Rune

"Phoendrail, 27th of the month of Dryaster, Morning,

I wonder if anything new and exciting will happen today. I still can hardly believe that I am eighteen. It seems like just yesterday that I was turning fourteen."

That was what Amrunela had written in her journal that morning before bouncing out of her secluded bedroom and heading out to see what she could get into. After a hurried breakfast, she decided to go read.

Amrunela was not too surprised by Jaekel catching her arm when she had been heading to the library.

"Rune!" Jaekel seemed agitated, "Do you know where your father is?"

"Off top my head, I have no idea." She tilted her head, "I would guess one of four things. One, he could be talking with Uncle Jayesh. Two, he could be bugging my mother. Last two are either in the library reading or teaching one of my siblings, most likely in the library."

"Alright, library sounds like a good place to check." Jaekel smiled, "I needed to ask him something."

"Oh? Wanna tell me about it?"

"Well, you can come listen if you'd like…"

"Okay," Amrunela grabbed hold of her best friend's hand and hauled him down the hall towards the library. She could feel the slight trembling in his hand slowly quiet as her touch calmed him. He allowed her to drag him, probably finding comfort from her presence instead of focusing solely on whatever was bothering him.

Her father was in the library, so they did not have to figure what the next most plausible place to find him was. Her dad was pouring over a book, with a soft smile on his face. The sight was very familiar to Amrunela. She had without a doubt inherited her love of books from her father.

"Papa, Jaek wanted to talk with you." She flopped into one of the many chairs set up for the convenience of the readers who came here and eyed a book on the shelf that looked interesting.

"Hmm?" Her father glanced up and smiled at the prince, "Did you need something?"

"Kaldrek, what can you tell me about Nireal?" Jaekel wasted no time to ask what was bothering him, "I had a dream about something that happened there, but I don't remember ever seeing anything on a map of where it is."

"Nireal?" Amrunela's father frowned as if trying to recall something, "Ah! It's no longer around. Got destroyed a few thousand years ago during the period of time most of the kingdoms then fell. No one knows exactly what happened I am afraid."

"Well, where was it?" Jaekel pushed for an answer.

He got one pretty quickly, "Nix'Ryl, if my research is correct. And you had a dream about it? Should we be worried?"

Nix'Ryl was one of the most dangerous places on the planet. Filled with all sorts of monsters, as well as people who would not hesitate to kill you if given any sort of reason to. Sometimes for no reason at all. The place was not a very nice one.

Jaekel just shrugged, "The dream seemed to be indicative of some of the customs more than anything though it did seem to focus around a staff that I strangely enough got more information on then I would have if I was just observing. I think it might become important later."

"What customs?" It did not surprise Amrunela that her father was curious about that and she left her father and best friend to discuss his dream.

She wandered away and went to see what her mother was doing. It was not hard to find her. Amrunela's mother was sitting with the queen and the two youngest kids as they chatted about life.

Amrunela had never really understood the appeal of working on fabric all day, but her mother and Aunt Fayre really did enjoy doing so. Personally, Amrunela preferred books to crafts but she would never say that to her mother.

So, she joined them. There was some satisfaction that came from making something with her hands, especially if it was for someone else. But to her it was really only something she would do for at most an hour or two at a time.

She engaged her two young siblings in conversation, getting them to tell her all about what they were playing. Ajax and Aphra were both active minded children and their little antics were always amusing.

It was not long before both the kids had moved their play area over to their big sister's feet and pulled her into playing with them as well. Her mother looked at her fondly as she giggled with her siblings and forgot about the bag she had been embroidering.