Nychta - The Bloodrose Kingdom

Chapter 7 - The Great Library

Rosemary lights up a match in the dark room. In an instant, a wide and magnificent building of the oldest books of the continent flashed by my surroundings. It was the Great Library of Bloodrose. I took a deep breath.

In every corner, arranged by giant wooden shelves, tens of thousands of books circled in a dizzying array. We were in the middle of the room, Rosemary placing a red white candle with a flickering light in her desk. She was the librarian of the queendom’s capital library.

It was a mixture of brown and green and every eye-warming colors. It was like home back in Silverfang, but it came with life and color this time. I barely had the time to take it all in.

It had ten or more floors, each of them filled with every book of every genre and content. In the ceiling was a large window where the moon perfectly fitted the middle, giving it a misty but elegant lighting. The walls were adorned with paints of brown and yellow, abstract in form but pleasing to the eyes. Windings stairs were the only way to maneuver around the area. It looked like elegant cobwebs above me. There was a sense of thrill when I looked above, to see the wide and tall area of the whole library.

It was as if looking through a telescope, with the moon right in the middle. This was a masterpiece of architecture, perfect in every way and design. It was another crown to the queendom of Bloodrose to have this library.

It had a grand feeling of age and knowledge. Like seeing a book turned as building in itself, every book a page and every floor a chapter. There was so much to it, and so little of time for me to see each and every one of them.

“I supervise everything in here,” Rosemary says proudly, her face beaming with delight. It will be very hard to manage such an enormous amount of books and area, but she looked like she was capable, judging from her proud posture and an obvious tremendous amount of power and knowledge. She was a legend.

Back in Silverfang’s library, the books were already old and forgotten. Most of them aged and deteriorated at the same pace of the building itself, with me only being capable of saving some of my favorites. It only had one room, and it was definitely only one fourth of the first floor of this library. It was such a change of flavor.

The books were almost the same back then. Legends of the world’s beginning, analysis of the nychta’s bodies, and language. That was my only source of pleasure in an otherwise dull world.

But this, this was on another level. It was like being in a haven of the most wonderful of treasures. Only that, it was all knowledge, which was even better.

I scanned the room. At the right side of the room was the section where the words “History” was written. I gasped in delight. Rosemary giggles by my side, lines of age evident in her face.

I looked intently at her with pleading eyes.

“C-can I?” I half-asked, half-begged.

She made a knowing smile.

“Of course,” she says as she scoops the candle from the table.

I almost ran to that corner, my foot slightly slipping on the polished black-and-white floor. How she managed to maintain such an enormous building, only she knew.

Her gem was colored a gentle shade of pink. A scholarly color, for intelligence and wit.

She followed me with an aura of a cat, calculated and elegant. Her chin was always raised, pride evident within her. Even though she wore the same brown robes as the others, hers was particularly designed subtly with folds and tiny weave designs that may be unnoticeable at first glance. Not to mention, she also wore a pink and shiny brooch in her left breast.

I gazed up at the History section. It was filled with many books of brown and aging spines, holding tons of knowledge and background. It was arranged according to date of making, with the oldest at the top and the latest at the bottom. I, of course, chose the oldest one.

I raised up to the extent of my heels, but I was still not able to reach the top section. It would take five times my size to be able to reach it, and I looked quite stupid in trying to do it. At least it gave Rosemary the hint.

“Yes, of course,’ she said.

She fumbles with her mouth for a second, saying something inaudible and incoherent. It was a spell that only the most knowledgeable of the nychtas knew. They varied in many types, from strength to charm to intelligence. They were simply cultivating their gem’s powers. However, not everyone can do it like them. If others used their powers directly, they manifested their powers even more through spells that can act differently from the powers already given to them. How it happened, only the wisest of the nychtas knew. What we all knew was that the ones who were able to do so was of a stronger variety.

Others, whose gems are mostly of a subtle character like gray gems which represent the ability to make themselves invisible for example is not able to do such a feat. I wondered if I can, too?

In an instant, an unseen force carries the book from above. It was a brown book with the oldest leather. It smelled of old books and sunsets. Age and knowledge thrummed deeply and heavily from it, giving me awe as I looked at it hungrily.

In a slow, descending motion, the book made its way to my palms.

It was heavy, but it was the type of heavy that made me want to devour the every page of it. It was the heavy that made me want to block everything and just be inside the book, just to absorb each and every part of it. It had been a part of my life to be always in books, but such a place as this library was able to arouse my deepest passions.

