Elysion, place of many wonders, also has many secrets. Of course it does. Some are the kind of secrets that are harmless in nature, such as how singing a particular song to the poison ivy in the western part of the forest will cause it to swing to the side and reveal the waterfall behind it, or how the fairies can actually fly so high up in the sky that they often bring pieces of clouds back with them.

But there is also another kind of secret. It's the kind of secret that is hidden behind thick walls and protected by ancient laws. This secret has guards, observant dwarves that watch over it with jealous pride because they belong to the very elite group of beings who know. Of course, they would never tell anyone what it is exactly that they have knowledge of. Even Helios, the head priest, is in the dark about the secret guarded by the dwarves. He has been told to stay away from certain parts of the magical place he is protecting and in the grand tradition of all head priests, he does exactly as told. He knows that there is always a dwarf wandering around the little cathedral near the duck pond and he knows that even though the oak doors of the cathedral are always open, nobody ever goes inside. That's the extent of his knowledge, and that's how it will remain.

Jadeite sighs. It's a boring day, a thoroughly, never-ending boring day. Zoisite and Kunzite are off to visit the latter's desert kingdom, Endymion thinks he is being sneaky when he told everyone he had to stay in because he has a cold (the cold also answers to Princess Serenity and can be heard giggling through the walls) and Nephrite is busy training the infantry's new soldiers. The milkmaids know of no new gossip because it's summer and everyone is too hot to do anything wicked and really, Jadeite thinks, he might just as well go back to bed because there is absolutely nothing for him to do.

He's been patrolling the corridors for the last three hours, a task that is actually well beneath him, but also completely useless because not even a cricket dares to enter the palace without being invited these days. He sighs, audibly. What happened to life being fun? There was a moment a while ago when he looked into the eyes of Serenity's guardian and felt a sense of exciting foreboding, but nothing ever came of it (at least that it was he keeps telling himself over and over) and its been months and now he's so bored that he knows exactly how many steps a man needs to take to walk from one end of the corridor to the next. The answer is thirty-nine, by the way.

Jadeite decides that he has done enough lowly groundwork for the day and that he can't stand the sticky, smelly heat for another minute. He throws a quick glance over his shoulder and thinks of Elysion. The world goes white and suddenly, he's standing on the holy ground. The relief is instant: a soft breeze ruffles his curls and the sun is warm, but not too warm. The air smells of flowers and all the bad odours of the over-crowded and over-heated palace are forgotten, wiped out by Elysion's magic.

Grinning, Jadeite takes off his uniform jacket and because it's that kind of day, kicks off boots and socks too. Assembling all into an albeit rather smelly pile, he tucks it under his arms and makes his way across the meadow, barefoot and already more content than he's been in days, not that that's saying a lot.

Still, Jadeite loves Elysion with wild abandon and spends more time here than any other shitennou. The day he was taught to enter this magical realm was one of the best and most important of his life: he'd found his home. As the third son of a king, there really wasn't (and still isn't) much to do for him in his father's kingdom. His oldest brother was destined to follow their father on the throne, the middle one had already become the temple's head priest and Jadeite, well, Jadeite was the one who always climbed trees, refused to attend state banquets and kissed maids behind barns. But with the presence of Endymion, purpose had entered his life, and Jadeite, who had always loved being lazy, could have never imagined it to feel this good. Of course, now that the moon princess has snuck up on all of them, Endymion is hiding in his chambers most of the time, leaving Jadeite with no-one to guard and way too much time on his hands. And everyone who knows Jadeite knows that a bored Jadeite is an annoyed Jadeite. And an annoyed Jadeite is one of the worst things that can happen to this world, surpassed only by an angry Kunzite, the apocalypse and possibly a really long drought, but the latter is debatable.

So here we are, Jadeite is bored, and therefore annoyed, and the universe sighs and thinks wearily not again, but then a sparrow shoots up into the sky, chirping a new song. Jadeite listens to the bird, and wonders whether he can whistle the song and all remnants of boredom leave his bones. The world takes a collective sigh: danger averted.

