Calen and his companions woke up early next day, so that they would have plenty of time to read.
They decided spread out in the temple to not distract each other, and to better focus on the books.
Calen chose a spot on the grand tree in the atrium, taking example from Auren who seemed to make the plant his permanent napping spot.
The first title he would read today was... well it didn't have a title, it was one of the Koravel's journals - it was numbered 18 and contained information about the temples.
Laying comfortably on the bent trunk, he started reading:
It took me long time to realise the true purpose of the temples of the old pantheon, but who could blame me? They weren't used in the correct way for centuries
In the times before the Sun Kingdom, all the gods were venerated equally, but the temples were not in fact dedicated to the gods themselves, but to their champions.
The concept of a champion of the gods is slightly different from the one we know today - a champion of the Sun God would be significantly weaker than a Flamebearer, even though their power comes from the same place.
That's were the temples come in, each of them could be claimed by one champion and it would become their source of power.
The temple and the champion become linked, and whenever one is strengthened, the other grows in power as well.
For the temple it's fairly easy, people just have to bring appropriate offerings in the vicinity of the temple - lives for the sun champion, memories for the moon champion, and so on.
The most interesting part of the temple growing stronger, is that it's sphere of influence grows as well. What happens when two temples belonging two the same champion 'meet'? What happens when two different influences reach each other?
Unfortunately I can only speculate, but my guess would be that in the first case a sort of resonance would occur, expanding the area the champion controls significantly.
The second case is much more complicated, since there's no record of two forces of divine nature colliding with each other. I think the champions would have to fight, since the only way to relinquish control over a temple is to die.
It does not matter however.
In the age of blight, the Flamebearer is the only person capable of claiming a temple, and if I'm correct about the areas expanding it would make reclaiming the world significantly easier.
Once any of the temples field comes into contact with the creeping veil, it will become self-propagating - albeit every slowly.
If the Flamebearer plays their cards correctly, they could end the entire invasion without ever fighting s Blightborn
It's not an ideal solution of course, since in the best case scenario the process would take at least a few decades.
There was plenty of other facts about the temples in the book, but Calen felt he learned the most important information.
All that talk about champions and Flamebearers made him a bit thoughtful.
He took the small lantern off his belt and observed the flame - it was decidedly bigger than before, maybe by a half.
Next he pulled up his sleeve and looked at the mark, the glowing lines were still thin, but slightly more pronounced and brighter. He was still long way off from being able to inherit the flame.
The next book was titled 'Abominations of the Blight'. The thick tome not only had names and descriptions of the monsters, but also very detailed illustrations.
The first few entries were quite familiar to him, for example the eyeless imps were called Chirrix and were used by the Blightborn for hunting very big groups or large pray.
Dravharn was the name for the wolf-beasts, and they were utilised both as mounts and guard dogs.
Surprisingly, the fungal creature - or Mycotross - wasn't actually a strictly corrupted creature. It came to existence as an adaptation of already existing fungi to the blight.
Then there were the Withered, a name Calen has heard many times but had little idea what it actually meant. It turns out it was a term people used for human corpses reanimated by the corruption. Fortunately, they weren't very common since the traditional method of dealing with bodies in the Sun Kingdom was cremation.
He even found the owl-thing they battled two days ago, it was called Noctharax and unlike most creatures of the Blight the monster was problematic even for the Serakhiin, who only ever managed to tame a few of them.
As he went through the entries he noticed one clear rule: the alien sounding monsters were the ones created by the Blight, whereas the corrupted version of native species had more familiar names.
There were thousands of creatures in that book, so there was no way he was going to go through all of them today, but it would be wise to remember about this beastiary.
It was already past noon, and he still had two titles to go through today, so he had to speed up.
The next one was... a fable. It was a very weird choice for a collection of important knowledge, especially a one put together by an archmage, but the weirdness was what made him pick it up in the first place. The story was written in runes, but not the spellcasting ones - these ones belonged to a language used by people before the Sun Kingdom was established.
Calen could understand most of the words, and those he didn't know he could deduce from the context.
The book told a story of an ancient dragon who became annoyed by its own flaws, and wanted to become perfect. The dragon had a partner, who told him it was fine as it was, but it did not placate it - it only made him angrier, did everyone one else think it was unworthy of perfection?
So the dragon came up with a plan in secret. It took the shape of an old man, and found the most virtuous knight in the land. It introduced himself as a mayor of a nearby village that was struck by a curse, and begged the man to help him, promising great rewards in exchange. The knight agreed of course, and immediately travelled to the village to lift the dark magic affecting it.
The curse affecting the village was very real, but the dragon was the culprit rather than the victim. After the knight finally succeeded, the old man asked him to come to a cave nearby, where he would receive his reward.
When they reached the cave the dragon took its real form and explained his true intentions to the knight. It was planning to eat the man to gain his valor and nobility, in order to perfect itself.
Against its expectations however, the knight did not cower in fear or beg for his life. Instead he produced his sword and declared that was going to slay the dragon, and eat its heart to steal its power.
The battle between them was long and gruesome, leaving both nearly dead.
With the last of his strength, the knight bit into the dragons chest, and grabbed its heart with his teeth. In retaliation, the dragon breathed the last bit of fire it could, killing them both in the process.
Two bodies bathed in draconic blood merged and a new dragon was born.
The dragon looked the same, bit it was changed forever - it had two souls forcefully stitched into one, causing unimaginable pain to the beast.
When they merged, the dragon gained the knight's virtues, but it also inherited his flaws.
The dragon thought it was a minor problem, it... they just had to find another who would be perfect in the areas the knight was flawed.