I opened it. “The Kingdom of Bloodrose”, the title said.

Every page was adorned with red and silver spirals at the borders, with the main blocks of text heavy and fact-filled. I wasn’t planning to read it at the moment, only to scan each pages.

There was an illustration of the Red Palace, a towering castle. It was beside the Queen’s sea, a silent chasm of dead souls and a cold but beautiful view. There were many battles that happened there, but the palace stood still in its position. It was the capital of the queendom, after all, and its destruction will give way to our apocalypse. It wasn’t just a simple structure. It was embedded with magic, from countless ancestors who did their job and made sure that the walls will be solidified. Rumors say that the palace’s foundation lies on gems from fallen nychtas, to make sure that thousands of power always radiated from it.

“Mighty, the palace is,” Rosemary says from the side, with me being reminded of her existence in the place. There was really a magic from the books that made me fly from reality.

“But it is also a place of tragedy,” she continued with a bitter tone.

The queendom of Bloodrose takes pride in the queen’s castle, the Red Palace. Built after the War of the Divide, Queen Roseux of Steel raised the building from her great mind herself, each room and corner planned strategically and with great attention to design. Carvings of ravens give a dark but elegant appeal to the place. It hosts a numerous amount of rooms, function halls, and specifically designed quarters for the different activities of the queen.

“Tragedy?” I asked, asking her to explain more.

“Well, the queendom of Bloodrose itself wouldn’t be such a symbolic place if not for the War of the Divide after all,”

Rosemary guides me back to her table and seat in the center of the room, preparing me for the story she was about to tell.

“After making the world, the creator finally made the final touch to the masterpiece he made. It was the nychtas. For our lives, he gave three gifts: life, gem, and knowledge. From all of these three, knowledge was the one that gave us the most power. Our life would be stagnant without it. No amount of rarity and power of gem can match it. It was the knowledge that gave sense and wisdom to us, to make us learn more about everything.”

Rosemary takes a seat, placing the candle back in the table. I follow.

“You see, the nychtas are naturally made to wander around the world. To explore, to seek, to find a divine purpose in the wonderful labyrinth of The Creator, which was the world.

In this continued search for knowledge, one woman, Yves, whose power was to inspire and have a natural charisma no simple nychta can hold. Yves was a curious woman, someone who defied the rules of the creator, which was to flourish and grow, but never to turn your back on it. She did exactly the opposite of its rule.

It was in this part of the world, Bloodrose, the complete and exact half of the world, where she found the Black Treasure.”

To this, I reacted. “Black treasure?” This was a part of our history that I didn’t know. My scope of knowledge was only limited from the end of the war up to today. Our past was still a part that was shrouded in my knowledge of the Bloodrose’s history.

“The Black Treasure was what Yves found in Bloodrose. Whatever it was, or to whatever form it took, nobody knew. All everyone knew was that it was exactly what The Creator told the nychtas back then to not touch, or study, or learn, or even worse, use.”

“Yves used the Black Treasure to go against The Creator. This was because the world back then was ruled over by people who believed that The Creator is one and only, and had made a system of living where everyone will be ruled over by a king, who rules with a democratic system. It was Bruno, back in that age.”

“But little did everyone knew, there were already a secret allegiance that was made against the kingdom. An allegiance that went against everything that Bruno’s kingdom believed in. Their name was Gaia, and the allegiance of the Bloodrose went against them. They did not believe such a peaceful way of ruling, for they believed that the nychtas should be creatures of war, given the gems and its powers.”

“Yves ruled the allegiance of the Bloodrose, which grew at a rapid pace. They all believed in one goal: spread chaos around the world and take over Gaia,”

I took a deep breath. This was the War of the Divide.

“There were a lot of things that happened in the War of the Divide, but I will choose not to go over the horrific things that took part in it. If you want, the books in here will provide sufficient evidences for you to review. But for now, I will leave that horrific part out,”

It must have been so terrible then that even such a composed woman cannot tell the story casually to an intent listener. My spine shivered from the thought of it.

“Who won the war?” I asked silently.

Rosemary looked at me with dead-serious eyes. “No one.”

My heart tensed.

“No one, for all of the nychtas have already lost when they started to part from The Creator’s wish. It had a simple goal in making nychtas: to have someone control the world it made. It made the nychtas for the world, and not the opposite. But there was always an evil in everything, an error along the lines of perfection. This was the force that gave an evil twist to the knowledge he gave us. It was the same evil that influenced Yves to take the black treasure. The evil that thrives within the veins of the queendom. We wholly embraced this evil, for it had made our lands thrive and our people stronger. This was what made us a queendom, after all.”