Where the palace quickly bores Jadeite, Elysion never does. It never takes more than a few minutes before the holy green land improves his mood and demands his attention. Just when he thought he knew everything about this place, the old fir tree in the forest near the cliff would tell him tales about the beginning of the world. Or a sparrow would serenade him with sweet songs of nothing. Elysion always finds a way to entertain its most welcome visitor.

Jadeite walks past the field of tulips and over to the hill that leads down to his tree, where he intends to deposit his clothes. The soft green carpet of grass under his feet makes his steps bouncy, and he more resembles a boy of nine summers than a young man of twenty-one. In Elysion, everyone can be young. Just as Jadeite is about to reach his tree, he sees a pointy red hat and a pair of short legs race east up a hill and feels his curiosity peak, the tree already forgotten.

Without hesitation, he drops his jacket, boots and socks, and sets out to follow the dwarf. It's a universal truth: dwarves never run. They move at a slow, leisurely pace, not to be hurried by anything. The sky could probably crumble to pieces like dry cake, and they would only twist the end of their beards in one hand while not doing anything else with the other. Personally, Jadeite thinks it's because their legs are so ridiculously short.

Just as he reaches the top of the hill, he can see the dwarf hurry in the general direction of Helios's temple, which is at least three hours away, but since there is absolutely nothing else of interest in that direction, that must be dwarf's destination.

When Jadeite reaches the bottom of the hill (careful to not step on the daisies that grow there and to maintain enough distance from the hurried creature so that it doesn't see him), the dwarf whistles, comes to a stop and another one climbs, literally, climbs out of a bush near the little white cathedral that Jadeite has never paid much attention to.

Dwarf One and Dwarf Two talk to each other, aggravated and rushed words in Dwarfish, a language Jadeite has never bothered with. He thinks Nephrite might speak it a bit, but then Nephrite also converses with the stars every other night, so really, Dwarfish must be a piece of cake for him.

In the mean time, Dwarf One and Dwarf Two continue to shout at each other some more, angry stubby fingers pointing at chests, at the cathedral and at the heaven, and Jadeite swiftly sneaks behind a large acacia tree that just happens to be standing there. He knows that they probably won't let him in on whatever is upsetting them so much, but Jadeite knows better than to rely on other people to tell him what's going on. Dwarf Two angrily throws his hat to the ground (must be the Dwarfian equivalent of spitting into someone's face, Jadeite thinks) and then Dwarf One whistles again, louder and with a melody of some sorts. It doesn't take long before one of the unicorns gallops towards them, coming to a standstill in front of the dwarves who hurriedly climb atop it and then the unicorn, Dwarf-One-With-A-Hat and Dwarf-Two-Without-One all take off together.

Behind the acacia tree, Jadeite's brows arch heavenwards. He knows from personal experience that unicorns do not like to be ridden, they do not like that at all. He still has the hoof-shaped bruise to show for it and it was over five weeks ago! Pissing off a unicorn: never a good idea. Three questions in one go, Jadeite thinks and feels his fingers tingle. He's always loved a good riddle! Stepping out from behind the tree, he counts the questions on his fingers, vowing to find the answer to each before the sun sets in the West. One: what is so important that it makes dwarves run? Two: how does the extremely useless Helios fit into the picture? And three (being the most important one, obviously): if he manages to replicate the dwarf's whistle, will that damn unicorn let him ride it too?

Without overthinking it, he walks into the small white cathedral, the place that seems to hold the answers, so innocent under the blue blue sky.

There is nothing special about the cathedral, and Jadeite is not too fond of how cold the stone floor feels under his bare feet. He's always been more at ease outside, with the heavens stretched out above him. But he's here now, and he's still curious, and the little building only holds one table, one chair and one book anyway. Not much to examine, he thinks, and sits down at the table, pulling the book close.

