As it was, he had charted the courses of the stars while the Mirogoth invasion advanced towards the academy. He finished the last of his calculations only two days before the Mirogoth forces reached the academy walls. They had come intending to seize the last living Sagrada heir and everyone in the academy knew as much.
Yassin had been among the students who volunteered to defend the academy while the war master secreted the young prince to safety. Few of the students survived, though they succeeded in keeping the Mirogoths from discovering that the prince had already fled.
Yassin had died sometime during the second night of the ensuing three-day siege.
Kiram wondered if Yassin had lived long enough to know that Calixto had opened the white hell. Had he seen it happen? Surely someone had documented it, most likely Calixto. And then suddenly Kiram wondered if Calixto might not have also mentioned Yassin in his diary.
Maybe now that they were on good terms he could convince Javier to let him have a look at that book. It was worth a try, anyway.
"Does Calixto's diary mention Yassin Lif-Harun? He was one of the defenders of the academy," he said casually.
Javier studied Kiram over the top of the book.
"I believe I already explained the fee I would require for access to my deranged ancestor's autobiography."
"Don't be an ass," Kiram replied. "I need the information for my history essay."
Javier leaned back in his chair and stretched out his long legs.
"I imagine that only increases the value, then."
"I'm not selling you my soul."
"What about your body?"
Kiram felt his entire face flush red, not because he was shocked by Javier's suggestion, but in shame at his own desire to accept. This was just the way Javier played with the people around him. Kiram knew that, but Javier's slow, suggestive smile still affected him.
Kiram lowered his face, pretending to look over his notes one more time.
"I don't even know if you have anything of value in the book," Kiram said primly.
"My God, Kiram." Javier laughed. "I never expect you to take me up on these things. You seem so demure most of the time."
"I'm not demure. I just have some self-restraint."
"But not, it seems, when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge. You're willing to sell your body for a look at a book." Javier held the diary up as if it were a shimmering enticement.
"No, I refuse to sell my body." Kiram was a little amazed to realize that he'd grown used to these kinds of exchanges with Javier. "Unless you can guarantee that your book has any information that would be of use to me."
Javier bounded up from his chair and sat down on the edge of Kiram's bed, leaning in close. "If that's the case, then I propose a little demonstration of quality on both our parts."
"What do you mean?" Kiram tried to sound calm, but Javier's nearness flustered him.
"I'll give you a sample; you give me a sample." Javier slipped behind Kiram, wrapping his arms around his waist and placing the diary on Kiram's lap. He spread the pages of the book open. "I'll let you read a page and you let me-"
"-have one kiss." Kiram didn't wait to hear what Javier would suggest for fear that he would agree. "One kiss. That's all."
"All right." Javier sounded far too pleased and Kiram suddenly wondered if he'd offered too much. "You drive a hard bargain but I accept."
Kiram pulled away just slightly. "I want to read a page in the diary first. And it had better say something about Yassin."
"Don't worry. It's all there. You'll get to give me that kiss."
Javier flipped back two pages. A diagram of radiant lines illuminated the left side, while crumpled black hellscript filled the right.
"I can't read it," Kiram said.
"Not yet." Javier wrapped his arms around Kiram's chest, pulling him closer. "Relax a little. Lean into me."
"Why?" Kiram couldn't help but suspect that Javier was toying with him.
"You'll be protected while you're touching me," Javier said. "The closer the better."
Kiram leaned back but tried not to simply melt against Javier. The heat of Javier's arms and the scent of his body seemed to soak into Kiram. Javier bowed his face close to Kiram's. His lips almost brushed Kiram's ear. Kiram felt unreasonably aware of where the fine stubble along Javier's jaw brushed against his own skin.
"You're taking advantage-"
Before Kiram could finish his sentence, white bolts of light crackled up from Javier's chest and burst through his own body. Kiram expected pain and he almost jumped away but Javier held him tightly. A hot, liquid sensation flooded Kiram. He felt lightheaded, almost drunk. Strange, unfocused shadows filled the edges of his sight. He could no longer see his desk or even the corner of his bed. Bright white sparks flickered across his skin. The lights sprang along Kiram's hands and spread across the open pages of the book.
Before Kiram's eyes the diagram seemed to spread and rise from the page. What had been flat, straight lines slowly unfolded into the curving, organic form of a stylized tree, with wildly twisting branches and roots connecting through a braided trunk. He had seen a design like this on Bahiim holy books. Across the facing page, the hellscript also stretched out, spreading into beautifully ornate Cadeleonian script.
"Do you see?" Javier's voice sounded as if it were coming from inside Kiram's head.
Kiram wanted to respond but he couldn't think of how to open his mouth, how to move his lips or form words. His entire body seemed lost somewhere between the flickering light and Javier's hard muscles.
"You shouldn't stay too long. Read it quickly." Again Kiram heard Javier as if the thoughts were his own. He felt the urgency and slight worry in them and at once he focused on the diary.
^s the weeks pass I pray less and listen to Yassin more. He is not the child I thought him to be. He has seen death firsthand and does not fear it.
Beside him the holy father is a doddering coward. When we speak of death he can only think of the hells and cringe in horror. But I have seen the white void open. I felt its pull at my very soul as I lay bleeding on the dueling field.
Yassin knew what I spoke of at once. He told me that I had been on the threshold of a shajdi. It is a place where death feeds into life and life is devoured by death. It is a place of immense power.
Before Nazario's rule the Haldiim knew a way to hold these shajdi open, but the wisdom is either lost or hidden. Yassin does not know how it was done. But it is enough to know that it was accomplished. It can be done again. We will continue our attempts.
Kiram wanted to turn the page. He tried to lift his hands but he only managed to spread his fingers across the surface of the page.
"That's enough, Kiram."
No, Kiram thought, but he couldn't say the word.
Javier suddenly lifted his hands away from him and all the warmth and light seemed to be ripped from Kiram. The words and image in the book collapsed to unintelligible scrawls. Then the book itself seemed to go dark. The edges of Kiram's vision dimmed and then the whole room went black.
When Kiram opened his eyes he was lying back on his bed. Bright gold shafts of late summer sun glowed across the walls. Javier knelt beside him.
"Yassin was part of it." Kiram's voice felt rough, as if he'd just woken after a heavy slumber. He cleared his throat. "Yassin helped Calixto open the white hell. He was part of the whole thing."
"I know. How are you feeling?"
"You knew. You knew all this time and you haven't told anyone. Why?"
"Calixto never wanted Yassin's name dragged down by association with the white hell and demonic magic," Javier said. "He wanted him remembered for his genius."