Authors note: Just a quick little chapter here to finalise Shar's first day of her apprenticeship. Tomorrow she starts her first lessons in magic! Remember to leave a review letting me know what you think!
Thank you so much drouppi for the C&C... I *think* this is the best way to do it... maybe not, but it looks like it works better.

Chapter 19

10th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c

I almost missed the first bell, but I didn't miss the three that followed shortly after. I closed the book carefully, taking note of the page number, and placed it back onto the bookshelf. I left my room then, walking carefully up the stairs to the kitchen and dining area on the third floor. Malkarov was already there, sitting at the head of the table. He welcomed me in with a smile and gestured to the seat immediately to his right. In each of our places were large bowls filled with stew and large mugs of ale. Between each of us was a large wooden board with thick slices of freshly buttered bread. It smelled delicious! Malkarov immediately took a slice of bread and dipped it into the stew, then alternated between that and scooping out pieces of vegetables with a spoon. I followed likewise, savouring the delicious flavour of Missus Rose's Lamb Stew.

"The question that I shall ask first," Malkarov began, looking at me with a strange smile, "is; did you spend the entire time in the bath, or did you do something else?"

I blushed a little and was about to answer when he spoke up again, "I only ask, because my first bath lasted almost the entire afternoon."

I giggled a little at that, "I was tempted," I admitted, "when I realised that I could just add more hot water when the bathwater got cool, and pull the plug to let out water when the water threatened to overflow. But I did keep my bath short, and read for the remainder."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, seemingly pleasantly surprised, "And which of the books took your fancy?"

"The History of the Elves of Kaz Sarion," I answered.

He nodded at this, "And how did you find it?"

"I only finished the first chapter," I replied, "from the mythic founding until the end of the reign of King Silithradil. It was very interesting, but…" I stopped, looking down at my meal. I wasn't sure if it was my place to question the book. Some things didn't make sense to me, but the only book I had ever read even part of was the Book of Light and I had learned very quickly not to ever question what was written in it.

"But?" Malkarov prompted, and I felt compelled to answer, even if it did get me into trouble.

"Well…" I took a moment to think about how to word it, "Even though the author wrote that the foundation of Kaz Sarion was mythic, he wrote the justification for King Silithradil's actions as if he knew what King Silithradil was thinking. I don't understand why it would be written with such surety even if the events weren't myth. The justifications made perfect sense to me."

Malkarov raised one eyebrow at me questioningly, "You don't understand, but they made perfect sense?"

"Yes. They made perfect sense to me, but do elves really think the same way as us? Are they really going to do things for exactly the same reasons?" I asked, then stopped in shock. Malkarov was clapping loudly. He actually pushed his chair back as he stood, continuing to clap.

"Well done Sharein!" he exclaimed, food forgotten for the time being. "You've just summarised everything wrong with The History of the Elves of Kaz Sarion after only reading one chapter! Astounding! That was Almaroth's biggest mistake, in writing it. He rationalised everything based upon his own understanding and his own beliefs."

Malkarov got very excited in his expressions and voice; and I paid rapt attention to the things he was telling me, "Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic writing on the history of Kaz Sarion, if you ignore all of his biggoted opinions. Elves have a rich and long culture, and their society has a different way of thinking about things. Without understanding those completely, you cannot even begin to guess at their reasons for doing things. I'm not even sure that Almaroth had ever even met an elf when he wrote the book, considering so many of the mistakes and by all understandings he never even intended to meet an elf."

"Then why did he write about them?" I asked, confused. Why write about something you had no interest in learning about?

