why me

63

I straighten my ceremonial garb, the belt of my loose fitted dress coming loose. Jake stops his pace, halting beside me he bends down on one knee and start to untie my belt. I quickly grab hold of open dress, holding it in place as Jake skillfully reties my belt. Ailign and Alan still walking ahead of us, they don't wait for us to catch up.
"Don't worry about them" Jake whispers, hands still at my waist.
The belt now tied Jake straighten from his bent posture, the fluid motion sending butterflies to my stomach.
"Well have fun without them" Jake says with a wink.
My cheeks flush, my hand moving without me relising it to gently brush against his own. He body quivers slightly and his eyes close, moving his own hand back, his fingers danced on my open palm. The feeling of his skin on my own was a missed feeling and in that moment I could tell he missed it as much as me. 
"Come on" He says as he starts to ascend the stairs once again.
The first building that came into view was a small one, it was open to the elements, with vines snaking up and around the pillars. We quickly walked past, making our way to the center. There were a lot of little structure to the way of the main building some open to the elements, with the intention of worship only, while others looked like ornate houses, mechian in ceremonial garb coming in and out of them. A few mechs looked my direction with disapproving looks on there faces, Jake straightening at the attention, he quickly lead me forward, ignoring there glances.
"Don't mind them" He whispered
Despite Jake's words, I stopped walking and locked eyes with one of the mech, his low growl piercing my ears. Jake stopped his pace, looking back at us he let out his own growl in answer.
"Humans shouldn't be here" the mech male said in a low voice.
"Prince ailign has brought his mate for prayer. Take it up with him." Jake snarled.
The mechs eye brows raised at that, his attention going back to me he surveyed me one more time before quickly turning his head and taking his leave.
"Prick" Jake muttered.
"Let's go jake" I say under my breath, walking back up to his side. He peered down at me with sad eyes, before turning away and starting his walk again. A little garden in veiw, we walked through the hedges, up and around as we passed by various statues depicting tall figures, some humanoid and some not. One in particular had me stopping again, the maw open of a giant tiger with two heads, he roared his fury, a golden crown placed on each head.
"There the protectors of gods" Jake hummed, now used to my slow and stopping pace.
"He looks magnificent." I breathed.
"Not if you see one in real life" Jake countered.
"Could i?" I asked
"I'll transform into one some day" He said with a laugh.
My hand goes to the statue, the marble cool under my finger tips, I tried to sound out some of the letters. My alphabet skills still extremely lacking, it was a crude attempt.
"Lowal" I finally got out
"Close enough" Jake said "Now come. We need to do some research"
The inside of the temple of thanis was warm, a welcome experiance after the chilly outside. The front entry was a large open space, with three hallways that lead to various parts visible from the entrance, there was nothing inside except a fountain at the center. Jake lead me silently to the first hallway we came up on to the left, a finger going to his lips to express the need for silence.
The hallway was long, snaking around it opened up into a large library. There were fewer mech here then we saw on the walk to the temple, only a couple visible at first glance scuring about with tomes in there hands. The great library was large, with shelves lining the walls and rows apon rows of books, I wondered how we'd find anything useful but Jake seemed to know exactly where we were going, quickly leading the way through and around the rows of books. I felt like a little ducking, following it's mother hen, not able to help in any significant way, I simply followed.
In a tucked away corner of one of the shelves Jake suddenly turned on his heel, back tracking, his finger skimming the labels on the plaks located on the shelves.
"Here we are" He whispered "stories of artifacts"
"What can I do to help?" I whispered back
Jake's eyes skimmed my face, his lashes flicking down as he took in my determined expression.
"Hold my books" He whispered back with a smile.
I huffed out a sigh and rolled my eyes. I really was no help, still I was glad I came, for the sight seeing experiance at least.
"Next well get some books on rituals to form a link with some gods, if worst comes to worst we can always ask one of them." He whispered
"Really!? I could talk to a god!?" I asked in hushed tones
Jake nodded his head, a serious expression on his face, his hand still lingering on a book.
"The God of knowledge could help us" He said back.
Jake started pulling books then, gently handing them to me he pulled out several until we made our way to a new section, the covers looking more serious he explained we were now in the ritual section. With my arms now overflowing with books we made our way to a desk where I quickly ploped then all down.
"Don't worry I'll make quick work of these. Finding the useful ones to take home." Jake whispered. I nodded to him then, quickly taking my seat and preparing for my boredom as Jake worked.
Jake found three books he decided to take home: one on the lore of thanis and making the necklace, and two on rituals. I could feel myself nodding off to sleep before he silently roused me from my hunched over posture.
"Were going" He said
"Where?" I asked still groggy, but Jake simply held up a finger for silence.
Getting up from my seat slowly the chair scrapped against the floor, the sound echoing in the large space. Jake took his books and headed to the check out station, the mechian librarian logging the books that would be missing from the library. Following Jake we made our way down one of the other three hallways, the space leading to a large pool with statues depicting a fight scene along the rim. The great gods with mighty swords slayed beasts of ailen nature, water spilling from wounds on there fallen foes. The scene was both chilling and awe inspiring, the gods mighty figures seeming to come to life in that space.
Jake kneeled down on his knees arching his neck in prayer, I followed suite. We sat there for what felt like ages, before foot steps could be heard coming down the hallway. I peaked up from my position to find ailign staring down at me, his expression blank I couldn't read anything there. I got up from my spot, but Jake remained, ailigns head tilted then, a silent command to follow him, we made our way out of the the worship room. I looked back to find Jake following us from a distance.
Outside ailign turned on me, grabbing my hand for us to go faster, I tripped trying to keep up with him, but he caught me in his arms.
"I still don't like you here" He breathed
"I can't go that fast" I answered back
Jake came right up to us, and gave ailign an assessing look before we started fast walking again, ailign tugging me along.
"What about alan?" I asked ailign when we reached the shuttle car.
"He's staying behind to do some more research." Ailign said
I nodded my approval and ailign fired up the shuttle to take us home.
"Did you find anything?" Jake asked ailign
Ailign pulled out a book from his robes, it was a sinister looking tome, Jake took the book.
"Remis" jake breathed
Ailign nodded "There's rituals in there, the one to summon up his full form indeed involve a sacrifice of the royal line." He said
"Any books on the artifacts?" Jake asked
Ailign started flipping more switches on the shuttle, and took ahold of the steering wheel.
"Alan will bring those by later." Ailign said and we took off.