It's old and musty, and to be honest, its odour reminds him of rotten eggs. Jadeite wrinkles his nose. "Disgusting," he mutters. Why hide a smelly old book in a cathedral? Giving in to his curiosity, he flicks the heavy cover open. It's made from leather, but there's no telling what animal had its skin ripped off for it. At least... he hopes this is from an animal.

Flicking through a couple of pages, his eyes skim over the words. It seems to be some sort of history book, there are all the boring facts about battles long since fought, kings who were born, kings who died, and people who suddenly became kings because their mothers poisoned their fathers. "Wait, what?" Jadeite says, more to himself than to the book, because books can't talk, but sure enough, there it is on the page: the name of Zoisite, along with his mother's and his father's, all in one neat line.
"Oh," Jadeite says, mouth hanging open. "Oh, damn," he adds for the sake of completeness, and hastily turns the page.

It's night, and the wind whispers in the trees that the dwarves will soon return to the cathedral. Jadeite, ears as sharp as a fox's, hears the warning, and hastily slams the books shut before hurrying out. The dust dances in the air and settles on the floor, carefully re-arranging itself so that it looks as if no nosy man ever stepped inside the cathedral. Jadeite, oblivious to this, disappears over the hills just as the dwarves and Helios come into sight of the small white building.

Back in the palace, he immediately hurries to Zoisite's door. It's only when he gets there, when the white wood is inches from his nose and the doorknob already in his hand that he realises that this might not be the best idea he ever had. He's not usually one for impulse control, but something tells him that barging into your best friend's bedroom in the middle of the night to tell him that the only reason he became the world's youngest ruling king was because his mother poisoned his father with cobra venom imported especially for the occasion is just not a good idea.

"Fuck," Jadeite says, and then the door opens, and he's face to face with Zoisite, whose hair is a mess and who already has sleepy eyes. "Tell me you didn't try to ride the unicorns again," Zoisite groans, and Jadeite thanks heaven, hell, and all the fairies in the world that he is the only mindreader in the Golden Kingdom.

The heat doesn't go away, and neither does Serenity, who is still holed up in Endymion's chamber. How much sex can two people possibly have, Jadeite wonders more than once, and goes to visit the milkmaids to gossip a little.

But news of Kunzite getting into a shouting match with the leader of Serenity's guard is somehow not as interesting anymore now that Jadeite knows where all the good stuff is buried. That book... he's a slow reader, so he only got to read a few pages because the writing was so small, but he just knows that on the yellowed pages, there are plenty more secrets to be discovered.

Unfortunately, there are also plenty of dwarves to guard them.

His first attempt to trick the dwarves away fails spectacularly and Jadeite returns to the palace with a very red head, without his boots and sabre, and to add injury to insult, with not only one, but two black eyes.

The problem is that Jadeite is not a tactician. He's clever, oh yes, but strategy is not his strong suit. Among the shitennou, that task always falls to Zoisite and Kunzite. Since Zoisite is out of the running because Jadeite still hasn't figured out how to deal with the whole "your mommy is a murderer" thing, that leaves him with only Kunzite to turn to for advice.

He finds him in the stables, where the commander is combing down a black mare.
"New horse?"
Kunzite nods and doesn't meet his eyes. "A present from the Moon princess." Well, one doesn't have to be able to mindread to know that this is a blatant lie, Jadeite thinks. Kunzite may have many talents (and if that gentlewoman from the temple is to be believed, some are of the decidedly kinky kind), but lying is not among them. "Okay, and who really gave you the horse?" he asks, and opens his mind to read that of the man opposite him. The image of Venus flashes up like a candle's flame, and Jadeite whistles. "Well, who would have thought-"
"Jadeite, I told you that you are forbidden from reading my mind. I am not an open book you can peruse at your leisure." Kunzite looks mad, and Jadeite knows that he is one more cheeky comment away from finding himself assigned to patrol in front of Endymion's room while the prince and Serenity are at it.

