“Do you understand now, Majesty?”

The High Wizard Yazin had nearly talked Yunho’s ears off for the last two hours, trying to explain the finer points of the very same treaty that had brought him to this place.  Some of his questions had been answered, but for the most part, Yunho was left with far more questions than he started with.  Like, why were he and Kari chosen?  According to Yazin, the Elanari had plenty of planets under the treaty from which to choose people, and there wasn’t really an age limit (other than being able to bear children) for the throne.  So, why did they have to go to a planet that had never even heard of the Elanari to find suitable people?

While Yunho’s mind worked at these questions, Yazin was still waiting for an answer.  He sighed.

“Majesty, may I show you to the library?  It contains the histories of our race as well as that of the Elanari.  Perhaps they can answer your questions better than I.”

“Alright.”

“If you would follow me?”

Yunho motioned for the High Wizard to take the lead and followed close on the man’s heels.

“Will these histories explain what’s up with the language here?”

Yazin gave him a bewildered look.

“I am confused by your question, Majesty.”

“I meant, why can I only speak your language?  I still think in my native language, but every time I try to speak it, the words come out in your language.”

“Majesty, it is a property of the treaty that every race bound to it speaks with the same tongue.  We once had a language of our own many thousands of years ago, but it is now long forgotten.  No one bound by the treaty can speak another language.  When you were transported to our world, you became bound by the treaty and thus, must speak the language of the treaty.”

“That doesn’t explain why I can still think in my own language.”

“I believe the treaty only binds what you say, not what you think, Majesty.”

“Oh.”

“Majesty, there is one other thing we must discuss.”

“What?”

“It is a requirement of our kingdom that our monarchs must be adept in the magical arts.”

“Magical arts?  You mean, Kari and I have to learn to do magic?”

“Correct, Majesty.  Would you prefer to learn alone or with your queen?”

“Do I have to learn?  I don’t know if I feel comfortable with the idea of doing magic.  What if I don’t have the ability?  We don’t really have magic in our world.”

“You have the ability, Majesty.  You would not have been chosen otherwise.”

“I still don’t feel comfortable with the idea of magic.”

“Majesty, I really dislike saying this, but you do not have a choice in the matter.  It is a part of our law, and the treaty binds you to it.”

Yunho walked in silence for a while, mulling it over in his head.  Magic.  That was something of books and movies, not real life.  Then again, pretty much everything that had happened to him since he had been teleported to that strange cavern had been the stuff of books and movies.

While he was still thinking, they arrived at a set of massive double doors that Yazin came to a halt in front of.  This must be the library.  Yunho was beginning to think that these people didn’t know the meaning of subtle.  They did everything to the extreme.

“Here we are, Majesty.  The royal library of Filarin.  Shall I give you a small tour and help you find what you need?”

Yunho nodded and Yazin held up his hand in front of the doors.  They opened silently by themselves.  No, not by themselves, by magic.  Like pretty much everything else here.  Yunho felt his jaw drop as the library came into view.  He really had to stop being surprised by the rooms here.

The giant room looked as if sunlight was streaming in through a thousand windows, but the only window he could see was the ceiling.  It was made completely of glass.  But that wasn’t what held his attention.  There was a huge waterfall in the center of the back wall of the library.  It was so large that a rainbow surrounded its base and a thick mist obscured the transition from waterfall to the large pool it flowed into (the waterfall and the pool together took up a good half of the entire chamber).  All around the pool, there were tables with couch-like chairs spaced at regular intervals.  The mist should have soaked the tables around the pool, but it stopped suddenly at its edge as if hemmed in by a glass wall.  A few people sat at the tables with books, some thicker than the person’s head.  More people (all dressed in thick, but mostly sheer robes) wandered around with stacks of books, either putting them back on the shelves or taking them to the tables where patrons waited.  Those people in the robes must’ve been the librarians.  But why were their robes sheer?  Yunho averted his gaze from a particularly curvy librarian walking by.  He forced himself to look at the bookshelves.

