Vashanna unrolled the scroll on the triangular holder and clipped it in place so she could read it easily.

'Kithym set weii n mophit pto kai and the clans were set in their agreement to come to the third world. They incanted what they knew and traveled the winds, entering the third world near the equator. It was a dying land they found and decided to part the clans for differing lands. There was enough space so no wars could be fought for territory, unlike the second world. The clans scattered and soon peace was found.'

Heavy Metal By Joshua Trujillo

Part 2 - Magic Carpet Ride

Vashanna wrinkled her nose. Third world? What exactly did that mean-Then it came to her. This was an account of the time when elves first came to this world! No wonder the elders wanted it hidden. They just must have made a mistake in the level of her access!

Vashanna's brother, at his Rising, said that he wanted to be the greatest fighter in the world. And while that might be an honorable choice, it did little for the clan. The elders fought constantly about it because that would also mean that he'd have to fix his ears. And him barely 50! Vashanna shook her head. So, when she chose to archive the clan records, they embraced her decision with much rejoicing. They also screwed up in giving her access. She stuck her pert little tongue out and wrinkled her nose. They never realized what they'd given her. She also liked being naughty. She continued to read the scroll. And the next, and the third and she got pissed off.

The scrolls kept referring back to some spell, or incantation that a certain clan seemed to have. See, this clan was in charge on the second world and wanted to keep that power on the third world. Well, their power was based on the fact that there hadn't been that much land. Earth being what it is, there was plenty of land and the power disappeared. A peace lasted for a thousand years. Vashanna noticed how the handwriting would change in mid-sentence and shook her head.

These documents were written as an account. A REAL account. But it never revealed WHO wrote them. It frustrated her. Anyway, the former lead clan began putting dissenters down, which lead to a small war over who had control. This rival clan lost to a clan that had gained power through numbers in the previous ten millennia. There was a small trial among the clans and the clan that lost was banished. The only problem was, they were the ones who had the incantations necessary for banishment. The banished clan then turned their power on the other clans of Earth and began banishing everyone else. A huge war was fought (reading about it was like reading Homer, and it was just as dull too) and there was an uneasy truce between all the clans after the main city of the evil clan (as it was being called) was destroyed by one huge, gaping blast. Apparently destroyed the whole city in one shot...

Something about that struck a bell with Vashanna. Certainly it was the old faerie tale, but there was something else...She couldn't place it, so she filed it away for further reference.

The evil clan then struck a deal with the other elders and assassinated their own...They killed their own elders?! Vashanna closed her eyes against the story. What kinds of monsters were these elves that they'd kill their own...She felt slightly sick. The scroll then said that this clan, as punishment, would be the-

Siksafityth...The record keepers...

Then...Vashanna's own clan...She could feel the tears well up inside her. She was a killer. A murderer. No wonder the elders kept this from the others. She hugged herself and rocked slightly as the enormity of the words came to her. She felt the patter of a couple tears on her bare arms.

War among her people was only a memory. There was almost no crime, and certainly no homicide. Suicide was an incredibly rare instance, usually attributed to madness. That was because the first thing an elf is taught, even before they can fully understand it, is that you should never harm another elf. Vashanna cried softly and could hear the sobs echo off the cool stone walls of the vast vault, like the echo of so many of the dead that were above the vault, including her mother. If she only knew...She looked up the scroll and turned it slightly. The tab on the handle marked that it was the end of the scroll. Three scrolls and her world was forever shattered. She looked down at the fourth scroll and scowled. It was a hateful, evil thing that just sat there, blissful in its hatefulness. She thought about tearing the damned things to pieces, but reasoned that she couldn't. They were simply too strong. She wiped at her eyes and stood up.

She couldn't tell anyone. That would reveal what she'd been doing and what they'd do would be almost as worse as the knowledge itself. Perhaps there was something in the fourth scroll. Perhaps a time period that they could be a normal clan again.

Perhaps...something...

Vashanna sat again and calmed herself. She took off her large, light glasses and wiped her eyes again. She chuckled slightly as she cleaned her glasses. She couldn't have corrective eye surgery until she came of age either. It all seemed so much like a moot point to Vashanna. She sat for a second. Up above, on the surface, it was winter. She couldn't go out if she wanted. There was probably a few feet of snow on the ground outside. Cold too. She fought back tears again. She just wanted the warm sun on her face. She wanted her father to hug her and tell her that everything'd be all right. She never wanted to know what she knew. She rewound the third scroll and put it with the first two. She sat back down and looked at the last. It just sat there and Vashanna shook her head. She had to know. She unrolled it and prepped it for reading, like she'd done with so many scrolls before, clinically and automatically. She sighed loudly and put her glasses back on.

