A collaboration between crazybeagle and myself ^_^. PLEASE read and review, we will write faster for each :D Some of the Shiners (Kibeth and Astarael) will appear in later chapters.
Prologue:
With a quill in her vice-like grip, and a ball of charter light dancing around her head, Chief Librarian Jansa worked so fast that the phoenix feather seemed close to combustion. The paperwork before the stern-faced Clayr was completed with mechanical efficiency, and within minutes, the assorted detritus of the entire Glacier had been consigned to an archived life within the Great Library.
Brushing aside her peach-blonde hair, Jansa stabbed the air with her fingers, drawing marks so ferociously that her digits could not be seen for a trail of sparks, electricity that coalesced into arcane shapes, the charter symbols of calling and beckoning.
Within seconds, the door to Jansa's office swung open- but it was not a sending that stood beneath the gilded arch.
Jansa raised an eyebrow as the Voice of the Watch entered and made herself known.
"Know one, know many," Auredel intoned hastily, smacking the gong ferociously before running in. The normally flawless beauty looked as though she had run all the way to the Library- her blonde hair was flyaway, the circlet of moonstones on her forehead askew above frenzied eyes.
Then, abandoning all pretence of elegance, the Voice smashed her fists on Jansa's desk, shaking bottles of spelled ink precariously over the edge.
"Jansa!" Auredel panted. "There's been… a situation."
The austere woman's composure melted away into confusion and irritation, and Jansa snapped back,
"What is it?" Various eventualities ran through her mind. "An escaped free magic spirit? A vision from the Watch?"
Auredel stared straight into her eyes, boring deep down as though preparing her for impact.
"A birth," she whispered hollowly.
Jansa exhaled, charter-smoke coming out in a plume that personified her anger. Granted, births were rare here in the Glacier, since many of the Clayr went off with their lovers abroad, but not unheard of. Was this Auredel's idea of a joke?
"Very well, cousin," she breathed through gritted teeth. Pulling out the registry of births and deaths, Jansa drew out a column for the new arrival. "Her name?"
Auredel seemed close to hysteria. Inching closer, the Voice breathed straight into Jansa's face, but the sweetness of her breath was laced with ice as frozen as Starmount.
"Dylora has given birth to a son."
And as the feather in Jansa's hand burned to a cinder, the cries of the first male Clayr to ever be born resonated through the Glacier, through ancient frost and hail, and into the starry skies and infinite futures that the child would shape.
MAKE US HAPPY AND REVIEW ^_^ (Happy Valentine's Day :D)