"Yes, fine, I actually need your help with something else anyway," Jadeite concedes andsevers the connection between their minds. Instead of appreciating the swift retraction, Kunzite throws him a dark look. "I am not inclined to help after you invaded my privacy."
"But I really need your help," Jadeite whines and tries to look innocent. Well, as much as he can, which is to say, not a lot.
"Does it have to do anything with the two black eyes you were sporting the other week?"
"Possibly," Jadeite admits, and walks closer, petting the horse, which promptly tries to bite him. Kunzite laughs. "She was perfectly behaved until now."
"Glad you find my suffering amusing." Jadeite steps away again. He's usually good with animals in general, but unicorns, ponies and horses from Venus are apparently an exception. Normally, he'd try to bribe the horse with carrots, but he can't be bothered at the moment. There are much more pressing matters to attend to.

"Kunzite, how would you break into a heavily guarded fortress?"
"Is Endymion in there?"
"No," Jadeite says and rolls his eyes. Talk about an obsession.
"Then I wouldn't."
"Okay, fine, Endymion is in there, shackled to the wall, and only you can save him. Now, how would you break into the fortress?"
"Who was with him when he was taken, and is this person dead?"
"I- what? How is that even relevant?"
Kunzite gives him one of those looks that reminds Jadeite why this man is actually kind of dangerous, and then continues to groom the once again peaceful mare.
"If the person is not dead, then he might be a traitor and I would extract the necessary information from him." Oh, right. Torture. Well, that's useless. He doesn't want to torture the dwarves, he just wants them to go somewhere else for a while.
"He was taken when he was all alone. All alone and there is no-one whom you can obtain information from." Jadeite moves a bit closer again, and the horse kicks one hoof in his general direction. Fine, signal received. He inches back to the stable entrance, grabs an empty bucket and turns it over. Sitting down, his attention is back on his commander. "What would you do?"
"How many guards?"
"At least two."
"Strong?"
Remembering the tiny fists and the angry punches, Jadeite nods. "Yes."
"You could use poison."
"What is with everyone and poison these days?"
Kunzite stops his movements, and places the brush in a small wooden box. "Since when are you so squeamish?"
Jadeite throws his comrade a dirty look. Clearly, Kunzite is no help at all.

Jadeite returns to Elysion this evening, and wanders around, thoroughly aimless. How can he get past the dwarves? There are many more pages to be read, many more secrets to uncover. If the bit with Zoisite's mother was at the front, then how much juicier are things going be towards he end? Granted, he doesn't know how to deal with whatever he finds in there, but for Jadeite, it was always more about the chase than anything else. The challenge is what tickles him, the potential. He just has to get his hands on that book again, he has to. And then inspiration strikes him like lightning.

The grin on his face is nothing short of devious, and he heads into the deeper, darker part of the woods. The pixies will sort this out for him: they've never liked the dwarves anyway.

Helios, who has been trained to be patient and virtuous and good, desperately wants to smash his head against the walls of the temple. In front of him, an excited and angry mob of pixies is in a shouting match with an equally enraged group of dwarves.

"But this is just the way things are," he says, and tries to sound soothing. One of the pixies throws a rotten apple at him, and the smallest and meanest looking dwarf lets out a string of colourful curses. It's about the white cathedral, of course. A few weeks ago, the dwarves came to him, fighting about where to best stand while guarding it and how long each shift should be and there was even talk of forming a union, and he, Helios, High Priest of Elysion, actually had to take the three hour long walk to the small white building to sort it all out. By foot - the unicorns had already retreated for the night. And now the dwarves are back, and they brought the pixies with them. Oh Great Mother, help me, Helios thinks. Grant me patience!

"We are creatures of Elysion, too, we want to do our part to fulfill this holy duty," one of the pixies screams, interrupting his half-hearted prayer. Helios winces: they really do have extraordinarily high voices. The whole event is altogether very unpleasant. The dwarves, not to be outdone, send their leader forward, a sturdy creature with an impressive axe in his small hands. "Guarding the chapel is the sacred duty of our kind, the green ones shall have no part in it."

