AN: heres the next chap. U may have noticed that i revised some of the early chaps 2 make them beta. R&R thank you

Chapter 12: The Library of Islingr

Aakil lead Sorella down a number of streets lined with tightly packed shops and then houses until they started to ascend a small hill in the north-west end of the town. Sorella had lost trace where they were and was starting to feel tired when Aakil began to slow his horse and then finally stopped in font of a rather unassuming but large heavy wooden door set into an old moss covered stone wall.

"Here" Aakil said as he jumped down from his horse and went to help Sorella down from hers "it doesn't look like much but threw their is the Library of Islingr which is the most important and biggest library in this part of Alagaysia". He went over to the door and nocked on it twice.

"What?" said a deep grumpy voice from behind the door

"I want to talk to Evarinya"

"Its too late snapped the voice

"No it's not, the library should be open for at least another three quarters of an Hour" Aakil said, a hint of annoyance entering his voice.

A little sliding window opened at eye level in the door and a pair of murky blue eyes capped with thick grey eyebrows looked out at Aakil and glared at him for a moment, Aakil glared back and then the door opened.

"Fine" the grumpy man said as Aakil started to led his horse through the door "but you better not take long, I cant lock up, swap guards and go home until you leave" Sorella followed Aakil with Storm past the grumpy guard.

The door led to a small square tiled court yard with a tree in the middle of it. Although the tree was not overly large it looked old, its branches were all twisted and knobbly from being prune and forced against their nature so that the tree twisted around itself like a sculpture. The court yard was surrounded on 3 sides by a large stone building with a three doors, one on each side of the square. The wall to the right had 5 floors of ornately carved windows regularly spaced along its length. The other 2 walls had no windows and the only decorations adorning the ruff stone surface were tentacles of ivy clawing their way towards the roof with patches of moss peeping between the leaves giving the stone a dull green tinge.

Once the guard had shut the door Aakil dropped his horse's rains and walked towards the door to the left; Sorella followed and managed to catch up with him just as he was opening the door.

"This is the Library of Islingr" he said "Evarinya the elf is the top librarian and then there are about thirty-two other librarians, they are mostly humans. They hold all the records and knowledge of the city including all births, deaths, marriages, criminal records and detailed maps of the city and surrounding countryside. They judge legal disputes and decide on punishments for all minor to moderate offences (the worst are dealt with by the empire). The librarians actually live here, the door opposite this one leads to the living quarters," Aakil said before he went into the library.

"Wow" Sorella breathed as she looked around at the rows upon rows of wooden bookshelves crammed full of books. Some of the books looked new but as she followed Aakil further into the library she saw some more ancient and tattered books with titles in a variety of languages, most of which she did not recognise. The library was five stories high with bookshelves extended uninterrupted up to the ceiling, sliding ladders allowed access to all the books right up to the top. A complex web of ropes, pulleys and wooden boxes were suspended in the air connecting all corners of the library and all the bookshelves together to allow books to be easily moved around by the librarians. The floor was a dark grey stone, Sorella expected the noise of their book tapping against it would echo around the library but to her surprise there footsteps seemed to by muffled no matter how loud she tried to stomp her feet. Aakil and Sorella wondered around the rows of bookshelves for about 10 minutes before they came across 1 of the librarians. Teh librarian was halfway up a ladder so Aakil called up to him "excuse me, can you please tell me where we can find Evarinya"

There was silence for a moment before the librarian pointed further into the library and said "section 568GQ" in a voice that despite the great distance that it had to travel to reach sorella and Aakil on the ground still sounded like a whisper.

"thank you" Aakil called up to the librarian who seemed to have already forgotten all about them. They set off in the direction indicated by the librarian and followed the numbering system which was printed on the end of each Bookshelf and took up 3 pages of small print on each one. After about 10 minutes and getting lost twice they finally stumbled upon section 568GQ and found the elf librarian Evarinya placing a stack of about five books into one of the wooden boxes which then took off in the opposite direction to Sorella and Aakil. Aakil gently cleared his throat to get the librarians attention.

