Studying Scholarly Secrets - The Keepers: Part 1

Studying Scholarly Secrets
The Keepers: Part 1

   Thuryves soon realized what grave mistake he had made by allowing the two siblings to join him on his trip back to the Crystal Mind. The Empyrian wasn’t too fond of company but decided to make an exception, but those two rowdy dorks reminded him intensely why he preferred to travel alone. Vericia and Eli were nice Vayrons, but their constant childish bickering, giggling, and goofing around wasn’t something Thuryves put up with easily, so right now he was praying to Holy that the two will get tired enough to behave civil when they reach the prestigious halls of the Keepers.

   The rascals themselves, Vericia and Eli, were still too busy spending the extra energy they built up while staying with the Depthstriders. It took them a few days to scrub off the graffiti and doodles from Eli’s pelt, then a day to soothe his irritated skin from the rough treatment and when they were ready to head on, they just happened to cross paths with Thuryves as the two were lost once again in this elaborate maze. Thurr seemed to know where he was going so naturally, the two tagged along just to reach some sort of destination. The siblings managed to pry out from the cranky Tyrian that he had been to a clan called the Keepers, where he promised to return in a few days with some books to share the knowledge from the topside. Vericia and Eli had no books or paper on them, so they hoped they could meet the clan without bringing such fancy offerings.

“Thuryves, how much further?”

   Vericia’s energetic voice made Thuryves grumble to himself. How on Reos are those two still not tired?

“Almost there.”

   He gave a brief answer with irritation reflecting off his tone, but that didn’t seem to hinder the high spirits of his travelling companions. In fact, they seemed to be entertained by Thurr’s constant Monday morning mood.

“You said that at least a few hours ago, may I request you to be a little more specific?”

   While Eli contributed to background noise, he was at least reserved and more civil, but that wasn’t enough to make Thurr fully tolerate him. The Empyrian stopped at a turn, locked his glowing eyes at the two and demonstratively gestured forward. When the Pullers reached him, they could see for themselves that they were here.

   It’s up to the reader to imagine how magnificent the Keeper’s halls looked as the trio entered the main marbled corridor and headed deeper into the strange library. A young Haedian greeted them excitedly, before she introduced herself as Cindy to the siblings and asked all of them to follow her. She took them through various paths and rooms before they ended up behind a large golden door. As she was about to knock on it, the door sprung open and a green Haedian with gorgeous golden markings stuck his head out, causing Cindy to squeak from surprise. The new Hae didn’t seem to notice it as their eyes locked on Thurr, which conjured a wide smile across his snout.

“Ah, Thuryves! I had a feeling you might be back. And… looks like you brought company?”

   He examined the siblings standing behind Thurr, his golden spectacles glimmering in the light of the illuminating crystals as he adjusted them.

“Yes, hello again, Khaldor. These two are Vericia and Eli, also from the topside.”

“Good, good, very good. Erm, please come in! There’s a lot to talk about.”

   Khaldor pushed the door more open, revealing a cozy study behind it. Vericia and Eli exchanged a puzzled glance with each other before they followed Khaldor and Thurr to the room, where they took seats on the bean-bags Khaldor pointed at. While the guests adjusted themselves, Khaldor quickly cleared a small stone table in the middle of the circle from various junk and hastily grabbed a few deep green crystals from one of the numerous shelves in the room before he joined the others. Seeing those crystals made Vericia raise one eyebrow as she had got one from Ornaax right before they left, but before she could ask or say something, Khaldor cleared his throat.

“Khmm, yes, hello Vericia and Eli, nice to meet you. I am Khaldor, head of the Keepers clan and the Crystal Mind. Our passion is to collect and store various information, and I’d be extremely grateful if you could tell me something about life outside the Beneath. Erm, Cindy, please start copying the content of the books the kind gentleman brought us for later studies. Based on what he explained how the books work, it should not be a hard task.”

   They had almost forgotten about Cindy already, and both siblings slightly jumped when she slithered past them to Thuryves, helping him take off the heavy satchel he was carrying. She then thanked Thurr before swiftly heading to a different table, starting her work there. Khaldor took one of the crystals on the table, charged it up with magic and then looked at the visitors with anticipation.

“Uhm, well…”

   Vericia broke the awkward silence, frantically trying to think of something to impress the cave dwellers. Her brother Eli was quicker, and started to describe the Sun to Khaldor. As he spoke, tiny flares of magic bounced around in the crystal Khaldor was holding, subsiding in one end of it. Vericia was enchanted by this sight while Thurr occasionally glanced over to Cindy, making sure she hadn’t accidentally torn out a page from his valuable books. When Eli finished explaining and answering Khaldor’s questions with his nerdy thoroughness, Khaldor turned to Vericia.

“And what interesting things would you like to tell me?”

   Vericia was caught off guard as she had been so focused on the magic Khaldor was using. Her dumb lamb face made Eli giggle, which paid him back dearly as Vericia’s face stretched into a devious grin thanks to the idea she got. This idea involved describing to Khaldor what ice skating is, using Eli’s first time learning it as a glorious illustrative example. Even Thurr couldn’t help but to smirk at Vericia’s humorous choice of words, while Khaldor even chuckled and Eli just nodded along as he knew perfectly well he had brought this upon himself. He even corrected Vericia a couple of times, painting the picture even more hilarious. And just like in Eli’s case, Khaldor asked multiple questions, to which he got the perfect answers from both of them. The clan leader seemed to be satisfied with the information he received, so he stopped his flow of magic, leaving sparse specks faintly glowing inside the crystal. Cindy had also stopped to listen to the topsiders’ stories, but she snapped out of it once she saw Khaldor taking a break and swiftly turned around, pretending to have been working on her task the whole time.

“Right, excellent! I need a small break but then we may continue.”

   Khaldor smiled happily as he placed the crystal back on the table. Vericia looked at it thoughtfully and decided to ask her initial question now.

“Khaldor, what exactly is this? I got one from Ornaax and it looks exactly like the ones you have.”

   Everyone’s eyebrows raised to Vericia’s statement, especially Khaldor’s.

“Oh, may I see it, please?”

   He extended his hand, and Vericia pulled out the gem from her satchel, placing it in the middle of Khaldor’s palm. Eli and Thurr followed the gem’s journey with their eyes, just as curious to learn what it is as Khaldor was. Even Cindy got distracted again, peeking over Khaldor’s shoulder to see what the commotion was all about. Khaldor activated his magic again, this time making the crystal summon an image hovering in the air of Eli’s makeover look back at the Depthstriders, which caused the Keeper to laugh frantically while the other three were so stunned at the display that they forgot to laugh along with him.