Scorn of the Moons

A Fantasy One Shot

Photo by Abed Ismail on Unsplash

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This short story was written to the Lunar Awards Prompt “Many Moons”:

The world features magical moons fundamental to the planet’s inhabitants. The moons affect the society, magic, or land where people live. Devise a plot where the protagonist must harness the power of these moons to overcome the conflict.

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'Blessing of the Eight and One upon you.'

Words he had heard thousands of times before and thousands of times he had believed them. Now he knew them to be false, a misunderstanding built on hearsay formed from a lie. It was sad in a way for the truth to be inverted and a whole people adamantly hold it to be the right way when it should have been the opposite. Their faith was the not the problem, only what it was aimed at. A finger pointing at the moon, the wrong moon.

Quin lay in his cot staring at the ceiling, the faint blue light of Asandei, moon of clairvoyance, gleaming through his open shutters, the night breeze warm this time of year. He was awaiting the “rise” of Leal, moon of thieving, in the Hour of the Snake, he had nothing to steal, nor would he consider it, but Leal was the smallest and faintest of the Eight and One and thus the best to conduct that which a person did not wish to be seen. Leal, though small, was more potent than Asandei, even more potent than Tarshan, moon of strength. As a scholar of the Eight and One it was his duty to know the mysteries, but not, necessarily, understand them, that was the purview of the clerics.

The faint dull grey of Leal formed in the sky, the craterless moon dimming the night sky and strangling Asandei's influence. The seers would be pursuing the lawbreakers and scoundrels roaming the streets of Mara'duun, City of the Moons and that gave Quin the opportunity he needed.

Quin rose from his cot to find his room mate, Seb, staring at him.

'Don't do it,' Seb said, the whites of his eyes all that was visible of him.

'I need to know,' Quin slid his feet into his slippers and donned his hooded cloak.

'You're chasing hearsay in ancient books from forgotten writers.'

'They can't all be wrong.'

'That's not what zu-Ranna says. She says the writers you are fascinated with are known to have fabricated a great deal of their works.'

'Yet she never allows us to read them. If they lied why keep it hidden? And if they're forgotten why do we know of them and if it's hearsay why hasn't it died?' Quin headed for the door.

Seb groaned, 'You're insufferable.' He threw the covers back, revealing he was fully clothed. He found his slippers underneath a stack of musty books and donned his own cloak. 'You gotta a plan?'

Quin smiled, 'Of course. You sure you want to come with? If we get caught that's it for us. Out onto the street. I don't think your mother would be very pleased.'

'Then we won't get caught.'

Quin slowly turned the handle of the door. Cracking it open a touch he stole a glance down the hallway. All was dark. He opened the door further and stuck his head out to check the other way. Nothing and no one. 'All clear. Come on, straight to the library.'

The pair barrelled down the hallway under the light of Leal. There was a lustre to the light, a depth of blue that made the light glisten like stars reflected in the ocean. Quin felt comforted by that dim and distant moon.

'Can you see in this light?' Seb asked.

Quin hadn't thought it was much different to that of Asandei's light, at least not for seeing, if anything he could see a little better, though he knew it shouldn't have been the case. 'I can see fine. Quick this way, zu-Kai likes a late night stroll while he smokes his pipe,' Quin darted down a corridor heading perpendicular to where the library was. The skylights flickered by. Quin pulled Seb behind a pillar and shhh'd.

The silence of night dragged and just as Quin thought Seb was about to open his mouth he heard footsteps and zu-Kai muttering to himself, the words muffled by his pipe and a mouthful of smoke. The instructor paused at the cross of the four corridors and turned to face the pillar Quin and Seb stood behind. Quin snapped back to hide hoping zu-Kai had failed to see him in the Leal light. A few moments passed with zu-Kai utterly still staring at the pillar hiding Quin and Seb who were equally as still. The tension snapped when the old man bit and drew on his pipe, grumbled something about Leal tricks, and continued on his late night stroll.

Quin let out a sigh, his heart pounding, and turned to Seb who had gone white as dough. 'Come on, before anyone else decides to take a stroll.'

'Decides? I thought you knew when the teachers took their walks?' Seb followed him at a slight run.

