White Devil

by Janina Franck

  Lilith stroked over the paper and brushed a strand of hair out of her face with her other hand.

  “I think it may have been just what we needed,” she admitted. “But could you find me a map of Velsalia as it is today? And also the earliest map of the continent you have?”

  “Sure! Two maps coming right up! While I’m at getting you things, would you like a cup of tea? I used to be a much better host, but it’s the changing times. You came from Tsoaluo, you know how it is.”

  The thought of the recent skirmishes in the capital city left a darkened expression on his face.

  “A cup of tea would be lovely,” Lilith was quick to disrupt whatever thoughts had occurred to him. When he nodded and walked off, she turned her attention back to the document. This time, she found it much easier to get her mind back into the right state. She picked up right where she had left off.

  The scouts, who were made up of envoys from several neighboring countries, went to find Arceolus, the heart of the northern kingdom of Kô. However, instead of the once proud city with its surrounding lands of paradise, they encountered a desert – sands and death, the sun beating down on them mercilessly in their search for the kingdom and water. Eventually, the scouts happened upon a seemingly ancient ruin, half covered by the black sands, barely recognizable as Arceolus as it had once been. There were no signs of its people or its attackers, no corpses, no traces of life, not even bones, at least until the scouts tried to return home.

  The floodplains that had once served as a natural border had started to die as well. It was there that some survivors could be found, however, they had been changed. Their wings had been charred, shriveled away to the point where they met the back, and their dark hair had taken on a green shine, as if the fire from the earlier light had been captured inside. Even their complexion had changed – their skin had brightened a little and taken on a reddish hue. They refused the help of the scouts, and returned to what had once been Arceolus, but not to stay.

  When the writer heard about this, she traveled back to her home to find the survivors. However, when she got there, she found that they had begun to travel, taking on a nomadic lifestyle, always moving from one place to the next, in search of more survivors. The writer could not accept that for herself and returned to her new chosen home near the mountains, where she started a family with a human. Her children had lost their wings as had the remaining people of her country, but unlike them, they did not have the green shine in their hair and despite her partner’s paleness, their skin remained dark, like the earth as it had looked in Arceolus’ prime.

  There were more pages on the remainder of the writer’s life, but Lilith stopped reading, at this point, realizing there would not be much more useful information than what she had found. Returning to herself, she found Selene sitting across from her at the table, watching with her cat-like eyes. The table had been cleared of books and documents to make way for two rolls of maps and a cup of tea that had likely stopped steaming some time ago.

  Somewhat guiltily, Lilith realized that she had been so absorbed by her research that she hadn’t noticed any of it.

  “Anything useful?” Selene asked.

  Amethyst landed on the table and ogled the documents. He inspected the writing and then picked up one of his claws to compare it.

  “Are you sure this is even writing? Looks to me like a bird landed in some ink and just walked across.”

  Lilith giggled at his comment.

  “I assure you, it is a journal. I am unsure if it is related to the Hellfire Naginata, but there is a possibility.”

  She leaned forward in order to pick up one of the maps, but instead a yawn escaped her, and her eyes fell shut for a moment. It was only when she opened them again that she noticed the burning sensation. Fatigue fell over her like a blanket and suddenly she couldn't muster the strength to pick up the pages again.

  Silently, Selene watched her roll open the map. The lines, letters and colors refused to make sense to Lilith, no matter how hard she strained her eyes.

  “Maybe we should leave it at that for tonight,” Selene noted calmly.

  “Hm? Oh, no, I can continue, I am alright.”

  Selene shook her head at Lilith's weak assurance.

  “Look,” she said, nodding toward Ayalon and Zero, in dog shape, dozing nearby. In fact, the dragon had begun to lightly snore, and his head had fallen from his paws and was now sideways on the floor, his tongue drooping out of his half-open mouth. Zero wasn’t much better.

  “It's been a long day. Give yourself some rest. We've all eaten already. You should, too.”

