Eric sat in the study that had been assigned to him as the library on Alliance was being built. It was late into the night and he was still reading slowly through the old tome in front of him. His eyes ached and his head throbbed as he strained his abilities to read and translate the ancient language into Aupanan in the flickering light of the candle.

It was one of the oldest books saved from Cleandria, with pages so aged that the spine cracked each time he opened it, no matter how carefully he tried to handle the book. It smelled of dust and smoke and held a quiet aura of pain, containing a history of the region that spanned several hundred years into the past.

The language used was something close to current Cleandrian, and perhaps it had originally started out as Sellexun, or maybe it was the language Sellexu and Cleandrian had both formed out of. But even as the base language to two that were in use today, it took a cipher to translate.

Every so often he found words adopted by his own language hidden within the tome, speaking to a joint history between all three nations. A few older Cleandrians had spoken or read this language, though most of them were now missing after the destruction of that tiny nation.

The discovery of the language had been a marvel to him when he had first come across it a few years before, and he had painstakingly taught himself what he could, out of sheer curiosity. He never would have guessed that this book existed, as it had not been read in centuries. He never would have guessed that he would find a use for the ancient language scrolled on useless ledgers hidden amongst boxes of books saved from near disaster.

Not that he blamed anyone. The book didn't initially appear to carry any interesting information and had probably been seen as a collector's novelty and set aside for more important tasks. It mostly contained records of the ancient people in this land, though where they had originally come from was lost in some other history that he did not have access to.

They had been there, settled for several centuries by the time the ancient tome had been written, with various forms of government sprouting in different city states, engaging both in war and in peace. When the book had begun, it merely spoke of daily life and various notable individuals who were in power or seeking to be in power. Reading through the lives and notable possessions or achievements, he recognized the early histories of Aupana and Sellexu taking shape, as well as a select few notable families.

Eric jumped up and grinned, looking down at the pages he had written, reviewing them to ensure he was not mistaken. Shuffling the paper, Eric nodded to himself. He had found something more. He quickly closed the old book and set it aside, then grabbed his papers and hurried out of his room. Barely taking note of the darkness that had fallen, Eric jogged down the hall towards his mother's rooms. Once there, he knocked quickly on the door as he bounced on his toes, grinning as he burst with everything he needed to share.
It was only when she opened her door, glaring at him sleepily, that he realized that he had been working well into the early morning again.

With a slightly chagrined smile, he ducked his head. "Mother."

"Eric, is all well?" Elana sighed and rubbed her eyes. She knew his expression, and though she was perturbed at the early wake up, his enthusiasm brought a slight smile to her lips.

Eric nodded and held up the paper with a wide grin. "I wanted to tell someone, you were the first person I thought of."

"Alright. As long as the world isn't burning down." She grumbled and stepped aside, opening the door for him to come in.

Eric strode in and sat down on one chair, watching her move around the room as she locked the door, stoked the fire, and then lit a couple lamps to brighten the room to mimic daylight hours. He bounced impatiently, but knew better than to push his mother's patience until she was awake enough to listen to him.

When she had sat down on the chair opposite him, letting out a sigh and giving him an expectant look, he jumped back to his feet.

Unable to contain his energy, Eric paced. "So you know that book that no one had bothered reading or looking at as far as you know?"

Elana smiled, watching him with affectionate amusement. "Yes, the one in the ancient language that you've been trying to translate."

Eric nodded and paced a bit, looking down at the stack of papers in his hands, then over to her. "I did it. Mostly, some words are lost, but a lot of them just take an understanding in several languages to piece together."

Elana nodded, sitting back and moving to pull her hair out of her face as she watched her son flutter around the room. "You've always had a knack for languages."

He grinned to her at the compliment, nearly beaming for a moment before continuing. "Well, most of the book is pretty dry, recording land titles and family trees, government decrees. But as you go through, you see this picture forming, of five major families coming into power on both sides of the bay. There was one that was here, on this island, and then two on either side. The fascinating thing is, is that the book talks about their gifts. The powers they had, the magic that was used, it was something that made them who they were, really. I guess like us, but I've never quite figured out why it's not something people admit to. Even though most people do have some sort of gift, it seems almost taboo to admit it. Like the dark horse or something."
"Eric." Elana murmured, patting the chair for him to sit back down. He blinked at her, then nodded and sat as directed.

