Fainauriel Vallasera

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**In the Middle of a …**

Dahlia looked at him curiously, but recalled the tree-shaped appearance of the now destroyed Hosttower of the Arcane. Then a hissing sound from the tunnel spun her around, staff at the ready as some undead beast rushed at her, its long tongue darting between pointy yellow teeth. Dahlia put her staff into a spin, but Dor’crae intervened, stepping forward and lifting his hand toward the ghoul and staring at it intently. The ghoul slowed and stopped, staring back at the vampire, a greater being among the enigmatic pecking order of the undead. With a howl of protest, the stinking creature… **‘FAI!’** Startled, she looked up. Her mom was standing in front of her, arms crossed and face in angry mode. ‘For once just get your head out of that book and eat your dinner in time! It’s gotten cold again…’

Ever since I was little, the only thing I’d do was read. But what would you expect from the daughter of absent parents, always surrounded by books? Some things are just bound to happen. Our home is the biggest library in the land, located in Apex Citadel itself, the core of everything good. Or so people claim. My mom used to do something with teaching children when I was little, but she never tells me much. I think my mom still blames me for my father leaving us. When I was born, he took a job as a travelling merchant so he could provide for us, because teaching wasn’t as rewarding in money as it was in self-fulfillment. Later my mom would be named Professor by King Ragnar and be assigned to teach the army how to read and write, which changed everything. My mom would be gone until after dark and made more money by doing so, but my dad still wanted to keep doing what he did best: travelling. Which made them split up, because he was never there for my mom anyway, and my mom would just hate me even more. And that’s all there is to it, my own life story. Not a very exciting tale now is it? At least that’s what I think, and so that’s why I don’t really live my own life, because I rather live the lives I read about, and that’s what I do. Trapped inside my own fantasy world with my books and my stories, cuddled up in my own private places in the library, I enjoy as much lives as I can in one day.

**To Infinity and Beyond**

When one day walking through yet another new section of the library, Fainauriel came across a book about stars and constellations. The cover was shiny and somehow Fainauriel just had to read it. The book contained pictures of the constellations and tips on how to recognize them when stargazing at night. She finished the book in one day and stayed up that same night, wanting to try out this new thing she learned. And it worked. She actually recognized the constellations! So fascinated by this new and beautiful thing, she started reading more about astronomy and would soon discover that this was something she was passionate about, she wanted to learn everything.

And that’s what I did. I read almost every book about astronomy that I could find, and I loved it. I once even braved to go outside to see an astronomer living on the other side of town, so I could ask him if he had more books for me to read. I told him about all the books I had read and the things I’d learnt. The astronomer was so impressed, he told me that he wanted me to become his student. After that day we would meet every two or three days in a week at night to watch the stars and learn about them and all the other things the dark night sky contained. We did this for three years, until there was nothing more for him to teach and me to learn.

**Met Because of a Bet**

‘I could probably get any girl present here to join me for a drink.’ They all burst out in laughter. ‘Alistair, anyone could…’ Zero remarked, Bastion replied with glee, ‘how ‘bout we try something else: the hard ones. Any girl that would be impossible to date will do.’ Doc’ahl nodded approvingly, ‘yea, I might know someone like that! But that would be such a difficult challenge, even pretty boy Alistair over here won’t be able to do it.’ Alistair shook his head, ‘oh yeah, and who did you have in mind then?’ He noticed Doc’ahl was thinking about this, something he wasn’t very good at. The poor Barbarian was a great bodyguard, but terrible at anything that required having a brain. ‘I don’t actually know her, I have just seen her. You know when we had to go to that lady to learn how to read?’ Alistair nodded and smiled, ‘I remember, you were a terrible student.’ Doc’ahl let out a growl, ‘funny man you are. Be careful though, last time I checked, you were just a pointless guard. Easy to replace!’ They stared at each other for a minute, and Alistair finally gave in, ‘fine you win, go on.’ Doc’ahl then continued, ‘well. This lady appears to have a daughter, and she lives in the library. That’s all I know really. She lives in the library and nobody has ever seen her anywhere else. I wonder if she even has any friends.’ Alistair was intrigued, he loved a challenge and this was definitely one. ‘Sure, I’m in, any rules?’ Alistair asked when Zero answered with a sly smile, ‘the first one to go on a date with a girl wins, and you’re going to have to do the hard one, since you’re so good at it, Casanova.’ They all raised their pints and shouted, ‘Long Live King Ragnar!

