of the crowd was doing.
"Nothing," replied Káne, complying with Liri's gestures. "Just some allergic burn from magic—maybe just the green and white spell the lady gave us. I'm fine."
"All right...if you really think so."
"Yes, I do."
"If we keep whispering, people are going to think we're slandering the queen or something. Be quiet."
Káne made a mock salute and watched the back of the Masuyla and the guards that were moving left along the street. Káne could have sworn that the guard who had looked at her hand looked at her again, but the next moment he was over the hill on the street. Around her, people were getting up, dusting off their clothes, and leaving.
"That's it? I thought there were supposed to be really boring speeches and stuff!" said Káne interestedly. "Why was it so short? They said it would be much longer in school."
Liri explained, as the girls were walking away from the street, "Well, all the 'boring stuff' as you called it is at the capital. We're actually pretty lucky that the queen came through here. She entirely skips all the towns that aren't marked on a map, except us. I can't think why, but I suppose our town is maybe marked on the royal maps." She shrugged indifferently. "What matters is that the queen did come through here. You should be much more excited at that."
"You don't seem so excited," remarked Káne.
"I'm much better at not seeming than you are."
"Well, you're smart! All smart people are."
"Not necessarily. But if you want to think that way, you ought to become smart."
"No! That's too much work."
As the girls continued their conversation and walked toward their school, Káne unconsciously tucked the memory of the odd guard far away in her mind. She began to discuss with Liri the difficulty of different jobs or tasks. Homework, one of the many jobs discussed, was weighing on Káne's mind, and she fuzzily wondered if there had been any.
"Wait. We didn't have any homework for the color-classes, did we?"
Liri laughed. "Now you're the rissi!"
Káne cursed her stupidity the rest of the way to the school.
Yáhayarúh: prayer room; Ritáas.
Rissi: idiot, fool (fem.); Tessiya.
Rising-path: east; elven expression.
Setting-path: west; elven expression.
Harannia: units of measurement equal to 5/6 of a minute each, singular haranni; Tessiya and Parrava.
Water-walking: a water-skiing kind of sport; elven expression.
(A) Long live Tennarye!
Once a princess, now a queen!
Rule us,
Rule us,
Rule us well, Tennarye!; Parrava
Left and right: south and north, respectively; elven expressions (from the hands when facing west).
(B) Young lady, young lady,
of what are you thinking?
About light and singing—
is that your favorite?
Or maybe your lover
with a strong, loving face?
Is it something different?
Are you thinking of magic—
of color and spells?
Young lady, young lady,
of what are you thinking?
Talarri: female who once was a ruler (especially of a country), but has passed on the rule to her inheritor (male: talarru); Parrava.
A/N: If you need me to define any other words, I will put them in the next chapter. I am working on a grammar/dictionary of Parrava, and I am thinking of putting that as a chapter at the end of the story. If you think I shouldn't add it (because of some restrictions or because you just don't care about it) then you can tell me. As promised, this is in a normal narrative format. If you need more information about the religion/beliefs of the elves, I will be posting a creation story soon. Again, if you need me to explain anything, you can review and tell me.
© Maria Traxler