'Some of them. I haven't been out at night much recently, some might have changed their habits.'

'Not likely,' Seb said, whether it was a true character assessment or blind hope Quin couldn't tell.

In any case Quin wasn't worried as he hurried down the corridor, turning left into a smaller hallway lined with shelves crammed full of leather bound books, towards the library. The hallway would lead them to a conveniently unlocked door to the second floor of the library which, because of bypassing the watchful eye of the Night Librarian on the ground floor, they were free to climb to the fourth floor and into the Prohibited and Specialised Department, then it was a simple matter of finding the appropriate esoterica.

Quin reached the end of the hallway, Seb a few steps behind him. The door had a sheet of frosted and barred glass on the top half with a covered slot below it for out of hours book returns. He twisted the brass globe handle.

It was locked.

'Quin?' Seb stole a glance behind them.

'I guess Mari forgot,' Quin said. 'I was prepared for this,' he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of lock picks.

'That is not a hobby for a scholar of the moons, Quin,' Seb said, his tone judgemental.

'Why not? As scholars we have yet to affiliate with any specific moon, as such all paths are open to us.'

'That's zu-Tenun talking, he isn't well liked among the elder tutors for exactly that sort of thing.'

'But he's right,' Quin set to work on the library door lock.

'He's mocked and spends most of his time alone.'

'That's a loss for the other zu then,' Quin said, without taking his eye off the lock. 'Almost... almost.'

'We should go back to bed,' Seb was crouched, his breath warm on Quin's ear. Footsteps sounded in the gloom of the book lined corridor. 'Someone's coming,' Seb said. 'I can't make out who in the Leal light.'

Shh, Quin hissed. The lock clicked open and Quin secreted his tools. 'Haste, Seb,' Quin cracked the door as little as possible and snuck inside. Seb was behind.

'Is someone there?' zu-Kai shouted down the corridor behind them.

Quin closed the door as slow and silent as a creeping brush fowl. He darted in a low crouch towards a spiral staircase that would take him up to the fourth floor. The shelves of the Astrography Department flanked Quin and Seb like an open maw. No matter how soft Quin stepped his slippers still brushed against the polished wood floor, the sound echoing in the still night. Shards of pale moonlight beamed down through the glass roof guiding the way to the spiral staircase, gifts from Leal passing through the ceiling overhead. Quin smiled as he dashed from one brilliant impossible pool to the next.

He reached the iron spiral and, with fleeting concern, flew up the corkscrew two steps at a time, his hand trailing the bannister. His slippers gently hammered the iron like muffled drums.

The door from the second floor hallway opened, a puff of smoke preceding zu-Kai. Quin could only hear the click of the lock as he approached the fourth floor, Seb close behind. 'Quickly, Seb,' his whisper sounding like a breath.

Seb was sweating and his eyes darted around in panic. 'I should have gone back to bed.'

Quin merely smiled to say, too late, and strolled towards the Prohibited and Specialised Department, relaxed in the knowledge no-one was up there in the Hour of the Snake. He glided from moon light beam to beam until he stood at the precipice. The Department was bathed in a dim slate coloured light. Quin crossed the copper band that demarcated one department from another and felt a chill run up his spine. He was here. He had made it. Soon he would find what he needed to know, what zu-Tanun hinted at but did not say, could not say, or, perhaps, did not fully know nor understand.

Quin scurried to the index card drawers and flicked through those on subjects like “moon esoterica”, “history of the One”, “metaphysics of the Eight in pre-history”, and “geography of the moons.” He made a mental note to return and investigate all avenues that now lay open to him.

'Quin, hurry up, someone is following us,' Seb said.

'Then help by going through these and finding a book titled “Scorn of the Moons”,' he returned one long, slim drawer, and withdrew another.

The echo of footsteps had faded, going down the spiral rather than up it. Quin heard it but it was Seb who centred himself because of it. The pair flicked through index cards until finally Seb said, 'Here. Number seven thousand three hundred and forty-two, shelved in “Heretical theories pertaining to the nature of the Eight and One,” bay three, shelf four.'

