Completed Knowledge

[Ari'Ellin]

26th Fall, 520AV

Ari’Ellin had grown tired of spending her days doing the same things over and over again. For her most days were crowded with work and the Healing Hands, and although she enjoyed the job itself, part of her wanted something more in her life, something else she could do outside of those shifts that had become so mundane to her.

Seemingly without realising it, Ari’Ellin’s feet had brought her to Tenten peak, and to the front of a beautiful building, with a series of sky glass stairs leading up to it’s doors. It was beautiful, and each step seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, it’s rays bouncing around the steps and leaving rainbows adorning the area.

Ari’Ellin had briefly seen the Bharani Library before, but she had never entered it before, never having had much need to enter the Library and always having worried about her own lacking knowledge of the common language. She’d always been certain that the words within the books were written in common, and although she was able to communicate in common, the reading and understanding of text seemed far more difficult to her.

Sighing, she shook her head, beginning to walk away from the library before something stopped her. She knew that she stood no chance of ever improving her common if she didn’t at least try. Exhaling, she made her way up the steps towards the grand entrance, before she pushed the doors open and stepped inside.

The first thing she saw was a young, pale haired woman sat at what looked to be a reception desk. Ari let her eyes wander over everything that she could see, amazed by the skyglass shelves that held all of the books and scrolls. The building was just as magnificent inside as it’s exterior had been, and for a few moments Ari’Ellin just stood and stared in awe.

“Hello.” came a feminine voice, drawing Ari out of her awestruck state as she looked towards the source of the voice to see the pale haired woman waving at her. “Welcome to the Bharani Library. Do you have a pebble?” the woman asked and Ari blinked in confusion, before a slight smile spread across the woman’s face. “I’m assuming that’s a no, don’t worry, we can get you set up with one. We’ll just need you to tell a seeker some information we can add here. Don’t worry, it won’t take too long.” the woman continued before calling over someone who must have been a seeker and speaking to him in hushed tones before the man approached her.

“If you’d like to come with me so we can give you access to the library?” he said, his voice calm as he started to walk away.

“I-My common not so good.” Ari’Ellin managed to stammer out as the man stopped and turned to look at her, beckoning her to follow him.

“That doesn’t matter, just tell us what you can, okay?” he stated and Ari nodded gently, following him as he walked through the library.

Word Count506 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Ari’Ellin kept following him until he came to a stop at a desk with a paper and a quill laid on it. Ari’Ellin watched him pull out a drawer and retrieve a vial of ink before he looked to her.

“We need some sort of information from you, about anything you know of. Would you like to write it yourself, or would you prefer to speak to me and I can write it down for you?” he asked and Ari thought for a moment, before deciding on one of the options.

“You write, okay?” she asked and the man nodded, taking a seat and gesturing for her to sit opposite him. “I know some runestones?” Ari’Ellin said and the man nodded at her. Quickly she rummaged through her backpack to find her set of runestones, pulling them out onto the table so she could have a reference and letting her fingers pick out the runestone that looked as though it was a letter ‘P’, made from three straight lines, before she started to speak.

“Each runestone has name, and meaning. This is joy rune. Drawing it doesn’t mean you happy though. It have lot of meaning. If you draw it right way, like this.” Ari’Ellin turned the stone to show the man the direction that she was speaking of. “It can mean that you get something through... through hard work? I can mean comfort, change for good, peace. It show that you look at plans, change them and things are better.” she said, trying her best to explain the meanings in a language that wasn’t her native tongue.

For a few moments she watched the man writing things down and sketching the rune before he nodded at her, and she chose to continue, rotating the stone so that the rune was upside down.

“This is... backwards?” she fumbled, trying to find the right word to describe the way that the stone was lain out. “Not backwards... reversed! Reversed changed meaning. Now it mean conflict and bad changes. Now it warning.” she explained. “Usually reverse is bad. Some runes no reverse though. Like gift rune!” she grinned as she spoke, finding the rune that looked like an ‘X’ and pushing it forwards. “This gift. It mean giving to people, and getting from people. It kindness and help, if gods happy with you. It mean good relationship. Happy and healthy together.” she nodded as she spoke with a slightly smile before she focused again. “It also mean... offering? Making things equal.” she explained as best as she could.