And so, for centuries the dragon picked new targets, and the cycle repeated itself.
The wise men of the land learned of the mad dragon's actions, but they were unable to stop it.
In the end, no one was able to break the cycle, and it is said that it continues to this day. Anyone who can't resist the dragon's power is...
Calen didn't know the last word of the story, but it probably wasn't very important. It was clear that the story was a warning, but he doubted it was about an actual dragon.
The book containing the story didn't give any clues as to what it was actually about either, it was ancient and there was no author.
He might ask Isara about that last word later, maybe it would clear things up.
It was time to read the last title - it was a relatively thin one, with golden letters spelling 'Domains and their aspects'.
It contained records of all the domains that had a god at some point, and what aspects those domains represented.
Each one had three main aspects and countless minor ones, but the latter were rather unimportant and repeated in different domains.
Calen knew that the main aspects of the Sun were purity, life and destruction, but he had no clue about other domains, and considering how prevalent the old pantheon was going to be on their journey, he decided to brush up on his knowledge.
The Moon was connected with illusions, memories and love - a rather straightforward combination. The domain concerning nature was associated with Growth, Decay and Balance, also fairly understandable ones.
The next domain was less familiar, the Stars were related to fate, guidance and wonder. The last one was completely new to him - it was time, and its aspects were Continuity, Change and Remembrance.
Now that Calen thought about it, knew very little about the old gods, the only god that was commonly known and actively worshipped was the Sun God, but what happened to the remaining five? Did they die?
Calen wasn't entirely sure if a god could die but it seemed to be a reasonable explanation.
Now that he was done with his daily reading it was almost dusk, and therefore time to meet with the others and discuss what they all learned.
He hopped off the tree and went towards their meeting location - the bedchamber of the head priest, with a balcony that overlooked the area around the temple.
He found all of his companions already waiting there, talking casually about small things.
Isara gave him a smirk when he showed up.
"Look who finally decided to join us!"
"I lost the track of time, sorry" Calen apologised. "But none that I'm here, we can start, anyone who wants to start?"
Cassian raised his hand:
"I can, I didn't learn that much so it'll be quick" he exhaled. "I focused on texts concerning the beginning of the invasion, to better understand our enemy. From what I've read, the Blightborn don't believe in unified battle styles or formations - they allow every Ravager to lead their battalion as they see fit."
"That makes them unpredictable, but also uncoordinated." Noted Calen
"Yes. I also learned that strangely enough all their weapons are very similar to ours, they use spears, knives, bows, hammers and axes, but the weapons that are most common among them are twin swords, much like the ones we saw on that raider."
Cassian thought for a moment.
"I think that's it, like I said, not that much."
"Don't worry Cass, it's still quite helpful." Assured him Calen. "I can go next, I learned a lot of small stuff, so I'll just give you a brief rundown."
Calen started pacing around the room as he spoke:
"First of all, I read the journal concerning the temples, and unfortunately there are no clues about their locations."
His companions looked disappointed.
"...but there was quite a lot about the temples themselves - long story short, the temple's power is tied to mine, and vice versa. That power affects how large is the area of the temple's influence. It will grow bigger when it takes a life, so once any of the temples hit the vines it will spread on its own, but very slowly."
His companions were silently listening, so he continued.
"I've also found a very detailed bestiary, there's a lot of information in there so it would be great if someone could read the entire thing."
Elira immediately volunteered.
"Alright, the next thing I read was a fable, or rather a warning disguised as one. There was one word I didn't know, after we're done with this maybe you'll be able to decipher it Isa."
Isara nodded.
"The last thing wasn't particularly important, it was just a list of aspects for each of the divine domains."
They all absorbed the information and moved on, because it was Isara's turn.
"I read a collection of poems, and I think all of them had a hidden message, but I only managed to find a few of them. There was 'the Moon rests in the mountains', 'Nature perseveres and protects' and 'Humanity survives in the shadows'."
Calen flinched, it couldn't be a coincidence that just after he read about the divine domains, three of them came up in hidden messages inside poems, so he shared his suspicions with the others.
Cassian shook his head and said:
"I think it's a coincidence. I've seen the book Isa is talking about, it's just a very old pre-invasion collection of poems. There might be hidden messages inside, but even if they are about the old gods, they're so old it would be foolish to follow them."
His friend has a point, if the book was so old then maybe the messages were about something else. Besides it's not like they gave any specific direction, they only mentioned 'the mountains', and the Emberwall mountain range spanned thousands of miles, there was no point in trying.
Finally, it was time For Elira:
"I-I focused on research about a term Koravel brought up in his message - the Guardians. I must admit that even after going through seven books I did not find much, I only managed to confirm that they are in some way connected to the old gods, and that, like their title suggests, they protect something."
She seemed a bit embarrassed that she didn't learn to much, but then she remembered something:
"Oh! I also found some information that six of the twelve temples are supposed to contain mythical weapons that were a gift from the gods to their first champions."
Cassian immediately perked up.
"Do you know if this one has one of those relics?" He asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately I'm quite certain it doesn't, the altar in those temples looks different, I saw a comparison drawing."
Cassian looked a bit deflated.
They were done with the meeting so Elita and Cassian excused themselves to go to bed. Isara stayed behind to help Calen with the part he couldn't translate.
"What possessed you to read a fable?" Isara asked with a lifted eyebrow.
"Says the girl who spent the entire day looking for secret messages in ten centuries old poems." Replied Calen.
"Alright fine, show me that word."
Calen pointed at the last string of symbols in the text
"Oh, that one's quite simple"
She looked at him with a smile.
"It means Ashbound"