The book closed with a sense of finality to it. She stood up and turned to the burning candle. It taunted her. It teased her with its flickering warmth. She raised her hands towards the burning flame, watching it with intense concentration. Ancient words flowed along her voice as she began to call upon ancient energies to perform the task at hand. Light blue energy began to radiate around her hands as though she were collecting raw energy from the earth itself. With a crisp final word of the ancient language, the flame wavered and then went out with a hiss. Ice crystals began to form along the wick and over the wax. Even the smoke from the flame that once burned was frozen while trying to escape.
With a sigh of relief, Carianna whispered to herself, “Finally.”
“Very good, child,” came the soft voice.
Carianna startled at the voice that came from behind her. She turned around and saw those silver eyes watching her. The silver hair of Carianna’s teacher shined brightly in the streaming sunlight that came in through the high windows along the walls of the arcane workroom. Rycyne pulled a slender hand from inside her dark forest green robes and touched the candle where ice had frozen the wax in its last liquid formation. Rycyne nodded in deep thought, causing silver ripples to flow down the length of her hair coming to rest just above the small of her back.
“You have been improving very well the past few weeks, Carianna. I am very pleased to see what you have accomplished,” Rycyne praised. “You will gain better control the more you use your skill and become more familiar with what you have been graced with.” Rycyne waved her hand at the candle, “Naur Me’a.” Flame sprang to life on the candle, quickly melting the ice that was formed by Carianna’s spell. “Carianna, please place the book back on the shelf and come see me in my study.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Carianna answered as she picked up the book and started toward the shelf she had gotten the book from earlier that day. She could hear the soft rustle of Rycyne’s robes as they moved across the stone floor as her teacher left the workroom.
Bookcases were lined up along all the walls in the workroom, reaching to the high windows. Made of elven oak, the wood still gave off the sweet aroma of the forest from which they were cut centuries before. Volumes of ancient tomes and manuals were located at the top, usually covered in layers of dust that had gathered over the years of non-use. The volumes on the lower shelves and easier to access, were those volumes that were copies of some of the volumes on the higher shelves, or volumes which the students studying the arts used to learn.
Carianna moved to the other side of the latter used to reach the higher books. There she found the open slot where she had gotten the book she had been studying. She slid the book into placed and then turned back and started toward the table where she had been working. It was between two other tables that were closer to the bookcases. The large oak tables were wonderful to work on. They were large and spacious, allowing one to open even the largest of the tomes and manuals, and still have room to work with out feeling crowded.
She reached the table and started to collect the parchments she where she had written her notes. She carefully rolled them up in to a careful roll of velum and placed them inside her scroll case. The smooth, lacquered wood always reminded her of her mother. Carianna’s mother had given her the scroll case as a birthday present after word had come down that Carianna would be training in the arcane arts. Her mother had passed though the veil 2 years ago. Her death was still a mystery, even to the high clerics at the temple.
Carianna picked up the quills and ink, and carried everything over to the storage cabinets. The cabinets were made of the same elven oak as the bookcases. Their surfaces were worn smooth with the use they have endured over the centuries. The Polished wood gleamed back in the light giving back a warm and welcoming feeling. Carianna placed a hand on the door to one of the cabinets and spoke in a quiet, but commanding voice, “Ripa lina en urulokior.” A soft glow radiated around her hand and a soft click could be heard. Carianna removed her hand from the cabinet door as the door slowly opened.
Carianna placed the scroll case, quills and ink carefully in the cabinet and then closed the door. As the door closed, the soft click came from behind the door again. She turned to the end of the workroom and started toward the large double doors at the end of the room. Carianna was not sure, but she felt that something was about to change her life.
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