"Ah! The King of Carn, at the time, was commencing talks with the Queen of the Elves. He had no understanding of elves, with Kaz Sarion having isolated themselves for quite some time. He commissioned Almaroth to write him a summary of their history, which Almaroth did. He researched their history and summarised over two hundred books in the great library of the Guild into just three concise volumes. Unfortunately many Carnians at the time suffered from a human-centric hubris. This had a souring effect upon the negotiations which set back Carnian - Kaz Sarion relations for a hundred years and lost us a potentially valuable ally when the orcs invaded Oscura. You'll notice about halfway through that volume, that Almaroth describes the Kaz Sarion society as being analogous to Carnian society. He notes that their society is stratified into Noble houses and the commoners. This was the result of a mistranslation. There are multiple elvish races: The Gold Elves, who are often called High Elves; Silver Elves, who are often called Common Elves; Green Elves, who are often called Wild Elves; and the Dark or Night Elves. While Gold Elves do in fact hold a place of nobility, they are in fact an entirely different race of elf. They are taller than Silver Elves, they have a goldish yellow tinge to their skin rather than the pale white or silver tinge and their hair is much more fair, rather than the darker tones of a Silver Elf. If Almaroth had ever met a Gold Elf and a Silver Elf he would have known that things weren't quite so simple as 'nobility and commoners'. Interestingly, the child of a Gold Elf and Silver Elf parents will always present as a Silver Elf. This reinforces a strict caste system in their society."

Malkarov stopped now, to continue eating and I did likewise.

Until, at least, pondering on what he had been telling me forced a question out, "Malkarov, have you met an elf?"

He smiled at me, "I've met quite a few. I spent a full summer in Heltharkareth once, learning from their Spellsingers. In fact, you will quite likely meet one of the friends I made there. It will be he, who will cook elvish food for us."

I remembered Malkarov telling me that he will be teaching me elvish etiquette and eating elvish food, but I never even thought that the cook might be an elf themselves! I could feel my excitement well up, I wished that I could share it with Shard. She'd be so excited at the news.

"Is something wrong?" Malkarov asked me. He must have taken note of my sadness.

"No, no, nothing," I said to him, "I just wished that I could share the news with my… friend."

"There will be plenty of time for that, you won't be trapped in here with me all day every day," he reassured me.

It was reassuring, as it reminded me that I'd just have to wait nine days until I could tell Shard, even if it wouldn't be an actual conversation.

We continued dinner and once finished we carried our dishes to the bench against the wall. Set into the bench was a small metal tub, much like a miniature bath with a similar pipe and runestones to the ones in my bedroom. Malkarov showed me how to fill up the smaller tub and wash our dishes in it, using a small piece of cloth to make sure the dishes were clean. He then instructed me to pick up a smaller piece of cloth that was dry to dry the water off the dishes before packing them away into the cupboards. The cloth worked much better than fingers, and the dishes looked much cleaner after being cleaned with a cloth than being dried in the air.

"I'd better show you these, as well," Malkarov said, walking me over towards the stair landing. Set into the wall to the left of the landing were three small runes that I hadn't noticed at all until he pointed them out.

"The first is for the bells," he said, pushing it twice. Two bells chimed out through the tower. He pushed it three times and three chimes sounded, "These are on the walls to the left of the landing at each level."

"The next two are for the light crystals," he said, "the first you hold in to make the lights brighter and the second you hold in to make them dimmer and eventually go dark. These are on the walls to the left of the landing on each level. They are also to the left of our doors and to the left of our beds in our bedrooms. Another fantastic idea that I can't take any credit for. It was based off the original work of the Enchantress Lelandri, whose two linked runes simply made a single light produce light or not. We've taken great strides in the art of enchanting in the past two hundred years, that's for sure. Why, two hundred years ago the runes would only last a week of use or so before degrading. Now they only have to be rewritten every year if used regularly."

He stopped then and reddened a little, looking a bit embarrassed, "Listen to me prattle on. You can't tell that the art of enchanting is my passion at all, can you? It can wait until your enchanting lesson, I'm sure. Best to get to bed, we shall have breakfast tomorrow morning and then get straight into it. I'll start off each day with theory and stick to a different subject each day just to keep things interesting. Some days I'll set aside for my own work and I'll instruct you as I go. Feel free to keep reading until you hear the two bells and make sure to get up in the morning when you hear the two bells again."

We walked down the steps together and seperated into our rooms. I got changed out of my dress into my nightgown and took the History of the Elves of Kaz Sarion Volume 1 down from the shelf. Lifting back the blankets on my bed, I slid in and got comfortable before continuing my book. Eventually, my eyelids started to droop and I got up to put the book back onto the bookshelf before climbing back into bed and holding my finger on the right hand side rune next to my bed until the light crystals dimmed down and the room became pitch black. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and I didn't even hear the chimes of the bell.