Shuga would not hesitate to break a bond between Vana and another Elvar if she suspected that it threatened the youngster’s training. And she watched the two of them ascend Vastalon, once a prohibited expanse which reached towards the stars. No one had ever reached the heights of Vastalon, so they knew not of its bounty or secrets or the extremes which encased its heights. (*)

‘Come on Vana . . . I want to show you the Atheneum!’ urged Brio, looking back at his friend, who was labouring under the pace he set. Every time she had slipped into the Atheneum, she had done so at a much slower pace, keeping out of sight of the elves that ascended and descended the tree. Brio was clearly in a hurry to show her what he thought was her first visit to the Atheneum. They reached the great doorway and walked through, entering the corridors contained within the bark of the colossal trunk. They could look out between the cracks in the trunk’s wall, and see far below them the lights of the revellers in the glade. Vana knew by now that most would have forgotten her success, as the Water elixirs created by the Diviners, would have flowed greedily down eagre throats. Drunk with happiness and just joyful at the thought of another Twilight Initiate amidst their ranks, the revellers would dance and drink until sunrise.

‘Come! I want to show you the Water Divining corridor,’ Brio said and made his way down to the left, away from the opening. The Atheneum was a vast labyrinth of corridors and volumes so rare that their genesis was unknown and so were the ancient authors who once captured them.

Great swirls of energy and sparks erupted from some of their pages and random tomes moved a little, as if to entice the visitors to grab a hold of them and open their pages. Vana and Brio ignored the silent pleas and moved down corridors that Vana had slipped down on numerous occasions. She said nothing to Brio, who thought he was showing her the universe for the first time and they stealthily crept away from the Keepers and their lamps. They reached the Water Divining part of the Atheneum and Brio ran his fingers over the spines of the tomes they saw before them. The rows of tomes and chronicles were arranged in neat rows that reached from the floor reeds to the branched ceilings.

‘I had to learn from these tomes the first sun cycle that I was initiated,’ shared Brio and he nearly tripped over an iridescent leaf bug working its way along the floor. Vana smiled bemusedly and went to pull a tome out of its position and Brio grabbed her hand, ‘ . . . you cannot . . .’ and then he stopped. He realised that Vana was indeed able to look at any item that she chose now that she was a Twilight initiate.

‘Apologies Vana . . . I must still get used to your success tonight,’ he muttered.

But Vana did not hear him. Instead, she was reeling from his brief touch and the searing heat she felt on her hand and she looked at him to see if he felt it too. Apart from feeling embarrassed, he did not seem to register the same smarting tingle that she felt and she said nothing.

Shuga noticed and she frowned slightly. She knew that if Brio were to become a distraction for Vana, she would have him sent to the Gold Fields for an indeterminable length of time. She would not hesitate.

Brio, ignorant of how affected Vana was, grabbed a tome from the shelf just above his head.

‘Look Vana!’ and he opened the tome randomly and the image of flowing water, once confined to a page, flowed into mortal reality. Water literally fell from the book onto their feet and Vana laughed as it tickled her toes. Droplets sprang free and landed on her nose and Brio brushed them off with a chuckle. The effects of the tomes was common knowledge to all elves and if a tome was removed from the care of Vastelon, the effects disappeared. It was this certainty that allowed all elves to know of the mysteries of the Great Shepherd. The tree itself, would never allow any stranger upon its branches and those not of elvan blood, were especially forbidden to even touch Vastelon. (*)

‘Let’s go see the Twilight Corridor,’ said Brio, and he took off down the corridor of high books and he disappeared out of sight. Vana followed immediately but she soon lost sight of Brio and she was lost and going down corridors that she had never been down before. For what seemed to be a long moment, Vana took turn after turn and tried to call Brio’s name, but the Atheneum in the bark of Vastelon had a strange sound proof effect.

Long before she felt a panic, the sound of the Bao Horn was heard, booming out into the night and Vana knew that she was needed down below. She knew too, that the crowd would be looking to see her and as she was the guest of esteemed honour, her sojourn into the Atheneum was over. As fast as she could she slipped down corridors feeling assured that she had taken the right one but the more she turned right and then left, the more frantic she became. She had never heard of anyone getting lost in the Atheneum as all initiates were requested to attend an induction before they used the mighty library. The pathways and how to use the library were explained and each initiate had placed in their care, a crystal, which could always lead them out and onto the descending walkways. Vana did not have one and each of her prior visits were taken along a known pathway each time. She never ventured far from that corridor – ever, and now she was lost.

Vana could hear the singing and the calling of her name, as it got ever louder and more urgent. She felt an urge to bring tears down her face but she knew that while it worked for some circumstances, this was not one of those. At the peak of her anxiety, she felt the presence of the same benefactor who had assisted her in her dreams when she was training and she drew a deep breath in.

‘Initiate . . . follow the blue glow at your feet and you will find your way!’ came a gentle but firm instruction. Vana whispered a small word of gratitude and saw at her feet, an iridescent blue glow and she went where it lead her and it was not long before Vana emerged on a walkway from which she could witness the gathered crowds far below. With speed and agility, she made her way down, taking care not to slip on moss and eventually, when the crowd was near frantic with anticipation, Vana emerged from the forest and made her entry into the clearing. She could not see Brio anywhere but the crowds enveloped her and she all but forgot about her friend.

‘Vana! Where have you been?’ yelled a near drunkard friend named Heli Bayo, a fellow Woodland Elf. Vana shrugged and laughed away the question and danced away from the beady eyes of the intoxicated Elf. She was touched on the face more times than she could recall, as was the custom of the Elves when celebrating a fellow Elf. She personally did not enjoy it and never had, but custom had it that she had to gracefully accept it. To refuse a touch on her face by an Elf, would bring about a Council of Grief, lodged by the well wisher and they would have enter a dialogue to discuss the enmity between them. If it were solely on one side, then the offender had the right to know the reason that they had been refused. Usually, these Councils cleared away any animosity and in the rare occurrence that they could not resolve it, the two involved would spend three moons in solitude in one of the hollowed out tree trunks in the Grey Mountains. They were littered with thousands of grey hollow tree trunks, remnants of trees who were struck by lightning fire in the great Chaos Cycle and their eerie statuesque forms arose from the earth as monuments to the eons behind them when life was at its primordial beginnings.

 They would spend this time together until they reached an amicable resolution or place of forgiveness. They would then meet with the Council one last time before returning to their enclaves.