She gathered the books she wanted to read this day, An Astronomer’s Life, The Light At the End of a Fingertip – A Spell Book for Beginners, three books which names she could not recall and one of her all-time favorites: Loving Him to the Moon & Back. It was already dark and the library was about to close, her favorite part of the day because she could enjoy her books in peace. The silence was as restful as ever and she planned to sit down beside one of the windows overlooking the Citadel. As she made her way to the window, her head again buried in her favorite novel, someone suddenly bumped into her, hard. Books were scattered all across the floor, the novel landing right in front of her. As she dove to the ground to pick it up, this someone intended to do the same, causing their heads to collide. She fell back and onto the ground. ‘Ouch’ was all she could muster as she first laid eyes on the stranger sitting on the ground in front of her. He smiled at her and she quickly looked away, ‘are you okay?’ She asked while remaining to look at her hands. He stood up and approached her, holding out his hand to help her up. She grabbed it and felt a current running through her fingertips. Suddenly they were surrounded by four glowing orbs, dancing around them like lightning bugs, illuminating the room and his hazel eyes and she couldn’t help but stare for a moment before regaining her composure. ‘How did these, what just, did you do that?’ Fai stuttered, examining the stranger who had not let go of her hand yet. ‘No, I don’t practice magic.’ He answered in a whisper, as he was too examining her face, a smile on his own. ‘I’m fine by the way, thanks for asking. How about you?’ She nodded, but took back her hand. At that exact moment of letting go, the orbs disappeared as well. ‘I guess it was me who did this then…’ she said in disbelief. She picked her book off of the ground and clutched it with both hands. ‘I’m sorry, but I have to go now…’ she quickly turned and started walking towards her room, she had never experienced such a weird sensation in her body and wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. ‘Wait…’ the stranger called out, ‘can I at least know your name?’ Fai turned back around and called out her name, ‘It’s Fainauriel, but you can call me Fai.’ She continued walking to her room when she heard him call out again, ‘Nice to meet you Fai, I’m Alista-‘ and the rest of his name was cut off as she closed the door behind her.

I was terrible with new people, and Alistair was no exception. But he came back to the library the next day and properly introduced himself. After that he would come see me every day and we started talking about everything. Books, stories, adventures, his job as a guard and the dangers of war. The war had been going on for six years already and Alistair told me about all of it, it was something I hadn’t been in contact with since forever because I always hid in my own fantasy world. Occasionally, he would bring up the event with the glowing orbs, but I would just look away and tell him to forget about it. I didn’t understand it myself either. After a few days he didn’t bring it up again and we would just enjoy our time together. He loved to show me places and buy me things (mostly food, but sometimes other things as well) I had never read about and I learned to love the Citadel, and him, more and more each day. It all felt so surreal, like a fairytale out of one of my favorite books, yet this was actually happening to me and suddenly… my life wasn’t so dull anymore. But as with all good things, this too came to an end. King Ragnar needed more men to fight, and Alistair, being a guard of the Citadel, was expected to fight for his King as well. And so he went, and I never heard from him again. Not until three years later, when his letter finally found my home.

It was then that she knew she wanted to find him, because what better way to enjoy a fairytale than to live it yourself? Besides, there was this one thing she couldn’t quite wrap her head around, and she would often think back to the day they first met. Where did those glowing orbs come from and what was the sensation she felt that same moment they appeared. So she set out to start her own adventure, and she knew just where to start: the army.