Fiat Lux was Quanil's favorite festival... until the next one came around, and then that was their favorite. Fiat Lux was Quanil's favorite festival for now, and might retain the position because...
THE LORESEEKERS GUILD HAS A BOOTH UP. AND THEY'RE RECRUITING.
It would mean getting away from the family though. And that had been their problem from the beginning. An entire guild of people stupid enough to go looking for trouble? At least that's how their parents had characterized it. They didn't understand. No one in Quanil's family understood! It was so frustrating!
So, at this Fiat Lux, with the temptation of the Loreseekers so close, they had schemed to find a way. A distraction would have been good, but their parents weren't really distracted by anything except danger. Quanil hadn't been about to wish for that, especially at a celebration (in part) to honor the (usually literally) lost of LongNight.
Do they really eat all the bodies? they'd wondered for easily the hundredth time. What if they take them somewhere, turn them into more monsters? Maybe the monsters come back to our homes because some part of them remembers them as safety, as love and light and...
WHUMP.
Nothing at Fiat Lux typically went "WHUMP."
Very little was 'typical' anymore though. (If it ever had been.)
And there had been that mud monster, flailing at the ice shield, and a calm, clear voice suggesting an orderly evacuation.
Quanil's parents had grabbed their hands and RUN. Kedran and Freina had already bolted - they didn't have to be told twice or argued with or convinced to run, and as much as Quanil had wanted to stay and watch the brave who had intervened, two words had run in their head, over and over:
"THE SANCTUARY"
They were being evacuated to the Sanctuary, where the Atheneum was, and if everyone was being evac'd, then...
Surely this is a sign from the Gods!
Quanil had regretted that thought almost as soon as it had passed through their brain. Because, not long after, shards of ice had begun to pass through people. And their brains, in some cases, but more usually their hearts or lungs or all the less-protected organs a bit farther down.
"KEEP RUNNING!" Their mother had shouted.
Kedran had cried out when his calf got speared. Father had dropped Quanil's hand to go pick the boy up, then had turned to keep running.
Mother's arm had been bleeding the next time they'd seen her, and she'd had to drop their hand, too. They'd lost sight of Freina.
"TO THE SANCTUARY!" they'd screamed above the crying and wailing, the whizzing and slashing, the discordant sounds of life trying to avoid death. "RUN!"
And they had.
They'd fled, and an evacuation that hadn't been much for 'orderliness' to begin with was now even more chaotic. There was a saying in Quanil's family: "gettin' down to the dirt of it." It meant removing extraneous details and focusing on what was important. (Most of Quanil's family didn't know what 'extraneous' meant, though.) Well, quite a lot of people had been gettin' down to the dirt of it then, either reverting to pure survival instinct or else ending up dead on the muddy celebration grounds.
Quanil had lost their family in the mad dash. They'd been heading for the Sanctuary, like everyone else. They had to be around here somewhere. But it occurred to Quanil that they'd never have another chance like this.
Maybe this was the Gods' hands in it, maybe it was sheer dumb luck. Quanil was mostly uninjured, save for some scrapes and a couple of thin slices on their arms. They'd been separated from their family, who they loved dearly but who would keep them from their dream if given their druthers.
They had hesitated... then crept away like a rat slinking towards the grain bags. I'll say a prayer for them at the shrine, they'd reasoned.
They headed there first, and it took longer to get there than they'd expected. They were used to being corralled by Mom and Dad, being told to just blindly follow, and it'd been a while since they'd last left the Fields. They took a few wrong turns on the way, but eventually made it to the shrine, said some sincere prayers for their family's safety and... understanding, and then bolted towards the Atheneum.
And promptly got lost again. The Atheneum was one place they'd definitely never been to before. It was just as well; they had to get something to eat, something to drink, find places to rest. All the curiosity and desire in the world didn't sustain a body, and Quanil's body was adamant about reminding them of this.
But once they were there... The BOOKS. They grabbed the first one they saw, a treatise on a language Quanil'd never even heard of before. They sat down right there to read about it and lost track of time until hunger insisted itself between their brain and the pages. Honestly, Quanil might've been happy to just sit here and read every book they could, but while chewing some now-stale bread, they reminded themselves of their mission.
The Loreseekers aren't just about personal learning and discovery. It's about using that knowledge to help others. But... they'd already started the book... Quanil made a deal with themselves: finish reading this one book, and then press on to the Loreseekers' Guild. The Gods had provided this chance for them, and they'd abandoned their family to take it. Something good had to come of it all.
Finally, Quanil stood before the Loreseekers' door, days after the carnage made at Fiat Lux. They traced the book and the rays of knowledge it shone forth, the light to banish the darkness of ignorance. Just standing here at this threshold felt like it had taken the work of a lifetime - in a way it had - and Quanil was frozen in the moment of awe, feeling both bigger and smaller than they ever had before.