Again she waited a few moments for the man to finish writing that section before she presented another runestone to the man, this one looking like an ‘F’with it’s strokes pointing diagonally downwards.

“This is wind, spirit. It means blessings and joy. Not what’s expected, starting again, and talking. It means peace, and being strong before helping people. It’s wisdom, brain, and get help from elder.” she hummed softly as she spoke. “Reverse is warning. Mischief from elder. Bad advice.”

Word Count506 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Looking through the stones, none of the others were lying face up on the table, and searching through the stones always left her uneasy, as though she was trying to change fate.

“Is enough or need more?” she asked, looking at the man expectantly, waiting a few more moments than she was completely comfortable with, until he nodded at her.

“That should be enough for now. If you lose your pebble you’ll have to tell us more though.” the man said, before he reached into his drawer and produced a perfectly smooth, white pebble, a book stamped onto it in silver ink. “This is important. You should bring this with you every time you wish to use the library. It allows you to freely look at all of the books i the library. If you lose it we can do this process again and you will be able to get a replacement. In the meantime, if you wish to give us any more of your knowledge don’t hesitate.” the man said, handing the pebble to her.

Ari’Ellin nodded at him, closely looking over the stone and turning it in her hands, running her thumb over it a few times before nodding again, hurriedly putting her runestones back into her backpack before she stood up, bowing to the man thankfully and making her way back to the main part of the library, looking over the shelves and checking the spines of the books.

She wasn’t looking for anything in particular, more looking for something that caught her attention. The books all looked different to each other, each one bound in a different colour and a different material. None of the books were uniform either, with some being no bigger than her hand, others being much bigger than looked practical to her.

It didn’t take long before a book caught her attention. It was bound in a deep indigo leather like material, and it’s title was written in a pearlescent white ink, and it read “Traditional Holidays of Lhavit”.

She couldn’t resist picking the book out and flicking through it, reading over the first page that had a brief overview of Lhavit.

‘Lhavit was discovered by the first outsiders in the year 402 A.V. When the Eagle Riders of Wind Reach discovered our home by chance. Since then we have developed a few additional holidays and adopted some aspects of other cities cultures, but mostly has managed to keep it’s own unique nature and it’s own special holidays.’

Ari’Ellin hummed as she read the passage, before making her way to sit down so she could read the book more.

‘Our festivities are enjoyed by all in Lhavit and greatly focus on the sky and even when not directly related to the sky are somehow attributed to celestial bodies. For example, the Midsummer Festival falls in the middle of summer on the hottest day of the year, and is used to give thanks to Syna, the Goddess of the Sun. This day is celebrated by many through various displays of fire-play in the plaza’s. Pendants and necklaces are made from stones and herbs to ward away spirits with malicious intent, and singles trade slips of paper with conversation prompts on the backs of them.’

Ari’Ellin frowned slightly as she read over the description, never having really witnessed the festivities it spoke of, although before this year her common had been even worse and she had preferred to isolate herself from others when she wasn’t working.

Word Count583 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Frowning slightly, Ari’Ellin also recognised that one of the words. ‘Malicious’. It was a complete enigma to her, although through reading the term ‘ward away’ she assumed that these intents could not be happy or positive. Humming she nodded, making a mental note to check with someone later as to what the word ‘malicious’ meant.

Sighing, she decided to flick through the pages of the book to the section dedicated to holidays in the season of winter. Winter would be the next season, and Ari’Ellin found that she would have more time to ask people about the holidays before they sprung up out of nowhere on her.

Nodding to herself, she found the correct page and opened it, seeing details of how Winter usually affected the city and it’s weather and for a few moments Ari felt a twinge of sadness running through her. Whoever had written the book seemed to have never expected the disappearance of the winter goddess, accompanied by the disappearance of true winter as well. She couldn’t help but wonder how many festivities and holidays would have to be changed or cancelled until winter came back, if it ever did.

Sighing softly, she shook her head, trying to avoid the thoughts as she focussed again on the book, reading through until another holiday was detailed, this one being the Midwinter Festival on the 46th of Winter.