Once still, he let out a steadying breath though he still vibrated with excitement. "Well, besides magic, each of these families had an heirloom of sorts, something imbued with magical properties. One of them was what we now call the Alliance Stone. One was a sword, another a suit of armour that would change to fit its owner and so forth. Well, the five families began fighting with a dark power that invaded from the north. It was attacking and searching for something or someone, and was quite powerful. Putting aside petty rivalries, the city states, guided by these ruling families, all came together. They also brought these objects together, and it seemed to keep people safe. One item could keep this island safe, all five together. It seemed to shield a great deal of people and land from other, darker, magic. A lot of land and a lot of people were lost in these battles, despite the powers of the items, it was still a close war."

"What happened to the items?" Elana asked softly, reaching over to place a hand on Eric's leg and giving it a gentle squeeze. "The five families?"

"Well, two of the families married, and that couple had the two sons, Aupan and Sellexer, and together, they rallied the other three families and even more from the rest of the bay. They sent a request for help to all corners of the earth and decided to start pushing back outwards, trying to claim back their lands. Over the next decade or so, three of the heirlooms had gone missing in various battles. In the end, Sellexer had the Alliance stone, and Aupan had a sword that could cut through metal and stone and pretty much anything."

"What happened to the sword?" Elana asked curiously. The news was not happy, but it gave them a place to start, an idea of what could help them fight.

Eric shook his head and offered a shrug. "No idea. It doesn't say. One could believe that he brought it back after the fighting and it was lost or forgotten about somewhere in Aupana."

"So, there was a stone, a sword, armour, and what else?" Elana murmured.

Her question prompted him to flip through his papers, scanning them until he found the information he was looking for.

"Uhm, a shield and a chalice. A Chalice and a diamond are weird things to carry into battle with you, but I guess that probably wasn't their initial purpose. There're maps in the books, and they're faded, but I might be able to figure out rough ideas of where the battles were. And with that, hopefully where we might find the items again though, if they weren't destroyed completely." Eric smiled thoughtfully. "Imagine if these things still existed?"

Elana nodded, turning away from him and considering the fire. "It will be good when you fully translate this, so that we can preserve it as a record, then we can properly seal the book to prevent any further damage. Perhaps the Alliance Council will be interested in trying to find some of these other things."

"Oh, I forgot the best part!" Eric offered suddenly, flipping a page onto the table, to a map he had roughly sketched from the references on the book and his memory of the area in question. "See, this is Aupana as we know it now. I placed one of the other maps on it and cited some references. You see here? Just south and east of the Village of Sythe? That's where the old palace of Aupan was. In Lansend. After the fighting, he never went back there, instead moving south to where our capital is now, but I think Sythe might even come from the ancient word Scintha, which meant 'cursed battle' or near enough. There used to be a castle and roads all over there. Imagine, I grew up not very far from there and no one even knows about it now!"

Elana laughed, turning to look up to him for a moment, her expression bemused even as she felt the relief run through her. "Son, I love you, but this is information that might actually be useful right now."

Eric paused, tilting his head to the side as he considered it. "I was thinking maybe Nerini could look there. There's a reason Aupan let the woods claim the place. And terrible memories, ghosts of magic, might have made it an easy place for evil to move back in, or even recognize it."

Elana nodded firmly and stood. "Let's go make a copy and send it to her, with a short version of your explanation. Then, I think you should start working on the other maps, I think you may have found something that is very useful to all of us."

She didn't say it, but even Eric understood the undertones to it. His brother may be there, if Kannein was to be found at all. And even across the bay and safe in a protected library, he may have been able to help his sister find him.

"I wasn't sure how helpful all this would be, especially the items of the families, I mean, they were defeated, eventually, most of them anyway. Which means they were fallible. And they won the war without them, so are they even worth an effort to find?" Eric mused, glancing down at his papers once more, his expression growing more serious as he murmured. "I just hope this helps Nerini find Kanny."

"We can never know love. The history written on pages can only tell us so much." Elana sighed softly as she led him out of the room and back towards the library, rubbing his back gently. "They'll both be okay, Eric, you know how strong both of them are."

Eric didn't object, though the logic in his mind told him that the chances were very slim that Kannein was still alive. And whatever this dark power was, he struggled for the faith that even Nerini could defeat it.