The Lost Crown

A Conversation

There was a tall mirror in the common room of the dormitory and Walliam looked at himself in his new brown robe.  He looked at himself from side to side.  Something in the back of his mind felt unsettled.  Was this what he was supposed to be?  Was he supposed to be here?  Was this what he was going to look like for the rest of his life?  He thought he would feel something reassuring, but he didn’t.  He shook the thought away and left to meet Planchiko in the library.  He wasn’t due to meet him for another half hour, but he figured he could read while he waited.  He carried his book with him, “The Gods and the Temples.”

As he expected, the library was empty.  He was happy to find a few lanterns already burning.  He realized he hadn’t thought about light when he was coming up the shadowy stone stairs.

He took one of the lanterns and went to one of the stacks nearby.  There was an area to the side that had tables and chairs and looked like it was meant to be a sitting room.  To the side of this area there was a stack with a plump leather chair behind it.  He set the lantern on top of the bookcase and then sat in the chair.  His back was to the library doors and he was hidden from view where he sat.  He could see a few of the bookcase stacks in front of him, but he could see nothing of the sitting area, or the entrance to the library.

He opened the book and began reading.  He knew the seven gods already, so he thought it was a little boring.  Zerax, and his wife Annapraxsis.  She was the greatest of the gods.  Some said he was.  Harradeus, the god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.  Eperna, his wife.  Beautiful Eperna.  He wondered why she was the goddess of life and was married to the god of death.  He always found that very strange.  Vasenna, the goddess of fire and volcanoes and the sea.  Halix, the god of war.  And Shallia, the goddess of light.  

There were drawings of the gods throughout the book.  Zerax always with the bolt of lightning, and with a short beard.  Annapraxsis, with her hair piled high and ornaments and gems woven into her hair.  She wore a white gown and looked like she was in her mid-thirties.  She always had a knowing look on her face.  Harradeus was ugly and grim.  He was always holding the head of the harpy he had killed in the legend.  There were odd flowers growing around him.  

Walliam looked at the engraving.  There were different kinds of flowers growing around the god.  Foxglove and hyacinth and trumpet flowers.  He had never noticed that before.  Eperna’s face was loving and calm and Walliam always felt joy when he looked at her smile.  She looked younger than Annapraxsis.  Annapraxsis was all thought and logic but Eperna was warmth and life.  He looked at the engraving and saw the flower in her outstretched hand.  He could make it out clearly in this engraving.  It was a cream colored lotus and the petals almost looked shiny on the page.  Vasenna had red hair and a warriors frown on her face.

Walliam had heard a door to the library open and a man’s voice was speaking as he entered the room.  “I do!  I’m telling you now, I think it’s a mistake.”  It was on old man’s voice, high pitched and strident.  

“Well I don’t, obviously.  We need new blood!”  Walliam recognized the second voice.  It was his companion on his journey to the academy, Planchiko.  “Look around you, Councilor.  The corridors are empty and we are going to be extinct, soon, if things don’t change.”

“Yes, but you yourself said he doesn’t have any ability.  So why is he here?” the older man’s voice sounded agitated.

Walliam felt his stomach sink as he listened.  He felt a tickle at the back of his neck and he froze where he sat.

“He has some ability, just not very strong.  He’s a bright lad.  The hidden world came to him, and pulled him in.  That means something in my book,” Planchiko said.