Hounds Rising
Names

As the sun fell over the western barrier of the town, Leaf and Lyla walked north through the Iredale District towards the Athenaeum. Most working citizens had already made their way home, and Leaf could see packages from deliveries made as the people traveled from work to their homes earlier in the evening.

Leaf had always disliked the Iredale district. People owning large houses full of unused space that gathered dust and large ten-foot fences for various gardens that kept rare plants and animals never sat right for him. These people, the nobles of Moonbright, spent more of their time on having wealth and showing it off instead of doing anything of actual use. He did enjoy the solitude it usually gave him, as fewer people walked the street here compared to the Honeybarrow district, which was full of life.

As they walked up to the Athenaeum, he felt a twinge of guilt that they had not returned since the attack. While it had been a long couple of weeks, with many worries and challenges, Rosemita was the closest thing to a friend he had outside of the tower. He mentally tried to convince himself that she had probably been too busy anyway, and at least he knew she was uninjured.

He saw that the two giant doors were already closed but still lights on inside. He knocked and waited. After a minute, Leaf could hear the locking mechanism inside shift and the confused face of Rosemita peered through the opened crack of the doors.

“We’re closed, you can come back… Oh, Leaf! Hello,” Her voice and attitude shifted towards a more welcoming tone.

“Hello, Rosemita. I hope it’s not too late to talk for a bit in private?” He asked her.

“I could never say no to you if I wanted to. Come in. Come in!”

Rosemita opened the door more and gestured for Leaf and Lyla to enter. The smell of books and wooden shelves would generally calm him, but the burnt look and smell still lingered. While the smell would eventually dissipate, he was still determining if the look would ever change unless they removed the affected shelves and cleaned it entirely from the stone walls. Leaf knew there was magic that could do this, but Rosemita was against magic being used in these four walls by anyone but her and her employees.

Hard work can teach you more than magic can. He remembered her telling him before.

She guided them over to her desk on the opposite side of the room. She sat down, took her glasses off, and drank from her glass of wine. She relaxed into her seat, looking at both of them.

“What can I do for you two? I imagine this isn’t just a friendly visit.”

“Uh… We had some questions and figured you would know more than us,” Leaf answered.

Lyla pulled the Book of Io from her pouch and set it on the desk between them. The scale in the middle, round and centered on the book’s cover, shined and seemed to change colors as the light flickered from the various light sources around the room.

“Ah, this book again. I was wondering when you would come back for information on it,” Rosemita stated, looking up at Lyla.

“It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but some things changed,” Lyla mentioned.

Lyla opened the book and handed it to Rosemita. She sat forward in her chair, put her glasses back on, and carefully flipped through the pages. Leaf watched as they sat in silence as Rosemita looked over the book.

“It seems like the book has multiple languages, so I imagine it was hard for you to read all of these?” She asked.

“Actually, we managed to figure that out,” Leaf answered.

“What stumps me is that the book hadn’t been in these languages before. Until the other day, the only language that made sense was the Draconic. These other ones changed, and our group was able to decipher enough of it easily enough,” Lyla explained.

“Then, we found hidden writing at the end,” Leaf followed.

“If you’ve managed to decipher it, what do you need my help for?” Rosemita questioned.

“There’s a few names that pop up, and we have reason to believe that they could be important.”

Leaf turned the book’s pages to the piece written by The Curator, laid a piece of paper on it, then turned it back toward the names he had read about the Hounds of War. Rosemita looked over each piece carefully. She read the names that Leaf pointed out, then looked up at them.

“When we fought the leader behind the attacks in Moonbright, we discovered that she was trying to bring back Dubh Catha,” Leaf started.

“We think that the Dark Crow was just the start of something larger, but we don’t know who any of these names are,” Lyla said.

Rosemita sat back for a moment. Her eyes moved over the various shelves and books in the Athenaeum as if waiting for a book to light up and give her the answer in her mind. She stood, walked over to her cart of books not yet put away, and picked out one of them. Rosemita returned it, set it down, and flipped through the pages. She stopped at a picture of a celestial, then looked up at them.

“Most of these names don’t sound familiar, but this one did.” She turned the book around to them. Leaf looked at the top of the page and saw the two words in large lettering.

The Justifiable

“The Justifiable, from what the book states, is a celestial creature from the heavens that arrived roughly five hundred years ago. He appeared in a southern community in Cecela, declaring himself as a herald of Gods,” Rosemita explained.

“Wait, but it says he’s a Hound of War in the Book of Io?” Lyla asked.

“Yes, that part is interesting. So, either there are two Justifiable-named creatures throughout history, or one is wrong,” She explained.

“Considering we’ve dealt with one of Dubh Catha’s followers, I am inclined to believe the Book of Io is the right one then,” Leaf replied.

“I think you may be right, Leaf,” Rosemita looked around. “I’m going to be busy here for a while, fixing this place back up, but I’ll write down these names, and if I see anything that could be of use, I’ll let you know.”

Leaf stood up, followed by Lyla, and smiled at Rosemita.

“Thank you. I appreciate your help through these years, Rosemita.”

“Of course, Leaf. I just wish I was helping under better circumstances.”

Rosemita looked down at her desk and closed her eyes. Leaf knew that she meant the death of Orin, but he wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. They had a lead, and that mattered first. Instead, they walked across the room to the doors.

“And, Rosemita?”

“Yes, Leaf?”

“I hope you’re okay, too.”

“I know.”

Leaf and Lyla were escorted out by Rosemita, who closed the door behind them and locked the doors from inside.

“Well, we have more information than we did,” Leaf stated.

“Let’s meet up with everyone else. If they’re not too drunk, we can let them know,” Lyla replied.

“Good idea.”