Syuveil's eyes fluttered open, and as they did, he realized he wasn't dead. How is that possible? He asked himself, reaching gingerly to his stomach, and felt the ripped cloth but no gaping wound like he expected. His vision was blurry at best, so he could not make out where he was, except it was a room, and he was on a soft bed.
"Hello?" He called out weakly, hoping someone would hear him. No human voice greeted him. No noise at all did.
Getting himself into a sitting position, he rubbed the back of his hands into his eyes, trying to clear his vision. A small candle in the corner lighted the room, which was not surprisingly very close. It was a rather small room, albeit cozy. He felt light-headed, and somewhat groggy; stood nonetheless, and walked to the candle, which sat on a weird apparatus. "What...is this?" He asked the air, not expecting a response.
"A teleporter." The male voice, strong and arrogant, resounded from somewhere behind him, and Syuveil snapped his head around and looked eagerly all around.
A lithe man, taller than Syuveil, practically materialized out of the shadows. He wore the garments of a high-class Wingly, or at least what books described would be the garments of one. His hair was the characteristic white, cold blue-eyes staring at Syuveil with barely contained contempt. "Why am I here?" Syuveil asked, pressing himself against the wall.
"We were told to bring you here. Even among us Winglies, your primitive human intellect is known about." It seemed to pain him to admit Syuveil was anything but a simian. "There is information that you know, that no Wingly does. Elder Grandee wishes an audience with you immediately." His words left no room for argument, though Syuveil did.
"How is my wound gone without even a scratch? I clearly remember being impaled by that Wingly at my home!"
The Wingly before him scoffed, and said, "you humans, not even understanding any inkling of magic. Even a novice Wingly can heal a wound like that without much effort." He walked to the apparatus that Syuveil stood next to, with the candle, and touched the side of it. "Repeat exactly what I say." The Wingly told him. "Western chamber, Elder Grandee's private room."
A green light enveloped him, and he disappeared into a small green-white ball of light, and careened away from the apparatus and through the walls. Syuveil dropped to his knees, eyes widened in shock and surprise.
So this machine is the one mentioned slightly in Artifacts of Magic, amazing! If I were able to study it, my life's work would be complete! He stood up and pressed his hand against it softly, feeling the hum of pure magic coming from it. Within a second of touching it, though, he felt something else. It was as if he were connected to all such creations in the entire palace. And a palace it was, the shear amount of apparatus that he could feel; hundreds of them. He could get lost for days with ease.
The Wingly had given him instructions on where to go, and that was enough. Closing his eyes and reciting the words verbatim, he felt himself being contracted into a small green ball, with no pain at all. He tried to open his eyes, but found he could not move himself at all, and for a split-second he panicked.
That feeling of panic ended when his feet touched down onto hard ground. Now he opened his eyes, and looked into an expansive room that was filled with artificial, magically created lights. "Amazing!" was the only word that could escape his lips.
"Mundane, actually...but you humans are such simple creatures, that of course a simple lighting fixture would put you into shock. Come forward, and don't make me force you." An old man's voice came from the distance, not dissipating with movement down the corridor.
Syuveil walked down it slowly, turning often to gaze up, or left, and right, and a few times even down. It was as if he walked on air. "How can you say this is mundane?" He asked, pointing to the floor that could not be seen.
"If you were a Wingly, you'd understand." Elder Grandee said, and motioned for Syuveil to sit down in a chair at the end of the table he already sat at.
Syuveil nodded, and seated himself, and looked at the Elder. His hair was even whiter than most Winglies, and his eyes were dull grey. His advanced age was apparent, except in his voice; which was loud and booming still. "Perhaps that is the case, but Elder Grandee, I am not." Syuveil said, his tone light.
"Yes, you would not be here if you were a Wingly, that much is apparent." Grandee said, coughing once, and continued. "A close acquaintance of mine brought it to my attention that you had one of the most comprehensive libraries known to man, and that you might even know secrets that we Winglies do not." He had put emphasis on the word had, to signify he no longer had any such library. "This is, of course, practically impossible, but I had to investigate the matter further." He said quickly, as if it bothered him a human might know anything more than he, which probably did.