"Ah, Aakil, how nice to see you" Evarinya said in a voice that was a whisper and yet perfectly audible "I trust you and your family are well?" he said as he took Aakils hand in his own ink stained ones.

"Yes, everyone is well" Aakil replied, Sorella found his voice jarring, it sounded oddly loud and sharp compared to the soft librarians.

Evarinya smiled and said "I've been expecting you; I actually fort you would have been here weeks ago"

"No" Aakil said and Sorella noticed a slight blush creap into his checks "I'm not here about that"

"No?"

"No" Aakil shock his head "this is Sorella", Evarinya took her hand "she is after some knowledge...if you would be so kind?"

"of course" Evarinya nodded as he looked into Sorella's deep brown eyes with his own faded blue elfin ones "and what knowledge do you seek Sorella?

"I...um..." Sorella hesitated as the elf let go of her hand and looked at her expectantly "something odd seems to have happened to me, something magical that is, I woke up about 4days ago in the forest north of here and the last thing I remember before that, took place 100 years ago"

"Hmmm, that is odd" the elf agreed "and what is the last thing you remember?"

"um...well...the last thing is my father trying to kill me" she said, the elves expression didn't change but he seemed to want her to elaborate "well..." she began "I was fed some strange stuff and then there was some chanting and... the old magic person stabbed a dagger into my heart while my father strangled me and then they pushed me into the fire and something was poured all over me" Sorella felt hot tears running down her cheeks and sighed, she felt like all she had done in front of Aakil was cry.

"I see" the elf said "sounds like the triple death"

"The triple death?" Aakil repeated with a frown

"Yes, the triple death is used in very powerful dark magic. In this case it seems to have been used to some how freeze Sorella in some way so that time would pass without effecting her. If the triple death was used than I'm surprised you are here now, that sort of magic should have kempt you out for much longer than 100 years or could have killed you"

"And what happened to the village that I grew up in? It isn't on Aakil's map but I'm pretty sure it was just north of here"

"It and everyone who lived in it were destroyed" Evarinya said without blinking "I'm afraid it was one of the first places to be obligated by Gabble and then the earths anger caused a large earthquake which further changed the landscape. Catranta was founded about 75 years ago and was immediately a thriving community thanks to the life-giving waters of the Dakard River and the shelter from the not too distant mountains above and the dessert to the west. There was a short period of rebellion about 50 years ago but that quickly settled down and there has been peace ever since"

Sorella felt her knees go slightly week and all the blood drain from her face, Evarinya had confirmed without a doubt what she suspected; her entire family and everyone and everything she new was dead or destroyed "thank you" she managed to say in a hoarse whisper.

"is there any way to discover why this was done to Sorella?" Aakil asked the elf

"No. Only her Father and perhaps the sorcerer are likely to know. It could have been done for any number of reasons, there is no point in trying to guess at the logic of someone you never knew and who is likely dead and performed this spell 100 years ago, but perhaps you could find the place where it happened to ease your mind over the situation" Evarinya replied "now is there anything else either of you wish to ask me?"

Aakil looked as Sorella who shook her head before he said "No that is all we wanted to know".

"Very well, but remember that sometimes things happen for a reason" the elf smiled at Sorella and then Aakil "until next time..." then he left them to find their own way out of the library.

By the time they found the dcor Sorella felt recovered and grumpy guard was pacing around the court yard impatiently waighting. When he spotted them coming through the door he glared and muttered under his breathe before grabbing the rains of the 2 horses and thrusting them into Aakil's hands "hurry up" he snarled and headed over to teh door to the street ready to usher them out. Aakil chuckled and seemed to walk as slowly as he could get away with towards the door while the gard muttered and tapped his foot against the ground. As soon as Aakil, Sorella and the two horses were through the door it was slammed shut and Sorella heard a number of locks and bolt being banged into place.

Sorella noticed that the sky was starting to darken as she swung herself onto Storm back "were are we going to go now?" she asked.

"Well, we'll have to go somewhere to eat, feed the horses and sleep" he said as he nudged Kohl to go forward "I know an inn that we can go to that will take decent care of the horses and makes a fine dinner and has excellent ale".