The Columns

"Why do they call it the Columns?" Alissa asked while they walked down the hall towards the esteemed library. Harim was about to answer but as they rounded a corner towards the back of the monastery she saw why. Two enormous columns of marble and wood wound up into the ceiling. There was obvious magic at work as the columns seemed to go up endlessly. Each column was filled with works from books, scrolls and makeshift bindings of loose leaf paper. A few shelves had artifacts and various tools. A large fireplace was built into the back wall with a few seats around it for reading. Between the columns sat a long table with chairs around it for studying and research and on it a very large tome. One monk was currently using the fireplace to read as they approached, his quiet place disturbed he closed his material and walked away. Bowing to Harim as he passed by.

Harim went to the first column. "This column contains any information before the Rebirth and the other anything after. To search for what you want you use this dial." He pointed to a dial at chest height on the column. "First pick the year or bracket of years then pick the genre of material, for example." He grabbed the dial and spun it to a random year then turned the inside dial to war. The column began to whirl and spin down. It stopped on works based on war during the year Harim had selected.

"What if you want to be more specific, as in the title of a book or work?" Erigos asked.

"Ah, we have this…" Harim went to the table towards the massive tome, chained to the table itself. "This contains the entire collection, with empty pages for new discoveries. Every few years they add new items in timeline order." He flipped the large tome open with a loud thud. "If we know the name of something we can look for it here. But first we should start with the broader category of what we seek and work our way in from there."

"So what should we search for?" Erigos asked.

"Well… the Saeculum War was before The Rebirth so let's start there." Harim turned the dial to the dates of the war and the column whirled to life before stopping after a few seconds. Small enchanted gems that wrapped around the column lit up illuminating the library shelves. One set at the bottom and another a third from the top of the ceiling. "Everything in between the lights is from this war."

"That's a lot of material!" Rothox said.

Harim grabbed a book from a shelf and placed it on the table, "We better get started." The title read 'The Hundred Years War.' Over the next few hours they poured over the available material, losing track of time. So far none of the research was fruitful, only mentioning the existence of the items, not their whereabouts.

"Maybe we are looking in the wrong place." Alissa turned the dial on the other column. She grabbed a handful of books and scrolls and added them to their ongoing pile.

"Where are these from?" Erigos picked up one that read 'The Fallout'.

"After The Rebirth, I figured maybe these might mention what became of the artifacts. She was right, not long after reading her choices, the book 'Secrets of The Rebirth', did uncover that the Dragon Armor had been buried with General Tavasor and the last known whereabouts of The Lightning Sword. She learned that the sword was passed down to each son of the original owner; the Cragxan family. The last entry was a few hundred years ago but it was a start. Unfortunately no other artifacts were mentioned. Although the name, the Artifacts of Awakening kept coming up. Erigos couldn't place why that sounded familiar to him.

"Hey Harim, can you search through the tome and find the name Artifacts of Awakening," Rothox said. He was holding a scroll with a drawing of the five artifacts, a depiction of what they could have looked like done by an artist years after the had gone missing.

Harim took a few minutes but eventually found an entry under that name. "It says here there are two entries with that name."

Rothox turned the dials and the columns spun to the correct dates, one from each column. The first was a very old journal and the second was a children's storybook. As Rothox grabbed the children's storybook Erigos jumped with excitement.

"I knew I had heard that before! I read that book as a child." Erigos reached for it, Rothox passed it to him. "Apparently only a handful of these were made and my dad had gotten one passed down from his dad. I think an ancestor of mine wrote it and each son was given a copy. He flipped through the book to the back. "Here!" He placed it on the table. "This is my family's crest. This is one of the books."

Harim leaned in to see the symbol scrawled in the book. Sure enough, it was the same as the symbol on Erigos' armor.

Rothox laughed, "Who would have thought Erigos knew the answers already."

"Let's see." Harim nudged Erigos to flip to the front. The book wasn't long or by any means well written as it was designed for children but it contained the most information on the legendary artifacts. The book told the tale of five friends that each stumbled upon a trove of wooden statues. They each decided to take only one. The eldest took a statue of an older man with a walking stick. Next eldest, she took a female statue with a cloak and her little brother took a statue in the shape of a fighter with a sword raised to the heavens. The last two took statues of a dwarf holding a hammer and an armored man with a dragon helm. Happy with their choices they went their separate ways that day. Over time the friends grew older and apart as life went on but they always kept good care of their statues, so much so that they began to consume their time. Spending hours staring at them, fading away.

The story went on to explain the lives of these friends until eventually becoming so enamored with their statues that they died turning into statues themselves. The whole story appears to be written as a lesson to children to not get too attached to material objects and that relationships with people are more important.

"Are the statues the artifacts?" Rothox asked.

"I think so, and I guess the friends are supposed to be the people given the artifacts," Erigos said."

"So where are they?" Rothox asked.

"It doesn't say... I was hoping for more," Harim said.

Alissa had been looking at the journal while the guys had read the children's book. "Hey, check this out" she looked up from the text. "This looks like it's written by a general but his name is in a different language." She passed the journal to Harim.

He read the name. "Holy Shit...Tavasor, this is his personal journal!" He rapidly began reading years of notes on Tavasor's life before and after the war. It talked about each of the other artifacts but the way he talked about them was cryptic. The more he read the more it tied in with the children's book.

"Hey, who's the author of that children's book?"

Erihis examined it, "It doesn't say."

"Hmm...well if what I'm seeing is right I believe Tavasor wrote that children's book and hid the locations in his journal and the storybook and only with both copies can you find them."

"Wouldn't that make Tavasor your ancestor, Erigos." Rothox pointed out.

"I mean he could but isn't he from Sa'vour?"

"Well if what you say is true about the children book written by your ancestor then he is your ancestor, maybe your family comes from Sa'vour. We can figure that out another time, we should focus on deciphering the code," Harim said.

Another couple hours went by, their eye lids grew heavy and they struggled to stay awake as they were no nearer in figuring it out. They decided to sleep and come at it with fresh minds.

"I know!" Erigos snapped awake in the extra room they had been given to stay. It was a tight fit for them all but they were used to sleeping in close quarters by now. His outbursts woke the others up. He scrambled to his feet, running out of the room, his bare feet slapping on the stone floor. Begrudgingly the other three followed. It was surprisingly warm in the monastery and they appreciated that warmth at whatever this hour was.

Erigos grabbed the two books from the table and held them by the fire that was still going. Either it was magical or someone had recently added fuel to it. As he read his lips slowly moved. The three others watched him, rubbing the sleep from their eyes and shielding a few yawns.

"Did you solve it, Eri?" Alissa yawned.

"I did. While I was sleeping it came to me, it was something my father always said when he read the story, 'Always remember true wealth lies with your family'."