  “She's right you know,” Amethyst added. “You're too tired for this. The book guy said we could use that room over there.” He nudged toward the door on the far right.

  “But I just want to see if-”

  “No.” Selene cut Lilith off gently. “That's enough. You'll eat something and then you'll go to sleep.”

  Her order, although spoken softly, did not allow for disobedience.

  Lilith sighed unhappily and gave in. She barely remembered either eating or going to sleep in the soft bed that had been prepared, but Selene must have made sure it happened and also ushered the other three in to sleep.

  *****

  Lilith woke up late the next day. Her fatigue must have been worse than she had imagined. None of the others were in the room, but she could hear their voices next door. She also smelled something that could only be breakfast. Upon realizing this, she swung her legs out of the bed, and left the comfortable but bare room.

  In the library, her desk was still the way she had left it the night before, although the tea cup had been taken away. Following the voices and smells, Lilith found her way to the kitchen where the rest of her group were eating happily with Maurice, who was telling them about stories of Nenbalon's supposed underworld. Selene in particular was listening to the stories with great interest.

  Upon Lilith's entrance, Amethyst urged her to join them, but after a few bites, Lilith had lost her appetite. She was more concerned with doing the rest of her research, so they could move on and complete their mission. Selene forced her to eat a little more, before accompanying Lilith back to her desk.

  Sitting down, Lilith exhaled slowly to ready herself. Then she leaned forward and rolled open one of the maps. The one she picked looked older, with pages that had turned ochre with age, the edges brittle and chipped. Despite that, the colors still shone brightly.

  Lilith studied the map carefully, trying to determine what had remained the same, but she was having difficulty figuring it out. Selene moved beside Lilith and looked in as well. She pointed at a mountain range and a lake beside it.

  “That’s where we came from,” she said. “This is Tsoaluo.” Selene gestured slightly right of the lake, where a settlement had been marked as Zohlon.

  “Then these over here – wait, should there not be five countries? There are only three,” Lilith noticed with concern. Where she expected to find the Five Crown Empire, only three countries could be seen on the map – Xtlzquel, the Republic of Fenthal and the Kingdom of Zane.

  “How old is the map?” Selene asked loudly, standing up.

  “Which one?” Maurice yelled entering the room from the kitchen, carrying a tea cup with him as he strolled past them further into the room.

  “The old one you gave us yesterday.”

  “Oh, that one! It’s about sixteen hundred odd years, I think,” Maurice’s now disembodied voice came from behind several rows of shelves. “It’s a copy of the maps Leslie Silverwing made, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that there’ve been some hefty shifts in the countries since then! I think only Quintz and Xtlzquel are still the same as then.”

  He was right. Lilith checked the other side of the mountain range which would show her home on modern maps and found Quintz. Tracing along the borders, she found that they were extremely close to what they were now. And similar to the maps Colm had sh
own her, only one city had been entered for it – the capital city Mah-Tenshi.

  What was now Pbecrah seemed to have been known as Pabia and had taken up some of what was now Western Velsalia, Northern Stelry and North-Eastern Macrin. The South of Stelry and the remainder of Macrin had been their own countries, back then known as Macrelia and the Federation of the Still Tribes. Evarain was drawn in as well, however it did not hold a name at the time. It was simply marked as No Man’s Land, with markings that suggested danger and barbarians.

  “Hold on, let me see that!”

  Selene pushed Lilith aside and stared intently at the top right corner of the map. Her eyes fluttered across the writing over and over and Lilith noticed the quickening of her breath.

  “What does this say?”

  She pointed at the writing, her intense gaze firing arrows at Lilith.

  “It says… Indications of the Sovereign Empires of Jianlah,” Lilith read it out, “however neither explored nor proven.”

  The sides of Selene’s mouth twitched into a smile of disbelief.

  “Zero, Ayalon,” she shouted, picking up the map.

