Chapter 7:

Diana had been avoiding Leona for the last few weeks and the guilt of it all ate away at her. It wasn't that she didn't want to see her, she definitely did, but she had made a discovery that she knew she needed to keep secret from Leona at least until she knew more, had more evidence. She had made her way into the closed off parts of the library, the archives where only Elders and others given permission to enter such as Leona. Diana had been tempted at first to ask Leona to let her into them but she knew that Leona wouldn't do that, wouldn't want to help Diana get herself into further trouble and Diana didn't want to put Leona at risk as well.

She had managed to sneak into the archives when the woman left in charge of them was distracted, Diana had been watching her schedule for weeks and knew that she would regularly disappear for lunch. Diana slipped in and had managed to find something she knew the Elders were desperate to hide, having been hidden in a corner and locked away behind a wooden sliding door on the shelf. Diana managed to break into the lock, sliding the door back and grabbed as many of the books and scrolls hidden behind it as she could physically carry and hide on her way out of the temple.

Diana managed to get away with stealing the books and scrolls she had found, she hid herself away in her room even more than normal, taking any minute that she had available to herself to continue reading through the pages she had. She figured out quickly why the Elders had been desperate to keep these from view, locking them away in the archives and having someone guard the door, even if they had done it poorly. These books detailed the existence of another culture, one similar to the Solari except worshipping the moon over the sun. They detailed how both cultures had managed to co-exist on Mt Targon until the pages of the book ended before it could explain what happened to them, why they no longer existed. Diana jumped in her seat when she heard a knock at the door, she began trying to cover her work the books and her notes before answering the door. She peered out through a small crack between the door and the door frame, not wanting to open the door completely until she saw who was on the other side, it was Leona.

"Diana," Leona started with a concerned tone, "Will you let me in?" Diana ran her eyes up and down Leona for a moment before opening the door for Leona to be able to enter; she closed and locked the door as soon as the Chosen was inside. She watched Leona as she examined Diana's room, seeing that they were standing in the dark with the curtains drawn and her desk covered in papers, books and scrolls.

"You've been avoiding me." Leona stated, Diana could hear the hurt in her voice, she hadn't been as careful with the way she had been avoiding Leona as she had thought, of course she had figured it out.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to. It's nothing to do with you, or at least, not really." Diana tried to console Leona, not wanting the Chosen to think that she didn't want to be with her anymore.

"Then why are you doing it?" Diana pursed her lips at this, not wanting to get Leona involved in the things she had been doing.

"You have to promise not to get too mad if I'm going to tell you anything." Leona only raised her eyebrow at her, waiting for Diana to admit to what she had done. Diana walked over to her desk and began to uncover the books and scrolls she had found, her own notes that she had created. "I broke into the archives and I found these." Leona walked over to the desk and began searching through the papers, Diana watched her closely to see what kind of reaction she would have, would this be it? Would Leona finally have had enough of Diana and the things she continued to do over and over?

"Do you know how dangerous it is for you to have these?" Leona looked at her, Diana was surprised to see concern and worry instead of anger like she had been expecting. "I don't know if I can protect you if the Elders find out you have these, Diana, you have to return them." Leona reached out to her, caressing her face.

"You aren't furious that I've been researching this? Why aren't you angry with me?" Diana said, confused by the reaction Leona was having to this.

"I'm not angry, I know that you're not a sun-worshiper and I believe that the sun is okay with me being with you, I think that even if the Elders don't approve, my goddess does and that's enough for me." Leona said before pressing her lips to Diana's forehead, "But that doesn't mean that I can protect you when the Elders figure out these books are missing, they won't tolerate it after everything else that's happened with you." She said while pulling Diana into a tight embrace.

"I'm not done with them, I don't think I can return them just yet." Diana murmured into Leona's shoulder.

"I know you want to keep looking into them and if I was sure that I could prevent them from punishing you severely, I wouldn't make you return them, but please for me, take them back."

"I'll return them first thing tomorrow morning, the library is already closed." Diana conceded to Leona, at least for now, she wouldn't give up looking into this now that she knew the Solari's secrets, she had to know more, to know what caused the extinction of the Lunari.