Quin snatched the card midway through Seb's recital and sprinted deep into the Prohibited and Specialised Department, the light of Leal guiding his way. His eyes swam with giddy panic, darting from bay to bay, shelf to shelf, in search of the corresponding ivory tag marked with bay and shelf number.

Finally he found it nestled in an alcove of shelves so close together he had to slide between them. His fingers stroked the dusty spines of ancient books until they brushed against the fading gold letters of “Scorn of the Moons”. He slid the suspiciously narrow tome from the shelf.

Metallic rings echoed throughout the library.

'Quin!' Seb hissed much too loudly.

'You go, they won't find me here.'

Seb grunted and grabbed his friend by the arm, 'Don't be foolish.' Seb ran for the staircase on the far side of the balcony, dragging Quin behind him as he flicked through the yellowed pages.

A puff of smoke arrived moments before zu-Kai appeared at the top of the spiral staircase Quin and Seb had ascended, his expression quizzical as he recognised who he was pursuing. 'They're going for the far spiral, send a couple lads.'

'Sir,' the grizzled voice of an adherent to Tarshan replied.

The colour drained from Seb's face, 'We're doomed.' He slowed.

Quin feverishly flipped through the opening pages of “Scorn of the Moons.” 'Keep running,' he shoved Seb. 'There's a door on the right...'

The words passed his lips as the door opened, a fighter appeared, muscles enlarged by their affiliation with Tarshan, moon of strength. A second fighter climbed the spiral staircase the pair had been heading for. The fighter lunged for Seb.

Seb ducked, slipped, and crashed into a bookcase. Books cascaded over him. Quin stopped and began to retrace his steps but zu-Kai was blocked the way with three other fighters, all close to seven foot tall with arms as thick as tree branches. 'Surrender the book, Quin, and your punishment will be less severe.'

Quin stood, the book open in his hand, as the fighters closed in from all directions. A faint grey beam shone down from the heavens, Leal was directly overhead. He looked to Seb, 'I'm sorry.'

Seb furrowed his brow, not understanding. He struggled to his feet only to be bowled over by a fighter and pinned to the floor. A semblance of realisation dawned on him, 'He forced me to help him. Threatened me. He forced me!' The fighter wrestled Seb to his feet, arms pinned behind his back.

Quin smiled sadly to Seb and turned to admire the moon. 'Leal! I pledge myself to you in all that I am and will be. Take me to be your instrument here on this mortal plane. Imbue me with your blessing and I will serve you the rest of my days!' he bellowed towards the pale moon.

'NO!' zu-Kai and Seb shouted as one. 'Men seize the criminal!' zu-Kai shouted, pointing at Quin with his pipe. The fighters rushed Quin but it was too late.

Quin felt a chill worm through his body and with a flick of his wrist he vanished. He strode to the bannister overlooking the third floor below, his footsteps muffled by Leal's grace, and leapt over the side. He landed, silently, without pain by Leal's grace, and made for the nearest door.

'Summon a seer! Let them know a man of Leal is loose about the grounds, do not let him escape!' zu-Kai raged. He stormed up to Seb, 'What book did he steal?' the tutor hissed, eyes pointed with anger.

'Scorn of the Moons.'

The teacher hung his head, 'Who told him of the book?'

'I do not know,' Seb lied, zu-Tanun was a rogue but he was no criminal and certainly whatever knowledge in the book was true enough to strike fear in zu-Kai.

Quin waited a moment below the fourth floor balcony but there was silence. Fighters roamed the library but Quin wasn't worried, without a seer they would have no chance seeing or hearing him. He headed towards a door that led him along a corridor and into a courtyard that opened out onto the city of Mara'duun, City of Moons, under the guiding grace of Leal.

Few listened to what an adherent of Leal had to say. He kept to his own and to the night, especially on days and nights when Asandei was strongest. On those nights Leal's grace could falter, it was not a common thing but one that was not worth the risk. The “Scorn of the Moons” had enlightened him but it such dry knowledge ceased to matter now he was a follower of Leal and there was far greater meaning in such faith and blessings, perhaps zu-Tanun had intended it to be that way or maybe he didn't. Either way, it didn't matter. What mattered were the wishes of Leal and that night was a precious night, one not to be squandered.

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