"It may be possible. But I wouldn't know without first being told what information is needed." Syuveil answered smoothly, without even so much as lifting an eyebrow.
Grandee nodded, as if he expected it, and the Wingly who had been where Syuveil had woken up stepped forward carrying a large tome. He handed it to Syuveil gently, and the man took it as softly as possible. He knew an old book when he saw it. Touching the binding, his mouth quickly worked its way into an O, as he realization came to him.
"This is...no, it cannot be! This is The Tome of the Unkempt Kings! This only had a single passage in all the books I've ever gotten my hands on!"
Grandee nodded again, gravely this time, and at Syuveil. "Then you even know more about it than us. My assistant here only found it two weeks ago, buried so deeply in the library in Kadessa I'm not even sure what he was doing down there." His assistant reddened slightly, for he really did know, but that would never be mentioned. "He brought it back to me, showed it to me, and then brought one more piece of parchment to my attention." Grandee rifled through the papers that sat next to him, and pulled out a very familiar single sheet of paper.
Syuveil knew what it was before Grandee said a word. It was the letter he had sent to the Head Librarian six months past. In it, he had referenced three books, one of which was The Tome of the Unkempt Kings, all of which he had read about in other reference books. He had been vastly interested in reading them, but the librarian had not a single one of them.
"So he never received that letter, did he?" Syuveil asked, angered slightly.
"Oh, he received it." The assistant said, "but I killed him half a moon past, and found the letter on his person." He smirked as Syuveil gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
"What do you want me to do then?" Syuveil asked.
"Tell me the single passage you read, and what it said about that book in your hands." Grandee answered.
Syuveil nodded, and began to speak. "In the beginning, there was only a single village of every kind of species on the planet. The Winglies and Humans lived together peacefully, and were ruled together by two kings: Effel, and Ryahimut. Neither was Human, nor were they Wingly. But this peace did not last. Those amongst the Winglies felt they were better than Humans, and due to this, massacred the Human villages; King Effel and Ryahimut could not stand for this, and thus set out to destroy all those Winglies who had participated in the killings. They were shocked when they found out only the children had been excluded. Every single Wingly had tried to destroy the humans. The two Kings wept at this, and they banned the Winglies from ever talking to Humans again, and to forever to never be in their presence again." Syuveil finished.
Grandee sighed, and looked at Syuveil. "I feared it was something like that." He then looked at his assistant, and whispered into his ears, not audible enough for Syuveil to hear.
"It will be so." The assistant said, grabbing Syuveil under the arm, and carrying him away from the place where he had sat.
"What is going on?" he asked, feeling nervous and excited all at once. If that book back there detailed what had caused the schism between humans and Winglies, it would be a great day indeed.
"None of your business." The assistant said, dragging him to the transporter. "Repeat my words exactly. Interior, steam room, section A." He was engulfed by the magical green ball, and disappeared again.
Syuveil did as he was told, and spoke the words exactly. He reappeared in a room with a large hole in the middle. "This is...?" He asked, but did not finish.
"Go. Leave now, and never return. Consider yourself lucky to be alive. Never be seen by another Wingly again, and you might live a long life. I have told Grandee you will be back. Your interest in that Tome is higher than your interest in life." He shoved Syuveil, who fell into the hole, and landed in dirt ten feet below.
"But wait!" He called, futilely. The door had already clamped shut as he had passed through it.
Looking around, he realized where he was. I am in Kadessa itself! He was shocked, dismayed, and overjoyed at the thought. He would be dead quickly if he was in the Wingly capital, for Grandee had probably issued a law to kill him on the spot.
But at the same time, he was in Kadessa. No human had ever stepped foot in this place, except those who were imprisoned. And they were always dead or injured beyond help, and never able to give much information anyway.
He looked around, and marveled at the city, in its entire splendor. Hard to believe it was created by anything less of Soa himself. "I have to, this is not something I could pass up!" He said, but before he made it five feet, an alarm went off in the palace behind him. Already he could hear the robotic foot soldiers infamous for stealing humans. Maybe I'll be leaving now, after all. He told himself, and sneaked down into a crevasse, as two armies of robots went past, one hundred in each.
Now I only have to figure out where I am, and how to get out...He said to himself once more, looking out to see if more foot soldiers were around....