‘The Midwinter Festival takes place on the longest night of winter and celebrates the balance of Leth and Syna. It also celebrates renewal and hope as the days promise to grow longer and longer and the days grow shorter and shorter. This holiday is usually a familial affair, celebrated with feasts and dancing within families and homes. Those with no families will usually find themselves being invited to join their friends families to ensure that they don’t celebrate alone.’

At the mention of it being a familial holiday, Ari felt a slight grimace spread across her face. She had yet to make any real friends that would consider her a part of their family, although she was determined to try to befriend someone. If she found someone else that didn’t have family here, maybe they could celebrate in their own little mock family.

She knew that she wanted to gain more experience of the holidays in Lhavit, and that to do so she’d have to branch out more and make more friends, as well as stopping relying on things that reminded her of her home back in Mura and clinging onto her own traditions. She needed to embrace the culture of Lhavit more and throw herself into it headfirst.

The idea was more than daunting to her, but she knew that if she wanted to start living her life and stop reminiscing over her childhood it was something she’d have to gain the courage and face up to so that she could finally start building her own legacy, no matter how small or insignificant or unremarkable it ended up being.

Word Count500 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Sighing to herself, Ari'Ellin closed the book, bored with reading about the holidays celebrated in Lhavit. If anything they seemed as though having a family or friend was something necessary to truly fit into the city. That was something that she knew she would struggle with the most. Frowning silently, she stood up, walking back to the shelves and sliding the book back into it's place as she started reading the spines of other books, trying to see if any would stand out.

After a few moments of looking, it became clear that many of the books had spines that weren't worded in an inviting way. Instead several of them looked as though they had been quickly scribbled on the spines, and were titled things like "Anthrolopogy I: Marcus Draper,", "Anthropology II: Elissa Mircroft." and similar names.

Several of the books were named after things that she didn't recognise, at least not in the common tongue. From Anthropology, to Cosmetology, to Fletching. All were things that she hadn't heard of in the common tongue yet. An even wider frown spread across her face as she kept checking the books, before one caught her attention. Not all of the words were ones that she fully comprehended and understood, but she understood enough of them to guess at what the other words were saying.

"Jacob Carole's adventures in camping."

A book on someones experiences while camping sounded as though it could be something useful to Ari'Ellin, especially if she ever wanted to start trying to hunt and obtain bones herself!

Nodding to herself, Ari'Ellin pulled the book from the shelf and moved to sit back down again, beginning to read the book, The first few pages were detailing who 'Jacob Carole' was, and it seemed that he had been a fairly wealthy hunter that spent more than a night or two away from Lhavit. holing himself up in a tent or under Leth as he sought out the greatest places to sleep to ensure a productive day afterwards,

It appeared that the man had often chosen to avoid the 'usual choice of a tent' and instead made himself a shelter from the plants and trees around him, using sticks to make the structure and then leaves to fill the gaps to waterproof it. Ari'Ellin's brow furrowed in confusion as she tried to work out how such a thing would work. It didn't detail how the sticks were put together to make a structure, only that it was possible, and now Ari wanted to try to see how such a thing could be done, just so that she could practice it at home or perhaps in the Alheas Park.

Sighing slightly, she turned the page again, blinking at the sheer number of unfamiliar words and sentence structures, and so she closed the book, heading back to the shelf to put it away as she decided that she had read enough for the day, and that her lacking common was beginning to cause her to grow irritable for now.

It didn't take long for her to return the book and leave the library. Now she was on her way back to her home, enjoy the sight of the skyglass adorning everything throughout the beautiful, luminous city.

There were no mentions of him using fires in the book at first, although it spoke mostly of summer when the air wasn't too cold. It also seemed that the man chose to make camp towards the based of the mountains, claiming that it was warmer at the base of the mountain.

Word Count595 Words

[Oralie]

grade award!

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Ari'Ellin

Skills

• Observation: 3
• Socialisation: 1
• Teaching: 1

Lores

• Location: The Bharani Library
• Bharani Library: You need to be a member to gain access
• Bharani Library: Membership pebble
• Lhavit: Midsummer Festival
• Lhavit: Midwinter Festival
• Self: A need to make friends

Extra
+ 1 membership pebble for the Library
...

Please PM me if you have any questions or concerns and don't forget to edit your grade request!