And before he knows it, Helios finds himself breaking up a fistfight between a pixie and a dwarf while the fairies snicker in the trees.

Many miles away, Jadeite hears the shouting (the wind was kind enough to carry it to him), and knows his distraction has worked. He steps out from behind the tree and leisurely makes his way into the cathedral. The books is there, waiting for him to delve into its secrets. Jadeite happily obliges.

He managed to read another ten, fifteen pages, and learned quite a lot about politics, and perhaps even about love while doing so. He knows why Mars never looked at him again (the word vow is flashing up in his mind over and over again), but that is something he buries so deep inside him that it hopefully won't ever resurface. No, the thoughts of her he has to hold at bay: he is not going to light the fire that can consume him. So he jumps to the next secret, one that he actually can think about without wanting to drink himself stupid, namely that sweet little Serenity is way older than she looks. Lots of food for thought, but nothing to shock him as much as that discovery about Zoisite's mother. Whom he is still avoiding because he doesn't know how to be tactful about all of this. Actually, according to Nephrite, he doesn't know how to be tactful period.

Now he's back in the palace, strolling to Endymion's chambers. His prince is sitting on the floor, a happy expression on his face.
"So, secretly married, huh?" Jadeite asks, and Endymion's jaw drops. "You promised me never to read my mind," the prince stutters a few seconds later, colour creeping up his neck. Jadeite sits down next to his friend, and grins. "And I kept my word. By the way, your blushing bride is 251 years old."

Over the next few days, Serenity doesn't visit, and Endymion follows Jadeite everywhere his guardian goes. But Jadeite holds on to his secret, doesn't mention the book, and still avoids Zoisite. Endymion's mind is overflowing with curiosity, and there is no way of blocking the many questions that emanate from his prince. How does he know about Serenity? Does he mind the marriage? Why is he avoiding Zoisite? What will we have for dinner? Why did Venus give Kunzite a horse? Why is it that only Mercury, Jupiter and Venus come to pick up Serenity and never ever Mars? How many more hours does he have to devote to meditation before he has his powers under control? Is this the hottest summer there ever was? and many, many more. When Endymion ponders whether he can take Serenity to Nephrite's star-gazing tower next time she comes over to make sweet, sweet love under the moonlight, Jadeite has about enough.

"Give it a rest, will you?" he snaps, and slams the door to his chambers right into Endymion's face.

Nephrite seeks him out a few days later. His friend looks tired and drawn, and altogether very unhappy.
"What's wrong with you?" Jadeite asks and offers Nephrite half of the cheese he's munching. But Nephrite, Nephrite who eats everything all the time, waves the cheese away. "Serenity is immortal," he finally says, and Jadeite remembers the bit of gossip about Nephrite and the guardian from Jupiter that Zoisite told him about, and has an epiphany. "Oh," he says, and Nephrite doesn't say anything, but just looks miserable.

Jadeite doesn't tell his friend that he knew about the whole age thing first, doesn't tell him that yes, Jupiter is also immortal, and that yes, it means there is no chance in heaven or hell for the two of them to be together in the happy, married way Nephrite so desperately wants, and then, unbidden and uninvited, he remembers that one look Mars gave him, so full of fear and promises and things that could never be, and how she kept her distance ever since. It feels as if a heavy stone drops right on his head and maybe, his heart clenches, just a bit.

But he also knows that Jupiter isn't Mars, and that his friend has already tasted what he craves. He elbows Nephrite in the side, and his voice is hoarse when he speaks. "Make the most of it. Carpe fucking diem, my friend" and then Nephrite nods, shoulders a bit more squared, and leaves.

