Her discipline towards the initiation had been brutal and many times, she wondered if she had made the right choice but measured against all the other enclaves, she knew that she would not be satisfied until she could form a world in her own two hands like the Mage that day many suns ago.

Shuga Rey knew this about Vana. She knew that the girl had stayed the course and practised and learnt and shrugged off the taunts and teasing from her peers. She had seen how focussed Vana was and how her mind hurt when she spent long hours focusing on the cosmic fire, refusing to join her friends on their excursions into the Forbidden Landscape beyond the Fiery Mountains. She had been to its borders many times before with the same group and she knew that once they reached the Stream of Unimaginable Depths, they would stop and go no further. None of them would chance the crossing and they would stand and cast their eyes into the chasms and gorges of the Forbidden Landscape to see if they could spot anything new.

Not a blade of grass changed position.

Shuga watched as she climbed the heights of Vastalon until she reached the Atheneum of Wisdom, where she escaped the watchful eyes of the Keepers. Stealthily, Vana slipped in through the corridors of bark only to disappear into the inner reaches where she could touch the raw trunk of the Great Shepherd. Exposed and vulnerable, she realised that even greatness had its vulnerability and that it was not a bad thing. The raw moist trunklike column of wood of Vastalon brought her intimately closer to her own vulnerabilities and she spent many suns becoming aware of her own weaknesses and strengths. She learnt that the protection of Vastalon’s thick bark was not so much a protection from the outside forces but rather a place for the mighty entity to exist closely to something far more expansive than itself.

The bark was a cloak of identification and gave off an aura of impenetrability that made those in its vicinity wary and respectful. In the confines of the inner Atheneum, out of sight, Vana cried her tears of frustration and self-pity, anger and intolerance but she did not succumb to despair, as she implored the Great Shepherd for the wisdom to achieve her initiation. The tree did not grant her any wishes . . . or one could argue that it did . . . but her tears were felt and Shuga was the one who felt them.

Sitting in the Great Hall of Twilight, Shuga became aware of the sobs of frustration emanating from the branches of the Great Shepherd. The sobs were carried by the very juices that flowed through each and every branch and they filled the air in all the Great Halls. She heard the cries and saw the pleading and she was struck by the honesty and raw nakedness of the Elvar who offered them up. She quickly found out who Vana was and hidden in a cloak of secrecy, she began to pass intuitive adjustments to Vana in her dreams and the girl paid attention. She did not know that she had a benefactor but rather, thought that her cries had been heard by some elemental and she received each dream with excitement. She adjusted her disciplines and practised harder until she could form from the unseen, her first object out of stardust.

To create from stardust was not a minor feat and some would perhaps have stopped there but not Vana. She was so ruthlessly focussed upon the moondrop that she was no longer invited to explore with her group, as they all knew that she would not go with them. Brio was the only one who tried to understand her fixation on being a Twilight initiate and even he felt abandoned by her at times.

It was not until the moment at the glade that Vana knew whether she could produce moondrop from the complex cosmos or not. There was never a practise moment in which the initiate could be certain that they could do it as the blue droplet was not something haphazardly called into being. Each drop had to be harnessed and encased in the resin. When Vana stood before her guardians, peers and fellow Elves, she only had her focus and a sense of knowing available to her. Shuga had joined all the Mages of all the enclaves and remained anonymous but watchful of the proceedings.

* * *

As Vana moved through the throngs of Elves at the celebration, she heard a voice calling softly to her from behind a Blueberry bush. Recognising the voice, she ducked behind the foliage to find Brio grinning from cheek to cheek.

‘I thought the Mage would find you!’ she laughed and ducked down to crouch next to him.

‘Never!’ he snorted and picked a berry from above his head and he threw it into his open mouth. Vana had been friends with Brio for a long time and there was a natural ease within their conversations which allowed her to be herself when she was with him. He was a sun cycle ahead of her but that did nothing to quell their friendship.

‘Want to disappear up into the Shepherd?’ he blurted.

Vana’s mouth clamped shut and she was at a loss for words.

‘Come on . . . you can ascend the heights of wisdom now that you are an initiate,’ he teased. Brio had been ascending Vastalon for two sun cycles already, learning his craft in the Halls of Divination and he was familiar with the pathways. Vana did not feel that it was necessary to inform him that she had already been visiting the Atheneum for a couple of cycles already but she nodded.

Welcoming the escape from the eagre congratulatory slaps from fellow Elves, Vana and Brio made their way to the Great Shepherd and managed to stay out of sight of any of the revellers on the ground. What they did not know was that Shuga was observing them in her mind’s eye and she was watching the flow of energy between them. She had known that Brio had formed a close bond with her secret protégé but that bond had to be monitored, for an initiate of the Twilight could never fully be bonded with another Elvar for life. Bonding was not common in their enclaves and was mostly allowed with those who chose to be guardians.

Guardianship was not a formal enclave but those who chose it, were held in high esteem and had the respect of all the Elves. Bonded guardians took into their abodes, young Elves who had reached their required nine sun transitions. The elves of thousands of suns prior had learnt that the young left in the care of their biological parents for the full term of maturation at ninety sun cycles, were less likely to be well rounded, balanced and fully developed. They had learnt that each nine sun transition was an optimum moment for the young Elvar to accept new guardianship and if they transitioned every nine suns to a different pair, they matured in a balanced and productive way.

Vana knew her birth parents and she would speak to them when she crossed paths with them but there was no attachment of an emotional nature and she knew, like all her guardians, that her birth parents had nurtured many young Elves after she had transitioned to her first guardians. Nine suns were all that the Elves experienced in the care of their biological parents. In fact, the guardians felt closer to the Elves who were in their care at the time of choosing an enclave and took it upon themselves to be involved with their ward’s choices. Vana had enjoyed the company and different guardians through three cycles of nine years – her birth parents, her first two guardians Mega Hun and Iera Fell and these last ones, Mira Sonn and Reya Dew. She was her own guardian now.