“But the natural rules were changed after the War of the Divide. The day became exclusive for Gaia and the night for Bloodrose. Gems of a formidable power spread unequally to some nychtas, who lived on to become leaders of the newly divided lands. Creatures of unspeakable horror, from dragons to drakes to wisps inhabited the lands from unknown places, all from the use of the gems that The Creator made itself.

It was if it regretted making the nychtas, and was now twisting its own rules to make a new world. It was omnipotent and almighty, but nychtas are now beginning to judge its wisdom. It could be that it was foolish in giving us knowledge, or this was all under a grand plan that nobody knew of.”

“And now, just lately, new events that never happened before is given birth. The queen’s curse, the return of the day to our lands, and finally, you.”

A heavy weight fell on my heart. I did not know that such a gem held so much power, only that it was rare. I did not know that it was something considered out of balance. Some may consider it a curse, other a miracle. I did not myself, though.

“C-can you please tell me why you chose me for the Divination,” I asked weakly. I was nervous, both for the pressure of not knowing what I needed to do, for what I need to prepare for and also the consequences that came with it afterwards. I was just a petty thief who grew up in the library and the Gray Forest, stealing off to survive after all. I was neither a leader of the people or its warrior. I did not have a purpose.

“Ah yes,” Rosemary said, her eyes rolling. She clucked her tongue out of annoyance.

“You know, if this was only five years ago, a maiden like you would’ve jumped out of delight and pleasure. Even wee in her own skirt,” she said.

I tilted my head in confusion.

“The Divination is an old and sacred rite that chooses the next queen for Bloodrose. It comprises of many tests that will see your abilities, test whatever you have that makes you fit to rule the lands,”

Her tone now lacked of its motherly and guru-like tone earlier. It was as if she was annoyed while talking about it. Was it the topic? Or was it my reluctance to join the rite?

“Being a candidate for The Divination gives you immediately a name in the queendom, a status that only the rich can have,”

“B-but,” I tried to say, but she waved her hand out of annoyance.

“Do not interrupt me while I talk,” she said. I made my eyebrows cross in annoyance. What was it about the people in royal part of Bloodrose that made them so annoying?

“It is sacred and righteous in all forms. Right now, it is led by that annoying Faeric of the Gems, who is the leader of the ever-so-annoying Illuminae. Now, I did not save your ass back there for you to just rummage through my library, okay?”

So that’s what it was, after all. I was planned to be a candidate for The Divination. Just like the girl from earlier who used her powers of light. Just like every powerful women here in the kingdom who thought that their powers fit the title of the queen.

Was I worth it, though?

“I know it’s heavy and hard to accept, but the rules specifically say that the next queen must be a master of her power, a charming nychta, and most especially, an excellent leader. The latest queen, Diana of the Ice, creator bless her soul, was the winner of the last year’s Divination, if you’ve observed. She won a particularly intriguing Divination, for hers was a time when the word of the queendom was in question after four years of the Queen’s Curse killing the matriarch. And now with her death, the questions about the validity of the queen’s power is even more relevant as people start to underestimate the monarchy.”

I remembered last year’s Divination. One of their trials was to visit the Gray Forest back in Silverfang. Their task was to recover a certain golden trinket, even if a lot of duplicates was placed throughout the forest. Myrna of the Mist saw me that day, when she tried to take refuge while bloodied on top of my treehouse that day. She told me how horrible the tests was, how she wish she didn’t let herself be a candidate of the wicked tests. She didn’t give me any specifics, but only how bad it was and how it left her in such a state of panic and confusion every time.

She told me of a place though, a refuge in the other side of the world. Maybe she was talking about Gaia, or something else. I tried to nurse her that day to recovery, and she thanked me by offering a silver dagger I named as Slicer ever since. She disappeared into mist after, which was her power, and was never seen again in the games. It left quite the impression on me about the games, and how it left the contestants traumatized after.

And yet I was here now, readying myself to take part in it. I touched my left pocket, making sure that Slicer was still intact. It helped me through a lot of my pursuits. I wonder where Myrna got it?

“A-and, why exactly did you take me?” I said.

Rosemary’s smirk returned. She took slow steps towards me, her hands finally resting on my shoulder. I became stiff in response.

“You know why, don’t you?” she said, her voice caressing my thoughts and easing me.

I wondered why.