When a Stars Teardrops Become Jewels: Eclipsed Garden

| 1 | Apprentice

The library had the scent of ink and paper, the repetition of time had sunk the smell deep into the very foundation of the structure. Tall wooden shelves filled with books created walls that rose from the ground upward two floors until they touched the ceiling, giving the sensation of being surrounded by knowledge. In the center, multiple shards of glass and pieces of mirrors were hung by strings. The mirrors were placed in various angles and at positions to perfectly reflect the star's light into a concave observational map named the Heaven's Map. When the top of the library was opened to the night sky, it became a purely magical sight. 

At least that was what Master Orion had told Alta when he had first become his apprentice. 

On an average day, the library would be filled with the sounds of pages being turned. Apprentices rubbing out ink for their masters or acolytes copying the ancient scripts with ambition to claim a master seen plain on their blackened fingertips. Today, however, the library was silent without a single soul to be seen breathing. 

All servants of the Temple were preparing for the divine ceremonies. Every detail of the ceremonies had to be overseen by the Council of Masters: the cleansing of the ceremonial stage, the tuning of the instruments, the tending and delivery of the ceremonial clothing to the proper recipient. Tables had to be filled with meals that satisfied the tastes of each member of the royal family, privileged nobles and members of both councils.  

Alta's master, Master Orion, had sent Alta to return the research materials that had been deemed not useful in finding the proper rules and traditions of the ceremonies back to their proper places in the library. One-by-one, with books and scrolls up to his shoulders, he started to return the material until he only had one armful of scrolls left to put back. 

Walking past the shelves, he counted each one he went past until the bookshelf he was looking for came into view. A sudden gust of wind swept a cloud of dust into Alta's eyes. The dust made his eyes sting. Alta brought out the medication that his master had given him for his eye sensitivity. Dipping the stick into the liquid, he raised it above his eyes and let three drops of the concoction touch his eye. He blinked his eyes until he could see again, realizing that in the meantime the wind had not only blown dust into his eyes, but his scrolls out of his arms as well. 

He bent down to his knees and crawled to pick up the scrolls that had fallen. As he picked up the last one, Alta felt another breeze and looked upwards to where the wind came from. 

In front of him at the end of the isle a skirt was fluttering against the floor. He followed the hem of the skirt upwards, unable to make out more than a black silhouette in the evening sunlight. 

Alta stood up hugging his scrolls in his arms. Once his eyes were out of the sunlight, he was able to make out more of the silhouettes' features. Most distinguishing was the person's hair, white as winter while being pulled up and pinned into a whirl of intricate tight braids. It must have been one of the elder masters looking for scrolls about the ceremony. Alta opened his mouth to ask if he could assist them, but paused once he saw the elder turned toward him.

It was not a face he expected. Instead of a wrinkled face with creases in between the brows, the elder in front of him had dark, fair skin without a wrinkle to be seen. 

While rumors whispered by maids and other apprentices had told him what to expect, seeing the being behind such whispers made him both perplexed and stunned by the real person.

Although she had turned toward him, her eyes were staring down into a large tome. Shining silver eyes of the royal family flitted back and forth across the pages, reading every word of every line. As if sensing his own eyes on her, she looked upward, slow, from her book. The moment Alta and her met eyes, she shut the book without sparing even a blink.