  As they hurried out from whatever crook they had buried themselves to look at books or nap, Selene walked briskly over to them, pointing at the corner of the map.

  “It’s here,” she said. “It’s really on here! They knew about us back then!”

  Both of them stared the map where Selene was pointing and after a moment shared similar reactions to Selene.

  “Balthasar and Griffin will be delighted,” Zero said smiling, a sparkle of joy twinkling in his eyes.

  “And Ference will have a fit,” Ayalon snorted. They laughed at the thought until Selene had to gasp for air. Lilith was astonished – she had never seen Selene act like this. Usually she was so calm and composed, nothing seemed to ever surprise her, or to let her show her true feelings, but this discovery seemed to have awoken magic inside of her. One thing was certain, Selene had a beautiful smile. It made Lilith smile along without even knowing what was happening. All of a sudden, her step seemed lighter and for once, she truly looked her age.

  “They’ve gone crazy,” Amethyst muttered to Lilith as he settled on her shoulder. “I warned you they’re weird.”

  “You know that place?” Lilith asked. Selene turned to her with her finger still indicating the same place.

  “It’s our home,” she explained, an audible crack in her voice. She looked down to the floor, her smile disappearing slowly, handed Lilith the map, and fled into Maurice’s room, slamming the door behind her.

  Perturbed, Lilith looked back to Zero and Ayalon. Their happy expressions had turned somewhat sad.

  “It’s difficult, sometimes,” Zero explained. “Knowing we can’t go back.”

  “But why? I am sure Griffin can fix the ship in time.”

  “We’re not welcome there,” Ayalon interjected. “Even if we could go back, they’d kill us.”

  “Oh…” Lilith, too, looked to the ground.

  “Okay, so I’m sorry to hear that and all,” Amethyst croaked. “But you’ve got a new home now, don’t you? If they want you dead, why would you want to go back anyway? Don’t you live in the Highlands with us now?”

  Shocked, Lilith gaped at the raven. It was the nicest thing she had ever heard him say to her friends. Zero and Ayalon reacted in kind.

  “Did you just…” Ayalon said in questioning tones.

  Amethyst ruffled his feathers uncomfortably.

  “Shut up, I’m leaving.”

  He leapt off Lilith’s shoulder and found the highest shelf to perch on and gloomily look down on everything.

  Maurice gingerly cleared his throat behind Zero.

  “Excuse me,” he said. “But I couldn’t help but overhear. There aren’t too many other noises here, you see, so… I was wondering, if you wouldn’t mind… Well, could I ask you two some questions…?”

  His voice was polite, but his eyes betrayed his curiosity and excitement. Lilith also noticed he was badly hiding several documents and books behind his back.

  Zero and Ayalon exchanged a look before shrugging.

  “Alright,” Zero agreed.

  “Fantastic! If you could just come along here for a moment, there is some information and tales I want you to verify.”

  Maurice disappeared into the large room to the left of the staircase with the two and closed the door. Their voices were immediately cut off. Trusting they would be alright, Lilith glanced up at Amethyst who appeared to have decided sulking was the best course of action for the next while and went to check on Selene.

  She knocked on the door to the room and waited for a reply. When none came, she gently pushed it open, peeking her head inside. Selene sat on the bed staring blankly out the window on the opposite side. Lilith took a seat next to her and looked out as well. The sky was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain in the distance. From this point, not much could be seen of Nenbalon’s walkways. Only the sky remained visible, however dull it might look.

  “We’re going to get strong winds in a short while,” Selene noted after a few moments of shared silence.

  “Do you think we will have rain as well?”

  Selene shook her head. “No, not here. Further down the country.”

  Another silence followed.

  A few minutes later, Selene started up again. “What are you looking for on the maps?”

  Lilith shrugged.

  “I want to figure out where the city Arceolus would be today. I am hoping I will be able to find it on the older map, so I can then tell where it would have been now.”

  “Is the weapon there?”

  Lilith shrugged again.

