The Legends of Valeron: Into the Unknown

Chapter 2: A Scholar's Plight

Agatha was kind enough to offer the Legends one of the private rooms towards the back of her tavern for their meeting with the mysterious sun elf. The room was surprisingly nice, lit by the amber glow of a few lanterns overhead, and with a well-crafted wooden table and six chairs making up the furniture in the room. Naturally, each in their group took a seat around the table, Eradin pausing only a moment to place his hand against the door, which glowed a faint blue that then spread to encompass the entire room before slowly fading away.

"There, now we can discuss this in complete privacy," Eradin murmured, moving to sit beside Nick at the far end of the table. Khurtz sat to Nick's other side, the massive orc opting to sit on the floor rather than the chair the room provided. To Eradin's right and Khurtz's left, then, were Miira and Thalia respectively, with the sun elf sitting across from Nick at the other end of the table, the door behind him.

"Thank you," the elf replied, sighing with relief, "and thank you for accepting this offer."

We haven't accepted dist yet, you overeager sunburn, Thalia gestured.

The elf blinked in surprise, before his brows dropped into a frown. "I'm...sorry, I didn't catch that. What did she just—" He looked over to the two elves to his left. "What was it she just said? I'm afraid I don't know...that..."

Nick rolled his eyes, snapping his fingers to get the dwarf's attention. Thalia, pull the reins a bit on that attitude, he gestured back—to which Thalia merely huffed in reply—before turning back to the elf. "She was just pointing out that we haven't accepted your offer yet—hell, we don't even know your name yet—we're just giving you a chance to speak your mind, and that's only because Ori sent you our way."

"I see," the elf replied, adjusting his glasses as he bowed his head, "I shall have to thank her Highness, then—she spoke highly of you before I left, but I had no idea she had such sway over your party, Dawnstrider."

"She and I go way back," Nick dryly replied. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a whisper of a smirk ghost across Eradin's lips, but the moon elf remained silent for the moment. Sighing, Nick rested his hands on the table and stared firmly across it at the elf. "Now then, what's your name, and what's this offer?"

"Of course," the sun elf nodded, sitting a bit straighter in his chair, the light of the lanterns glinting off his glasses as he did so.

"My name, Dawnstrider, is Kaylenn Illusarion, of House Illusarion," the sun elf—Kaylenn—stated. "I am the royal historian of Castle Valcrest, having served the royal family as such for the past two centuries. During my time in my position, I have dedicated my life to studying the ancient tomes and records housed within the gilded city. I have learned much in my time, but even I can admit that there is so much more that I have yet to learn...subjects that, unfortunately, cannot be found within the palace walls."

Khurtz frowned, drumming his fingers upon the surface of the table and released a loud groan. "And what does any of this have to do with anything, elf?"

"A little louder next time, Khurtz—don't think the people in the next tavern over could hear you," Nick stated, shooting his large friend a faint smile, before turning back to Kaylenn. "Now, you were saying?"

The sun elf nodded and continued. "Fortunately, there are rumors—legends and myths, to be precise—of a place that holds all the knowledge of the world, that offers infinite wisdom and information to whoever seeks it out. It is a place unlike any other—a library blessed by the gods themselves, hidden from all of mankind, save for those with sharp enough intellect and shrewd enough wit to find it." Kaylenn's fiery eyes gleamed behind his glasses, and he grinned. "I am, of course, speaking of the Lost Library of Zophira."