Atsuki Nightwhisper's Arc

Chapter 2 of 17

The dryad's words followed Atsuki out of the library. Dig it up yourself. But the pendant was older than every book on those shelves. He walked all night with the broken half in his fist, and by dawn he understood his problem plainly. No written record went back far enough. The oath that made his family predated the writing. If he wanted a name, he needed a keeper of stories, not pages. He found the old temple half-drowned at the edge of a black pool. Water swallowed its lower stairs. Vines strangled the pale stone. Blue script glowed faint in the arches, older than the marks on his pendant. Someone had told him, once, that the oldest tales in Eldergrove still lived here. He climbed the wet steps and called into the dark doorway. Something small uncoiled from the shadows above the arch. It dropped, spread pale wings, and landed on the broken rail. A dragon no bigger than a cat. White scales caught the dawn. Two blue eyes fixed on him, sharp and amused. "Loud, for a grave-robber," she said. Her voice was light, but she did not blink. "I am Selene Nightveil. I keep what the books forgot. And you woke me for a reason." Atsuki held up the half-pendant. "An oath older than your temple's writing. A marriage between two houses. Half the name snapped off. I need the rest." Selene stretched her neck toward the silver. She sniffed it. Her tail went still. "I remember that binding," she said slowly. "I sang it, when both houses still stood. Two names, split across two discs." Her eyes lifted to his. "But I do not give names for free, elf. Bring me proof you have the right to it." "This is my proof." He shook the pendant. "Half a proof." She hopped closer, claws scraping stone. "The oath was written down once, after all. Not the tale, the record. A registry. Every bound house kept a copy, sealed with the twin discs on its cover." She tilted her head. "Find that book, match your half to the mark on its face, and I will finish the name I sang." Atsuki's breath caught. "Where is it kept?" "With the second family. The ones who hold your other half." Selene's wings folded. "I will not say who. But I will tell you this much, so you stop waking me." She pointed her snout down, into the flooded dark below the stairs. "One copy sank here, when the last keeper drowned. If it survived the water, it survived twenty centuries." So the obstacle broke. The trail no longer ended at the edge of written memory. It led down, into black water, toward a sealed book marked with two joined discs. Atsuki looked at the pool. He could not read the old tongue. But now he did not need to read. He only needed to match. He pulled off his cloak and started down the steps into the water.