So, her clan was the record keepers. There were certainly those among her clan that didn't want to do that. At first, they were put down, but slowly, as the elders noticed they weren't being watched so closely, they allowed some to leave. Fessin maht kelno...To find peace without. Meaning that they couldn't find peace within the clan. Voluntary outcasts. Damn, it just got worse. Vashanna shook her head again. She read how her clan moved from its ancestral home near the Urals to its current home in the Italian Alps. That was almost seven thousand years ago. By which time, many of the clans had pushed the ugly memory of the Portal War to the back of the tribal collective consciousness. Her clan had always been Siksafityth, hadn't they?

As long as anyone could remember...Only the ones persecuted knew. Only her clan had kept the knowledge. She read how some of her people were hunted, first by the Persians, then by the Christians and then by the Nazi's. Vashanna could recall her own childhood memories and knew that the scroll was right. Her grandfather died in one of those damned concentration camps. Her father led a rescue mission; all of them disguised as American troops, but were too late to help the elves that were taken. They'd all been killed. Vashanna remembered the pain of seeing her father come home and have to explain how the Germans had killed them all. She remembered the hatred and frustration at having to keep silently locked away in the ancestral home. Angry that she couldn't get revenge for her grandfather. That was many many years ago. The hate was still there, but Vashanna knew that the humans responsible were all long dead. They never lived long anyway. Vashanna shook her head and unrolled more of the scroll.

A little scrap of-paper?-whatever it was, fell out of the scroll and onto the table. She picked it up and looked at the writing. The strong hand and sweeping style made her think of the first scroll. She grabbed the first and unrolled a section of it. The handwriting was identical, then why was this scrap separated from the rest? It was a small scrap, perhaps one page long, but a quit translation told her what it was and Vashanna quickly turned it over on the table. She looked around her, as if the shelves might disappear. She dared not incant what she'd read. It was the incantation. THAT incantation. But...It couldn't be that simple, could it? Just speak what's written on a scrap of old paper? Whatever it was? Certainly, she held no power that could betray what she'd read. Vashanna calmed slightly and sighed. It'd been a rough day.

She was angry at the elders for keeping this from her people. She was angry at her stupid brother for going and abandoning his heritage, even if it had been forced. She was angry at Brushin for just being Brushin. Most of all, she was angry at her father, for not coming back with the one person she loved as much as her parents. Vashanna angrily turned the little scrap over and began chanting out loud. She became excited as the room seemed to vibrate from some unknown power. She chanted loud and clear and silently prayed for the redemption of her people. Maybe they could find peace elsewhere...Fessin maht kelno...

The power grew around her as she finished the chant. She could see the power licking flames of magic up the walls of the vault. The noise in the chamber echoed and groaned as a small ball of light began to gather in the middle of the chamber. It coalesced inward, brighter and brighter, bringing light to corners that hadn't seen it since they were first carved. Forces pushed at Vashanna, but she held her ground. She began to push back and she gained on the little ball that pulsed with a heartbeat of it's own. She pushed and the little light pushed back, but not as hard. She gained some ground until she could almost reach out and touch it. The whole mountain seemed to vibrate with a heartbeat and Vashanna gulped air as the energy around her rushed out in all directions. Through tendrils of light, she could see the stone vault change and give way like someone turning a page on a book. The other side of that page showed her a land of green wilderness, not unlike the forests that surrounded her home in the summer. She reached out one last time and her hand finally met the light and everything stopped. The light immediately went out and a dull gray orb sat motionless in mid-air for half an instant. It dropped and clanged to the floor and Vashanna stumbled forward. She cried out as the light exploded outwards from the orb and her vision grew white with pain. Before passing out, she could hear a vast explosion as it engulfed her.

At least now, her people could know peace...

Joshua "Gargoyle" Trujillo "Stone Cold Protector of the Righteous"

Wanna take a ride?

Moving fast to beat the devil, Arms too short to box with God.

Time counts and keeps countin'