THE LORESEEKERS GUILD HAS A BOOTH UP. AND THEY'RE RECRUITING.
It would mean getting away from the family though. And that had been their problem from the beginning. An entire guild of people stupid enough to go looking for trouble? At least that's how their parents had characterized it. They didn't understand. No one in Quanil's family understood! It was so frustrating!
So, at this Fiat Lux, with the temptation of the Loreseekers so close, they had schemed to find a way. A distraction would have been good, but their parents weren't really distracted by anything except danger. Quanil hadn't been about to wish for that, especially at a celebration (in part) to honor the (usually literally) lost of LongNight.
Do they really eat all the bodies? they'd wondered for easily the hundredth time. What if they take them somewhere, turn them into more monsters? Maybe the monsters come back to our homes because some part of them remembers them as safety, as love and light and...
WHUMP.
Nothing at Fiat Lux typically went "WHUMP."
Very little was 'typical' anymore though. (If it ever had been.)
And there had been that mud monster, flailing at the ice shield, and a calm, clear voice suggesting an orderly evacuation.
Quanil's parents had grabbed their hands and RUN. Kedran and Freina had already bolted - they didn't have to be told twice or argued with or convinced to run, and as much as Quanil had wanted to stay and watch the brave who had intervened, two words had run in their head, over and over:
"THE SANCTUARY"
They were being evacuated to the Sanctuary, where the Atheneum was, and if everyone was being evac'd, then...
Surely this is a sign from the Gods!
Quanil had regretted that thought almost as soon as it had passed through their brain. Because, not long after, shards of ice had begun to pass through people. And their brains, in some cases, but more usually their hearts or lungs or all the less-protected organs a bit farther down.
"KEEP RUNNING!" Their mother had shouted.
Kedran had cried out when his calf got speared. Father had dropped Quanil's hand to go pick the boy up, then had turned to keep running.
Mother's arm had been bleeding the next time they'd seen her, and she'd had to drop their hand, too. They'd lost sight of Freina.
"TO THE SANCTUARY!" they'd screamed above the crying and wailing, the whizzing and slashing, the discordant sounds of life trying to avoid death. "RUN!"
And they had.
They'd fled, and an evacuation that hadn't been much for 'orderliness' to begin with was now even more chaotic. There was a saying in Quanil's family: "gettin' down to the dirt of it." It meant removing extraneous details and focusing on what was important. (Most of Quanil's family didn't know what 'extraneous' meant, though.) Well, quite a lot of people had been gettin' down to the dirt of it then, either reverting to pure survival instinct or else ending up dead on the muddy celebration grounds.
Quanil had lost their family in the mad dash. They'd been heading for the Sanctuary, like everyone else. They had to be around here somewhere. But it occurred to Quanil that they'd never have another chance like this.
Maybe this was the Gods' hands in it, maybe it was sheer dumb luck. Quanil was mostly uninjured, save for some scrapes and a couple of thin slices on their arms. They'd been separated from their family, who they loved dearly but who would keep them from their dream if given their druthers.
They had hesitated... then crept away like a rat slinking towards the grain bags. I'll say a prayer for them at the shrine, they'd reasoned.
They headed there first, and it took longer to get there than they'd expected. They were used to being corralled by Mom and Dad, being told to just blindly follow, and it'd been a while since they'd last left the Fields. They took a few wrong turns on the way, but eventually made it to the shrine, said some sincere prayers for their family's safety and... understanding, and then bolted towards the Atheneum.
And promptly got lost again. The Atheneum was one place they'd definitely never been to before. It was just as well; they had to get something to eat, something to drink, find places to rest. All the curiosity and desire in the world didn't sustain a body, and Quanil's body was adamant about reminding them of this.
But once they were there... The BOOKS. They grabbed the first one they saw, a treatise on a language Quanil'd never even heard of before. They sat down right there to read about it and lost track of time until hunger insisted itself between their brain and the pages. Honestly, Quanil might've been happy to just sit here and read every book they could, but while chewing some now-stale bread, they reminded themselves of their mission.
The Loreseekers aren't just about personal learning and discovery. It's about using that knowledge to help others. But... they'd already started the book... Quanil made a deal with themselves: finish reading this one book, and then press on to the Loreseekers' Guild. The Gods had provided this chance for them, and they'd abandoned their family to take it. Something good had to come of it all.
Finally, Quanil stood before the Loreseekers' door, days after the carnage made at Fiat Lux. They traced the book and the rays of knowledge it shone forth, the light to banish the darkness of ignorance. Just standing here at this threshold felt like it had taken the work of a lifetime - in a way it had - and Quanil was frozen in the moment of awe, feeling both bigger and smaller than they ever had before.