The shelves themselves were as tall as the waterfall and absolutely full of books with no ladders in sight for help reaching the upper shelves.  Yunho wondered for a moment how the librarians retrieved the books from the upper shelves, but his question was answered when one (thankfully male) librarian stepped up to the base of the shelf and snapped his fingers.  The book he wanted floated off the shelf and into the man’s waiting hands.  Yunho shook his head and continued his perusal of the library.  The room they stood in was not the only room of the library.  There were two great archways that led into other, apparently similarly lit chambers.  From what he could see of the other chambers, each had a different main attraction.  He really wanted to go explore the other rooms, but Yazin led him to one of the tables and waved to a librarian.  The librarian who attended them was none other than the extremely curvy one that Yunho had seen earlier.  He dropped his gaze to the floor and noticed she wasn’t wearing any shoes.  Why did their robes have to be sheer? 

“Bring his Majesty the first volume of Ela Ki’alyo.”

The librarian bowed and gracefully swayed away to fetch the book. 

“Majesty, Ela Ki’alyo is the most complete and easily understood of the histories of our world.  The first volume deals mainly with the coming of the Elanari and the treaty.  I think you will find it most intriguing and enlightening.”

“Umm, why are your librarians dressed like that?”

Yazin gave him a strange look.

“The ones you see in the robes are not librarians, Majesty.  They are Tesa Huunim, or magic-users, in training.  One of the duties of the adepts is to serve in the libraries of the city under the watchful eyes of the Tesa Huunim in charge of the libraries. 

“You mean, you don’t just call them wizards?”

“No, Majesty.  All fully trained magic-users are called Tesa Huunim and I am in charge of them.  My title is High Wizard, but I am the only one who is called a wizard.”

“So, not everyone learns magic here?”

“No.  Very few have the ability to learn magic.”

“Do we have to become Tesa Huunim, then?”

“Not necessarily.  You will be tested to see if your magical ability is great enough to become Tesa Huunim.  If it is, you will be trained as one.  If not, I personally will oversee your training.”

“Do all trainees wear those robes?”

“Yes.  That is the traditional uniform of the Tesa Huunim adept.  They are required to wear it at all times.  However, if you are to be an adept, you will only be required to wear it during your actual training.  As king, you have certain privileges the others lack.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.”

The girl swayed her way back to them with a gigantic book in her hands.  She set it down on the table gently and swayed away at a motion from Yazin.  Yunho focused his attention on the book to keep from staring at the girl.  Up close, the robes were a lot worse than they had appeared from further away. 

The book, which had to have been at least six inches thick (and this was only the first volume?), looked old, but well preserved.  There was beautiful gold script on the front and the binding, but it was written in some kind of language he didn’t recognize.  The symbols were strange, but he got the feeling that Yazin expected him to know them. 

“Yazin?”

“Yes, Majesty?”

“What are these symbols on the front?”

The High Wizard gave him a curious look.

“Do you not understand them, Majesty?”

“No.  Am I supposed to?”

Yazin scratched at the front of his ornate robes, unconsciously for a moment while he thought.

“Majesty, the magic that bound you to the treaty should enable you to read this script.  If you cannot, then the binding is not complete.”

“Not complete?  What do you mean by not complete?”

“There is something missing from the binding.  Something important.  If you cannot read spells, you cannot do more than the most basic magic.  The script on this book is the same script we use to write spells.  I wonder why the binding is not complete.  You have held to your end of the treaty and we have held to ours.”

“What end of the treaty, exactly?”

“Your marriage.  Your marriage to Queen Kari was part of the demands the treaty made on you.  You have fulfilled that requirement, and I cannot think of any other requirements left undone.”

Yazin fell silent.  Yunho gazed at the book.  He was afraid he knew exactly why the binding wasn’t complete.  Their marriage hadn’t been consummated.  It must not be considered a true marriage until consummation.  So, until he and Kari, well…they were stuck in some kind of magical limbo: able to learn the basics of magic, but unable to actually be of any use to the kingdom (Yazin had hinted to Yunho earlier that there were some important magical roles that the monarchs played in the life of the kingdom).  If they couldn’t fulfill those roles, it would be just like having no king or queen at all.  Yunho had the bad feeling that the people of Filarin and the Elanari weren’t going to stand for that. 

“I suppose we could try to teach you the script.”

Yunho was jolted out of his ruminations by Yazin’s idea.  Maybe they wouldn’t have to consummate the marriage after all.

“Let’s try that.”

“Alright.  I really must meet with the queen now, but I will have one of the Tesa Huunim teach you the rudimentary parts of the script.”

He motioned to one of the few people in the library not wearing the sheer robes and explained to the older woman their predicament.  He left Yunho in the woman’s care and strode out of the library, acting for all the world as if he were not worried out of his mind.