  “It might be,” she said. “But I do not have real evidence that it ever was.”

  Selene sighed, and a smile crept back on her face.

  “Well, I’ve got a story or two about chasing elusive objects,” she admitted. “Let’s take another look at the maps and go. Maybe that archivist has a few more things stacked away somewhere in here.”

  She jumped to her feet and marched back to the table with the maps and documents. Lilith followed closely behind. They spent the next hour comparing the two maps and using the limited information Lilith had from the journal, determined the location of the flood plains, Arceolus itself, and also the rough location of where the writer had fled to. As it turned out, Nenbalon was actually built on the Pbec border to what used to be said flood plains, now known as the Cursed Lands. It was a stretch of swamp and marshland that stretched in an oval shape along a river, which, evidently, did not bear fish. Arceolus had once stood north-east of Nenbalon’s current location, not too far from the Cursed Lands, however no signs of it were seen on the current map. Lilith was glad to have Selene with her, as the pirate captain had a lot more experience with distances and maps.

  The third location was, as Maurice’s words had already indicated, somewhere in Zentopia, however the older map proved that it used to be a more mountainous region in the past. Colm had taught Lilith that the Morr-Velam mountains had always been dwarf and troll lands, which meant that there was a good chance that whatever may have once been there, might also have fallen into Taq hands at one point or another.

  “You do know that the north is hot, don’t you?” Amethyst eventually interrupted the discussion. “Are you sure we have to go there?”

  Lilith nodded.

  “I think we should. We may find something useful. It does not have to be for long.”

  “Do you think the Hellfire Naginata will still be there?” Selene asked, one eyebrow raised slightly.

  “No, too much time has passed. If it had been there, someone would have found it at this point. But we may be able to find more information, any clue at all.”

  Amethyst ruffled his feathers and clicked his beak unhappily.

  “You have no idea what black feathers are like in sunlight,” he grumbled. “I’m gonna be roasted by
the time we get to that Arc-place.”

  “You can just stay here,” Selene interjected sharply. “We need to come back to get the steamer either way, so you stay here and we’ll deal with the heat.”

  Flapping his wings, Amethyst croaked angrily in reply and sullenly hopped onto Lilith’s shoulder, rubbing his head against her cheek.

  “Stupid humans, see if I care, just burn to a crisp in the sun, why don’t you. Stupid, mean humans,” Lilith heard him mutter. Based on intonation, he’d been speaking his animal tongue, not Pbec. She gently stroked his ruffled feathers to soothe him. He acted coarse a lot of the time, but Lilith knew how sensitive he could be.

  “We will take care of you,” she promised. “It will be alright. Of course, you may choose to wait here for us, but if you join us, we will make sure you will not be hurt by the sun.”

  Selene sighed, a clear sign of disapproval, but Lilith paid it no heed.

  Amethyst chose to go out for a short flight, so Lilith decided this was a good time for a break and to make herself and Selene some tea. Together, they sat for a while, sipping away and not speaking. It was a comfortable silence and Lilith enjoyed every moment. She thought Selene seemed a lot more relaxed around her than she had even a week ago. She was glad for it, because she wanted to get to know the girl better.

  “Fascinating, absolutely fascinating.”

  Maurice’s chattering reached them through the opening door. Zero and Ayalon followed the archivist out, their expressions not exactly unnerved, but certainly tired, while Maurice still gleamed with excitement.

  Selene cast a questioning look over to her crewmates. Zero shrugged and Ayalon grumbled, “He wanted to know about Jianlah. Didn’t seem to be any harm.” The dragon glanced at the archivist and added sourly, “at first.” He yawned, showing off his sharp white teeth and long tongue and settled on the floor near the table, his head resting on his front paws, wings spreading like a blanket over his body.

  Zero took a seat beside Lilith and inspected the maps and notes Selene and Lilith had taken.

  “I take it we will be leaving soon,” he noted. Selene nodded.