"Only the most exalted of hive earn names. I have none." Said the knight with an emotionless reply.

Ivara crosses her arms and lifted off the ground, a now familiar black mist enveloped her lower portion. A sudden flood of cool air washed over her as the large black door slid open and revealed a group of acolytes pushing a floating cart of some kind that was piled high with hive tomes. Ivara floated over to the cart with the knight following besides her. Her curiosity was overwhelming her as she tried to make sense of the shapes that consisted the hive language. 'This must be what warlocks feel like when they get a new book.' She thought to her self with a smile.

"What are these?" She asked as she turned to the knight with curious green eyes.

"These are a few of our tomes that contain our history. There are many more but these are the ones that should serve to be most useful to you." He stared as the acolytes left the room with a respectful bow.

"How do I read them?" She asked as she scooped one up into her hands. She flipped it over in an attempt to find a cover or page. All she found was the same green rune on both sides.

"Hold it flat and place your hands on both runes. Like this." The knight reached out and grabbed one of the circular tomes and placed his chiton claws on both faces of it. The tome began to glow as his hands covered the runes.

Ivara copied his instructions and placed her blueish gray hands over the runes. Soon images flashed in her head that showed a vast and dark ocean. She could hear faceless voices echoing in her head in the hive language that she now understood the longer she used the tome.

Soon the images became black and the voices stopped leaving her in darkness. She pulled her hands off the strangely warm tome. In her head was the hive language and alphabet. The symbols and sounds that had sounded so alien to her before seemed to become familiar, as if they were her own native language and letters.

She shook the feeling away and picked up another tome, the runs on its faces now became a logical grouping of words. 'The Recorded Language'. From her perspective this seemed to be like one of the old earth dictionaries that documented words and their definitions. As she placed her hands over the runes visions of hive scribes writing in large columns that served as work spaces. Each column could easily hold a few hundred hive. Soon the tome was finished and she pulled her hands off of the front face. Her hands trembled slightly as she let go and she looked towards the knight who had been accompanying her with a concerned expression.

"That tome contains our written language. You now should be quite capable of writing in our language." He said calmly as he called forth the acolytes to take the cart away.

Ivara looked down towards her hands with slight concern. Her hands had taken the graying bluish coloration the rest of her slender frame had taken. Chiton covered the back side of her hand but didn't not restrict its movement.

A new question now proded at her thoughts. 'Was she a prisoner here? She hadn't been let out of the room since she woke and the kings had been with her this whole time as if it were a warden keeping watch on a prisoner.' She looked up from her hands and directed her glowing green eyes towards the door which sealed itself after the acolytes left.

"Am I allowed to leave?" She asked as she turned towards the knight once more.

Authors notes: Sorry I haven't updated the story in a while. Things got a little overwhelming for me but I'm back to writing again! (Hopefully regularly)