Fourth Passage of the Dark Moon

A rare phenomenon amazed citizens of Aranor last An Ilé.

"It was just after nightfall," said Angelica, who was out with some friends when the Evenlight came. "And suddenly it got light again! We couldn’t figure out if someone was doing magic, or it was the end of the world, or maybe a dragon was flying over or something. But it was incredible!" What she, as well as most of the rest of the citizens of Aranor were lucky enough to experience, was Evenlight – a rare phenomenon when the night suddenly brightens, usually for a period of an hour or so.

"No one knows exactly what causes it," said Maja, a wandering sage who was last living in Rel Morde, "but we suspect that it is a property of high clouds which can pull light downwards, just as mist can spread the light of a lamp."

Myrian, a sage out of Aranor, thinks her proposition is preposterous. "Mist obscures light – it doesn’t enhance it! High cloud cover would only make things darker! The explanation clearly lies within the crossing of our Realm boundaries."

Whatever the explanation, the citizens certainly enjoyed the spectacle, and the streets were crowded, despite a cold wind that night.

"It was like daylight!" Angelica gushed. "At night!"

Simply but aptly described, Angelica.

Tirian

It was about 460 years ago when a square-sailed merchant-class vessel cast its anchor off the western coast of the Old World. The people rowed ashore, named the new land "New Masalla", and began to build the fort of Selarum.

The ship that brought them here was called the Voyager.

It wasn’t the Voyager’s first voyage. Records show that the ship changed hands three times – it began its life as a trading vessel sailing between Masalla and Adiera and was later pressed into service in the fleet that eventually discovered Moraithe.

After doing some trade between Masalla and Moraithe, the Voyager was purchased by Lord Darian Goddard, who captained it as it led a fleet of six ships across the seas to find what is now the Old World.

Soon after their arrival, storms wracked the shore, and four of the ships were lost. The Voyager, along with her sister ship, the Drake, were sheltered in the mouth of the small Appleblossom River, just north of the city. The Drake survived the storm and went on for many more years of service, but the Voyager had been too badly damaged in the storm, and sank in the Appleblossom.

Queen Ennea, encouraging a ‘new age of discovery’, has pulled the tattered remains of the Voyager from the silt of the river, and artisans are busy rebuilding it.

"It will be symbolic more than anything else," the Queen told us. "The project is a fabulous melding of the talents of historians, woodcrafters, and shipwrights. We can’t have the Casarans going out and discovering all the new lands, just so they can exploit them! We’re in a position of enlightenment, and can reach out into the world from a position of gentle power. We can explore, but we can also leave behind the practices of yore, when we simply killed natives and took over their lands."

Her enthusiasm has sparked new dreams, and next moon she will be appointing the first of her official explorers.

Who knows what news they will return with in the years to come!

Lord Kieran

Janusen, an expert on Old Tongue and the fae, will be giving a free lesson next An Aran at the library of Aranor.

"The fae are becoming bolder," Janusen said. "Encounters are more common. And knowing even a little Old Tongue can mean the difference between life and death."

He explains that faeries will often be surprised – and delighted – when you speak their language.

"Old Tongue is not difficult to learn," he said. "The most basic form of the language has only a little over a hundred words."

Understanding the intricacies of the tongue is another matter, however.

"This is not a language in the way we’re thinking," said Lady Emily, of Illumination. "It’s not a word for a thing, but a word for an essence or feeling. People shouldn’t expect to be able to communicate even if they memorize the entire basic language. But at least they’d be able to achieve rudimentary exchanges."

That alone seems enough for most – the free lesson already has over sixty people signed on, and has been moved into the library’s auditorium to meet the demand.

Janusen hopes that this can begin to bridge the gap between humans and fae – a gap, he explains, that is built out of misunderstanding.

"These are creatures that don’t consciously do harm," he said. "They aren’t motivated like humans. If we can understand that, perhaps we can begin to understand their place in the world."

Janusen’s critics, however, accuse him of keeping fae creatures captive, and say that he is only hoping to use this free offering as an advertisement to get him more students. Students who become, it is accused, followers.

"He advocates some pretty strange things," says a man who was part of Janusen’s ‘inner circle’ for most of last year. "He’s not nice to the fae, and he’s not nice to people."

Janusen was ‘very busy’ when we attempted to contact him for an interview, but we managed to ask him one question.

"Do you really keep fae captive?"

"I study the fae," he said. "Just as the fae study us. You need to understand that the fae don’t use our morals."

And, some suggest, neither does Janusen.

Tania

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