River retreated in to his chambers after breakfast.His master had withdrawn in to his own bedroom, saying that River can have rest of the day for himself.
Once inside , River locked the door and drew his curtains. He contemplated for a minute and dragged his drawer across the floor and blocked the door with it, ensuring no one can barge in .
River then crawled under his bed and pulled out a heavy book.He sat on his bed and inspected the volume. Aged and weathered ,its parchments bore the yellowish tint of time ,their edges frayed and fragile,each crease telling tales of countless hands that have turned its ancient leaves.
River felt guilt setting heavily on his heart. If he gets the chance in the future ,he will apologize to Einar for breaking in to his ancestral hall in the dead of the night and robbing an ancient script.
Im not stealing it ..Im burrowing it ...for indefinite future .
Yesterday, while he was cleaning ,River had wandered in to an inside chamber of the hall ,trying to find a pail. The room was cluttered with all sort of things,both broken and abandoned. He carefully tip toed around ,trying to find the bucket Einar swore was there .
A decayed wooden floor board gave away under his weight and his foot sank in ,alarming him greatly. When he recovered his wits ,he realized that there was a little compartment beneath where he stood so he took the floorboard off with great effort, revealing a book ,tightly wrapped in silk.
The cloth was mostly damaged , but the book was in a good condition. River's first instinct was to show Einar what he found ,considering that he found it inside a secret compartment under his ancestral hall.
River flipped through it ,squinting his eyes in the dark , trying to see whats written inside.
The pages were inked in a language River did not recognized. He thought it might be a sword forging manual or something of sorts until he felt the characters looked vaguely familiar.
The short abstract strokes, and loopy curved lines ..he had surely seen these characters somewhere before ... but where ?
The gold !!
Thr gold rods from Saltstand tax office had characters identical to these embossed on them ! River flipped frantically through its pages and realized it was indeed the same characters .
He had read sbout 20 books on ancient linguistics while he was recovering from Shu Huxley's assault but could not find a single charcter map that even resembled those on the rods.
What connection does Whitlocks has to the scrap metal ? What was in the book?
Gears in River 's head was turning rapidly. He needed to find a way to decipher this script,and for that he needed to take the book out of the hall. But how? He could ask Einar ,but then he would have to explain the whole situation to him ,which Kaizer forbade River from doing. River couldnt possibly take it now without Einar noticing .
But if he left it , he would never get a chance to come back and get it. Kaizer sent hounds behind Einar everywhere he went and since River was his precious deciple ,took the liberty to send hounds to watch over him ,too. He will know if River came back to Whitlock ancestral hall without Einar.
He left the book where he found it , determined to think of something later. As if West god favoured him , Kaizer chose that precise night to get black out drunk.
With the hounds out of the way , the only problem was how to go down the mountain without anyone noticing. Security was tight , and if he was caught lurking around it would be very awkward to explain things to Schulz.
That's when River remembered the secret passageway . Einar was the one who had shown him how to open it , in a very passionate lecture about leaver and pully systems . River never dreamt the day would come when he had to use that knowledge against Einar himself. River tried to sooth his guilty conscious , telling that once he deciphered the book he will return it back, repair the floorboard and never even think about the passageway again.
* * * * * * * * * *
"You have the prettiest hair " Wolfram praised ,running the comb down River's long dark hair. 'How long have you been growing it ?"
"Ive never really cut it " River answered , not looking up from the erotic poetry book on his lap.
Wolfram had came banging on his doors in the middle of his very important deciphering mission to drag him away to spend some quality
time together.
So he was now in Wolfram's chamber, letting him braid his hair and listening to him talk about this and that while snacking on sweets.
Their board game was discarded on the bed ,River had fresh paint on his nails and Wolfram had promised to give him another horse riding lesson once they have dried properly.
"This is nice " Wolfram giggled " I always wanted a friend like this "
"I bet you had ton of friends " River held up a candy to him because his hands were busy. Wolfram leaned over and ate it.
"Not really . No one really stayed around for long . They said I was too mean and weird "
River creased his brows and turned the page over. " I dont see it"
"Right ?" Wolfram crushed the hard candy between his teeth "I was so jealous of Kai. He is meaner than I am but somehow managed to find a decent friend "
"How long have they been friends ?"
Friends. It really was nice to have a friend . It was nice talking about friends too.
Wolfram hummed in deep thought as his fingers worked through soft hair "I dont know ..for a very long time .. they were already friends when I was born"
"What were you all like when you were little ?" River fed Wolfram another candy .
"Not very different from now ,I guess" Wolfram muttered "Einar basically raised me "
"How old is master ?"
"Thirty five "
River snapped his head to look at Wolfram in disbelief "He is younger than I thought !"
Wolfram slapped him in the back of his head with a thwack "dont move ,idiot "
"He helped out Kai a lot too, when he first acsended to the throne. He was running around everwhere, collecting documents ,managing troops, defending boarders, handling court affairs, gaurding Kai"
"Lemme borrow the next volume when you are done reading " River closed the book . "I heard he was a great swordsman"
"One of a kind " Wolfram nodded in agreement "My father used to say that swords sing in his hands , and he dances . I really did not know what that meant until I once saw him fig- River! can you sit still for three god forsaken seconds !"
"Sorry sorry " River straightened his back obediantly "proceed "
"If I were to fight beside him I would probably get killed from forgetting to fight ,watching him " Wolfram's voice was bellowed with admiration .
"You will die even if he wasnt there "
River giggled and recieved another sound slap. "How did he get so sick?"
"We dont know" Wolfram tied the end of his braid with a ribbon . "It started right around the time Kai got married "
River jumped a brow " Really?"
"He was already a little sick at the time of the wedding " Wolfram laid across the bed lazily.
"Was his marriage a proposal?"
"Do they look like they've been in love to you ? Do you need glasses ?"
"Dont say that" River slapped Wolfram's arm. "
"He was very against the whole marrying thing first. Everyone was pressuring him a lot like they were afraid he would go impotent by thirty. But he said that he was not ready ..he has duties..all stort of excuses "
" what changed ?"
"I dont know. I think he eventually came to terms with it . Its not like he had an option, being king and all "
"I see " River nodded thoughtfully "Im glad he did . We got Emby "
"Emby is the only good thing about him , I swear " Wolfram laughed.
"Einar is making Emby a sword" River whispered "He told me its supposed to be a surprise. So dont tell anyone else"
"Got it " Wolfram whispered back "You saw it ?"
River shook his head "He would not show me "
" He made Kai a sword too ,made me a dagger " Wolfram stated "He might forge you a one too,some day"
River chuckled "I cant fight"
"You think I can ?" Wolfram laughed "I will show the sword he forged for Kai one day. That thing is a work of art."
"He gifted it to him when Emby was born " Wolfram sighed heavily.
"He was very sick back then and one day he found that he cant lift his sword no matter how much he tried "
River felt like a fish bone was struck in his throat. He gulped thickly .
"We've never seen him quite that upset. He howled on the floor like someone he loved had died"
A heavy silence fell between them.
"He melted it and forged a new one for Kai .He said that Kai was a father now and he must protect Emby in his place. That even if heavens fails him in his darkest hour , the sword wont"
Wolfram sighed "I firmly believe he fell from heaven and didnt go back for our sake "
River nodded in agreement.
Author has nothing to say

Kaizer Schulz