The palace is still too hot, and Jadeite flees to Elysion the second the opportunity presents itself. He walks to his tree, resolved to take a quick dive in the pond before maybe going to visit the mermaids by the cliffs. Ever since he's spoken to Nephrite, he can't shake thoughts of doomed love and immortal women and all that is forbidden in the world. Plus, he's still not really talking to his best friend, and if that doesn't sour a man's mood and make him immune to the mermaids' appeal, then nothing does.

When he gets to the tree, he finds that he is not the only one who had the idea with the pond. Zoisite is already in there, happily floating on his back. The ducks are keeping their distance, and the water lilies are still asleep. Zoisite emanates peace, and Jadeite can't help feeling a bit jealous.

"You're as pale as a lily, top to scrawny bottom" he therefore shouts, and startles Zoisite, who hastily rearranges himself in the water so that Jadeite can only see his head. "Oh please, it's not as if I've never seen you naked before," Jadeite adds, and smirks. Zoisite gives him a frown, well-practised in years of friendship, and climbs out of the water, reaching for his pants. Jadeite sits down and leans his back against the tree.

"So you're talking to me again," Zoisite states, and sounds very matter-of-fact. This more than anything tells Jadeite that his friend was hurt by his absence, by being kept at arm's length. "I never wasn't," he tries to offer, but Zoisite shakes his head. "Don't lie, Jadeite, you are better than that. Why don't you just tell me what's been bugging you?" Water drips from Zoisite's long curls on his bare torso, and from there down his legs and onto the dry, green ground.

Jadeite ponders the whole mess, and then decides that what the hell, this is his friend, and he has a right to know and Nephrite is all sad and mopey, and Endymion is married to an immortal and Kunzite is in over his heels, even though he doesn't know it yet. Stupid book with its stupid secrets. Why didn't the dwarves do a better job of guarding it? "Your mother poisoned your father," he blurts out, and looks at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. Zoisite, now clad in his pants, but shirtless, shrugs. "So?" His green eyes are guileless, innocent, and surprisingly, very unbothered by the new revelation.

"Excuse me? So? That's your reaction?"
"Well, yes. I mean, I've known for years. Just didn't think you did."
"And how did you know this?"
"Because my mother told me?"
"Of course." Jadeite falls silent, and shakes his head. "You knew. And I was wondering how to tell you!"
"How did you find out? I thought I was the only one my mother told. It's why I never visit her, by the way."
Jadeite decides that if Zoisite didn't want to tell him about the murder, then he doesn't have to tell him about the book. Quid pro quo, or something like that.
"Venus gave Kunzite a horse," he says instead, and Zoisite laughs. "I know. It's bitten me twice." So it's not only me, Jadeite thinks, and is a bit pleased. The horse is just mad.

For the first time in weeks, he feels relaxed again. When the time comes, they'll talk more about mothers and murder, but both men know that plenty of booze and pipeweed will aid them in this conversation. For now, Kunzite's fickle horse will be topic enough.

The dwarves have taken up their guard again, and until Jadeite can find a new way of distracting them, the entry to the cathedral is barred. It's not too bad though because he has to travel to see his family, pay his respects to his father, listen to his brothers, and let his mother pet his head. For a wild moment or two, he wishes he would have taken the book with him after reading it, but contrary to popular opinion, he is no fool and knows better than to anger a place that is as alive as Elysion.

So the book remains where it is, and when Jadeite meets Serenity's raven-haired guardian again - immortality and mortality be damned - she gives him another one of those looks, and he almost forgets how to breathe, let alone to yearn for something as mundane as a smelly magical book.

And just in that moment, in the small white cathedral in Elysion, the book flips open, even though there is no-one to touch it. A new page is turned - it is as white and innocent as a dove's wing, but remember, in Elysion, nothing is ever as it seems. When the words begin to appear, black ink digging into white parchment, there is no hand to write them, no eyes to read them, and no-one to fear them. Five lines are added in neat, tiny writing, and the page is innocent no more.

The wind dances into the cathedral, caresses the pages, until, with one more blow, the book slams shut. Its reader will return soon. So it is written, and so it shall be.

*** The End ***